In this, our 3rd and final installment on email deliverability we’ll review Best Practices that will keep your email delivery happy and healthy. In case you missed it, click the links to check out Part 1 and Part 2.
1. Manage Your Inactives. Suppressing all email records with no activity in the last 12 months is a scary thought for most of us, as it could greatly reduce our list size. There are email scrubbing services that will try and determine which specific email addresses have been converted to spam traps, honeypots, etc. so you don’t have to suppress all inactives, just those that have been identified as harmful. Vendors include FreshAddress, Informatica, and BriteVerify, among others.
Repeatedly emailing recipients who aren’t engaging with your emails can be bad for your reputation for several reasons:
- Addresses that don’t open or click on your messages are much more likely to mark messages as spam.
- Unengaged addresses may have been repurposed into spam traps.
2. Make it easy to unsubscribe. This sounds counterintuitive, but making the unsubscribe process as easy as possible is a really good idea. The truth is if someone doesn’t want to receive your messages and they don’t see an easy way to unsubscribe, they always know where the “report spam” button is. Remember, someone who opts out can always opt back in, but even a small number of spam complaints can really hurt your reputation, not to mention your ongoing ability to deliver messages to those who want to receive them.
3. Be conscious of your sending frequency. If you feel like you’re doing all the right things with your email deliverability, but you’re still landing in the spam folder, it may be a good idea to examine your sending frequency. Between your regular newsletter, special offers, and other announcements, you could be sending your recipients more emails than you think. Exactly how much email is “too much” differs for every sender, but if your reputation is suffering, even moderately reducing the amount of email your recipients receive from you is a good idea and a great place to start.
Other Best Practices include:
- Avoid using third-party lists to acquire new leads
- Obtain consent from contacts before sending them emails
- Regularly monitor bounce back rates and bounce back messages
- Regularly monitor and run reports to check spam complaints
- Review engagement metrics to help refine email programs
- Adhere to local and international email regulations
- Send targeted emails based on interests and contact preferences
- Stick to a consistent volume of email sends from month to month.
- Consider email design best practices, such as using preheader text, alt text, and image-to-text ratios.
In summary, imagine if you were to gain access to 20% more of your DB! It’s possible by using a solid mix of good email data management, relevant content and continuous real-time deliverability monitoring is what currently works in keeping the inbox door wide open.
