As email marketers, you’re likely in constant search for how to improve your email deliverability. Preparing for success doesn’t end with following basic email marketing best practices. Before you hit send, make sure there’s little to no chance your emails go straight to junk folders.
Your email campaigns won’t make inboxes if your content still ends up flagged as spam. Emails that don’t arrive don’t get read, and unopened emails mean less revenue.
Let’s clear up a misconception: Email deliverability is different from email delivery. The latter happens when your email reaches its receiving servers successfully. Email deliverability is when your email actually appears in people’s inboxes. In other words, good email delivery doesn’t guarantee good deliverability.
Each email you send that’s marked as spam–or outright blocked–pulls down your email deliverability rate.
There are technical practices that can have far-reaching effects on improving your email deliverability, such as:
Using the correct Sender Policy Framework record: Assure internet service providers (ISPs) of your identity by implementing an updated SPF record, making them more likely to deliver your message to the inbox.
Setting up DomainKeys Identified Mail authentication: DKIM is a method that legitimizes a sender’s email address, preventing third-party spoofing.
Checking DNS-based blocklists: If you find yourself featured in one, you can take steps to remove your IP from the list. Most blocklist companies will provide information to help you with this once you contact them.
If these sound intimidating to you, don’t worry. You can start enhancing your email campaigns right now and increase your email deliverability by doing what you already know. Work on these more advanced steps later on.
Time to get down to business. At this point, you may look for third-party tools to assess your email sender score and help pinpoint which components of your email campaigns to strengthen first. Think of this as a credit score for email marketers.
Next, we’ll focus on easy fixes email marketers (new and experienced alike) can accomplish.
1. Add a double opt-in feature to your email subscriptions.
This is sometimes called a confirmed opt-in, It’s not only a good practice but it’s also compliant with multiple laws. This feature sets up an activation email for users to verify their subscription.
This prevents adding bogus or inactive email addresses to your list, particularly when email signups are part of a promotion or contest. Think of it as the beginning of an engagement pattern between you and interested subscribers.
Source: Really Good Emails
A double opt-in gives new subscribers a chance to confirm they want your content. This feature can help lower your bounce rate and increase your open rates.
Purchasing an email list is never (ever) a good idea. If your subscriber list is full of people that didn’t opt-in voluntarily, they may ignore your emails
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