Want to know the first step to a successful email? Getting it delivered to your subscribers’ inbox. It seems easy enough, but there are multiple factors that can stop this from happening, such as:
- Spam complaints
- Bounce rates (hard and soft)
- Sender reputation/domain reputation
- Getting blacklisted
If your subscribers don’t receive your emails, then you’ve missed an opportunity for them to engage with your business. In order to avoid this, here are some best practices you should adopt.
Doing Constant Checks on Your Subscriber Lists
Buying lists might be tempting, but it can work against your email deliverability because whoever received your emails didn’t actually opt-in. This makes the person more likely to mark your emails as spam and less likely for them to see any of your future emails. All emails on your list should be provided by people who want to receive information from your business. You should also verify any new email addresses you get and regularly clean your lists to ensure there are no inactive subscribers.
Only Send Relevant Emails to Subscribers
Every subscriber is unique with their own likes, dislikes, and behaviors. This means that every email isn’t meant for every subscriber. Any email you send to a subscriber should be one that has information that’s relevant to them and can encourage action. A way to do this is by segmenting them based on their interests, their location, whether they opened the first email but didn’t click a link, etc. REAS Marketing provides help with this by setting up your workflows and assigning triggers based on what your subscribers do.
Make it Easy to Unsubscribe
This may seem like a miniscule best practice, but it helps your emails avoid being sent to the dreaded spam folder. An unsubscribe field should be available on every email you send to a subscriber in order to give them the option of opting out when they want. If your email doesn’t have an unsubscribe field, subscribers will find another way to stop receiving your emails: marking them as spam, which can affect your deliverability.
To add an unsubscribe option to your email, REAS Marketing utilizes merge tags available in email marketing platforms, such as Mailchimp. The unsubscribe merge tag can, then, be added to any email that is made, usually going in the footer.
Authentication
This is a simple process where your subscribers’ email provider (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) verifies that emails are allowed to be sent from your domain address. If you’re not already, you’ll want to get familiar with these two terms: Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). SPF protects against spam by ensuring your IP address was allowed to be sent from your domain. DKIM works similarly to SPF, but it also sends a digital signature with each sent email that links to your domain. Both authenticators will determine whether your email is trustworthy.
REAS Marketing can check your email marketing platform, such as Mailchimp or SharpSpring, to see if an authentication setting is in place and if its information can be updated. This way, your domain can be easily authenticated with your subscribers.
Monitor Your Reputation
Similar to your real life reputation, your sender reputation as an email marketer is everything. The good thing about it is that you can control it by sending emails on a consistent schedule, and avoiding bounces, complaints, and getting blacklisted.
There are free tools available that REAS Marketing has experience using that will help you monitor your sender reputation, such as Google Postmaster.
With it, we can see what email providers think of your domain, and decide what steps you need to take to either improve your rep or keep it where it is.
You want your emails to be a trusted source of information to your subscribers, that’s why it’s best to seek solutions that will enable your success.
Looking for a marketing automation agency to do the work for you? REAS Marketing is a full-service agency that can boost your email marketing influence to a wider audience. REAS is an email marketing agency that supports small businesses looking to grow digitally.
