With nearly 4.5 billion email users, email marketing is a powerful way to connect with customers. When you send email to your leads, you want to know whether this marketing effort delivers results. For email to make a difference in your sales, focus on email deliverability. If you haven’t tracked your email messages’ deliverability before, read on to explore what you need to know about this statistic and what you can do to improve your rates.
Understanding Email Deliverability
To understand email deliverability, let’s explore what this statistic tracks and how it works.
What is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability differs slightly from email delivery. Delivery focuses on how much email the mail server accepts in general. Deliverability, however, looks only at the email that specifically reaches the inbox. An email can potentially get delivered but end up in the spam box, so it would not count toward deliverability.
How Email Deliverability Works
Several different factors impact deliverability, including:
- Sender reputation
- Content quality
- Authentication protocols
When an email message leaves your outbox, it first reaches the recipient’s email server, which will try to filter out any potential spam. If your message raises red flags, the server will send it to the spam box. If not, it will land in the inbox with a significantly higher chance of being opened.
Importance of Email Deliverability for eCommerce Merchants
Email deliverability plays a crucial role in eCommerce marketing campaigns.
Impact on Marketing ROI
Higher deliverability rates lead to improved open and click-through rates. There is a direct correlation between inbox placement and revenue generation. In other words, when you get your emails directly into the inbox, you will see higher rates of engagement and greater revenue.
Customer Engagement and Retention
Email plays an important role in building relationships with customers. Consistent, high-quality communication builds trust and loyalty, improving the chance that promotional and transactional email will reach them.
Competitive Advantage
Ensuring your messages land in customers’ inboxes will help you stand out from the competition. You’ll improve engagement with your content and keep your brand top-of-mind among customers, which helps boost your market share.
Factors Affecting Email Deliverability
As you set out to improve your email deliverability, you should pay attention to a few key factors.
Sender Reputation
Email servers pay attention to your IP and domain reputation, how often your material gets marked as spam, and your bounce rates. Maintain high degrees of relevance and quality to protect your sender reputation.
Email Content and Design
Develop engaging messages that offer relevant, high-quality content and encourage readers to engage. Avoid triggering spam filters with trigger words like “FREE!” or excessive emojis.
List Management Practices
Use opt-in strategies to build your email list and regularly clean your list to remove inactive subscribers. While improving overall engagement, this reduces the risk of people marking your content as spam.
Technical Authentication
Set up your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to ensure proper email authentication and prevent spoofing. This will protect your domain reputation and help assure spam filters that you send legitimate email.
How to Check Your Email Deliverability Rates
When you build an email deliverability strategy, checking your current statistics can help you find room for improvement.
Performing an Email Deliverability Test
You can use several tools and platforms to perform email deliverability tests, including MailTester and GlockApps. When you run such a test, you will send a sample message to a provided email address, and the test will give you a detailed report on how email servers evaluate your email.
Key Metrics to Monitor
As you learn about deliverability and take steps to improve it, focus on tracking some key metrics that will help you monitor improvement. Some important statistics include:
- Open rates
- Click-through rates
- Bounce rates
- Spam complaints
- Sender score
- Inbox placement rate
Interpreting the Results
When you receive your deliverability reports, evaluate what they indicate about your email health and identify areas for improvement. Look at your weakest areas and consider working with a consultant to find specific ways to improve.
Strategies to Improve Email Deliverability
For businesses taking steps to boost their email deliverability, there are a few strategies you can employ.
Enhance Your Sender Reputation
Looking at your sending pattern and engagement can improve your sender reputation. To see the best results, establish a regular schedule and focus on the recipients who interact with your email most.
Optimize Email Content
To improve the quality of your email content, concentrate on the following components:
- Personalization: Use customer data to create tailored messages.
- Clear CTAs: Encourage desired responses in your calls to action.
- Responsive design: Ensure your email displays correctly on all devices.
Maintain a Healthy Email List
Maintaining a healthy email list helps your messages reach interested recipients and avoid spam folders. A double opt-in confirms that your subscribers genuinely want your emails. Regularly cleaning your list by removing hard bounces and uninterested users will help you target the right recipients.
Implement Technical Best Practices
Make sure you have implemented the best technical practices, such as configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Use a reputable email service provider (ESP) by partnering with platforms like Klaviyo.
Monitor and Adapt
Continue to monitor your performance metrics and adjust your strategies based on data and insights.
Role of Email Deliverability Consultants
Email deliverability consultants can help you better understand how to boost your rates and associated revenue.
Expertise in Diagnosing Issues
First, consultants could help you target the underlying problems that may disrupt deliverability.
Customized Improvement Plans
Consultants can also help you develop customized strategies tailored to your business needs.
Ongoing Support
Working with a dedicated consultant may help you set up regular monitoring and make adjustments to see continuous improvements.
Education and Training
A partnership with a consultant can also help you educate your team about email best practices, so you’ll continue to positively influence your email reputation.
How Groove Commerce Can Help
Groove Commerce is here to help you improve your email deliverability and more.
Specialized Email Marketing Services
Discover our A-to-Z email marketing solutions for eCommerce merchants. Learn more about our services and how we can help businesses like yours grow.
Partnership with Klaviyo
Groove Commerce is a certified provider of Klaviyo, which offers email marketing designed for eCommerce companies. Discover our Klaviyo expertise and how these advanced features can help your business.
Proven Track Record
We have a long track record of client success stories with improved deliverability and increased sales.
Personalized Consultation
Groove Commerce offers personalized assessments that identify and address your website’s specific challenges.
Improve Your Email Deliverability
Maximizing email deliverability is critical to making the most of your eCommerce marketing efforts. Don’t let poor deliverability hinder your business growth; take proactive steps to ensure your email reaches customers. Working with email deliverability consultants to check email deliverability and increase your rates can have a dramatic impact on your revenue.
Ready to improve email deliverability? Contact Groove Commerce to schedule a consultation and start seeing better results.
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About the author
Spencer Flaherty is an eCommerce blogger who loves exploring the latest trends and technologies in the industry. From chatbots to virtual reality, they cover it all.
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