Read our best ideas on Email Deliverability Testing. Be confident that your business marketing emails will land in your customers’ email inboxes. Not in their pesky spam folders!
There are several testing steps you can take to test email deliverability before you click send to ensure your email makes it into a customer’s inbox. Taking these extra steps, at the outset, will help improve email deliverability overall.
Setup an email address for testing
Set Up a Test Email Account. An email sent internally has great odds of getting to a fellow co-worker and the same email address, but what will happen externally? Setting up a test email account will also help to protect your company’s domain and reputation.
Verify sender domain and IP reputation
Verify Domain and IP Reputation. Several tools exist on the web that allow you to verify domain and IP reputation, and many are free. They also allow you to verify that your web category is correct to ensure you’re set up for success.
Understand DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
Learn the Tech Language. Two very important terms to know and understand are Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). In a nutshell, SPF prevents anyone else from sending emails on your behalf. DKIM adds another layer of protection and allows your recipient’s server to check if the sender is legitimate. Taking these two vital steps will help improve your email deliverability. Observe what the email headers show in emails from companies like Aweber, Getresponse, MailChimp, SendSteed and ConstantContact. How do they identify their mail servers?
Learn email numbers limitations
Numbers: Know Email Limits. Each provider sets up statistical limitations on how many emails can be sent each day and even each hour. Exceeding these limits may cause your email to be blocked. At Getresponse, use their perfect timing feature. It will send your message out more gradually.
Avoid trigger key words
Watch Email Content. There are certain ‘trigger’ words and images that will get an email blocked or even worse … blacklisted. Key words like ‘free’, ‘money’, ‘risk-free’, ‘apply now’, the list is huge. Don’t be too salesy or try too hard to close a sale. Why? Your email may never reach your lead’s inbox. Make sure that you’re sending high quality content that won’t go straight to the spam folder.
Personalize messages with recipient name
Personalize your messages. Adding a personal touch to subject lines makes each email look unique and different. It also avoids looking like spam. Personalized emails also have a higher likelihood of delivery and increased open rates.
Use Simple intent and simple paragraphs
Keep It Simple. Email campaigns filled with html, JavaScript coding, too many images, gifts, fancy fonts, and other bells and whistles may get the wrong kind of attention and look like spam. At the same time, plain and simple may also be flagged. It is important to find the right balance. Plus – always remember that the intent of the message is key.
Do smaller, highly targeted sends regularly
Focus on Targeted Sends and build gradually. If you start sending large batches on day one, inbox providers might see this as a threat and a ‘spam attack.’ In such a case, your email will automatically be marked as spam. ISP providers look for regularity and consistency in behavior.
Send quality to your best prospects
Remember Quality Over Quantity. Qualify your leads and send emails to your best prospects. While expanding your customer base is always a worthy goal, you will need to do it the right way. Don’t waste time on junk email lists that will affect your email deliverability. You also don’t want to bombard good leads. Always check your frequency, and find the balance that won’t affect email deliverability.
Clean your email contact lists regularly
Keep Contact Lists Clean. You do want to add to your lead generation lists – but don’t let the names pile up. Look for bounce backs, remove them, and keep your email marketing lists current and fresh with your best prospects.
It will certainly pay you dividends in your follow-up email marketing. Clean your lists and send only high quality messages.
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Here are further business opportunities for you. Do make sure that you cover the tech side of email deliverability testing. The main points are outlined above. Also, please visit our blue image. It will come as a major surprise. This is good stuff.
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Expert Help With Email Deliverability
A-list copywriter Roy Furr offers us some great tips on getting our emails delivered into customers’ email inboxes:
“It doesn’t matter if you can write AMAZING marketing emails, if…
They get filtered straight to spam.”
“That’s why smart email marketers pay very close attention to deliverability, not just things like clicks and conversions. (Sometimes they’re related, but sometimes emails written by “closers” can kill your future email deliverability.)
Today’s Mailbox Monday question is from Mark — and it’s all about email deliverability for his sales team’s emails.
Roy Furr has an excellent teaching style. Thorough, detailed, and always well thought through. You can find Roy on YouTube at his copywriting channel.
Thanks for your visit to our online business school. We work to deliver you the best opportunities for testing and trial of The World’s top marketing tools.
Geoff Dodd, Editor In Chief, NZ.
