How to Build a Checklist for Ensuring Email Deliverability

Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to reach and engage your audience. However, even if you craft the most compelling emails, all that effort can go to waste if your messages don't land in the inbox. Instead, they may end up in the spam folder, or worse, never be delivered at all. This is where email deliverability becomes crucial. Ensuring that your emails reach their intended recipients is key to maintaining an effective email marketing strategy.

In this actionable guide, we'll walk you through how to build a checklist to ensure email deliverability. We will cover the essential practices, tools, and best practices to help ensure your emails are not only sent but also successfully delivered to your subscribers' inboxes.

Set Up and Maintain a Clean Email List

One of the first steps in ensuring good email deliverability is maintaining a clean and up-to-date email list. A poor-quality email list can trigger spam filters and damage your sender reputation, making it harder for future emails to be delivered.

Key Actions:

• Regular List Hygiene : Periodically remove inactive subscribers, invalid emails, or bounce-back addresses. Use email verification tools like ZeroBounce, NeverBounce, or Hunter.io to check for email validity.
• Opt-in and Double Opt-in: Always use a confirmed opt-in process. A double opt-in process ensures that the person who subscribed actually wants to receive your emails and that their email address is valid.
• Segment Your List: Keep your lists segmented according to engagement levels (active subscribers vs. inactive subscribers). Sending emails to people who have not opened your emails in months can affect your reputation.

Tools:

• List Cleaning Services: Use services like ZeroBounce, BriteVerify, or Kickbox to remove invalid, spam-trap, or low-quality email addresses from your list.

Use a Professional Email Service Provider (ESP)

The choice of your Email Service Provider (ESP) has a significant impact on your email deliverability. ESPs manage the technical aspects of email sending, such as managing IP reputation, and they usually take proactive steps to ensure your emails avoid spam filters.

Key Actions:

• Choose a Reputable ESP: Opt for well-established ESPs like Mailchimp, SendGrid, ActiveCampaign, or ConvertKit. These platforms are known for having strong deliverability practices.
• Dedicated IP vs. Shared IP: If possible, use a dedicated IP address. While more expensive, a dedicated IP gives you full control over your sending reputation. Shared IP addresses, on the other hand, mean that your reputation depends on others using the same IP.

Tools:

• Email Delivery Reports: Most ESPs offer built-in delivery reports that track bounces, open rates, click rates, and spam complaints. Use these reports to monitor your email health.

Set Up Proper Authentication Protocols

Authentication is crucial for ensuring that your emails are not marked as spam by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). Email authentication protocols verify that the email you send is coming from a legitimate source and not a spoofed address.

Key Actions:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): SPF allows you to specify which IP addresses are authorized to send emails on your behalf. Setting up SPF helps prevent your emails from being marked as spam due to unauthorized senders.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your emails, proving that the email was sent by an authorized sender and that it hasn't been tampered with during transit.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): DMARC provides an additional layer of protection by specifying how email servers should handle messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks.

Tools:

• MXToolbox: This free tool helps you test your email authentication settings (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to ensure everything is set up properly.
• Google Postmaster Tools: A free service from Google that helps you monitor and diagnose potential deliverability issues related to Gmail.

Monitor Your Sender Reputation

Your sender reputation is a key factor in email deliverability. This reputation is determined by various factors such as how many emails are marked as spam, bounce rates, and how many people engage with your emails. Poor sender reputation can cause your emails to be flagged as spam, making it harder to reach your audience.

Key Actions:

• Avoid Spam Traps: Spam traps are email addresses set up specifically to catch senders who aren't following best practices. Regularly clean your email list and avoid purchasing email lists.
• Watch Bounce Rates: A high bounce rate can indicate that you are sending emails to invalid addresses, which harms your reputation. Aim for a bounce rate of less than 2%.
• Engage with Your Subscribers: Ensure that your emails are engaging and that your recipients are interacting with your content. A lack of engagement can harm your reputation.

Tools:

• Sender Score: Sender Score is a service that provides a reputation score for your sending domain based on your email behavior. Scores above 80 are considered good, while anything below 60 could mean serious deliverability issues.
• Google Postmaster Tools: It helps monitor your sender reputation with Gmail. It provides data on spam reports, delivery errors, and other important metrics.

Craft a Compelling and Compliant Email

The content of your email plays a big role in deliverability. Spam filters look for certain red flags in your emails, including excessive use of spammy words (e.g., "free," "guarantee," "limited time offer") or the inclusion of harmful links. In addition to avoiding these pitfalls, it's also essential to be compliant with regulations like GDPR or CAN-SPAM.

Key Actions:

• Avoid Spammy Words: Avoid using overly promotional language that could trigger spam filters. Use email copy that is informative and professional.
• Use a Clear Subject Line: A subject line that clearly conveys the purpose of the email, without sounding overly aggressive or misleading, will prevent it from being flagged.
• Include an Unsubscribe Link: Including an easy-to-find unsubscribe link is not only a legal requirement but also helps to ensure your emails don't get flagged as spam.
• Include Text and HTML Versions: Sending emails in both text and HTML formats increases deliverability, as some spam filters flag emails that only include HTML.

Tools:

• Mail-tester.com: This tool allows you to test your email against spam filters. It gives you a score and provides actionable recommendations to improve your deliverability.
• Can-Spam Compliance Check: Ensure your emails comply with regulations by using tools that check for compliance with laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Track and Optimize Your Deliverability

Once your emails are sent, it's crucial to track your email performance and make adjustments to optimize deliverability. Understanding metrics like open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints can help you improve future campaigns.

Key Actions:

• Monitor Open and Click Rates: Low open and click-through rates can signal that your emails are being ignored or marked as spam. Adjust your content or segmentation to better engage your audience.
• Reduce Bounce Rates: A high bounce rate could indicate poor list quality or delivery issues. Regularly clean your email list and monitor the reasons for bounces.
• A/B Testing: Continuously test different aspects of your emails (subject lines, copy, design) to determine what resonates best with your audience and helps improve your deliverability.

Tools:

• Google Analytics: Integrate Google Analytics with your email campaigns to track user behavior after they open your email, such as website visits and conversions.
• ESP Analytics: Your ESP will provide detailed reports that show open rates, click rates, bounce rates, and more, which are essential for optimizing your email performance.

Conclusion

Ensuring high email deliverability is a combination of technical setup, quality content, and proactive monitoring. By following the checklist outlined in this guide, you can significantly improve the chances that your emails will reach their intended audience.

The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and be responsive to the feedback and data provided by your ESP and email analytics tools. By doing so, you'll enhance your email marketing effectiveness and ensure that your messages land where they belong---in your subscribers' inboxes.

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