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Like most marketers, your email marketing efforts probably focus on essentials such as curating exceptional emails, writing engaging copy, crafting enticing email subject lines, and growing a quality list. However, even when you check all these boxes, avoiding spam filters can still be a challenge.
Despite being knowledgeable about the best email marketing practices and increasing deliverability rates, many businesses fail to understand why their emails disappear after clicking send. Emails remain a cornerstone of business communication, but they face the significant hurdle of avoiding the spam folder. Not only will your email marketing efforts go unseen if they land in spam, but continuous delivery to the spam folder can also negatively affect your future email deliverability.
For many manufacturers, emails often contain vital product updates, transaction information, newsletters, etc. In these instances, ensuring email deliverability is paramount. Let’s dive into a comprehensive guide to help manufacturers navigate the challenges of email deliverability.
What is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability is the measure of your company’s ability to send emails that land in the recipient’s inbox without being flagged as spam or junk. This is influenced by numerous factors such as subscriber engagement, content quality, and sender reputation. For manufacturers whose audiences may range from suppliers to distributors, understanding these nuances is critical. Emails that end up in the promotional and spam folders tend to have lower open rates, as these folders are often overlooked.
Best Practices for Email Deliverability
It’s important to note that no single factor affects the email deliverability rate. Even a small mistake can result in your emails being marked as spam. On the positive side, these factors are within your control and can be easily remedied.
Establish a Solid Sender Reputation
Your sender reputation is a score assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) based on your email sending habits. The scores vary on a scale of 0-100. A lower sender score, below 50, means more recipients are unsubscribing or marking your email as spam. When considering the various factors that affect email deliverability rate, the sender score is the most crucial.
To maintain a good reputation, regularly clean your email list by removing unengaged subscribers and maintaining a low bounce rate. Ensure that your emails always come from a reputable domain authenticated using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols. Brand consistency is paramount in all email marketing initiatives.
Email Subject Line and Content
One of the first things recipients see before clicking on an email is the subject line. Both the email subject and content are imperative for establishing credibility and increasing engagement levels.
A captivating email subject line and enticing email content will lead to longer read times and higher open rates. These factors help ensure that ISPs do not mark your emails as suspicious or banish them to the spam folder.
Maintain Transparency and Obtain Consent
Have you ever received recurring emails from a company and wondered, “When did I sign up for this?” Most people are more likely to unsubscribe from a mailing list they weren’t explicitly informed about. When approaching email marketing, it’s imperative to acquire email addresses through legitimate means. Subscribers should explicitly opt-in to receiving communications from you for optimal results.
Always be transparent with recipients about the frequency and types of emails they will receive, and provide an easy option to unsubscribe at any time. Besides being a common best practice for boosting engagement and deliverability, it is also a legal requirement under GDPR laws.
Optimize Email Design and Layout
Email designs should be created with all devices in mind. The design should be responsive to display well on all devices. Utilize clear and attractive layouts, professional high-resolution images, and ensure an equal ratio between images and text to keep emails engaging and easily accessible. Avoid spam triggers such as hard sells, excessive capitalization, and numerous exclamation marks. Using all caps in email subject lines lowers the response rate by 30%. Let’s not appear to be shouting at our audience.
Avoid Video, Flash, or JavaScript within Your Email
Even if a spam filter allows your emails through with JavaScript or other dynamic scripts, most email clients won’t allow these scripts to function – it’s best to avoid using them altogether.
Instead, use an image of your video player with a call-to-action play button that links to the rich media on a website page.
Avoid Using an Overwhelming Number of Images or Large Image File Sizes
Using large images or numerous images tends to end up in recipients’ spam folders. Most email recipients set their spam trigger criteria to filter heavily loaded images.
Reduce/compress image file sizes without losing their visual integrity to prevent long email load times.
Use a Familiar Sender Name
In addition to the subject line, the sender’s name is the second most important factor that gets your emails opened and read. People have noticed higher open rates by simply adding a sender’s name.
People are so bombarded with spam that they often hesitate to open emails from unfamiliar senders. Ensure that recipients can identify you as the sender by incorporating your brand name.
Encourage Your Audience to Whitelist Your Emails
Encourage your subscribers to add your email address to their contacts or whitelist it. This can significantly improve deliverability as it signals to ISPs that your communications are welcomed by the recipient.
These are just a few steps you can take to avoid your emails going to the spam folder. By following these best practices, you can improve your email deliverability, ensuring that your important messages reach your audience’s inbox. Keep refining your approach, and you’ll see better engagement and results from your email marketing efforts.
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