Key Points
ESPs completely control your email deliverability, so stick to their rules.
Spamming recipients with unwanted content is an excellent strategy to get your messages into spam or your IP blacklisted.
Integration with popular ESPs gives your IP a higher reputation and will improve your chances of getting into recipients’ inboxes. Use Outreach Magic.
Don’t spike your send rate. Maintain a rhythm when sending emails. Spiking the number of times or recipients you send emails can look like spamming.
Continuously monitor your emails to know what your audience likes and does not like.
Ignore spam triggers like Urgent, right now, free, and limited-time offers. Avoid using exclamation marks.
Follow the rules of cold emailing to ensure that your messages drop in prospects’ primary inboxes.
Email deliverability measures the rate at which your emails land in your recipients’ primary inbox. When launching an email campaign, your main purpose is to reach clients and potential customers, engage with them, pass a message, and trigger a response. The response could be clicking a link, responding to your email, or taking other actions like calling a number.
The Importance of Connecting to Popular ESPs to Email Deliverability
ESPs, also known as Email Service Providers, are like gatekeepers. They are in charge of passing your emails to recipients. Think USPS. An ESP collects your messages and sends them. However, unlike USPS, ESPs peek into your messages and run a background check on your past behavior to determine if your email should land in the recipient’s inbox. If they realize that your emails are too promotional, they will send them to the promotional tab. If the emails reek of spam, they will send them to spam. They can also forbid you from using their services.
When your IP is connected to reputable ESPs, they are more likely to trust your emails. This trust is essential because ESPs utilize complex algorithms to determine whether your messages should reach the inbox or get filtered out as spam. If ESPs see a history of positive engagement—such as opens, clicks, and replies—they view your emails more favorably.
Also, popular ESPs like Gmail offer advanced analytical features that help you track your email performance. For example, with Gmail, you can track the number of people that open your emails, click links, and respond, and tailor your campaign to optimize efficiency based on the reports.
Lastly, connecting to popular ESPs give you credibility. It lets them know that you are reputable and worthy of the coveted primary inbox. The good news is, Outreach Magic helps people with their configuration. Configuring protocols like DKIM and SPF can be complicated, but with Outreach Magic, configuration becomes less of a chore.
Behaviors That May Affect Email Deliverability and How to Avoid Spam
A good understanding of email deliverability is essential, but it is equally important to recognize behaviors that may negatively impact it. Many business owners often wonder why their email campaigns do not yield. They invest in email marketing and communication tools; yet suffer immense setbacks because of poor email marketing behaviors.
1. Sending Too Many Emails Too Quickly
When your email and IP addresses are new, sending too many emails too quickly can become detrimental. The trick email deliverability consultants employ is to send emails in small batches and only send the first set of emails to your most active subscribers. To achieve this, you can use seed emails (emails of employees and friends) and ask them to respond before launching a full-fledged campaign. Seed emails are also great for testing. You know which emails land in spam folders and which one reaches inboxes — and then you find out why.
2. Ignoring Spam Triggers
When sending emails, remove spam triggers like urgent, money-back guarantee, discount, you have won a free iPhone, and so on. Spammers and scammers often use these triggers to swindle unsuspecting victims. You don’t want your emails to look like the ones sent by a spammer who lives in his mother’s basement. While marketing is expected, and you can be salesy, you must learn the pitfalls of aggressive marketing. Take it easy; build a solid audience, and sell to them.
3. Sending to Inactive Subscribers
Clean your email lists regularly. Even if you use marketing tools, you must manually clean your list. Remove unsubscribed audiences entirely from your marketing lists. When you send emails to inactive email addresses or those that do not want to hear from you, you risk being labeled as spam. When someone unsubscribes but continues to receive emails, they may deliberately classify your email as spam, hurting your reputation.
4. Poorly Designed Emails
Design and formatting play a crucial role in email marketing. When your designs are poor, it becomes difficult for the recipients to navigate through them. Use infographics if you must; add pictures if essential, but whatever you do, err on the side of simplicity. Don’t do too much.
Ensuring Your Email Gets Delivered When Running a Cold Email Campaign
Cold emailing is a powerful way to reach potential customers or partners who may not yet know you. It allows you to introduce your services and generate interest among a new audience. Cold emails can create valuable connections and open doors to exciting opportunities when done effectively.
However, there’s a challenge: making sure your emails land in the inbox and not in the dreaded spam folder. You want your outreach to be effective and for recipients to see your message, not just delete it or overlook it.
To help you improve your cold emailing efforts and ensure your messages reach their intended audience, here are some key points to remember:
Warm Up Your IP: If you’re using a new email address or IP, warm it up gradually. Start by sending a few emails and slowly increase the volume. This helps build your reputation with email service providers (ESPs).
Research Your Recipients: Take the time to understand who you’re reaching out to. Knowing their interests and needs increases the chances that your email will resonate.
Craft a Compelling Subject Line: The subject line is your first impression. Make it engaging and relevant, avoiding spammy phrases that could trigger filters.
Personalize Your Message: Use the recipient’s name and any relevant information to make your email feel tailored. Personalization boosts open rates and engagement.
Be Clear and Concise: Get straight to the point. Clearly state your purpose and how it benefits the recipient. A brief message is more likely to be read.
Include a Clear Call to Action: Tell the recipient what you want them to do next, whether it’s replying to your email or scheduling a call.
Avoid Spam Triggers: Stay away from overly promotional language or excessive punctuation that can send your email to the spam folder.
Monitor Engagement Metrics: After sending your emails, keep track of how they perform. Look at open rates and responses to adjust your approach for future outreach.
Respect Timing: Don’t bombard recipients with too many emails at once. Space out your outreach and be mindful of when you send your emails.
Follow Up Thoughtfully: If you don’t hear back, send a polite follow-up email a few days later. Keep it friendly and add value to rekindle interest.
Understanding the Promotions and Social Tabs and How to Prevent Spam Email
The spam filter is treacherous, and while promotions and social tabs may look less treacherous, they may be just as bad. When was the last time you opened an email in the promotions tab? Social tab feeds people emails or notifications from social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It’s important to stay out of these two tabs. To optimize your email marketing effort, you must ensure that your emails reach the primary inbox of your recipients’ addresses.
To avoid the promotions tab, do the following:
Share quality content: Your content quality beats cheap marketing efforts. If you spend money on tools and email marketing systems, you should expend some funds on excellent copywriters and storytellers who know how to sell subtly.
Build a genuine mailing list: Don’t buy emails. Build genuine connections with your audience. Engage them, and ensure that you monitor and track how they react to your emails. Understand what makes each tick, and segment people with similar behavior or demographics into a special list.
The Role of Authentication in Email Deliverability
Email authentication is another crucial aspect of ensuring good deliverability. Authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) verify your email source. Authentication is not only important to your email deliverability, it secures your IP, and tells ESPs that your email is coming from a trusted source.
Configuring authentication protocols reduces the likelihood of your messages being marked as spam; hence, your sender reputation will remain intact for future marketing campaigns.
Monitoring and Analyzing Deliverability Metrics
Monitoring and tracking are crucial to email marketing. No matter how great you think your email is, you will not know how much people engage until you track the emails. Know the emails that go to recipients’ primary inboxes and the ones that end in spam. Know the emails that recipients open and the recipients that never read your emails. Know the number of people who click on your links and end up on your landing page. Knowledge is life, and it drives objective and data-driven decisions.
To maintain good deliverability, you must continuously monitor and analyze key metrics. Keep an eye on open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. Analyzing these metrics will give you insights into how your audience interacts with your emails.
If you notice a drop in open rates or notice that a larger percentage of your emails end in spam, you will reevaluate your strategy. With monitoring and tracking, you can objectively run A/B Testing (a strategy to test different subject lines, content, and sales pitch methods to see which works the most). You can also create a more focused segmented list and send laser-focused emails to the right recipients. What’s better? You can automate tracking and monitoring with Outreach Magic.
Building Strong Relationships with Subscribers
Ultimately, email deliverability is about building and maintaining strong relationships with your subscribers. When you prioritize providing value and relevance in your emails, you foster trust and loyalty among your audience. Engaged subscribers are more likely to open your emails, click on your content, and make purchases, which benefits both parties.
Consider using surveys or feedback forms to understand your subscribers’ preferences better. This information can help you create targeted content that resonates with your audience, improving engagement and deliverability.
Conclusion
In conclusion, understanding email deliverability is crucial for the success of your email marketing campaigns. By connecting with popular ESPs, avoiding behaviors that negatively impact deliverability, and focusing on valuable content, you can significantly improve your chances of landing in the inbox.
As you work on your email strategy, remember that Outreach Magic seamlessly runs the integration, ensuring your emails reach the inbox without a hitch.
