If you’re sending emails for your business or personal brand, the ultimate goal is to have those emails land in your audience’s inbox. Unfortunately, many people struggle with email deliverability—the process of ensuring your emails don’t end up in the dreaded spam folder.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through actionable email deliverability best practices that you can implement to improve your email success rate. Think of it as having a friendly, knowledgeable conversation with a friend who knows their way around email marketing.
Common Questions About Email Deliverability
Before we dive in, you may be asking yourself some of these questions:
- How do I keep my emails from being marked as spam?
- What are the key best practices for improving email deliverability?
- How can I make sure my emails get to the right people?
- Are there tools available to help with email deliverability?
We’ll cover these and more, providing practical solutions and steps to boost your email deliverability.
What Does Email Deliverability Mean?
Simply put, email deliverability is the ability of your email to reach your recipient’s inbox rather than being filtered to spam or blocked altogether. Even if you have the perfect email content, it’s worthless if no one ever sees it.
Let’s explore some of the best practices for email deliverability to help ensure your messages get where they need to go.
1. Build and Maintain a Quality Email List
Your email deliverability starts with your list. If you’re sending emails to people who never asked for them or to invalid email addresses, you risk hurting your sender reputation, which directly impacts deliverability.
Best practices for building a list:
- Use a double opt-in process: This ensures that only people who are genuinely interested subscribe to your emails.
- Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers and invalid emails.
- Segment your audience based on their activity. For example, send tailored content to active subscribers and re-engagement campaigns to dormant ones.
2. Authenticate Your Emails
Email authentication helps prove to email providers that you’re a legitimate sender. It’s a critical step for improving email deliverability.
Authentication protocols to implement:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Tells email servers which IP addresses are allowed to send emails on your behalf.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails to confirm they haven’t been tampered with.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Provides instructions on how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks.
For a deeper dive into tools that help with email authentication and deliverability, check out this list of email deliverability tools.
3. Pay Attention to Your Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation is like your credit score for emails—it tells providers how trustworthy you are as a sender. A low reputation can land your emails in spam or even get you blacklisted.
How to maintain a strong sender reputation:
- Monitor your bounce rates: A high bounce rate means you’re sending emails to invalid addresses. Use email verification tools to avoid this.
- Avoid spammy language: Steer clear of words that trigger spam filters, like “buy now” or “click here.”
- Reduce spam complaints: Make it easy for users to unsubscribe if they’re no longer interested, rather than marking your emails as spam.
4. Send Relevant and Engaging Content
People are more likely to engage with emails that speak to their interests. Engaged subscribers signal to email providers that you’re a legitimate sender, which boosts deliverability.
Best practices for engaging content:
- Personalize your emails using the recipient’s name and other relevant information.
- Use clear, concise subject lines that reflect the content of your email.
- Include one main call to action (CTA) per email to avoid overwhelming your reader.
When writing your email content, think about what kind of emails you enjoy receiving and why. That insight can help guide your content creation.
5. Don’t Overload Your Subscribers
One of the quickest ways to tank your email deliverability is by bombarding your subscribers with too many emails. While it’s important to stay top of mind, it’s equally important not to overwhelm your audience.
How to find the right balance:
- Stick to a consistent email schedule (e.g., weekly or bi-weekly) without overloading your audience.
- Offer options to receive less frequent updates. For example, allow subscribers to choose between receiving weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly emails.
- Monitor your unsubscribe rate. If it spikes, it might be time to rethink your sending frequency or content.
6. Test Your Emails Before Sending
Testing is a crucial part of email deliverability best practices. Even small changes in your content or subject line can have a significant impact on whether your email lands in the inbox or the spam folder.
What to test:
- Subject lines: Try A/B testing different lengths, tones, and wording.
- Email content: Experiment with different formats (e.g., plain text vs. HTML).
- Send times: Test different times and days to see when your audience is most engaged.
7. Monitor and Improve Key Metrics
To keep improving email deliverability, you need to track and analyze your email performance over time.
Key metrics to watch:
- Open rate: Low open rates can signal deliverability issues.
- Bounce rate: A high bounce rate means your emails aren’t being delivered.
- Spam complaints: If this number is high, adjust your list-building and email content practices.
- Click-through rate: Are your emails leading to action? If not, you may need to rethink your CTAs.
Tools that monitor these metrics can make all the difference in improving your email strategy. You can find a great list of them here.
8. Avoid Spammy Design Elements
You might think that a flashy, image-heavy email will attract attention, but overdoing it can harm your email deliverability. Emails that rely too heavily on images or have little text often get flagged by spam filters.
Best design practices:
- Use a good balance of text and images (ideally a 60:40 ratio).
- Don’t use too many external links or complicated code, as these can be red flags for spam filters.
- Ensure that your images are optimized and that you include descriptive alt text for better accessibility and SEO.
9. Be Transparent and Ethical
Trust is key in email marketing. Your subscribers should feel confident that you’re sending valuable content and respecting their privacy.
Best practices for transparency:
- Be upfront about what subscribers can expect when they sign up for your emails.
- Always include a clear and easy way to unsubscribe.
- Follow data privacy laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
10. Use Email Deliverability Tools
If you’re serious about improving your email deliverability, using the right tools can be a game-changer. These tools can help you monitor your sender reputation, clean your email lists, and ensure that your emails are properly authenticated.
Some top email deliverability tools include:
- SendForensics: A tool that analyzes your email deliverability and provides actionable insights.
- Mailgun: A service that offers email analytics, verification, and optimization tools.
- SenderScore: A service that measures your sender reputation.
For more tools, check out this comprehensive list of email deliverability tools.
Conclusion: Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference
Improving your email deliverability doesn’t have to be a complicated process. By following these email deliverability best practices, you can significantly boost your chances of getting into the inbox—and staying there.
From building a quality email list to monitoring your metrics, every step counts towards ensuring your emails are seen and engaged with by your audience. Just remember, email marketing is about building trust, so always prioritize delivering value to your subscribers.
FAQs
- What is the biggest factor in email deliverability?
Your sender reputation plays the biggest role in whether your emails are delivered. A poor reputation can result in your emails being flagged as spam. - How can I reduce my bounce rate?
Clean your email list regularly, verify new subscribers’ email addresses, and avoid sending to inactive addresses. - Is it necessary to authenticate my emails?
Yes, email authentication is critical for improving email deliverability. Without it, your emails are more likely to be flagged as spam. - How do I monitor my sender reputation?
You can use tools like SenderScore or Google Postmaster to monitor your sender reputation and ensure that your emails aren’t getting blocked. - What should I do if my emails are getting flagged as spam?
Check your sender reputation, avoid spammy content, clean your list, and make sure your emails are properly authenticated.