When creating and sending email marketing campaigns, it is easy to take for granted that all of your intended recipients will actually get your email. But that's not always the case. The deliverability of your email depends on many factors—some within your control and some outside of your control. Continue reading this article to learn what you can do to improve your deliverability and make sure you're getting your message out there effectively.
What is Deliverability?
Email deliverability refers to the ability of an email to successfully reach the recipient's inbox, rather than being diverted to the spam or junk folder. Achieving high email deliverability is crucial for ensuring that your messages get seen by your intended recipients. Your deliverability is directly tied to your sender reputation, a score assigned by your recipients' inbox service providers (ISPs) to assess your trustworthiness as a sender.
What Factors impact Deliverability?
Email deliverability depends on numerous factors that affect whether your emails reach your recipients' inboxes. From technical settings like domain authentication to the content of your emails, every element plays a role in determining whether your messages will be delivered successfully or flagged as spam.
The following practices can negatively impact your deliverability:
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Sender Reputation:
- High bounce rates
- Spam complaints
- Low engagement rates (opens, clicks)
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Domain Authentication:
- Not having your organization's domain authenticated in Feathr
- Missing or incorrect records
-
Email List Management:
- Sending to invalid or outdated email addresses
- Not regularly clearing your email list of disengaged contacts
- Lack of group segmentation
-
Email Content:
- Using spammy words (e.g., "free," "urgent," "limited time offer")
- Overuse of images or heavy use of links
-
Email Sending Practices:
- Sudden spikes in sending volume (sending too many emails at once)
- Lack of gradual IP/domain warm-up
- Inconsistent sending patterns
-
User Engagement:
- Low open and click-through rates
- High unsubscribe rates
-
Legal Compliance:
- Non-compliance with laws like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, or CASL
How do I Manage my Sender Reputation?
Although ISPs aren't transparent about exactly how they define your sender reputation, adhering to the following email marketing best practices will help insulate your emails from being marked as spam, from being unsubscribed to, or just ignored. Make a habit of these practices in your email marketing:
- Segment your sends to appropriate audiences, tailoring the message to them.
- Only send email to people who have opted in to receive email from your organization.
- Never use purchased lists.
- Personalize your emails using merge tags in your subject lines and email body.
- Be consistent with your send cadence. Consistency builds sender reputation.
- Prioritize smaller, more engaged audiences over indiscriminately large email blasts.
- Keep emails concise, with a balance of copy, images, and not too many links.
- If you have recently switched email services, send regular emails to small, highly engaged audiences for the first 60-90 days. This builds reputation faster on a new server.
What Feathr Account Settings can help my Deliverability?
Luckily for you, Feathr automatically removes hard bounced addresses and unsubscribed contacts from your sends permanently, with no action required on your part.
One action you can take in Feathr that will do more to improve your deliverability than anything else is to authenticate your domain. Authenticating your domain tells ISPs that you are who you claim you are, and builds trust immediately. Without an authenticated domain in Feathr, you will be limited to only 1000 email sends per campaign.