Email marketing can be a great way to reach your customers and prospects. If you’re not reaching them, though, it’s not very effective. If you have spam filters or spam folders blocking your emails, then they’re not getting through to their intended recipients and aren’t doing much good. Here are some tips on how you can increase the deliverability of your email marketing list so that it reaches more people:
Keep your list clean
In an ideal world, you’d only send emails to people who want to receive them. But that’s not the case—and it won’t be anytime soon.
The reason? Email is a permission-based channel, but it isn’t perfect. The reality is that getting your emails opened and read requires more than just asking people if they want messages from you: You have to make sure they’re actually interested in what you’re sending them before putting their addresses into the database. That means not only keeping your list clean but also regularly checking it for new subscribers who aren’t responding positively or otherwise contributing positively toward the business goal of growing the number of email addresses on your list (which leads us back around in a circle).
Use permission-based optin forms
We all know that the best way to get a customer’s attention is through their inbox. But if you want your emails to be opened, it’s essential that you have permission to send them. You can do this by following these tips:
- Use a double opt-in process: A double opt-in feature requires users to confirm their email addresses before being added to your list. This blocks spammers who use autoresponders or bots from taking over legitimate email addresses and sending unwanted messages.
- Make it easy for people to sign up: The easier it is for someone to tell what they’re signing up for, the more likely they are going to complete the task at hand (e.g., entering their email address). Use clear language in your form description and make sure there’s no confusion about what exactly will happen after clicking “submit.”
- Make sure there’s plenty of white space: Large blocks of text can be intimidating for some people, so make sure that text on signup pages isn’t overwhelming by breaking it up into smaller chunks with plenty of white space between each paragraph or bullet point so they’re easier on the eyes! It should also include images where possible because this makes things much more engaging than just words alone – even if only used as a background image behind text!
Make it easy for subscribers to optin
The first step to increasing email deliverability is making it easy for subscribers to opt-in. You should have a single opt-in form on every page of your website, and make sure it’s easy to find. It should also be easy for users to fill out, with no unnecessary forms or fields.
You want a good call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your CTA—something that makes it clear what you want them to do next. You can use an image or button here if you’d like, but sometimes words work better than images when you’re trying to get people’s attention quickly.
For example: “Subscribe today!” or “Get my free ebook!” are both good CTAs because they tell the user exactly what they will receive by subscribing and give them a reason why they would want that information now rather than later.
Increase engagement
The worst thing you can do to your email marketing is sending out emails that don’t get opened. If you want to increase your email deliverability, start by increasing engagement.
Here are some tips for starting a conversation with your audience via your emails:
- Ask questions and get feedback. People love talking about themselves, so ask them questions that encourage them to respond—and give away something in return! You might ask them what they thought of a recent blog post or product launch or how they’re using the information you’ve shared with them in the past. If there’s anything else you can offer along with asking these questions (like a discount code), even better!
- Ask for referrals and reviews. If people like what they see from your products and services, ask them if they’d be willing to refer others or leave an honest review on sites like Amazon and Yelp—the more positive feedback you have out there about your brand, the better! But don’t forget that some people aren’t comfortable sharing personal information online; if someone says “no” when asked these types of questions directly within an email campaign, then respect their decision by removing this section altogether moving forward instead of including it anyway against their wishes just because “you need more reviews/referrals.” There’s no point in making someone feel uncomfortable just because there’s something else we want badly enough–and remember, those good relationships take time building up trust first before asking people things like this directly over email rather than having conversations face-to-face which may lead into those discussions organically instead later down the line once relationship established between parties involved.”
Maintain a healthy list
In order to ensure that your email messages reach the inbox and are not blocked by spam filters, it’s important to maintain a healthy list. A healthy list will have more subscribers who are engaged with your content, are highly responsive to marketing offers and have higher open rates.
A good way to keep your list clean is by regularly removing inactive or dead emails, such as those who haven’t opened or clicked on an email from you in the last six months or so. Removing these emails from your list reduces deliverability issues because it reduces the number of unengaged subscribers on it.
Segmentation helps you segment your audience into groups with similar interests that allow for more targeted messaging based off their actions (opening/clicking) and interests (looking at certain types of content). Segmentation helps increase engagement rates since users feel like they’re receiving relevant information rather than being bombarded with irrelevant advertisements they don’t care about.
Updating contact information such as phone numbers can also help increase email deliverability because many spammers use outdated contact info as proof that someone is real before sending out a message aimed at them through bulk mailers like MailChimp or Constant Contact and validate all contacts with a service like emailvalidation.io.
Don’t stuff your emails with too many images and links
The first thing to understand is that your emails should not look like spam. This means that you shouldn’t be putting too many images or links in them.
You can use images, but only if they are relevant to the content of the email and not just there for decoration purposes. Also, please don’t make an email too long with lots of text and images on it because this will cause people to not want to read it all the way through because they think it’s spammy looking (even though it isn’t).
Make sure what links you have in your emails are also relevant to what you are writing about so that people don’t get confused by seeing links in an email that has nothing at all to do with what they’re reading about; otherwise, when someone clicks on one of those links thinking maybe something else might be interesting but then instead find themselves staring at a pop-up ad for Viagra or something else completely unrelated from what was written earlier on in their newsletter which now makes them feel cheated out of their time spent reading through this whole thing just so some company could try pushing some product onto them without even mentioning anything about said product until now.”
Segment your list
The first thing you need to do is segment your list. Segmenting your email list will allow you to send relevant, personalized emails that can help increase the open rate and click-through rate of each email. It will also make it easier to track the success of your campaigns and identify which groups are most interested in your products or services.
Segmenting your lists means dividing them into smaller subgroups based on specific criteria like geographic location, purchase history, demographics, etc. For example:
- You could divide your customer database into three segments: customers who have made purchases in 2018, customers who have made purchases between Jan 1st – June 30th, and customers who visited the website but did not make a purchase during any part of 2018. This enables you to send targeted email newsletters based on each of these three different segments’ needs at this stage in their relationship with the business;
- If only one customer purchased from our store within January-June 2019 (and has not purchased since), this customer likely needs a reminder about our product line or may be interested in receiving some information about our company’s latest offerings;
- Customers who have shopped online recently but didn’t buy anything (or only purchased one item) may simply be browsing while they wait for an order confirmation email from another retailer they ordered something from earlier—so we should include special offers related specifically toward those items when sending out promotional emails!
Send emails at the right time
The timing of your email campaign is important. If you send at the wrong time, you will get fewer clicks and conversions (and your customers will unsubscribe). With that in mind, it’s a good idea to use a tool to help you send at the right time. Most tools recommend sending emails between 8am—12pm, and 2pm—5pm on weekdays. However, this isn’t always possible: if you work for an international company with offices in different time zones or have an audience from around the world, there are different best practices that apply to every audience segment. For example:
- If you’re targeting North Americans who work full-time jobs during normal business hours (Monday through Friday), then sending emails on Monday evenings may be better than any other time slot (such as Tuesday morning).
- If your target market consists mostly of people who work from home or have flexible schedules during daylight savings months (March through November), then sending emails mid-morning or early afternoon might be best instead of during traditional business hours when they’re likely not at their desks anyway.
- Finally, if your list includes subscribers located internationally but most aren’t based in Europe or Asia where daylight savings takes place during summer/winter months; then it might make sense for all messages sent between March 1st and October 31st go out later than usual because that’s when most subscribers are asleep due to DST changes affecting their clocks twice per year!
Choose the right subject line
A subject line is the first hurdle in determining whether or not your email gets opened, so it’s crucial to write something that will get recipients’ attention. Here are some tips on how to do that:
- Personalize it—Make sure the subject line references the recipient directly. This can be done by using their name or referring to a specific message you sent them previously.
- Make it relevant—The more relevant your email is, the more likely they’ll be interested in reading it. Make sure your subject line reflects this by providing some context into what they will get from reading this particular piece of content (e.g., “5 Ways We Can Help You Plan Your Wedding”). The more effort put into making this part of your campaign personalized and tailored towards each recipient’s unique interests, needs/goals etc., will pay off big time!
Email marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to drive conversions and sales, but sending emails to an uninterested audience will be detrimental to the success of any campaign
Email marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to drive conversions and sales, but sending emails to an uninterested audience will be detrimental to the success of any campaign. To ensure that your emails are delivered, here are some tips for improving your deliverability:
- Don’t send large volumes of email without permission. This is one of the most common mistakes made by marketers when they first start using email marketing as a tool for their business. Sending too many emails without permission can have a negative impact on your deliverability rate because it looks like spam when it lands in someone’s inbox, which will cause them not only not open or click on any future messages from you but also report your account as spammy if they see multiple emails from you in their inboxes.
- Use third party verification services like Return Path and Mail Chimp’s Verified Sender program (both free). The more advanced an organization becomes with its email marketing efforts, the more likely they are going to need some reputation management system in place so that people who receive their emails know that they’re legitimate organizations sending out legitimate offers/content/etc., rather than some random person trying to scam them out of money through fake offers or promotions!
