Maximizing Your Email Reach: A Guide to Email Deliverability
What is Email Deliverability?
We've all been there. Perfect cold email - low reply rates. But what email deliverability really is, and how to land in an inbox? This email deliverability guide will equip you with everything you need to set it up for success.
Let's first define what email deliverability is.
Email deliverability is the measure of how successfully an email reaches the recipient's inbox. It is an essential aspect of email marketing that directly impacts the effectiveness of your campaigns. When your emails fail to reach the intended recipients, you miss out on valuable opportunities to engage with your audience and drive desired actions.
Understanding email deliverability and taking steps to improve it is crucial for maximizing the reach and impact of your email campaigns.
To ensure high email deliverability, you need to consider various factors that affect the successful delivery of your emails. These factors range from the quality of your email list to the technical aspects of email authentication and the content of your emails.
By addressing these factors and implementing best practices, you can significantly enhance your email deliverability and achieve better results from your email marketing efforts.
Factors Affecting Email Deliverability
Several factors influence the deliverability of your emails. Understanding and addressing these factors is key to improving your email deliverability rate.
1. Building a Healthy Email List
Building a healthy email list is the foundation of good email deliverability. It is crucial to ensure that your list consists of valid and verified contact information. Avoid purchasing lead lists from 3rd parties, but rather focus on building your own list and validating contact information.
In this email deliverability guide, we recommend using Apollo.io, Snov.io, or Wiza to collect email addresses and then bulk-validate emails through Bouncer.
By completing these two steps, the bounce rate of your cold email campaigns will be lower and you have a better chance of landing in the inbox.
2. Understanding Email Authentication
Email authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) play a vital role in email deliverability.
These protocols verify the authenticity of your emails and help prevent spoofing and phishing attempts. Implementing proper email authentication practices ensures that your emails are recognized as legitimate and trustworthy by email service providers, reducing the chances of them being flagged as spam.
We will explain how to add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records in the "Add DNS Records" section of this email deliverability guide below.
3. Volume of Emails (Daily)
Many SDRs use the "spray and pray" technique when prospecting and do not pay attention to the volume of emails sent each day. And with new regulations from Google (in effect from February 2024), this is of critical importance.
By now, if you're doing cold emailing, there's a good chance that you know that Google will suspend entire domains when sending more than 5,000 emails in a single day. This includes all emails, even internal ones.
Having that in mind, volume is one of the most important aspects that impact email deliverability.
How to Improve It
Now that you understand the factors influencing email deliverability, it's time to explore actionable strategies to improve it.
1. Purchase Secondary Domains
One of the first mistakes outbound marketers make is that they send cold email campaigns from their primary domain.
The golden rule of cold outreach when using email as a channel is to buy a secondary domain for your campaigns.
For example, while frontBrick uses frontbrick.io as our primary domain, we send our campaigns from frontbrick.tech, tryfrontbrick.com or other domains.
By doing so, we don't expose our main domain at risk.
Pro tip: You can buy secondary domains from Namecheap or GoDaddy. Always try to find .com domains if available.
2. Add DNS Records
Implementing email authentication protocols is crucial to establish your credibility as a sender.
SPF
- Login to your domain provider (e.g., Namecheap). Open "Advanced DNS Settings"
- Click "Add New Record"
- Copy v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
- Add "TXT" record
- As host, put @. As a value paste v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
DKIM (if using Gmail)
- Login to your admin.google.com
- On the left side, Open Apps -> Google Workspace -> Gmail
- Click "Authenticate Email"
- Click "Generate New Record"
- Copy the host and value and add another "TXT record to your DNS settings with corresponding values.
- Go back to admin in Google and click "Start Authentication." It might take a while until you can start this. Usually a few minutes.
DMARC
- Login to your domain provider (e.g., Namecheap). Open "Advanced DNS Settings"
- Click "Add New Record"
- Copy v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
- Add "TXT" record
- As host, put _dmarc. As a value paste v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:mail@tba.com; ruf=mailto:mail@tba.com
- Make sure to replace mail@tba.com with your email.
Protip: Wait 48 hours after adding and authenticating your DKIM before addingDMARC.
3. Warmup Emails and Domains
Finally, one of the most important aspects of email deliverability is the warmup. When you purchase a brand new domain and set up new emails, it is essential to warm up your emails before starting a campaign.
Email warmup is a process of improving an email account's sending reputation to ensure a high inbox placement ratio. To improve your sender's reputation, you can use tools like Smartlead or Instantly (and their warmup features) to utilize their user base (warmup pool) and automate this process.
This process lasts about 2 weeks.
Dealing with Spam Filters and Blacklists
Spam filters and blacklists are significant challenges in email deliverability. Email service providers employ sophisticated algorithms to filter out spam and protect their users from unwanted emails. However, sometimes legitimate emails get mistakenly flagged as spam, leading to reduced deliverability.
To avoid this, adhere to best practices for email content, such as avoiding excessive use of promotional language, using a reputable email service provider, and regularly monitoring spam filter reports. If your domain or IP address ends up on a blacklist, take immediate action to identify and resolve the underlying issue to restore your email deliverability.
Best Practices for Email Content
Creating engaging and relevant email content is crucial for maximizing email deliverability. Here are some best practices:
- Personalize your emails based on subscriber data to make them more relevant and engaging.
- Use a clear and concise subject line that entices recipients to open your email.
- Craft compelling email copy that focuses on providing value to the recipient.
- Avoid excessive use of promotional language and spam trigger words.
- Optimize your emails for mobile devices to ensure a seamless reading experience.
By following these best practices, you can create emails that are more likely to reach the inbox and drive the desired actions from your subscribers.
Conclusion
Email deliverability is a critical aspect of your cold email marketing strategy. By understanding the factors that influence email deliverability and implementing best practices, you can maximize the reach and impact of your email campaigns.
Build a healthy email list, implement email authentication protocols, monitor and improve open rates, and take proactive measures to deal with spam filters and blacklists.
By prioritizing email deliverability, you can enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and achieve better results.
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