Email Deliverability: Best Practices for Avoiding Spam Filters and Getting Your Messages in the Inbox

by JM Actub Published on March 15, 2023

Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to communicate with their customers and promote their products or services. It is particularly important for driving sales. However, one of the biggest challenges with email marketing is ensuring that your messages are delivered to the recipient’s inbox and not caught in the spam folder. This is where email deliverability becomes critical for the success of your sales platform. To bolster the success of your sales platform through email marketing, it’s essential to address the challenge of inbox placement, and employing effective strategies to maximize inbox deliverability becomes paramount in ensuring your messages reach recipients and avoid being consigned to the spam folder.

Email deliverability refers to the ability of your emails to successfully reach your intended recipients’ inboxes. When your emails are classified as spam and end up in that folder, they are less likely to be viewed. This can lead to a reduction in conversions and, ultimately, negatively impact your revenue. Some people opt to use temporary email to avoid over spamming their inboxes.

In this article, we will explore some of the key strategies for achieving high email deliverability rates. This includes the importance of maintaining a clean email list, creating compelling email content, and following email marketing best practices. By implementing these strategies, you can improve your email deliverability with your sales platform and maximize the impact of your email marketing campaigns.

Maintain a Clean Email List

Keeping your email list clean and up-to-date is crucial for achieving high deliverability rates. To do this, regularly remove inactive or bounced email addresses, and ensure that your subscribers have opted-in to receive your emails. You can also use email finder and validation services to verify the accuracy of your email addresses.

When to know it’s time to clean your email list:

Hard bounces:

If an email is returned as a hard bounce, it means the email address is invalid, and you should remove it from your list immediately.

Low engagement:

If you notice that a significant portion of your subscribers is not opening your emails or clicking on your links, it may be time to remove them from your list.

Inactivity:

If a subscriber hasn’t engaged with your emails in a long time (e.g., six months or more), they may no longer be interested in your content, and it’s time to remove them.

Invalid email addresses:

If an email address is misspelled or contains invalid characters, it’s unlikely that your emails will ever reach the intended recipient. In this stage, also use the SPF record checker and implement email security steps to avoid spoofing and also increase email deliverability as well

Spam complaints:

If a subscriber marks your email as spam, it can hurt your sender reputation and deliverability. It’s best to remove them from your list to avoid further damage.

As recommended by OptinMonster, performing regular email list cleaning can help you ensure that your emails are only sent to engaged and interested subscribers. This can ultimately lead to better email deliverability and improved performance of your email campaigns.

Create Compelling Email Content

The content of your emails plays a significant role in determining whether or not they end up in the spam folder. To improve deliverability, create engaging and relevant content that provides value to your subscribers. Avoid using spam trigger words, excessive capitalization or punctuation, and misleading subject lines.

Here are some tips from Hubspot to help you craft emails that your subscribers will actually want to read:

Craft a subject line that is both clear and concise, and accurately reflects the content of your email. Using subject lines that are under 50 characters can increase the chances of your email being opened.
Start with a strong opening sentence or two that immediately grabs your reader’s attention. Your goal is to keep them reading.
Use personalization and segmentation to make your emails more relevant to your subscribers. Address them by name, and tailor your content to their interests and behaviors.
Use clear and conversational language that’s easy to understand. Steer clear of using jargon or technical terminology that may be unfamiliar to your subscribers.
Focus on benefits, not features. Your subscribers don’t just want to know what your product or service does, they want to know how it will benefit them.
Use social proof, such as customer testimonials or case studies, to build trust and credibility with your subscribers.
Make sure to provide a clear call-to-action (CTA) that directs your subscribers on what action to take next.. Make your CTA stand out visually and use action-oriented language.
Use persuasive writing techniques, such as storytelling or creating a sense of urgency, to encourage your subscribers to take action.
Keep your emails short and sweet. According to HubSpot, emails with between 50 and 125 words tend to have the highest response rates.

Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

Adhering to best practices for email marketing can help improve your deliverability rates. This includes using a recognizable sender name and email address, providing an easy way for subscribers to unsubscribe, and including a physical mailing address in your emails. You can also segment your email list to target specific groups of subscribers with relevant messaging.

Mailchimp and SEO expert Neil Patel provided valuable insights on email marketing best practices.

Start with a clear strategy: Define your goals, target audience, messaging, and metrics before you start sending emails.
Build a clean and targeted email list: Segment your list based on interests, demographics, behavior, and preferences, and regularly clean your list to remove inactive and invalid subscribers.
Use a clear and compelling subject line: Keep it short and descriptive, and avoid using spammy or clickbait language.
Write clear and concise copy: Use a conversational tone, break up your text with subheadings and bullet points, and focus on benefits rather than features.
Use eye-catching design: Use images, graphics, and colors to enhance your message and brand identity, but make sure your design is mobile-responsive and accessible.
Include a clear call-to-action (CTA): Use action-oriented language, make your CTA stand out visually, and use a sense of urgency or scarcity to encourage clicks.
Test and optimize your emails: Test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, copy, design, CTA, and timing, to see what works best for your audience, and use analytics to monitor your performance and refine your strategy.
Comply with anti-spam laws, provide a clear unsubscribe option, and respect your subscribers’ privacy and preferences.

Monitor Your Email Metrics

Regularly monitoring your email metrics can help you identify potential deliverability issues.

Hubspot suggests that you can track the effectiveness of your email campaigns by using the metrics listed below.

Open rate: The percentage of subscribers who opened your email.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email.
Conversion rate: The proportion of subscribers who have successfully carried out an intended action, like making a purchase or completing a form.
Bounce rate: The proportion of emails that were unable to be delivered and were sent back to the sender.
Unsubscribe rate: The percentage of subscribers who opted out of receiving future emails from you.
Spam complaint rate: the proportion of your subscribers who designated your email as spam.
Revenue generated: The total revenue generated from your email campaigns.
Social media sharing rate: The percentage of subscribers who shared your email on social media.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ensuring good email deliverability is crucial for successful email marketing campaigns. By following best practices to avoid spam filters and getting your messages in the inbox, you can improve your chances of reaching your target audience and achieving your desired email marketing goals. By regularly monitoring email metrics and making necessary adjustments, you can continue to optimize your email campaigns and achieve greater success.