Email Deliverability: Everything You Need to Know

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Email deliverability
Aug 1, 2023

Imagine you spend too much time and money on building your email list, creating catchy email content, buying tools, and setting up complete automation to pitch your products to customers. But what happens, If your email does not deliver to customers’ inboxes? You will lose all of your money without any reason. 

When you hit send email button, your email will go through various stages of strict filtering. It includes email authentication, content checks, IP address, and others. For this, You must have a strong understanding of email policies, server policies, what to include, and others. 

Here, we provide all theoretical knowledge of email deliverability to improve your success rates. A better delivery rate means a higher conversion rate and higher sales. 

Look Also: Why personalization is key to successful email marketing

What is email deliverability?

Email deliverability is the act of securely delivering messages to a specific group of people. This message is delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox without being considered spammy. Secure email deliverability depends on various factors including the sender’s reputation, content, attached files, email delivery policy, DKIM, DMARC, and spam filters. 

Good deliverability makes sure the successful delivery of your emails into the inbox of recipients’ emails. There is no defined formula to calculate email delivery rates. 

Why is email deliverability important?

There are many important reasons to use email marketing for your success. You can send email to

  • Update your new feature in the application
  • Change the existing password of the application
  • Launch a new offer  
  • Increase traffic on your website. 

According to Feb 2020 research by influencer marketing Hub, approx 80% of the emails are securely delivered to the recipient inbox. This means 20 out of 100 emails are undelivered or considered spammy. You can consider a higher email delivery rate between 85% to 95%. 

Email Sender Reputation Matters

Each email you send is define your reputation that depends on various factors. If the sender’s reputation is higher then the chance of email delivery is higher. When you send an email, the email algorithm always calculated the open rate, spending time limit, link open rate, etc. A lower sender reputation can increase the change of email delivery into the spam folder. 

There are Domain reputation and IP reputation also important for email delivery. Domain reputation completely depends on the domain that you are sending from and IP reputation depends on the IP address that you are using. 

Email Bounce 

When you have sent an email and it is not delivered to your intended inbox, it is known as an email bounce. In this situation, the subscriber is not able to see your emails. 

For Example, You wrote a letter to your friend and send it through courier. But it is not delivered to your friend due to any reason. 

An email bounce rate is defined as how many of your emails are not delivered from the total emails you sent. 

There are two types of email bounce: Soft Bounce and Hard Bounce 

A (Soft Bounce) is a temporary issue in delivering your email. This happens when the recipient’s email server temporarily reject new emails due to various reason like Not having enough storage, the temporary server being down, large messages, etc. 

A (Hard Bounce) is a permanent issue in delivering your new emails. When you send an email that is permanently rejected by the recipient’s server. This happens due to various reasons like the wrong email address, server blocking, and security issues. 

These issues can be resolved by different tactics. Many times they solve automatically and some time required higher technical knowledge. 

Authentication is required For Email Deliverability

You required email authentication to securely deliver your email to the recipient inbox. There are many authentication tactics available including SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to authenticate an email. 

Both email tactics are the best way to authenticate your massage, prevent spam emails, and increase the sender’s reputation. 

SPF Authentication: SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a type of email authentication protocol that is used to authenticate the source of email. This protocol helps to make sure the email is sent by a legitimate sender. When you send an email message, the recipient’s email server checks the SPF record to validate IP address and the sender’s authentication. Your email will be considered spammy if it does not follow SPF policy. 

DKIM Authentication: DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is another common type of email authentication protocol to ensure the sender’s authenticity. This is used encryption keys and digital signatures to validate emails. This email protocol can identify illegitimate emails and helps to prevent users from spoofing and phishing. 

For Example, When you send a letter to your friend, you will use a stamp, fingerprint, or signature to authenticate its authenticity. The same applies to email, where this stamp is called a “DKIM signature”.

Authentication Drawbacks: You can face some complications when using email authentication. For example, many times SPF is rejected by the mail server. Also, sending emails with DKIM authenticated can be considered illegitimate due to the sender not matching. 

But you can use different methods to mitigate these issues. You can choose any appropriate authentication method based on your email setup and service provider to improve your email deliverability. 

How to Avoid Poor Email Deliverability?

Poor email deliverability can reduce the chance of your success. There are many ways to improve your email delivery rates. You should always have knowledge about these deliverability issues. 

1. Test your email Delivery: Every time when you run a new email marketing campaign, you should always test your email deliverability. Your email must be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. A higher email delivery rate helps to increase the sender’s reputation. You can use many email marketing tools to test your emails. 

2. Write engaging content: Once your email is delivered to the recipient inbox the most important thing is your content. Good content helps to improve user engagement, spending time, and reputation. Make sure you do not attach any illegal content to your email. 

Also, your email title must have attention-grabbing which encourages subscribers to open your email. 

3. Easy Unsubscribe option: Not every marketer is aware of their core subscriber while building their email list. Users’ interests constantly change over time, which can make emails more likely to be ignored. If your email is constantly ignored by users it can hurt the reputation of the sender.

4. Be careful of sending LImits: If you are sending lots of emails every day then it can lead to a higher ignored rate. The mail server also considered higher email as spam when you suddenly increase the volume of emails. You need to improve your email volume slowly-slowly. 

5. Double opt-in: This is the best way to narrow down your email list by identifying core subscribers. Choose “double opt-in” for your email list, first subscribers not only have to input their email address but also confirm the subscription in their inbox.

Conclusion

So, higher email deliverability is very important to get success in email marketing. This will help to maintain a good sender reputation. Your bounce rate should have as minimum as you can. You can use many authentication tactics available including SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to authenticate an email. Also, there are many important things you need to keep in mind to avoid poor email deliverability. 

Mailerday is a Perfect Email Marketing Service provider to grow your business. You can either hire our Email Expert or use our email services including SMTP service, email verification, a bulletproof server, & DMCA-ignored bulletproof service. All services are affordable and have 24/7 support.

FAQs

Which one should I use – DKIM or SPF?

Use both DKIM and SPF for higher security. Both email authentication tactics are the best way to authenticate your massage, prevent spam emails, and increase the sender’s reputation. SPF checks the sending server’s address, while DKIM adds a special signature to the email content. 

What is difference between email deliverability and email delivery rate?

Email deliverability is the act of securely delivering messages to a specific group of people. This message is delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox without being considered spammy. Email delivery rate only counts how many emails were successfully delivered from a total email sent. 

How to know if you have an email deliverability problem?

There are many types of email deliverability problems including If your emails go to spam, have low open rates, and bounce a lot, You can avoid this by following the above steps to avoid poor email deliverability. Also, you just need to regularly check engagement, spam reports, and bounce rates to spot problems.

How to ensure email deliverability?

To make sure your emails reach people’s inboxes, 
keep a good sender reputation, use SPF, DKIM, and clean your email list. 
Avoid spammy content, and ask subscribers to confirm their subscription (double opt-in). 
Monitor engagement to improve deliverability and connect with your audience.