Email deliverability is a crucial yet often overlooked element of email marketing. It refers to the ability of an email to reach the recipient’s inbox rather than being marked as spam or blocked by spam filters. Understanding deliverability is essential because even the most compelling email campaigns are useless if they don’t make it to the intended audience. By understanding email deliverability and how spam filters work, brands can improve their email marketing performance and ensure that their messages reach subscribers.
What Is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability is the rate at which emails sent by a company arrive in their intended recipients’ inboxes. Unlike email delivery, which only indicates that an email was sent and accepted by the recipient’s server, deliverability specifically tracks whether the email reaches the inbox rather than the spam folder.
Good deliverability ensures higher open rates and engagement, while poor deliverability can harm a brand’s email reputation and limit the effectiveness of email campaigns. Factors such as email content, sender reputation, authentication protocols, and subscriber engagement all influence deliverability.
Why Email Deliverability Matters
If emails land in spam folders, subscribers may never see them, impacting both the campaign’s performance and the brand’s relationship with its audience. Deliverability plays a significant role in:
- Increasing Engagement: Higher inbox placement means higher chances of engagement with the content.
- Protecting Sender Reputation: Consistent spam placements damage your sender reputation, making it harder to reach the inbox.
- Boosting Conversions: Better deliverability translates to more people seeing, opening, and interacting with your emails, which can drive conversions.
Mandreel, a seasoned digital marketing agency, emphasizes the importance of optimizing email deliverability as part of a brand’s broader marketing strategy to maximize audience reach and engagement.
Factors That Influence Email Deliverability
Several factors contribute to email deliverability, and each must be carefully managed to prevent emails from being flagged as spam:
1. Sender Reputation
A sender’s reputation is like a credit score for email sending. It’s based on past email practices, such as spam complaints, bounce rates, and engagement levels. Poor reputation can cause ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to route emails directly to spam.
How to Improve Sender Reputation:
- Authenticate with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: These protocols help verify your identity as a legitimate sender, improving your reputation.
- Regularly Clean Your List: Remove inactive subscribers to reduce bounce rates and complaints.
- Send Relevant Content: The more valuable your emails, the better your reputation will be.
2. Subscriber Engagement
Engagement is a measure of how often subscribers open, read, and interact with your emails. ISPs monitor engagement to determine if your emails are wanted or if they’re perceived as spammy.
Boosting Engagement Tips:
- Personalize Emails: Addressing subscribers by name or including tailored content increases the likelihood of interaction.
- Segment Your List: Send targeted messages based on subscribers’ preferences or past behaviors.
- Optimize Send Frequency: Avoid sending emails too often, which can cause annoyance, or too infrequently, which may lead to low engagement.
3. Email Content
The email’s content, including the subject line, copy, and links, also impacts deliverability. Using excessive promotional language, overly large images, or certain “trigger words” can raise red flags for spam filters.
Best Practices for Content Optimization:
- Avoid Spammy Words: Words like “free,” “urgent,” and “click here” can trigger spam filters. Use them sparingly and only when necessary.
- Keep Images Balanced: Aim for a balanced text-to-image ratio, as too many images or links can appear spammy.
- Use Plain Text Versions: Some email clients may flag HTML-only emails. Include a plain text version as well for better deliverability.
4. Authentication Protocols
Email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) are essential in verifying that your emails are not spoofed or sent by unauthorized parties. These protocols authenticate your identity, reducing the chances of your emails being marked as spam.
Setting Up Authentication:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Validates the sender’s domain and identifies if it’s authorized to send emails on behalf of that domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails, allowing ISPs to verify the authenticity of the sender.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): Provides instructions to email providers on handling messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks.
Setting up these protocols can be technical, but Mandreel can guide businesses through implementing these standards to improve their email security and deliverability.
5. Consistent Sending Patterns
Email providers tend to favor senders who establish a regular sending pattern. Sending a large volume of emails suddenly or at irregular intervals can trigger spam filters.
Tips for Consistent Sending Patterns:
- Set a Schedule: Establish a regular schedule for your emails, such as weekly newsletters or monthly updates.
- Avoid Sudden Increases in Volume: If you need to send more emails, gradually increase the volume instead of sending them all at once.
6. Avoiding Spam Traps
Spam traps are email addresses set up by ISPs or anti-spam organizations to identify spammers. These addresses don’t belong to real subscribers and are created specifically to catch senders with poor list hygiene practices.
How to Avoid Spam Traps:
- Regularly Clean Your Email List: Remove inactive subscribers and any suspicious addresses.
- Avoid Buying Email Lists: Purchased lists are risky and may contain spam traps.
- Use Double Opt-In: This ensures that subscribers confirm their email addresses, reducing the chances of spam traps on your list.
Understanding Spam Filters
Spam filters analyze incoming emails to identify potential spam based on criteria like keywords, sender reputation, and recipient behavior. The filters vary by email provider, but they generally operate on similar principles.
Spam filters may look at factors like:
- The Presence of Trigger Words: Certain phrases can cause emails to be flagged as spam. For example, phrases like “earn money fast” or “limited time offer” are frequently flagged.
- Email Formatting: Spam filters can be triggered by excessive use of all caps, too many exclamation marks, or large images.
- Recipient Interaction History: If recipients don’t open, delete without reading, or mark emails as spam, future emails may also be flagged.
Tips to Improve Email Deliverability
Improving email deliverability requires a combination of technical optimization and strategic planning. Here are some actionable steps:
1. Implement Email Authentication
Ensure that your emails are authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols make it easier for ISPs to verify your identity, reducing the likelihood that your emails end up in spam.
2. Maintain a Clean Email List
Regularly review and clean your email list by removing inactive or invalid addresses. Use a double opt-in process for new subscribers to verify authenticity and ensure that all recipients genuinely want to receive your emails.
3. Create Engaging and Relevant Content
Avoid overly promotional language, keep your content engaging, and provide value to your audience. Encourage interaction by including questions, call-to-action buttons, or links that prompt readers to click or respond.
4. Monitor Sender Reputation
Use online tools to monitor your sender reputation regularly. Address any spikes in complaints or bounces, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
5. Analyze and Adjust Based on Metrics
Regularly track email metrics like open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. Use this data to adjust your strategy and improve your deliverability.
Conclusion
Email deliverability is essential for the success of any email marketing campaign. By focusing on sender reputation, content quality, engagement, and authentication protocols, brands can improve the likelihood of their emails reaching the inbox. Partnering with an experienced agency like Mandreel can provide valuable insights and technical support, ensuring your email campaigns are optimized for maximum reach and impact.
