Email deliverability can be a complex topic, and it’s important to keep in mind that there isn’t a magic formula to guarantee your emails will land in the inbox. However, there are several variables outlined here that you can control that will increase your chances.
1. Clean & organize your list
Starting sends from a new platform with a freshly updated and organized list is an important step in starting on the right deliverability foot.
When migrating your account, you will most likely need to export a list of contacts from your previous email service provider (ESP). When you import your audience list from your previous email marketing account, addresses will automatically be given an “active” state and are ready to receive messages from you. However, to protect your sender reputation, you’ll want to be sure to change the status of some of your contacts by placing any addresses who have previously unsubscribed into “opt-out” status, and any address that has previously bounced to “error” status. The easiest way to do this is by following the steps below.
For previously unsubscribed contacts:
- Export a list of all unsubscribed email addresses from your previous ESP(s).
- Import your unsubscribed list of contacts and place it into a group named “Unsubscribed”.
- Open the “Unsubscribed” group, click on the Actions dropdown and select the option to Change status of all, then check Opt-out, and lastly, Save.
For previously bounced email addresses:
- Export a list of all bounces from your previous ESP(s).
- Import this list into your account and place it into a group named “Bounces”.
- Open the “Bounces” group, click on the Actions dropdown and select the option to Change status of all, then check Error, and lastly, Save.
For previously active addresses with no activity in the last 12 months:
- To stay compliant with our Permission and Privacy Policy, you will want to remove any subscribers from your audience who still show active but have not purchased or opened any emails within the last 12months.
- This will help protect your reputation within the transition, as sending to too many unengaged subscribers can cause your engaged subscribers to not receive your mailings in their inbox.
2. Authenticate your domain
Email authentication allows mailbox providers to ensure that the email is truly coming from the sender, and not someone pretending to be the sender. Although the app automatically handles the required authentication for you, there are three additional types of email authentication that you can use to improve your sender reputation: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
SPF
Your organization’s Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record allows receiving servers to see that we are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. This is why we highly recommend you also update your SPF record with our unique URL. To do this, your IT team would just need to include “e2ma.net” on your existing SPF.
DKIM
DKIM is an authentication method that helps ensure the sender’s email address is legitimate and not being spoofed by a third party. While your messages are automatically DKIM signed on our domain, e2ma.net, inbox providers prefer that there is DKIM signing on the domain that subscribers see when they receive an email (aka yours).
DMARC
DMARC is another email-authentication tool that’s designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use, like email spoofing.
If your IT team has set up a DMARC record on your sending domain that states “p=quarantine” or “p=reject”, you will have to set up DKIM authentication within your account before sending a single mailing or you will experience consistent issues delivering to your subscribers’ inboxes.
You can see if this is relevant for your domain by typing it into this online DMARC record checker.
3. Plan a transition strategy
It’s pretty common for open rates to fluctuate when you switch ESPs, either by increasing or decreasing. This is because mailbox providers are not used to seeing your domain send from the IPs associated with our URL, so they will need to re-evaluate your reputation. During this re-evaluation period, engagement rates often rise and fall before eventually leveling out.
It’s important to try and make a good first impression during this time. The best way to signal to mailbox providers that you are sending inbox-worthy mail is to ramp up your sending.
The important things to remember about ramping up are:
-
Choose an amount to increment by.
-
(Start with a number and double it each day.)
-
-
Keep an awareness of the engagement reactions throughout the process.
-
Hold at a number if issues appear to occur.
-
(Don’t stop sending or start sending to less; just hold at the current number until things seem to get back to normal.)
-
It is often advised to focus on a stronger ratio of engaged subscribers on the new platform and slowly adding the less engaged from the old platform. This can help create a smoother transition but it does also burn the reputation of the old platform, which is not a fair thing to do. However, in most circumstances, there is no need to focus on such an engagement ratio. Focus on a quantity ramp-up rather than a quality one, and everything will transition just fine.
4. Export previous engagement history
Engagement history is one of the most important tools needed when troubleshooting deliverability experiences.
For your internal team, having the engagement history from your past ESP will help exponentially in troubleshooting/planning processes.
While ESPs do not always provide all engagement data to be exportable, between exporting what they do provide and screenshots of what they don’t, the ease and speed at which your team can assess deliverability concerns like a ramp-up plan from this data will show itself invaluable. Export what you can, and screenshot what you can’; it’s that easy.
5. Build engaging & desirable content
There’s a lot that can be said about creating engaging and desirable content. Not only is it the entire purpose of the marketing industry; but from a deliverability perspective, things start better when coming from a more direct and minimalistic perspective.
Simply put, the foundation of strong deliverability is sending desirable content to subscribers who have asked for it.
Start with a focus on visibility, conciseness, and strategy. A lot of marketers want to utilize their email sends for a large newsletter e-blast. While this “shotgunning” approach can seem to create a point of interest for all, a lot of marketers don’t realize that this can actually hurt deliverability when overused.
Using requested subscriber information in forms or purchase history to segment your audience can allow you to target the content in your campaigns and create a better ROI than the giant newsletter approach.
Tips for creating content that strengthens deliverability:
-
Communicate early to your subscribers about major changes to your send behaviors.
-
For example, a change in domain, or content approaches, etc.
-
-
Give subscribers the ability to choose the speed and type of content they would like from you.
-
Activating your Subscription Center can help with this.
-
-
Focus on one main point/call to action and include other options below it that support this point rather than distract from it.
-
For example, utilize a button as the focal point of your call to action that hyperlinks to your content.
-
-
Intermix value-providing campaigns between promotional.
-
Too much promotional content can cause subscriber burnout, so make sure to give back to your subscribers in some way to show your gratitude for their engagement, like a loyalty program or a free gift.
-
In the end, sometimes a marketer is not in full control of the types of content they are sending to their audience. Newsletters have to be sent, big sales announced globally, and the like.
The important thing to remember about the above is that it is a helpful guide in strengthening your deliverability. Simply including it among your other sends, can help stabilize and even strengthen your deliverability experience when paired with the other keys advised in this article.