Email deliverability: best tips for 2024
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March 15, 2024
Our team has been working hard to improve Amplemarket and we wanted to share some new features that you might find interesting.
"How can we ensure that our emails are delivered?" is one of the main concerns we hear from our customers. Well, you start by understanding the factors that can affect your email deliverability in the first place!
Key factors affecting email deliverability
Several factors can impact your email deliverability, but you can separate them into a few categories:
- Email content: Overuse of images, excessive links, and certain keywords can trigger spam filters.
- Sender reputation: This is determined by your domain's history and sender behavior. A poor reputation can lead to emails being flagged as spam.
- Recipient engagement: How recipients interact with your emails (e.g., open rates, forwards, marking as spam) plays a crucial role.
But even knowing this, it can be hard to know where to start in fixing your deliverability issues or setting up your mailboxes for success.
Here are our email deliverability best practices to help you stay out of spam!
Improving email deliverability with authentication
As of February 2024, Google and Yahoo will require everyone targeting their mailboxes to send emails from fully authenticated domains. Otherwise, you can expect these Email Service Providers (ESPs) to bounce your emails!
Authentication means:
- Setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: These technical configurations are essential for verifying sender identity and protecting against email spoofing.
- Using a custom tracking domain: This is optional, but it can reduce the risk of you being flagged as spam if you're sharing an IP, and will improve your sender reputation.
- Completing mailbox profile information: An authentic-looking mailbox with complete information can increase trust and deliverability.
Next steps: email deliverability best practices
1. Warm up your inbox
Your inbox is penalized if the only activity you do is send thousands of similar sales emails on a monthly basis. This is especially true when you setup an alias email address just for your sales efforts. Thus, it's important that you use your inbox for other activities as well, i.e. exchange emails with colleagues, signup for newsletters, etc.
We created the "Amplemarket Warm Up Network" that automatically and seamlessly generates activity on your inbox. When you join this network emails will be automatically exchanged and archived with other members of the network to generate a baseline of non-sales activities.
2. Avoid spikes in activity
Once you start scheduling emails, you need to avoid spikes in your email activity - typically sending more than 400 emails in a single day (first touch + follow ups). When this happens your email provider network, such as Gmail or Outlook, will start sending your emails to SPAM due to large suspicious activity. Additionally, sending too many emails within a short timeframe increases the likelihood of multiple accounts reporting you as SPAM.
In order to avoid spikes in activity we built a smart "Mailbox Selection" feature that helps you evenly distribute emails across your best-performing mailboxes.
3. Use multichannel sequences
Combine emails with other forms of communication like LinkedIn messages or phone calls for a more integrated approach.
The less reliant you are on email, the less you have to worry if you run into temporary deliverability issues. Plus, reaching out on LinkedIn and phone increases your chance of getting a response!
4. Refine your lead generation process
Always ensure that you are reaching out to the right prospects who are more likely to engage with your content.
It's better to build targeted lists with fewer leads than to spray and pray across a general audience, because low open and reply rates will damage your deliverability in the long run.
5. Keep monitoring your email deliverability
Regularly monitor and measure your email deliverability to identify areas for improvement.
Keep an eye on metrics like open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints for a general insight into your deliverability. However, the key metric you want to focus on optimizing is reply rates, because responses help strengthen your sender reputation (and your sales opportunities!)
Utilize tools and platforms that offer insights into how your emails are being received and engaged with. Amplemarket's Domain Health Center gives you easy access to all your mailbox and domain metrics in one dashboard so you can take action before serious deliverability issues arise.
Happy outbounding!
Feel free to share feedback with us at team@amplemarket.com.
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