Spamming is a real concern, and ISPs (Internet service providers) are making strict regulations to prevent it. This is all to prevent email marketers from invading people’s inboxes. But we also know that not all such emails are unwanted. Some of them are actually beneficial. To ensure the delivery of important emails, we bring a comprehensive guide for email deliverability best.
We aim to cover the basics of email deliverability, talk about email deliverability tools, and how to improve email deliverability.
What is Email Deliverability?
Before knowing the machinations behind email deliverability, let us discuss a bit about what is email deliverability. In simple words, it is measuring how well your marketing strategy is working in terms of delivery to the receiver’s inbox. This is also referred to as Inbox deliverability.
Small businesses have limited budgets for marketing strategies. They are already making budget cuts with shared hosting domains and to further save up on marketing costs, they opt for email marketing. Marketing emails are one of the many ways they boost their sales.
Email Delivery vs Email Deliverability – Know the Difference
Both these terms are totally opposite in their meaning, and you need to know the difference.
Email delivery is a term used if the mail server of the recipient accepts your email file and sends it into the mailbox – regardless of the folder.
As for email deliverability, the mail server simply accepts the file and delivers it to the recipient’s mailbox. The difference comes here: whether this email sent to the spam or the inbox folder or any such folder which the recipient rarely checks.
So, email deliverability is the ability of the emails to actually land inside the recipient’s inbox.
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How to check Email Deliverability?
If you run an email marketing campaign and get the necessary test results before launch, you would definitely love to know if those emails were delivered or not.
There is no definitive way of knowing whether your email landed in the recipient’s inbox or even their spam email folder. However, in recent years, there are now some email deliverability best practices in play. These practices are now an industry standard. This tracking works by checking if the recipient opened the email or if any of the links inside were clicked. Nowadays, every email software has such built-in analytics tools to check email deliverability.
To check email deliverability, the email-sending platform attaches a transparent tracking pixel to their emails. This file is usually of the size 1px * 1px – totally invisible and does affect the email deliverability. This tracking pixel informs the platform as soon as the email is opened or the links inside are clicked. There are no laws regarding the regulation of Tracking Pixels – use them without worry for all email marketing campaigns. Still, it is a controversial topic, so collect, store, and manage the data as per GDPR compliance.
How to Improve Your Email Deliverability? Email Deliverability Best Practices
When considering email deliverability best practice, there are lots of factors. There is already an Update on Sender Requirements by Google and Yahoo for 2024.
ISPs are also the deciding entities of where to put your marketing emails. They can land them in the recipient’s inbox if they find it worthy. In addition, to secure email hosting, you need a robust VPS Hosting service to make your email deliverability scalable. However, there are many deciding factors to it. The most important ones are as follows.
Building Your Sender Reputation
ISPs take much note of your IP address and domain’s credibility. So the email domain you get and how you set it up, will serve as a foundation for how deliverability will pan out. They, before the email gets delivered, run a ‘’Reputation Check’’.
This is to check if the email you sent has an unwanted message in it or another ulterior motive. To pass this reputation check, build the right reputation from the very first campaign you run. This means ‘’Sending Emails Only To People Who Wish to Receive Them’’. Also, make it easy for people to unsubscribe to your emails. It might sound ironic, but if you make it hard to remove, they will eventually put you in the Spam folder once and for all.
Setting the Right Email Sending Volume
When you set up your email marketing infrastructure, it is a common email deliverability SEO practice to warm up your IP. By this, we mean keeping an eye on the volume and frequency of emails sent. Mailbox filters oversee these email volumes. If they spot a sudden surge from a particular domain, they will land it in the Spam folder.
Regarding email sending frequency, make it consistent and only send what the user opted for. For example, if they opted for a weekly newsletter marketing, then send only newsletters. If you send promotional emails, there is a high chance of them landing in the spam folder.
Poor Email List Acquisition
One of the bad things that lead to poor email marketing is bad email list acquisition. This includes:
- Purchasing the email lists
- Sending emails to people who unsubscribed
- Sending emails to inactive users
- Sending emails to invalid or non-existing email addresses
All of these things lead to an increased risk of hitting something called Spam Traps. As you hit these Spam Traps, your reputation goes down the hill, and with it, your email deliverability.
Email Content – A Significant Factor
Email Content might sound like a simple thing, but it is one of the significant factors that affect email deliverability.
Among various Email Deliverability Best Practices, email’s content, from its subject line to pre-header to its footer, has a huge impact. Spam filters by ISPs detect the spam content and land such emails in the spam folder.
Some common Spam words that impact Email Content include:
- Trigger words such as ‘Buy Now’ and ‘100% Free’
- Instead of HTTPS:// links using the HTTP:// links
- Emails without text aka ‘Image-Only Mails’
- Using Capitalized Text
- Use of special characters
Email Deliverability Tools – Choose the Right Ones
There are lots of tools making up for email deliverability best practices. Many of these tools offer free plans for sending a few messages. Test the capabilities of these tools on a free trial before upgrading.
It is critical to choose email deliverability tools that have credible IP addresses and features that match your business needs.
Some of our top recommendations include:
Mailtrap Email API
It gives developers increased control over email deliverability with a quick fix for issues arising before sending. Email API offers not only agile troubleshooting and debugging features it also sends around 10000 emails per second.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp has been long in the industry and offers all the right tools for building email automation and marketing campaigns. Some salient tools you get are:
- Drag & drop email builder
- Templates
- Real-time analytics
It also comes with a Mandrill, well-known for sending your transactional emails.
Mailjet
Mailjet is a fairly popular tool for sending both regular newsletters and transactional emails. It is undoubtedly the most cost-effective tool among all these with the same features.
Brevo (Sendinblue)
This is another great email deliverability tool for transactional and marketing emails. It offers lots of additional capabilities, like:
- Marketing automation
- SMS messaging
Conclusion
In conclusion, mastering email deliverability is to understand the difference between deliverability and delivery. You must know how to implement those transparent tracking pixels and adhere to email deliverability best practices. Ensure building your positive sender reputation, effective email content management, and avoidance of poor email list acquisitions. There are a variety of tools in the market offering free trials to check email deliverability features aligning with your business needs.
For a successful marketing strategy, mastering email deliverability is essential. Understand the right strategies and follow the email deliverability best practices. Establish your reputation using dependable tools – acquire Ultahost’s secure hosting and instant VPS servers to effectively manage your email campaigns.
FAQ
How do you check email deliverability?
There is no foolproof method to confirm email delivery. Typically, a tiny image (1×1 pixel) is employed for tracking, notifying the sender when the email is opened or if any links within it are clicked.
Why are my emails sent to the Spam folder?
There are many reasons affecting email deliverability, like poor sender reputation, spam-triggering words, and purchased email lists.
How do you avoid getting spammed by Mailbox filters?
Mailbox filters check the frequency and volume of emails from a specific sender. A sudden spike in sender volume and irregular frequency leads to spamming.
What are some common spam-triggering words to avoid in emails?
There are many Spam Triggering words, like:
- Buy Now
- 100% free
- Using Capitalized text
- Special Characters
- HTTP links