How to Improve Email Deliverability: Proven Strategies

As an email marketer, you’ll want to ensure you reach your audience’s inbox and avoid landing in the spam folder. The hard work you put into writing email campaigns will be wasted if your emails don’t go to your prospective customers’ email providers. 

That means you need to know how to increase email deliverability before you even hit send. Deliverability is the foundational step before we can go into engagement, clicks, and opens. Think of those elements as the garnishes; deliverability is the meat and potatoes of it all.

Below, I’ll talk about the best practices and dos and don’ts when aiming for high email deliverability rates so you can better connect with your mailing list and turn them into lifelong customers.

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Before that, though, if you want to amp up your email deliverability and performance, Panoramata is the competitive intelligence tool for you.

It will show you your competitors’ spam rates and score their emails, so you don’t have to research these stats manually. You’ll get a quick understanding of what fixes you need to implement and how you compare to the competition. 

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Why you should care about email deliverability

You should review your email deliverability and make sure you comply with the standards because of two things:

• You don’t want to be listed as spam.
• You’ll be vulnerable to attacks and domain issues.

Your first goal should be to check the email sender guidelines of Gmail and Yahoo, where they clearly lay out the requirements and best practices email marketers need to follow.

These will cover the basics. On top of that, make sure you review your deliverability and adherence to sending standards because email service providers can change these email deliverability rules down the line.

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9 Ways to Increase Email Deliverability

Start by creating good sign-up forms

Email deliverability starts as early as the signup stage. You need to protect your forms against bots, which can make an impact on deliverability. Ensure your forms are in good shape if you don’t want to compromise all the next steps.

If you’re working with a big email service provider, you don’t have to worry about this because they ensure your forms are safe. 

If you’re working with forms manually, you have to limit submissions. That means you have to protect against bots mass-subscribing to your emails. 

You also need to validate emails that have signed up. If it looks strange or spammy, remove it from your list.

Aside from that, make sure your form gives a clear message to future subscribers. They should know what they’re signing up for, whether it’s a whitepaper, a newsletter, or a PDF. 

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Set expectations and engage them with your first emails

Firstly, make new subscribers confirm their signup with a double opt-in process. This way you can ensure that they do want to receive your emails, thereby maintaining list quality.

Next, work on writing a good welcome email that will let people know what to expect from you. Add details like what kind of emails they will receive from you and at what frequency. 

Tip: Ask for engagement right away, whether it’s a reply to a question or a click. Make it super easy to engage with you at this initial stage (if possible, at the outset in the welcome email). The goal isn’t to push a sale. It’s just to stir engagement. 

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Practice good sending habits

It goes without saying, but never send to users who have not signed up for your emails. Also, avoid buying lists. This is a domain reputation killer and decreases your email reputation, as well. 

Send emails mostly to your engaged subscribers and whatever you do, don’t use misleading subject lines. Even though they might work and get readers to click, it erodes trust quickly and can send your emails to the dreaded spam folder.

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Avoid sending volume spikes

Another good practice is to send emails in batches over several hours. Aim for consistency in sending rates as spikes look suspicious to email service providers.

Are you working with a new domain? Make sure to warm it up first before sending emails more often. 

If you’re preparing for an event that requires an increase in sending frequency (like Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales), increase sending frequency ahead of the event. Avoid surges in email messages. 

Note that the more emails you send, the slower you should increase volume. 

However, you can increase volume faster if you send emails daily rather than weekly. Tailor this to your own sending patterns. 

Ask for engagement right away, whether it’s a reply to a question or a click. Make it super easy to engage with you at this initial stage. 

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Pay attention to email content

Send emails that your subscribers will want to read. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t create engaging emails, you will not get high engagement. Look at what your competitors are doing and build on their content. Create better emails. 

Email content extends to links you put in the email body, too. Make sure you use https links, not http. And if you’re sharing YouTube videos, use the original links (not the shortened youtu.be link).

Now that we’re at it, avoid link shorteners in general. Http and shortened links are tactics used by spammers. If you don’t want to look like a spammer, don’t do what spammers do. 

Make it easy for people to unsubscribe or reach out to you

Email marketers in the past have tried hiding the unsubscribe link from recipients, therefore making it difficult for their audiences to unsubscribe. Don’t do this.

Make it as easy as possible for people to unsubscribe from your emails. That’s because of two reasons:

• Recipients will mark you as spam, thus lowering your engagement and deliverability.
• Google and other ESPs will mark your emails as spam because they detect that you are hiding links (one of the spammy behaviors we want to avoid). 

If you’re tempted to hide your unsubscribe links against a white background and other sneaky techniques, let this dissuade you. 

Instead, implement one-click unsubscribe options and make your unsubscribe link visible in the email. Also, avoid no-reply email addresses and add a physical address to your emails (email providers also check this).

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Clean your list

Email lists are like homes–they should be cleaned regularly. What does a clean list mean? 

Cleaning your list means removing people who are not interacting with your emails. These people are contributing to lower engagement rates (a no-no for healthy email deliverability).

As a plus, when you remove disengaged subscribers, you aren’t paying for the cost of having them on your list. 

However, before you scrub your list, create a sunset flow as a last call of sorts. Send an email asking inactive subscribers whether they want to stay on your mailing list or not. 

This usually creates an increase in engagement. At the very least, this helps to filter disinterested recipients and inactive email addresses and improve your sending reputation.

And speaking of reputation…

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Keep your sending reputation clean

Monitor spam score regularly and keep it low. Google recommends aiming for a spam score below 0.1 percent. It also says to avoid reaching 0.3 percent or higher. You can view your spam score and other email performance metrics on Google Postmaster Tools, which is free. 

If you’re using a new domain, warm up your reputation. Build up to your target sending frequency, and don’t send a lot of emails right away. Increasing frequency quickly can lead to deliverability problems. 

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Check your stack

Pick an established email provider with a good reputation, such as Google and Yahoo. Follow the sender requirements and guidelines they’ve outlined.

Set up authentication methods for your sending domain. 

• All senders: SPF or DKIM
• Bulk senders: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

This protects email recipients from spoofing and phishing emails and protects you, the sender, from being impersonated and being marked as spam or rejected.

Use a subdomain as your sending domain, instead of your main domain. Your main domain should be reserved for your website.

Recommended options are:

• email.maindomain.com (best option)
• brand.espdomain.com

Don’t use completely different domains either, because that’s what spammers do. Phishing has made people and email providers wary of lookalikes. 

A note about open rates: Google doesn't track open rates and can't verify the accuracy of open rates as reported by third parties.

Open rates are not a factor in deliverability. Google does, however, check clicks and engagement. 

Low open rates are not necessarily an indicator of deliverability or spam issues. If they are, it will reflect in your other metrics, such as your spam rates in Google Postmaster Tools.

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Tips if you still have issues with deliverability

If you’re still having deliverability issues, there are several ways to fix them.

• Check Google Postmaster Tools. Make sure that the curve is not above 0.1 percent and far away from 0.3 percent. If so, don’t worry because it’s always fixable. 
• Understand where the issue is coming from. It could be bots interfering with your forms, your emails not being properly authenticated, and a number of other reasons. Find out the source of the problem first and then fix it.
• Meanwhile, continue to send emails but a lower rate and only to the most engaged users for the next 2 to 3 weeks. Stay below 0.1 percent spam rates. Eventually, your deliverability will start to improve.

Within two to three weeks, you can fix any deliverability issue you’re facing. 

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How competitive intelligence can help with email deliverability

Competitive intelligence includes tracking things like email deliverability, too. With the right tools, you can take a peek at your competitors’ strategies and compare yourself to their email frequency and volume, for example. 

Panoramata tracks the essential email metrics you need to know as a marketer and it does so automatically and over time, giving you an understanding of your competitors’ email performance.

You can then spot where you’re lagging and build on your strengths once you monitor your competitors this way.

In addition, Panoramata has a bunch of incredible features that will help you understand your competitors' marketing and advertising. 

• Easy calendar view: see their content calendar (emails and ads) at a glance
• Go into each email in detail: Check email scores and official spam scores
• View sending providers and authentication methods
• Download any email on the platform
• Save emails to lists for quick reference and collaboration

If you care at all about optimizing your email campaigns and deliverability, monitor your competitors’ performance with Panoramata and see how it can change all these aspects of your brand.

Ready to start your own competitive analysis? Grab your free competitive analysis template below.

If you’d like to learn more about Panoramata, book a demo with us or take it out for a spin by signing up here. 

FAQs

Why is email deliverability important?

Email deliverability ensures your carefully crafted emails actually reach your subscribers' inboxes, which is crucial for engagement and building customer relationships.

What are some key practices for improving email deliverability?

Practices include using double opt-in for signups, sending to engaged subscribers, and avoiding misleading subject lines or sudden spikes in email volume.

How can I monitor my email sending reputation?

You can monitor your spam score and other metrics using Google Postmaster Tools, which helps you identify and address deliverability issues.