This is part 2 of our Email Deliverability Tips. Haven’t read the first one? Click here.
Find the perfect sending frequency
Meeting the expectations of your subscribers not only refers to the content you send, but https://inboxroad.com/2018/07/24/email-deliverability-tips-marketers-need-know-part-1/also the frequency at which you send it. Sending emails far too often can be annoying for some of your subscribers and will result in your emails being ignored. Although this won’t directly impact your email deliverability, it will affect your open rate and your ROI. As well as being ignored, you also run the risk of unsubscribes, and spam complaints.
On the other hand, sending emails too infrequently disengages your subscribers and makes them forget about your brand or business.
Unfortunately, there is no magic rule when it comes to how often you should send emails, as this will entirely depend on your type of business and the email campaigns that you are running. The best thing is to setup an A/B test and decide the frequency based on the most important campaign metrics. When you do send out that double opt-in email to clarify to a subscriber about the type of content and frequency at which you will send it, make sure you stick with it.
Check you are not on a blacklist
Being on a blacklist is every email marketer’s worst nightmare, so how do you know if your company is currently listed?
An email blacklist is a database that uses certain criteria to determine if an IP or sending domain is being used to send spam. These lists are used and updated by ISPs to prevent spam messages from reaching peoples’ inbox.
If you have a feeling that your emails are not getting through as your open rates have plummeted, you can check your IP address or sending domain on either MultiRBL or MxToolbox to see if you are listed. It’s always better to act on these listings as soon as possible, therefore we advice you do check this on a daily base.
If you do find that you are listed, it is not the end of the world since it is likely that you are able to remove your IP address or sending domain. You will need to first discover the reasons as to why you have been blacklisted from the information provided on the site, and then take your time to resolve these issues. You can find instructions on how to get yourself removed, so make sure to follow these guidelines to get back to delivering relevant content that your subscribers want to read.
At Inboxroad we will proactively delist our customers and inform them on the latest status.
Evaluate negative issues as soon as they come about
Evaluating any negative issues that arise from your email campaigns is imperative to building a trusting relationship with both your existing and potential new subscribers. There are mainly four ways that you can tell if something is not right:
1. Bounces: If you are finding that a lot of emails are bouncing back, read the bounce codes. If you listen to the feedback from the ISPs, you can act accordingly and scale back in volume or change your content.
2. Unsubscribes: Give the option for subscribers to tell you why they are unsubscribing in a short feedback form on the unsubscribe page.
3. Complaints: Take note of what the complaints are about – are your emails not meeting the expectations of your subscribers in terms of content or frequency? Are the emails too long, or use offensive or inappropriate language?
4. Blacklisted: As mentioned in the tip above, you can usually find out the reasons why you have been blacklisted so you can take steps to get your status as a trusted email sender back.
As stated earlier we help our customers at Inboxroad. Our team closely monitors your outbound email to protect your IP reputation and deliverability. If any kind of issue arise, we will proactively intervene and inform you.
Learning from these kinds of issues and dealing with them appropriately will help you to avoid similar mistakes in the future, and therefore increase your open rates and ROI.
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Thanks for reading. Keep an eye out on the Inboxroad blog as we will post the final part in the coming weeks!
