Email deliverability is basically the difference between your emails being warmly welcomed into inboxes or tossed into the spam abyss, never to be seen again. If your emails keep getting ghosted by inboxes, it’s time to check your strategy—because even the best marketing campaigns won’t work if they never make it to your audience.
Email Performance: Are You Being Left on Read?
You check your social media likes—why not check your bounce and unsubscribe rates, too? If your bounce rate is higher than 2%, email providers might think you’re sending messages from a sketchy basement server. And if your unsubscribe rate is over 1%, well… people are breaking up with your emails faster than a bad Tinder date. Keep an eye on these numbers so your emails don’t end up in digital exile.
Sender Reputation: The Coolness Score for Your Emails
Think of your sender score like a credit score, but for emails. A good score means inboxes trust you. A bad one? Your emails get flagged as spam faster than a “You’ve won a free cruise!” message. Use tools like Google Postmaster and Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop to keep tabs on your reputation—because if you don’t know your sender score, you might already be in trouble.
SenderScore.org is an additional tool that can also monitor your email sending reputation, outside of Yahoo and Gmail addresses.
Data Hygiene: Clean Lists, Happy Inboxes
A messy email list is like a fridge full of expired milk—nobody wants to deal with it, but ignoring it makes things worse. Scrubbing your list removes outdated or fake emails, reducing bounce rates and spam complaints. Validation services even check new email addresses before they enter your system, so you don’t accidentally invite a bot farm to your next email campaign.
Content Quality: Make ‘Em Want to Read It
Nobody opens an email that screams, “SPAM ALERT!”—so keep your subject lines accurate and engaging (no “URGENT: Click NOW to Avoid Disaster!” nonsense). Personalize your emails like you actually know your audience. Mention their name, reference their interests, and for the love of marketing, give them a clear call to action. No one has time to decode a cryptic email.
Audience Segmentation: Emailing With Laser Focus
Sending the same email to everyone is like giving the same birthday gift to your grandma and your gym buddy—it’s not going to land the same way. Segmentation lets you target your audience based on their interests, behavior, and engagement history, making your emails feel more like a VIP experience and less like a mass-produced sales pitch.
Final Thoughts: Get in the Inbox, Stay in the Inbox
If you want your emails to actually be seen (and not treated like an annoying telemarketer), follow these best practices. Monitor your performance, keep your lists clean, craft engaging content, and send messages that actually matter to your audience. Do that, and your emails will waltz into inboxes like they own the place.
If you need any help understanding email deliverability at your organization, don’t hesitate to reach out.