In the evolving marketing landscape, cold emails remain a cornerstone of effective outreach.

With 80% of consumers preferring email as their primary business communication channel, the importance of email deliverability cannot be overstated. 

Email deliverability is the ability of an email message to arrive in the recipient's main inbox. It is often measured as a percentage of emails accepted by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

When you think of email deliverability, you might recall those emails that seemingly vanished between your outbox and the recipient's inbox. This aspect of deliverability is crucial, but it encompasses more than just that.

Deliverability also pertains to inbox placement—whether an email appears in the primary inbox, the promotions tab, the social tab, or the spam folder.

Jesse Ouellette stands as a titan in the email sales and marketing world, and he is celebrated for his groundbreaking sales strategies. As an exclusive member of LinkedIn's Top Voices Program in Sales, Jesse's insights and innovative approaches have illuminated the path for countless professionals worldwide. With a keen eye for nurturing the fastest-growing startups and growth organizations, Jesse's wisdom is highly sought after by leading chief revenue officers, chief marketing officers, and visionary founders and CEOs.

In this blog post we've delved into these strategies, providing a roadmap for mastering email deliverability and leveraging automation for business growth.

Why Does Email Deliverability Matter?

For email marketers, email deliverability is a key indicator of whether their messages are reaching their audience. Poor deliverability reduces the effectiveness of marketing emails, making it crucial for any business.

When you send an email to your subscribers, the goal is for them to open it and act on it. However, if your message doesn't reach their inbox, it undermines your efforts. It reflects poorly on you and on your ISP or mail service.

Even with a high delivery rate—say 98% for a list of 1,000 subscribers—that still means 20 people don't see your email. But it goes beyond that. With a 98% delivery rate, you might only have an open rate of 20-40%. So, where are those emails going? Likely to the spam folder.

The deliverability rate measures how many emails reach the inbox.

Determining exactly why an email didn't reach its destination is often unclear. However, by focusing on ensuring every recipient on your list gets the opportunity to open your emails, you can improve your deliverability rate. The ultimate goal is to land directly in the inbox.

Top 10 Strategies from Jesse Ouellette to Boost Email Deliverability Rate

Let's explore  Jesse Ouellette's top 10 strategies to boost your email deliverability rate in 2024.

1. Understand  Email Deliverability Challenges

Email deliverability is the ability to successfully deliver emails to recipients' inboxes. Several factors can impact this, and understanding these challenges is the first step toward improving your email campaigns.

Manual Spam Reports

Manual spam reports occur when recipients mark your emails as spam. This can significantly impact your sender reputation and deliverability. To minimize this risk:

• Target the Right Audience: Ensure your email list is up-to-date and consists of recipients who have explicitly opted in to receive your emails.
• Provide Value: Craft engaging and relevant content that resonates with your audience, reducing the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.
• Monitor Feedback: Keep an eye on feedback loops from email service providers to understand why recipients might be marking your emails as spam.

Also, the way you set up and manage your email accounts can influence deliverability. Common pitfalls include using the same IP address for multiple accounts or setting up too many accounts simultaneously.

• Diversify IP Addresses: Use different IP addresses for different accounts to avoid being flagged by email providers.
• Stagger Account Creation: Gradually set up email accounts to mimic natural employee behavior and avoid triggering spam filters.

Engagement and Replies

Engagement is a critical factor in email deliverability. High engagement signals to email providers that your emails are valuable and relevant.

• Encourage Replies: Design your emails to prompt recipients to reply. Even negative replies can boost your email engagement metrics.
• Segment Your Audience: Tailor your emails to different segments of your audience to increase relevance and engagement.

2. Optimize Email Deliverability

To optimize email deliverability, consider implementing the following strategies:

Use Owned Inboxes

Rely on inboxes that you own and have direct access to support for. Avoid using low-cost resellers with questionable reputations.

Gradual Scaling

Scale your email campaigns gradually. Sudden spikes in email volume can trigger spam filters and hurt your deliverability.

Browser and Proxy Management

Use multiple browsers and proxies to manage logins from different locations. This reduces the risk of triggering security alerts and improves deliverability.

Focus on Content Quality

High-quality, relevant content is key to maintaining engagement and avoiding spam reports. Invest time in crafting compelling email copy and subject lines.

3. Achieving Scale with Automation

Automation is essential for scaling email campaigns effectively. Here's how you can leverage automation to enhance your email marketing efforts:

Automate Routine Tasks

Use automation tools to handle routine tasks such as sending follow-up emails, managing unsubscribes, and segmenting your audience. This frees up time for more strategic activities.

Personalize at Scale

Automation enables you to personalize emails at scale. Use dynamic content and segmentation to tailor emails to individual recipients, increasing relevance and engagement.

Monitor Performance

Automated tools can provide real-time analytics and insights into your email campaigns. Use these insights to continuously optimize your strategy and improve performance.

A/B Testing

Leverage automation to conduct A/B tests on different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, content, and send times. This helps you understand what works best and refine your approach.

You can now boost your business revenue with Smartlead's AI Auto Adjust A/B Testing feature, designed to optimize booked meetings.

Here are three ways to leverage Smartlead’s A/B Testing system effectively. Before you begin testing your email variations, ensure that you:

1. Set up your email account in the Smartlead app with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records.
2. Warm up your inbox for at least two weeks.

4. Warm-Up Your IP Address

Warming up your IP address is essential to establish a good sender reputation. This process involves gradually increasing the volume of emails sent from a new IP address to build trust with email service providers (ESPs). Jesse emphasizes that email warm-up is crucial for ensuring better deliverability by demonstrating high engagement metrics for your domain and IP.

Steps to Warm-Up Your IP:

• Start Slow: Begin by sending a small number of emails and gradually increase the volume.
• Engagement: Ensure the initial recipients are likely to engage with your emails.
• Consistency: Maintain a consistent sending pattern to avoid sudden spikes.

To enhance your sender reputation, Smartlead automatically sends warm-up emails from your mailbox to other users in the warm-up network. Our sophisticated system simulates real user behavior by sending, opening, saving from spam, and replying to these warm-up emails. This activity mimics genuine user interaction, helping to build a positive reputation for your email account.

By embedding a custom tag identifier directly into the body of your warm-up emails, Smartlead AI ensures that these emails are not flagged as spam by email service providers (ESPs). This makes the emails appear as regular human communications rather than automated messages.

Once you activate the warm-up feature, you will start receiving warm-up emails from people you don't know, as part of the process.

How to Identify Emails Sent Through Smartlead Warm-Up

Emails sent via Smartlead warm-up will include a unique "Custom Warm-Up Identifier Tag." Refer to the screenshot below for an example:

Warm-up emails are entirely separate from your email campaigns. They do not count towards the daily sending limit set for your email accounts.

5. Implement Email Authentication Protocols

Enabling email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is critical for improving email deliverability. These protocols help verify the authenticity of your emails and protect your domain from being spoofed.

Key Protocols:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Specifies which mail servers are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails, ensuring they haven't been altered.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): Combines SPF and DKIM to provide a comprehensive authentication framework.

1. Maintain Email List Hygiene

Regularly cleaning your email list is vital to ensure high deliverability rates. Removing invalid, inactive, or unengaged email addresses prevents your emails from bouncing and reduces the risk of being marked as spam.

6. List Hygiene Practices

Regularly cleaning your email list is vital to ensure high deliverability rates. Removing invalid, inactive, or unengaged email addresses prevents your emails from bouncing and reduces the risk of being marked as spam.

• Remove Hard Bounces: Immediately remove email addresses that result in hard bounces.
• Monitor Engagement: Segment and re-engage inactive subscribers or remove them if they remain unresponsive.
• Double Opt-In: Use double opt-in forms to ensure that your subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails.

7. Avoid Purchasing Email Lists

Buying email lists from third-party providers can severely damage your sender reputation. These lists often contain invalid or unengaged email addresses, leading to high bounce rates and spam complaints. Jesse strongly advises against purchasing email lists and instead recommends building your list organically.

Alternatives to Buying Lists:

• Content Marketing: Create valuable content that encourages users to subscribe to your email list.
• Lead Magnets: Offer free resources or incentives in exchange for email sign-ups.
• Webinars and Events: Collect email addresses through registrations for webinars or events.

8. Get in the Contact List of Your Recipients

Encouraging your recipients to add your email address to their contact list can significantly improve deliverability. This simple step helps ensure that your emails are recognized as important and are more likely to land in the primary inbox.

Tips to Get Added to Contact Lists:

• Clear Call-to-Action: Include a clear call-to-action in your welcome email asking recipients to add you to their contact list.
• Incentives: Offer a small incentive, such as a discount or free resource, for adding you to their contact list.

9. Use Double Opt-In Forms

Double opt-in forms require subscribers to confirm their email address before being added to your list. This additional step helps ensure that your subscribers are genuinely interested in your content and reduces the likelihood of spam complaints.

Benefits of Double Opt-In:

• Higher Engagement: Subscribers who complete the double opt-in process are more likely to engage with your emails.
• Reduced Spam Complaints: Since subscribers have actively confirmed their interest, they are less likely to mark your emails as spam.

10. Focus on Audience Targeting

Targeting the right audience is crucial for successful email campaigns. Sending emails to a highly relevant audience reduces the chances of your emails being marked as spam and increases engagement rates. Jesse highlights the importance of audience targeting in his strategy.

Audience Targeting Tips:

• Segmentation: Segment your email list based on demographics, behavior, and preferences.
• Personalization: Use personalized content that resonates with each segment.
• Relevance: Ensure that your emails are relevant and valuable to your target audience.

Bonus: Craft Engaging Messages

Creating engaging and relevant email content is essential for improving deliverability. Jesse advises focusing on three key components: relevance, reward, and request. Your email should be relevant to the recipient, offer a clear reward, and include a request that aligns with the recipient’s needs.

• Relevance: Tailor your message to the recipient’s interests and pain points.
• Reward: Highlight the benefits or value the recipient will gain from your email.
• Request: Include a clear call-to-action that encourages the recipient to take the desired action.

Wrapping Up!!

Email deliverability has become more challenging due to evolving user expectations and sophisticated spam filters. As Jesse explains, users demand a better email experience, and predictive models have become adept at filtering out unwanted emails. 

Email marketers must focus on landing in the primary inbox instead of the spam folder. This requires a deep understanding of user preferences and continuous testing to ensure high engagement rates.

Jesse’s insights emphasize the importance of continuous testing, maintaining a clean email list, and using authentication protocols to build trust with ESPs. By implementing these top 10 strategies, you can improve your email deliverability and ensure that your emails reach the primary inbox, driving higher engagement and conversions.

In this dynamic environment, staying updated with the latest trends and best practices is crucial. Keep experimenting, learning, and optimizing your email campaigns to stay ahead of the curve and achieve sustained success in your email marketing efforts.

FAQs

What is email deliverability, and why is it important?

Email deliverability refers to the ability of an email to reach the recipient's inbox, not just be accepted by the ISP. It is crucial because it directly impacts the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns, influencing open rates, engagement, and conversions.

What factors influence email deliverability?

Several factors influence email deliverability, including sender reputation, email content quality, recipient engagement, email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and list hygiene practices.

How can I improve my sender reputation?

Improve your sender reputation by sending relevant and engaging content, maintaining a clean email list, avoiding spam trigger words, and adhering to best practices for email authentication and warm-up.

What is the significance of IP warm-up in email deliverability?

IP warm-up involves gradually increasing the volume of emails sent from a new IP address to build a good sender reputation with ISPs. It helps ensure better deliverability by demonstrating consistent and high engagement metrics.

How does audience segmentation help in improving email deliverability?

Audience segmentation helps by targeting specific groups with tailored content, increasing relevance and engagement, and reducing the likelihood of spam complaints, which in turn boosts deliverability.

Why should I avoid purchasing email lists?

Purchasing email lists can harm your sender reputation as they often contain invalid or unengaged email addresses, leading to high bounce rates and spam complaints. Building your list organically ensures higher engagement and deliverability.

What role does email content play in deliverability?

High-quality, relevant email content encourages engagement and reduces spam complaints. Focus on crafting compelling subject lines, clear calls-to-action, and personalized messages to improve deliverability.

How can email authentication protocols improve deliverability?

Email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verify the authenticity of your emails, protecting your domain from being spoofed and building trust with ISPs, which improves deliverability.

‍