Posted by 
Archived in Despite all the fuss over Twitter and Facebook, email continues to be the workhorse of internet marketing, and one of your most potent tools. It’s great for maintaining contact with prospects, building relationships and turning leads into customers.
But there’s more to email than just sending them out and waiting for the sales to roll in. First you have to get your messages delivered, which is why deliverability continues to be the email marketer’s top priority and challenge.
A recent study in the US found that 1 in 5 emails fail to make it into people’s inboxes, which is a large chunk of your budget wasted. So to help you improve the odds of your messages making it through, here are 15 tips for improving the deliverability of your emails:
- Avoid spammy gimmicks – Emails are blocked or junked because they’re regarded as spam. So you should avoid the stylistic tactics used by spammers, such as all caps, big fonts and lots of exclamation points!!!
- Avoid excessive use of hype words – Spam filters are constantly being updated to look out for the words and phrases used to sell dodgy pills and money making scams. So avoid using words and phrases like free, limited time offer, amazing and bonus
- Screen with SpamAssassin – Give your emails a quick health check with this free tool. SpamAssassin will check your messages and then inform you what changes are needed to improve the chance of them being delivered
- Use an email service provider – Specialist email marketing service providers maintain good working relationships with internet service providers to ensure a high percentage of their emails make it through. Popular services include Constant Contact, AWeber and iContact
- Delete bounced emails from your list – If any emails are returned undelivered then delete the recipients address from your list straightaway. If your email campaigns start having a bounce rate of higher than 5% then you risk being flagged as a spammer and your messages blocked
- Don’t send over 200 identical emails at once – If you do need to send high volumes, send them in batches and allow a few minute gap between each batch
- Send marketing email through a different IP address to your corporate email – Using different IP addresses will ensure that if your marketing emails are blocked it wont affect your day to day business emails
- Implement authentication protocols (e.g. Sender ID, DomainKeys and Sender Policy Framework) – Authentication counters the problem of anonymous phishing and spoof emails by identifying the sender
- Use verified opt-in – When people first subscribe to your email newsletter they’ll be sent an introductory email with a unique link. When they click on the link it authenticates their email address and that they’ve given permission for you to send them messages
- Ask to be added to their address book – This will get your sender address white listed and save your messages from falling into the junk folder
- Provide HTML and text email formats – Although HTML emails often get a higher response rate, they can be easily mistaken for spam. So send ‘sandwich’ messages containing both formats to ensure at least one version gets delivered
- Don’t use too many graphics – Graphics are often ripped out by corporate message filters, so don’t rely on graphics to carry the message. Use images sparingly and only when relevant to your offer as they can also slow down how quickly the email is downloaded, which can lead to recipients hovering dangerously over the delete key
- Avoid using attachments – Attachments are often used to deliver viruses in the disguise of supposedly important documents, so people are wary of opening them. Attachments also increase the size of your email, so offer a link to the document hosted on your website instead
- Send email at right time – The best time to send emails is around lunchtime Tuesday to Thursday. On Mondays people will be too busy to read it, whilst on Fridays they’re already thinking about the weekend
- Segment emails for a better response – Offering content that’s relevant, timely and of valuable to your recipient is the key to email marketing. So for starters, you should send different emails to existing customers to those you send to prospects, and sending offers relevant to what they’ve bought before is also a good idea
_______________________________
BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.