What is email deliverability?
Email deliverability is the process of ensuring that emails sent from an email sender to a recipient are delivered successfully.
The success rate of email delivery depends on several factors, including:
Sender reputation
: A measure of how reputable an email sender is, based on the quality and amount of their outgoing emails. It’s used by ISPs to determine whether or not to accept emails from a particular sender, as well as how to prioritize them in their delivery systems. Factors that can impact sender reputation include email content quality, bounce rates, spam complaints, and time spent in the user’s inbox.Message content
: Including excessive use of capitalized words, words with multiple asterisks (e.g., free**), HTML elements and formatting characters like “>”, phrases such as “Click Here” or “Order Now”, suspicious attachment types and files, bad grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as phrases associated with spam emails like “guaranteed money”, “We have the best offer!” and “Congratulations!”.Anti-SPAM legislation
: These laws can vary from country to country, but generally prohibit activities like sending emails with false or misleading information, harvesting emails from public sources and disguising the origin of email messages. Violators of anti-spam legislation may be subject to fines or other penalties.
Email deliverability also relates to other factors such as domain reputation, IP reputation, server performance and authentication protocols.
Why is email deliverability important?
Email deliverability is an important factor in any email marketing campaign because it determines whether or not your messages will actually reach their intended recipients. Poor email deliverability can lead to a decrease in open and click-through rates, as well as significant lost sales opportunities. By following best practices for email deliverability, you can ensure that your messages reach the right people and get the attention they deserve.
What is ‘good’ email deliverability?
As a general rule, the higher your email deliverability rating, the better. However, many businesses set 98% as a benchmark goal for their email deliverability and work up from there.
Six tips for improving email deliverability
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience, but poor deliverability can make it difficult to get your message through. Here are some tips to help improve email deliverability and make sure your messages reach their intended recipients:
Choose an ESP you trust
: Use a reputable Email Service Provider (ESP) that offers advanced spam filtering and other security features.Segment your email lists
: Utilize email list segmentation to ensure you’re sending relevant content to the right people.Keep tabs on engagement
: Track your emails for engagement metrics such as open rate, click-through rate and unsubscribe rate.Track IP address reputation
: Your IP address is arguably one of the most important factors in determining deliverability. By monitoring your IP address reputation, you can make sure it hasn’t been identified as a source of spam emails.Get creative with subject lines
: Open rates impact deliverability, so the more subscribers you can get to open your emails, the better. Create compelling subject lines that grab the reader’s attention while still complying with anti-spam laws.Keep it clean
: Regularly sending content to hard-bounced email addresses is a red flag for email providers, and it can negatively impact your deliverability. To keep your content reaching your audience’s inboxes, clean your email lists regularly to keep them clean.
Email marketing automation with Emarsys
Emarsys helps leading brands like PUMA, Pizza Hut, and Nike to convert subscribers and drive repeat purchases by using AI-powered technology to send the right content to the right people, at the right time.
With Emarsys’ built-in Deliverability Advisor that analyzes your emails and provides targeted guidance on how to optimize for deliverability, you’ll be able to confidently hit ‘send’ and know that up to 99% your email campaigns will reach your audience’s inboxes.
