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How to improve your email deliverability | EmailOctopus
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As marketers, it’s tempting to focus all of our efforts on the creative side of email – design, copywriting, images and effective CTAs. But there’s a hard fact that we often overlook – this all becomes worthless if our emails aren’t being delivered. According to an email deliverability benchmark report by Validity, the average inbox placement rate last year was 83 percent — that means for every six emails sent, one failed to reach the inbox. Put another way, 17% of emails are never even seen by intended recipients. This statistic alone suggests there’s plenty of room for improvement. Thankfully there are a number of tried and tested ways to improve your email deliverability and check for issues affecting your inbox placement. So without further ado, here’s a run down of best practices you should implement in your email deliverability strategy. Page Contents Use a verified domain to send emails Maintain a clean mailing list Use double opt-in Avoid spammy subject lines Use the right image file size Stick to a regular schedule Send emails at the right frequency Use segmentation to boost engagement Take note of your bounce rate Use a seed list to check deliverability before every send Five free tools to help monitor and improve email deliverability 1. Use a verified domain to send emails This can be broken down into two parts: Verifying your domain Using an email associated with that domain to send your campaigns Verifying your domain requires enabling Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), which proves to inbox providers that you are who you say you are. These records also confirm that your email marketing platform (like EmailOctopus, for example) has permission to email on your behalf. Both of which strengthen your sender reputation and improve your deliverability. Once you’ve verified your domain, it’s easy to set up an email with this domain, which should then be used to send out your email marketing campaigns. “A list of engaged and valid contacts is the cornerstone of an effective email marketing strategy.” If a new subscriber has gone to the effort of checking for your follow up email and clicked the confirmation button, they are more likely to open other emails from you. And a good open rate improves your sender reputation, which makes for a better deliverability rate. 4. Avoid spammy subject lines There are some words, phrases and use of punctuation that are red flags to inbox providers. Use any of the following in your subject line and your email might be sent straight to the spam folder: All caps Multiple exclamation marks Dollar signs Money-related words, such as ‘free’, ‘profit’, ‘price’, ‘credit’ and ‘earn’ Superlatives, such as ‘amazing’, ‘incredible’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘fantastic’, ‘good’, ‘perfect’ and ‘wonderful’ Spam filters have become far more sophisticated in recent years. But if you regularly use these words and phrases, you increase your risk. So it’s best to avoid these and other spam trigger words as much as possible. Instead, focus on subject lines that deliver a message of value to your subscribers. Think about how the content of your email benefits them, and summarise that in your subject line. For more tips, check out our article on how to use subject lines to make your emails standout – for all the right reasons. 5. Use the right image file size The size and speed of your email plays an important role in deciding whether or not it reaches the intended inbox. The larger the email and the longer it takes to load, the more likely it is to be sent to junk. One easy way to reduce the size of your email is by using the smallest possible image size. Save images at 72 dpi so the quality is good enough for web viewing. And aim for a file size no larger than 500kb. It’s a good idea to save images as PNG files as these are lighter in weight than JPEGs without hampering quality. If you’re using GIFs in your email, stick to as few frames as possible. Each frame in a GIF adds weight to the final file size so less is best.