Overview: Email deliverability ensures that your emails reach recipients' inboxes, which is essential for building trust, maximizing ROI, and keeping your customers engaged. Even small improvements in deliverability can significantly impact your email program's success.
Why It Matters:
Consistent deliverability builds customer trust.
Small improvements lead to higher opens, clicks, and conversions.
Understanding Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a critical factor in determining whether your emails are delivered to inboxes or relegated to spam. It’s determined by several elements:
Volume of Emails Sent: Large volumes in short periods can harm your reputation, especially if inconsistent with usual patterns.
Bounce Rates: High bounce rates damage your reputation.
Complaint Rates: Spam complaints by recipients negatively impact your reputation.
Engagement: Positive interactions (opens, clicks) improve your reputation, while negative actions (deleting without opening, spam reports) harm it.
Blocklists: Being listed on blocklists can severely damage your sender reputation.
How to Improve:
Focus on engaging content that your subscribers value.
Monitor and address issues like high bounce rates or spam complaints.
Regularly clean your email list of inactive or invalid addresses.
Here are some more steps you can check you have set up / have taken:
1. Capture New Leads with a Signup Form
Growing your email list with engaged subscribers is key to maintaining a strong sender reputation. Adding a signup form to your website can help capture new leads who are genuinely interested in your products.
2. Improve Email Design and Content
Creating high-quality, relevant content is crucial for boosting engagement. Focus on crafting compelling subject lines and pre-header text to drive opens and clicks.
3. Develop a Marketing Calendar
A well-planned marketing calendar helps schedule emails effectively, avoiding sudden spikes in sending volume that can harm your reputation.
4. Clean Email List and Remove Unengaged Recipients
Unengaged recipients can lower your open rates and lead to spam reports, hurting your sender reputation.
Steps to Take:
Track Engagement: Monitor when each recipient last engaged with your emails.
Set a Threshold: Determine how long a recipient can go without engaging before removal (e.g., 2-3 months for daily senders).
Scale Back Frequency: Try reducing email frequency before removing unengaged recipients.
Send Re-engagement Campaigns: Offer one last chance to re-engage before removal.
Remove Unengaged: If they remain unengaged, remove them to protect your sender reputation.
Practical Tip:
Export your All Subscribers list and filter out contacts who:
Have not been added to the list within 3 months.
Have not opened an email or made a purchase within 6-8 months.
Save this filtered list as a new CSV and upload it to your Unsubscribe Contacts.
5. Compliance with Google & Yahoo Requirements
In February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo! introduced stricter email requirements to protect inboxes. Non-compliance will lead to rejected emails by April 2024.
Key Requirements:
Authentication: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Valid DNS Records: Keep all DNS records updated.
Spam Compliance: Maintain low spam rates.
Email Formatting: Adhere to email format standards.
Domain Alignment: Align domain headers and avoid impersonating Gmail.
Support ARC Headers: Necessary if forwarding emails.
Use TLS Connections: Ensure secure email transmission.
One-Click Unsubscribe: Enable by June 2024.
Action Steps:
Review and update email practices to meet these requirements. Check that by following these steps here.
Implement changes to avoid temporary errors and eventual rejection of emails.
Helpful Email Deliverability Tools
http://isnotspam.com & https://www.mail-tester.com/: Test how mail providers analyze your emails to isolate and fix specific issues.
Google Postmaster Tools: Track data on large volumes of emails sent from your domain.
Talos IP & Domain Reputation Center:Get real-time alerts on network and software vulnerabilities.
MXToolbox Blacklist Check:Check if your mail server is blacklisted.
Microsoft’s Smart Network Data Services (SNDS): Monitor your sender reputation across the Microsoft network.
SenderScore.org: Gauge your sender score like checking creditworthiness.
Inbox Monster: Monitor spam trap hits, blocklisting, and perform seed testing.
Kickbox: Validate email lists to reduce bounces and protect your sender reputation.
Best Practices for Maintaining Deliverability
Regular List Cleaning: Schedule list cleaning every 6 months or more frequently for larger lists.
Focus on Engagement: Tailor your content to match your audience’s preferences.
Monitor Your Reputation: Track your sender reputation and address issues promptly.
Quality Content: Ensure emails are well-designed, engaging, and relevant.
Final Thoughts on Maintaining a Healthy Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation is critical to your email marketing success. By regularly cleaning your list, segmenting your audience, creating engaging content, and monitoring your emails, you can improve deliverability and ensure your emails reach subscribers' inboxes.
Summary:
Remove old/unengaged senders.
Stop sending to "Did Not Opens."
Lessen the send frequency.
Segment lists by engagement level to improve overall performance.
Over time, these practices will increase acceptance by Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and other providers.