A Complete 7-Step Guide to Boosting Email Deliverability!
Introduction
There’s a saying in the business world: “You sell what you show.” As a business owner or online marketer, you might spend a significant amount of your marketing budget on developing high-quality content. While great content is critical to a successful online marketing campaign, your email marketing campaign will suffer if the target audience doesn’t even get to consume the content in the first place. A low email deliverability rate is a massive challenge you must aim to overcome. After all, almost 30 percent of email marketers find email deliverability a major obstacle. So, what should you do to improve email deliverability in 2023? Stay with us till the very end, as we’ll discuss precisely that. Let’s get started!
1. Check if your IP address is blacklisted
Email providers strive to serve their customers well by keeping a check on the emails you try sending to your audience. They tend to mark emails “safe” or “unsafe” by looking at the IP address and domain used for previous email campaigns. The servers check if you have been sending “bad” emails through the IP address. They go through your history and determine whether or not to blacklist your domain. Blacklisting will result in your emails being pushed to the spam folder. So, make sure to check if your IP address is blacklisted, and if so, connect with the server company’s support to get yourself removed from the list.
2. Ensure DMARC authentication protocols
Address the authentication protocols to ensure your domain is protected from unauthorized usage. DNS protocols like Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) help marketers protect their credentials and authenticity as it gives the email providers instructions about domain usage. The email provider checks for Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) whenever you send an email. If the IP addresses, hostnames, encrypted digital signatures for authenticity, and other factors are successfully verified, the service provider gives green light to the email.
3. Review your subscribers' list for reliability
When was the last time you reviewed your email list? Email list hygiene is a necessity to improve deliverability. You can be the owner of a massive email list, but there’s no point in boasting the numbers if the emails get bounced, spammed, or left unread. The Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) is always on the lookout for signals that render the sender unreliable. One of the most important signals is the bounce rate. If your emails’ bounce rate increases, IPS ensures that your emails are sent to the spam folder. Therefore, we suggest you actively maintain your email list. Remove subscribers who are unengaged. You should check for subscribers that haven’t engaged with your emails for 12-18 months and cut them loose.
4. Make subscribers verify via email
While we’re on the subject of email list maintenance, let’s talk about email verification. One of the sure-fire ways of doing this is by adding subscribers through the double opt-in method. What is a double opt-in method? This method adds a subscriber to the email list only when the subscriber verifies the subscription through an email. In other words, you send subscribers an email asking them to confirm their subscription choice. Adding another step to the process will certainly reduce the number of unengaged users in your email list. Equally important in list maintenance is providing the subscribers with an easy way to unsubscribe by adding a prominent unsubscribe link to all your emails.
5. Create your own email list (this is important!)
Buying an email list is probably the worst decision you’ll ever make in your email marketing journey. It can be bad for your business in many ways, as it often increases bounce rates, results in lower engagement, and gives your brand a bad reputation. Email Service Providers (ESP) don’t want you to send emails to people that have not opted in. They will keep you from communicating with the email list you bought because the people on the list haven’t subscribed to your emails. ESPs do this to save their own hides, and we can’t blame them. While it will often take more time and more effort, the payoff you’ll receive from creating your own email list will greatly outweigh the convenience of a purchased list with strings attached.
6. Execute email throttling
Both ESPs and ISPs tend to put limits on the number of emails you can send using the same IP address within a certain timeframe. Upon reaching this limit, all of your subsequent emails will be marked undelivered (read: soft bounce). The emails will be resent after 72 hours. But, you don’t want to rely on that, do you? We suggest you practice email throttling, in which you can send emails in smaller batches to avoid hitting these limits.
7. Conduct consistent communication
Lastly, double down on trust, authenticity, reliability, and consistency when establishing a connection with subscribers via email marketing. Engaged subscribers expect your emails to provide relevant and appropriate information and to arrive when you promised. So, make sure you deliver engaging, informative, and value-driven emails consistently, without making the subscribers wait for too long.
Final thoughts!
The tips mentioned in this post are proven to boost deliverability, but the prerequisite is an email worth opening. You can be doing everything right and still not generate results if the email content isn’t engaging or captivating enough! Focus on developing a high-quality email marketing campaign once you’ve gotten the supporting elements in place. You can do this rather easily by using a reputable email marketing solution that facilitates an easy drag-and-drop builder, pre-designed customizable templates, split testing, reporting, analytics, and more.
Did you find this guide helpful? Let us know in the comments. Also, don’t forget to check out other informative posts on the blog!
