Email marketing is a crucial part of any successful digital marketing strategy. But what’s the point of crafting a great email campaign if it doesn’t reach your subscribers’ inboxes? That’s where email deliverability comes in. Email deliverability refers to the ability of your emails to reach your subscribers’ inboxes successfully. In this post, we’ll discuss the steps necessary to ensure your emails land in the inboxes of your subscribers.

    1. Build a quality email list The first step in ensuring your emails land in the inboxes of your subscribers is to build a quality email list. This means collecting email addresses from people who are genuinely interested in your products or services. You can do this by offering something of value in exchange for their email address, such as a free e-book, webinar, or discount code.
    2. Verify your email list Once you’ve built your email list, it’s important to verify it. This means ensuring that all the email addresses on your list are valid and active. You can use email verification tools to do this, which will help you identify any email addresses that are likely to bounce.
    3. Use a reputable email service provider The email service provider you choose can have a big impact on your email deliverability. Make sure to choose a reputable email service provider that has a good track record for deliverability. Some popular options include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor.
    4. Authenticate your emails Email authentication is the process of verifying that an email message actually came from the sender it claims to be from. This helps prevent email spoofing and phishing, which can harm your email deliverability. There are several authentication methods, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. DMARC, which stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance”, is an email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol. It builds on the widely deployed SPF and DKIM protocols, adding linkage to the author (“From:”) domain name, published policies for recipient handling of authentication failures, and reporting from receivers to senders, to improve and monitor protection of the domain from fraudulent email. This is a process that is implements in your domain DNS management. Ask for help.
    5. Optimize your email content The content of your emails can also impact your deliverability. Make sure to avoid spammy language and phrases that may trigger spam filters. Additionally, optimize your email content for mobile devices, as many people now read their emails on their smartphones.
    6. Monitor your email deliverability Finally, it’s important to monitor your email deliverability over time. This means tracking your email open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. If you notice that your email deliverability is decreasing, it may be a sign that you need to adjust your email strategy.

Ensuring your emails land in your subscribers’ inboxes requires a combination of tactics, from building a quality email list to monitoring your email deliverability over time. By following these steps, you can improve your email deliverability and increase the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

In addition to the basic steps discussed, there are several more sophisticated email deliverability strategies that can help ensure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes.7. Segment your email list One of the best ways to improve email deliverability is to segment your email list. This means dividing your email subscribers into smaller groups based on their interests, behaviors, or demographics. By sending targeted emails to each segment, you can improve engagement and reduce the likelihood of subscribers marking your emails as spam.

7. Use email throttling Email throttling is the practice of sending emails to a small group of subscribers at a time, rather than sending a large batch all at once. This can help avoid triggering spam filters or overwhelming email servers, which can result in emails being bounced or blocked.

8. Monitor your email reputation Your email reputation is a score that ISPs (internet service providers) assign to your sending IP address based on various factors such as the quality of your email content, the frequency of your emails, and the number of spam complaints you receive. It’s important to monitor your email reputation regularly and take steps to maintain a positive reputation.

9. Maintain a clean email list Keeping your email list clean is crucial for email deliverability. This means regularly removing inactive or invalid email addresses, as well as unsubscribes and hard bounces. A clean email list can help prevent spam complaints and improve engagement rates.

10. Test your emails Before sending your emails to your entire list, it’s important to test them first. This can help identify any issues with your email content, subject lines, or sending infrastructure that could negatively impact your email deliverability. Some email service providers offer built-in testing features, or you can use third-party tools to test your emails.

11. Implement feedback loops A feedback loop is a mechanism that allows you to receive notifications when subscribers mark your emails as spam. This can help you identify issues with your email content or sending practices and take corrective action.

These more sophisticated email deliverability strategies can help ensure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes and maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. Implementing these tactics can improve email engagement rates, reduce spam complaints, and build stronger relationships with subscribers.

But then there are the other elements we need to consider.

As consumers become increasingly savvy about marketing tactics, they are also becoming more discerning about the authenticity of brands they interact with. This includes email communications. Customers are demanding more brand authenticity in email communications and companies that fail to deliver may risk losing customer loyalty.

So, what does brand authenticity in email communications look like? Here are a few key characteristics:

    1. Personalization: Customers want to feel like they are being communicated with as individuals, not just as part of a mass email campaign. Personalization can include addressing customers by name, tailoring content to their interests, and sending emails based on their previous purchases or behaviors.
    2. Transparency: Customers want brands to be transparent about their practices and values. This includes being clear about how customer data is collected and used, as well as being upfront about any business practices or policies that may impact customers.
    3. Consistency: Customers want brands to be consistent in their messaging and actions. This means delivering on promises made in emails, providing a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints, and maintaining a consistent brand voice and tone.
    4. Empathy: Customers want brands to demonstrate empathy and understanding. This can include acknowledging difficult circumstances, offering support or resources, and showing appreciation for customer loyalty.
    5. Responsiveness: Customers want brands to be responsive and accessible. This includes promptly responding to customer inquiries or concerns, offering multiple channels for communication, and providing timely updates about products, services, or promotions.

By prioritizing these characteristics in email communications, brands can build stronger relationships with their customers and increase customer loyalty. Authenticity in email communications can also help brands differentiate themselves from competitors and stand out in a crowded market.

In conclusion, as customers become more discerning about marketing tactics, brands must prioritize authenticity in their email communications. By delivering personalized, transparent, consistent, empathetic, and responsive email communications, brands can build stronger relationships with customers, increase loyalty, and stand out in a crowded market.

About the Author: Donna Amos


I believe you can achieve anything you truly want to achieve. “It might sound trite, but time and time again, I’ve seen it happen with my clients. They overcome the fear of exposing themselves to the possibility of failure to creating profitable exciting businesses. My clients do great work, and sometimes it only takes someone else believing in them to give them the confidence to step out and take the chance.”

>