Knowing effective ways to improve email deliverability is crucial for running a successful email marketing campaign. This is because sending a well-structured and perfectly designed email won’t do any good if it isn’t delivered right into the recipient’s inbox.
However, with some effort and following best practices, it’s possible to improve email deliverability. If you are facing issues getting your emails into the inboxes of your prospects, we have you covered.
In this article, we are going to share some of the most authentic and effective ways to improve email deliverability. So, let’s dive in!
What is Email Deliverability?
To put it simply, email deliverability is the rate at which emails land in the recipient’s inbox. A higher deliverability rate means most of the emails that you send are landing in the inbox. On the contrary, a lower deliverability rate suggests that your emails have been landing in the spam folders.
High deliverability is essential for every email campaign. It’s likely that recipient would only open those emails that are delivered to their inbox. Your message can be delivered only when the email is opened. If this happens, it increases the chances of generating a quality lead.
What is a Good Email Deliverability Rate?
Marketers and businesses strive to achieve maximum email deliverability. However, a reasonable delivery rate falls between 90-95%. This rate could be higher for verified emails. In a B2B marketing and sales scenario, you send emails to recipients who aren’t familiar with your business. So, this type of email marketing demands a slightly higher deliverability rate.
On the contrary, the bounce rate must stay below 3%. You also need to categorize the bounce rate into soft and hard bounces. Furthermore, the spam rate shouldn’t exceed 0.08%. If you are wondering what a good email deliverability rate is, the percentage varies depending on the campaign type.
For instance, a cold email campaign usually exhibits lower deliverability as compared to a campaign launched for loyal customers who have already subscribed to your newsletter. So, when evaluating the overall deliverability rate, make sure to consider this aspect.
What Affects Email Deliverability Rate?
Email deliverability is affected by a wide range of factors, including the sender’s reputation, technical issues, and the volume of emails. Knowing such factors will assist you in achieving and maintaining a higher email deliverability rate.
Below, we have discussed some of the most significant factors that can affect your email deliverability rate.
Sender’s Reputation
Your email sender reputation or domain reputation reflects the health of your company’s domain. It depends on factors like the number of requests to unsubscribe, bounce rate, and spam complaints.
It’s highly recommended to monitor this data, as it creates a good relationship with email service providers and ISPs. As a result, most of your emails will be accepted by the system. ISPs rely on a range of filters to pass on only the most authentic and valid email.
For instance, ISPs try to identify spam trigger terms in an email’s content. To make sure these filters don’t reject your email, avoid using spammy phrases or words. Also, by keeping the content relevant and concise, you can ensure a higher email deliverability rate.
Volume of Emails
If you are running a bulk email campaign, you need to be extra careful, as this could trigger suspicion of spammy content. When ISPs experience a sudden spike in the set email volume, they consider it a sign of unverified or spammy emails.
This could even lead to the blocking or suspension of your emails. To prevent this from happening to you, don’t send bulk emails at once. On the contrary, the volume can be spread over a period of time. By doing so, you can improve the chances of getting your emails delivered to the right recipients.
Email Open Rates
Email open rate is another key aspect that can affect IP reputation. Low email open rates suggest that your emails have been dumped into the spam folder. Normally, an email open rate of 20% is considered good. On average, this rate is around 21.5%.
One of the key reasons for the low open rate is relying on unverified email lists. Therefore, it’s advised to invest in a trusted email verification tool.
Marked as Spam
If the recipients report your emails as spam, it will drastically affect your email deliverability rate. As a result, ISPs will start sending your emails in the spam folder. This also lowers the IP reputation of your domain. When the chances of your emails reaching the desired recipients are diminished, it lowers the overall efficiency of an email marketing campaign.
Email Content
This factor also plays a critical role in terms of increasing or decreasing email deliverability scores. If the emails you send contain an excessive number of images, links, or promotional stuff, email service provider might consider it spammy.
Be cautious and precise while crafting email content. Try to use words and phrases that don’t trigger spam filters. In addition, don’t forget to include an unsubscribe link for allowing recipients to leave your subscriptions if they desire.
Also, consider using a highly efficient email deliverability testing tool. This allows you to identify and remove the potential issues and prevent your email from being rejected by the ESPs.
Low-Quality Email Lists
The health of your email list can also affect the deliverability rate. So, it would be highly advisable to monitor your email list’s health. By doing it regularly, you can identify the inactive or invalid contacts. In addition, frequent inspection of your email list also allows you to search for emails that have been bounced or marked as spam.
Relying on a powerful email verification tool can help you clean your email list and keep it healthy. This helps you lower the bounce rate and remove bad entries.
Technical Issues
During some instances, technical issues could also lower the deliverability rate. For instance, power outages or full inboxes are some of the possible issues on the recipient’s side, which could lower the deliverability rate. This normally happens when the recipients aren’t visiting their account regularly or they have set emptying spam folder automatically.
8 Tips to Improve Your Email Deliverability
Below, we have comprehensively discussed the eight ways to improve your email deliverability rates:
1. Go for Email Domain Authentication
If you want your emails to reach recipients’ inbox, you need to protect your sender’s protection. The major threat is email spoofing, which is a way to impersonate the sender address of another domain.
However, there are certain ways to prevent email spoofing. These include:
- Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM): This is a valid authentication method that allows recipients to verify that the email came from a domain owner.
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF): It’s another authentication method that works by identifying forged email addresses.
- DMARC: Gmail and Yahoo require DMARC from those domain owners sending more than 5,000 emails daily.
These steps persuade internet service providers (ISPs) that your email is valid and it’s worthy of delivery. Using these authentication steps prevents spoofing and keeps your delivery rates higher. Besides, there are certain other verification tools available that allow you to verify the authenticity of your email addresses.
2. Use Dedicated IP Addresses
When regularly running email marketing campaigns, you should consider investing in some tools to manage huge volumes. Once your email volume exceeds 25,000 emails/day, consider owning a dedicated IP address. This guarantees that only your emails are sent via a dedicated IP address. It also helps to improve your email deliverability rate.
You should try warming up your IP address and building a trusted relationship with the ESPs controlling your email delivery. Also, try gradually increasing the daily volume of your emails, giving a signal to your ESP that you are a legitimate sender.
3. Try to Avoid Spam Filters
Spam filters are among the most common reasons behind your emails not reaching the desired recipients. These spam traps normally filter out emails containing spammy content. A sender can avoid these filters by keeping the email list clean and avoiding the use of spammy words/phrases.
Here are some other ways to avoid spam filters:
- Use a dual opt-in process
- Identify and manage inactive subscribers
- Regularly clean your lists
- Deactivate or Remove bounced email addresses
- Avoid purchasing unhealthy email lists
- Validate recently added email addresses
4. Tune Up the Subject Lines
Your subject line is the first thing a recipient notices when he/she receives your email. If the first impression isn’t that engaging, the recipient might ignore your email. Even, your email could be marked as spam.
To make sure your reader stays engaged and opens your email, try to include a catchy subject line. However, don’t use spammy words to make your subject line interesting. For instance, you must avoid generic terms like “Click Now” or “Free!”.
On the contrary, write a phrase that looks natural and makes your email stand out among the rest. In other words, your subject line must offer real value to the recipient.
Here are a few of our expert suggestions to make your subject line pop out.
- Use the message in your email to pick out the idea for writing an engaging line. While doing so, make sure to be honest with your reader. Meaning thereby, your subject line must correctly describe what the email is all about.
- Keep it concise and short, as subject lines with fewer characters are likely to create an impact.
- Try to create curiosity or a sense of urgency. However, when enticing people to click, avoid using spammy words.
- Don’t forget to personalize the subject line, as it helps create an immediate impact by relating an email to the recipient. For this purpose, use the company/individual’s name. Emails with personalized subject lines are likely to exhibit higher open rates.
5. Rely on High-Quality Content
Once you have been successful in diverting your emails to the right audience, the next step is to get them to open and read your brand’s message. This is the area where you need top-notch content. Your email should be readable and offer high value for their time.
If you are struggling to write an engaging email, here are a few expert suggestions for you:
- Start your email with a question to create some interest and relate readers to your email’s content.
- Always use an active voice throughout the email for an authoritative feel. Words like “Remember” or “Imagine” draw immediate attention by suggesting that you are telling a story.
- Use proper formatting to give a formal look to your email. Also, write short paragraphs to make content fun to read and easy to digest. You can try using bullet points to give a nice appearance to your content.
- Finish your email with a subtle yet effective Call to Action (CTA) to demonstrate the value you are offering.
6. Add Credibility to Your Email Sender’s Reputation
Sender reputation is a critical metric that is frequently used by email service providers. This helps these providers to identify the credibility of your email domain. As long as you continue to meet the required criteria, your emails can easily bypass the spam filters and land directly in the user's inbox.
However, factors like low open rates, spam reports, high bounce rates, and an increasing list of people who have unsubscribed can prove devastating to your sender’s reputation. If this metric is at the lower end, your emails are likely to fall into a spam folder.
7. Offer Your Audience a Preference Center
You should always try to understand and keep up with the preferences of your audience. It’s essential to know what your subscribers want. If you want to discover how you can understand the liking or disliking of your audience, creating a preference center is the most viable way to do it.
A preference center is a kind of form that allows subscribers to use some other options in addition to an unsubscribe button. One of these options is the preferred frequency of the email sequences. You can also ask your subscribers about the topic they would love to read.
This option can also allow subscribers to modify their personal details. This way, your email list stays updated and free from invalid email addresses.
8. Keep Your Email Lists Clean
Having unwanted or inactive email addresses in your email list could affect its health. It can drastically lower the deliverability rate and sender score. In fact, you should be only sending marketing emails to people who are interested in your offer.
That’s why keeping your email list healthy should be one of your top priorities. This requires cleaning your list at least twice a year. Especially, when you witness a sudden drop in open or click-through rates, this might be an indicator of a less hygienic email.
Final Thoughts
Email marketing is the key to giving a required boost to your business even in a competitive environment. For better outcomes, make sure that your emails are reaching the right people and landing in their inboxes.
Metrics like click rates, open rates, design elements, and Call-to-Action (CTAs) matter a lot. But the most important of all is your content. If you offer valuable content to your subscribers and readers, nothing can stop you from improving your email deliverability.
