Success Stories in Email Deliverability: Field Insights

10
Min
Created On:
February 3, 2023
Updated On:
March 14, 2024
Success Stories in Email Deliverability

Is your deliverability rate less than 90%? 

Anything less than 95% is an alarming deliverability score. A less-than-ideal email delivery rate also means a higher bounce rate. Let me guess; your bounce rate is around 5%.

If you are facing such issues, it's time you cross-check your entire process. Go through the below list to crosscheck your process.

  • Low sender's reputation score (Poor IP reputation)
  • SPF, DKIM, & DMARC are not enabled yet
  • Inactive subscribers
  • You are not sending confirmation emails
  • You are not asking about your audience's preference
  • Writing mails like a sales pitch
  • Your domain is in the blocklist
  • Not using any cold email tools

This article contains a list of things that you should practice to increase your deliverability rate. Read ahead to learn what to do to maintain a good sender reputation, the dos and dos in email content, and the tools that you must use to enhance deliverability.

Practices to Boost Email Deliverability Rate

There are several factors in work when it comes to email deliverability. Let's divide these factors into sections:

  1. Reputation Score
  2. Content
  3. Tools

Practices to Improve Sender Reputation Score

Reputation score or email sender reputation is a score that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) award to an email domain. It is directly linked to your email marketing results. 

If you are a newbie in email marketing, the first thing you must do is work on your Email Sender Reputation score. It takes a while to build a reputation, but you must do it anyway. Because a bad reputation might lead to your domain getting blacklisted forever. 

#1 Warm-Up your IP Address 

Warming up your IP address is exactly the same as warming up before your workout routine. It's all about sending mails in low volume at first before reaching your "expected" number of mails per day. 

If your dedicated IP address is new or you haven't sent any mails for more than 30 days, it's better to get it warmed up.

How? 

Hasn't Google banned warm-up services?

Yes, Google has banned warmed-up services but there are unlisted apps like Smartlead.ai that can help you. It follows an SMTP/2FA approach and uses a very discreet warmup identification system. To learn how to warm up using Smartlead, check out this video.

#2 Enable SPF, DKIM, & DMARC

Before you Google SPF, DKIM, & DMARC full-forms, it's essential to learn what DNS is. DNS is short for Domain Name System. Consider DNS as the storehouse of domain names and their IP addresses

SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) are Email authentication methods

Enabling these settings will help you:

👉 Prove to ISPs that your email domain is authorized to send mail

👉 Verify that your "sending server" is sending mails through your domain

#3 Don't Buy Lists of Leads

There are many sources that sell lists of people who have agreed to receive mail. However, buying email lists of your potential customers has always been a dangerous step. 

Because you never know if the recipients on the list would like your content or not. Just because they are willing to receive mails doesn't mean they are interested in your product or content. 

Therefore, ALWAYS avoid buying lists of leads. 

#4 Create Email Lists

Instead of buying email lists of your potential buyers, try to create a list of your prospects. The easier way to do this is list-building tools

These tools gather the email addresses of your website visitors by using email newsletter pop-up boxes, spin-the-wheel pops-ups, etc. 

Another way to get a mailing list is by subscribing to a cold emailing tool. Most of these tools (that are available in the market) provide active leads of up to 30,000 per month. 

#5 Maintain Email List Hygiene

A "clean list" is one that doesn't have any inactive email addresses. Make it a routine to check which addresses are the most inactive ones. If you see no engagement even after sending several mails, then it's time to remove them from your list. 

Don't forget to provide an "unsubscribe link" in your email messages. The unsubscribing process must be a hassle-free one. 

#6 Use Double Opt-In 

A double opt-in for email users is a process where the sender asks permission (consent) to send emails twice. First, the user signs up for the content. Second, the sender sends an email to the user with a link asking them to confirm their choice. 

This is the best way to make sure that you are sending messages to the right person. It not only provides you with high-quality leads but also keeps you away from spam folders.

#6 Get in the Contact List

In 2023, reputable Email Service Providers like Gmail and Outlook are focusing on customer-centric settings and policies more than ever.

According to a 2019 report, more than 3 billion fake emails were sent and received every day. Check your inbox, and you will know the number is only increasing. This is why it's getting so difficult to go through spam filters.

A successful marketer must know how to reach their email client's primary inbox. And, getting in the contact list of your prospect is a great way of increasing your email deliverability rate. 

#7 Ask Recipient's Choices via Preference Center

A preference center is an email customization form that email marketers send to their new email subscribers, asking about their preferences. 

It can include

  • How often do they want to receive your mails
  • At what time do they want to receive your message
  • What type of content do they want
  • What notifications do they want to get
  • What updates would they like
  • Recipient's personal information

If you are facing email deliverability issues, providing a preference center is a great way to deal with it. Besides providing a deep insight into your subscriber's choices, this email marketing strategy will also help you create ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).   

Practices to Follow for Better Email Content

After saving your Sender's Reputation, it's time to strategize your upcoming campaigns. Once you have a detailed layout of the plan, jump right into your content.

Reaching your customer's inbox isn't enough to improve the deliverability rate. You must make sure the content is good enough to maintain your deliverability. Moreover, one wrong content can make the recipient block you or raise spam complaints against you.

So, here are 5 things you must check in email content to stay away from spam traps.

#8 Use Text

Using minimal text is the most popular advice for senders. But, minimal never means image-based content. This might work for B2C marketers but never for B2B organizations. 

Use the necessary amount of words to create value-adding content. Your mail must carry a relevant piece of information or entertain the reader. Either way, plain text emails are always the safest way. 

The ideal number of words for an email body is 50 to 125 words

#9 Limited Caps, Bolds, & Italics

If you want to emphasize something, it's totally okay to write it in caps, bold, or italics. But, never overdo it. 

Also, most people read text written in caps as yelling or shouting, or saying something very loudly. So, be careful not to write the entire mail in caps. 

Especially, avoid caps while writing the subject lines. Many senders try this stunt to grab the recipient's attention. It might work once or twice, but it gets annoying in the long run. 

#10 Don't Use Symbols & Punctuation Marks Unnecessarily 

Many people have bad habits of using too many full stops (like dot…dot…dot) and exclamation marks (to sound excited!!!). If you have such habits, stop them today. 

Using too many dots and exclamation marks in the subject line looks spammy, and the recipient can take action anytime. It's a red flag in the email world. 

#11 Don't Trigger the Spam Filters with Sales-y Words

Yep, that's the motto behind every successful sales strategy. Everybody knows you are sending mails to sell your product. You don't have to rub it on your prospect's face every day. 

This is why it's advised never to use sales-y words in your message. Using words like "100% guarantee", "50% off", "Free", etc. can alert the spam filter, eventually ruining your deliverability. 

#12 Personalize Using the Recipient's Personal Information

Personalization is the latest email marketing trend. From B2C to B2B marketers, everybody is using this trick to increase customer engagement. 

If you are a B2C marketer, you can personalize using the prospect's choice of products, items abandoned in the cart, etc. For B2B marketers, it's better to use the prospect's business-related updates and news. 

Best Email Practices that Requires Tools

Earlier, cold emailing was totally manual. From creating a list to writing mails, marketers did it all. But, it's not the case anymore. 

Now, your team can do the strategizing, attend meetings, and close sales, while these tools can do it all for you. Check out the below cold emailing tools for a better understanding. 

#13 Use Smartlead for Unlimited Warm-Ups

Sending bulk emails from a new IP address is the easiest way to spam folders. Even if you manage to avoid the junk folder, your bounce rate will increase rapidly. 

This is where Smartlead swoops in. It sends programmatic messages between mailboxes that tell the ISPs that it's a genuine sender. Using this software, you can track your Sender's Reputation score, the number of messages that landed in your recipient's inbox, and also the number of messages saved from spam. 

In addition to that, you can do A/B testing and schedule your future emails. 

#14 Deal with Blocklists with Spamhaus

Sometimes, domains face deliverability issues because of common blocklists, such as Spamhaus' IP Blocklist, Domain Blocklist, or Exploits Block List. You can use Spamhaus to crosscheck if your domain is listed on any of those blocklists. 

If your domain is accidentally blocklisted (you didn't spam), then no worries! This software provides detailed instructions on how to get your domain out of the blocklists. This step will bring your deliverability rates back on track. 

#15 Use MailFlow for Detailed Reports

Although MailFlow provides a warming-up feature, the best part of using this software is its reports. You can try this tool for a month before starting your campaigns. 

It shows a detailed report–if your emails are going in the inboxes, promotions tab, social tab, or spam. You can also see the mail server-specific results on how your mails are doing in Gmail, Outlook, etc. 

Factors Affecting Email Deliverability

Below are some of the factors that negatively affect email deliverability.

#1 High Complaint Rates

When a recipient marks an email as spam, it sends a signal to the email provider that the email was unwanted or unsolicited. If this happens repeatedly, it can damage the sender's reputation and reduce the likelihood of future emails being delivered to recipients' inboxes. Email providers use algorithms to determine the sender's reputation, and high complaint rates can trigger these algorithms to mark future emails from the same sender as spam or to filter them into the recipients' spam or junk folders. Therefore, it's important for senders to avoid sending unwanted or unsolicited emails to minimize the risk of high complaint rates and to maintain a good sender reputation.

#2 High Bounce Rate

Having a high rate of bounced emails could be a red flag for email providers, which may lead to future emails being filtered as spam. It's crucial to keep your email list updated and valid to prevent such bounces and maintain a positive sender reputation. 

#3 Low Engagement

Low engagement in emails can harm the sender's reputation, so it's important to create engaging content and avoid sending emails to disinterested recipients. Using simpler language, including examples, and providing actionable tips can improve engagement rates and maintain a positive sender reputation.

#4 Sending Too Many Email Campaigns

Even your engaged users can get annoyed if they receive too many campaign mails in a day, and they will end up marking your emails as spam. And some can even unsubscribe you. So try to maintain the ideal frequency of outreach messages 2-3 times a week.

#5 Similar Sending Volume for Long

If a sender initially sends mails to 10,000 subscribers and suddenly sends them to 1,00,000 recipients, then the service providers can send their mails to the spam folder. Because the inbox providers consider such spike in volume of spam mails activity or unexpected behavior. So if you wish to increase your recipients' list, make those additions slowly. 

Final Thoughts!

Like everything good in life, successful cold email campaigns also don't have any shortcuts. You have to do the drill to make good money out of it. 

If you think about it, it's not that hard. All you have to do is take no "WRONG" shortcuts. For instance, if you want email lists, subscribe to a good cold email tool and not buy it from random places. If you want a ready-made email body, don't just go with images or videos, use AI-based tools to write personalized messages. 

You get the point. Use the right tricks and tools, and you are done with deliverability issues. 

FAQs

What is included in best practice for email deliverability?

The best practices for email deliverability include keeping the mailing list clean, using double opt-in, writing good messages, and warming up before sending them. It is also advised to use AI-based automation tools to write personalized mails and automate follow-up emails. 

What is a good deliverability rate for email?

95% or above is considered a good deliverability score for mail campaigns. 

How do I fix email deliverability issues?

You can fix deliverability issues by doing the following:

  • Check using Spamhaus if your domain is any common blocklist
  • Enable SPF, DKIM, & DMARC
  • Warm up before sending mass emails
  • Stop sending spammy content with trigger words and images
  • Ask your prospects to add you to the contact list
  • Always ask to confirm their subscription using a double opt-in

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

  • dfbvrsg
  • svsv

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Author’s Details

Rajnish Das

Rajnish Das is an in-house writer at SmartWriter and SmartLead. She writes product-oriented, data-driven content for B2B SaaS audiences and educates them on marketing and sales topics. Her expertise includes outbound marketing techniques like cold emailing and LinkedIn outreach.

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What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?

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Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.

How does the "unlimited mailboxes" feature benefit me?

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Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.

What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?

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The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.

With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.

2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.

3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.

How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?

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Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder. 

Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.

2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign. 

3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
 
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.

Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?

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Certainly, Smartlead is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!

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What type of businesses sees the most success with Smartlead?

No, there are no limitations on the number of channels you can utilize with Smartlead. Our multi-channel infrastructure is designed to be limitless, allowing you to reach potential customers through multiple avenues without constraints.

This flexibility empowers you to diversify your cold email outreach efforts, connect with your audience through various communication channels, and increase your chances of conversion. Whether email, social media, SMS, or other communication methods, Smartlead's multi-channel capabilities ensure you can choose the channels that best align with your outreach strategy and business goals. This way, you can engage with your prospects effectively and maximize the impact of your email outreach.

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Do you provide me with lead sources?

Smartlead distinguishes itself from other cold email outreach software by focusing on limitless scalability and seamless integration. While many similar tools restrict your outreach capabilities, Smartlead offers a different approach.

Here's what makes us uniquely the best cold email software:

1. Unlimited Mailboxes: In contrast to platforms that limit mailbox usage, Smartlead provides unlimited mailboxes. This means you can expand your outreach without any arbitrary constraints.

2. Unique IP Servers: Smartlead offers unique IP servers for every campaign it sends out. 

3. Sender Reputation Protection: Smartlead protects your sender reputation by auto-moving emails from spam folders to the primary inbox. This tool uses unique identifiers to cloak all warmup emails from being recognized by automation parsers. 

4. Automated Warmup: Smartlead’s warmup functionality enhances your sender reputation and improves email deliverability by maintaining humanized email sending patterns and ramping up the sending volume. 

5. Multi-Channel Emphasis: Smartlead places a strong emphasis on multi-channel outreach. You can reach your prospects where they are with the LinkedIn outreach feature.   With Smartlead’s cold email automation software, you're always one step ahead in your outreach efforts, enjoying the freedom to scale your initiatives and seamlessly integrate with other tools—all while maintaining a focus on maximizing the impact of your outreach.

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How secure is my data with Smartlead?

Ensuring the security of your data is Smartlead's utmost priority. We implement robust encryption methods and stringent security measures to guarantee the continuous protection of your information. Your data's safety is paramount to us, and we are always dedicated to upholding the highest standards of security.

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