Response Magic Blog

10 Ways to Increase Your Email Deliverability

Tue, Oct 15, 2013

When you are trying to get the word out about your product or service, email deliverability is a huge factor. You not only want to be sure that your message is effective, but that your message is also reaching your intended audience. There are ten easy steps you can take to ensure your email deliverability is high and your message gets delivered.

Choose the right email sending program to handle your message sending. If you are sending an email to more than ten recipients at a time, you should be using an email sending program, such as an Autoresponder. Never send bulk email (sending to more than ten people at a time, either through CC or BCC) using your personal email client like Gmail or Yahoo. Doing so can get your account locked and deleted. Autoresponder systems, like Response Magic, are designed for sending bulk emails and have partnerships with email providers to allow for larger sends. They carry the weight of the sending so you can focus on the effectiveness of your message without worrying if you are breaking any sending rules of your email service provider.
Make sure your list is confirmed. Always send emails ONLY to people who have requested it. Make sure your list is clean and that each person has actually opted in to get your emails. For more tips on building an email list, click here.
Make your message’s purpose clear and avoid the hype. Use a strong, clear subject line that avoids spammy keywords that will effect your message’s email deliverability, such as ‘congratulations’, ‘earn money’ and ‘get cash’. The subject line is one of the first things an ISP will look at when they are determining where to put your email – the inbox, the junkmail or the dreaded black-hole of auto-delete. The ISP uses computers that search for keywords and phrases in the subject line, so you want to clearly identify your email’s purpose and make it sound like you really know the person you are sending to. Often times, a simple subject line is best, such as ‘Hey, NAME, just touching base…”
Protect yourself from abuse backlash. No matter how clean your list is, there will always be someone who forgets that they signed up to receive your emails and will submit a spam complaint to their ISP against you. This is where having an email sending provider, like Response Magic, can come in handy. They deal with all the abuse complaints for you and work with the ISPs to clear up any misunderstandings.
Segment your sending list. When sending your email, it’s best to narrow down who exactly you are sending to, through list segmentation, even when using a bulk send provider. Sending in narrowed chunks allows your message to be specifically tailored to smaller demographics, making it more effective. It also allows the sending program to further divide your email across more sending email servers, which greatly enhances email deliverability.
Always be consistent with your sending practices. This means using the same email address and sending program to send the emails, and sending the same types of messages to your audience. When you set up your autoresponder, choose the email address for your account that you would like to send from and stick with it. People will begin adding that address to their safe list, and the more times your email is opened when being sent from that address, the more the ISPs will identify your email address as being a safe sender.
Ask recipients to add you to their contact list. This helps identify you as a safe sender and insures your email gets into their inbox. It’s best to add this request to the top of the very first email you send and then to the bottom of every email you send there after as a small reminder.
Test before you send. Most don’t think about this – but it’s an important step for email deliverability. Sending just one broken email or an email with critical error in it can cause your future emails to be blocked or discarded by ISPs. Write your message and then send it to yourself. Test it to make sure all the images, links and personalization insert variables work properly. Also, make sure you track and understand the statistics of your previous email sends, as this will help you send effectively.
Format your email. Avoid overly long emails and avoid very short emails with more images and hyperlinks than text. These types of emails tend to trigger spam filters. You want to write a concise, balanced email, remembering that you have roughly five seconds to catch your reader’s eyes and get them to make a click-through decision. Typically, one graphic or no graphic is best, as most ISPs these days turn images in emails off by default. Put your key link near the top of your email and not hidden in the middle of text or at the bottom. The key is to get in, say what you need to get them to click, and get out.
Give readers a clear way to unsubscribe. I know what you’re thinking – ‘why would I want people to unsubscribe?’. Simple – if someone truly wants to unsubscribe from your list, they are going to find a way to do it. It’s best to make it easy for them than risk having them submit a spam complaint against you to your ISPs which will hurt the email deliverability to all those on your mailing list who still want to receive your emails. All email send programs, like Response Magic, are required to have a clear and easy way for the reader to opt out, and Response Magic handles all the opt-outs for you.