Every marketer knows that feeling: you’re creating an email marketing campaign, carefully crafting your content and designing it beautifully, targeting your most relevant audience. Excitedly, you send your email, but then… it underperforms :-/

It’s heartbreaking to put all your heart and effort into it, only to miss your targets. In most cases like these, it’s safe to assume that your email didn’t reach your recipients’ inboxes as it should have.

Email marketing has its own set of rules and best practices. By overlooking some of them, it’s easy to fall into the deliverability trap, preventing your recipients from engaging with your emails in the first place, right?

In this article, we will walk you through six of the best and most effective ways to reach the inbox, along with the top tools that will help you easily manage your email marketing operations. Let’s dive in!

1. Get Your Domain Authenticated

In the world of email, falling victim to spoofing (someone impersonating you and sending emails) is not uncommon. Two key factors to ensure the delivery of your emails are the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM). Essentially, these protocols allow email servers to verify your identity. It is also advisable to consider an additional layer of security using these protocols. Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is not mandatory, but it provides guidance to Email Service Providers (ESPs) on how to handle instances where your domain is being spoofed.

Although authenticating your domain can be a little tricky and requires updates to your DNS settings, it is a one-time setting that you can set and forget in most cases. Nowadays, most email marketing software helps minimize this technical friction by offering easy-to-use tools and detailed guidance to ensure your authentication.

2. Maintain List Hygiene

Your list grows every day, with new contacts being added to your recipient list. That’s great! 👍

However, even if you ensured their consent beforehand, it’s important to note that consent for email marketing can expire. Recipients may lose interest, old email addresses can turn into spam traps, and other issues can arise that harm your deliverability. This can have a negative impact on your sender reputation and the metrics in your reports. It is crucial to establish a routine to review and clean your list, ensuring it remains squeaky clean and your recipients stay engaged.

When planning our list hygiene strategy, there are two types of inactivity we should consider:

• Undeliverables – These contacts fall into two categories: those who have requested to stop receiving emails (unsubscribed) and those whose emails have bounced with a permanent error. While most email marketing software automatically suppresses these contacts, it is considered a best practice to completely remove them from your mailing list. Keeping them on your list can affect your reporting and may lead to undesired communication. Additionally, periodically removing these contacts is important because many email marketing software pricing models are based on the number of contacts in your list. Retaining inactive contacts can have a negative effect on your return on investment (ROI).
• Not Engaged – This segment consists of contacts who haven’t engaged with your emails for a while, often referred to as “Grey Mail.” The likelihood of this segment engaging with your future emails is low, so it’s a good idea to periodically review and remove these contacts from your marketing list. It’s important to remember that the definition of this segment can and should be customized based on your specific needs. There is no “one size fits all” logic, but most email marketing software offers a pre-built segment for you to utilize or build upon.

3. Opt-in Process

The concept of consent-based marketing is gaining traction, particularly with the introduction of compliance laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and others. Email marketing is no exception, and it is crucial to add only those contacts to your list who have provided their explicit consent to receive marketing emails. To ensure that your recipients are genuinely expecting your emails, it is vital to maintain an explicit consent method. Here are some common types to achieve this:

• Checkbox – When adding a form to your website, include a checkbox stating, “I agree to receive email marketing communication.” Remember, to obtain explicit consent, it is essential to leave this field unchecked by default. If the checkbox is pre-checked, it will not be considered explicit consent.
• Preferences Center – Each of your contacts has different reasons for consenting to receive marketing emails from you. However, sometimes receiving undesired emails can have a negative impact on your recipients’ engagement. By offering your recipients a simple way to opt-in or out of specific types of email communications, you can ensure that your communication is expected and increase the likelihood of positive engagement with your emails.
• Double Opt-in – This is the most restrictive method among all the options mentioned above. When someone fills out a form on your website, an automated email is sent to the recipient, requesting them to click on a link to confirm their eligibility for email marketing. This approach ensures that your emails are delivered to the intended recipient and has a positive impact on their engagement with your emails.

4. Make Sure Your Email Looks Legitimate

In addition to the email content, there are technical aspects that, if overlooked, may trigger spam filters. Sending an all-image email or using poorly coded HTML can result in your emails being flagged as spam. Fortunately, most email marketing software offers pre-built email templates that can assist in ensuring your emails appear legitimate and serve as a solid starting point. If the provided templates do not meet your requirements and you require the assistance of an HTML email developer, please feel free to contact us. Our team can create custom, visually appealing, responsive, and conversion-focused emails from scratch to suit your specific needs.

5. Consistent Sending Patterns

Your sender reputation is constantly evolving and is influenced in part by your sending schedule. It’s important to maintain a consistent sending pattern as much as possible, avoiding random spikes in your sending volume. By doing so, you establish a sense of reliability with Email Service Providers (ESPs), which leads to improved deliverability.

6. Content Quality

Spam filters analyze multiple elements in your emails, such as subject lines, body text, images, and links. It is crucial to ensure that your content is well-written, relevant, and does not trigger spam filters. For instance, using an all-caps subject line or including spam-triggering words like “FREE MONEY FOR YOU!!!!” in an email that offers a coupon for your products may potentially activate certain spam filters. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid false advertisements or peculiar formatting in order to maintain deliverability and avoid being marked as spam.

Plus, Free Tools

To run a successful email marketing strategy, there are various challenges to consider, as mentioned earlier. Fortunately, there is a wide range of tools available that can significantly enhance our email marketing efforts and save us valuable time. As promised, here are some of the best free tools I have personally used in the past, which can assist you in achieving inbox placement:

• Mail Tester – This is one of the most comprehensive free spam test tools available. Simply send a test email to the provided address, and within seconds, you will receive a score along with a detailed report containing optimization suggestions.
• Subjectline.com – This is a helpful little tool for subject line optimization. It provides a detailed score for your subject line along with AI-powered recommendations.
• Gmail Postmaster Tools – Postmaster tools were created by Email Service Providers (ESPs) to assist you in monitoring your sender score for specific email clients. While Gmail is the largest email client, it is recommended to utilize their postmaster tools. However, other ESPs also offer similar functionality.
• Sender Score – A sender score algorithm aims to consolidate all ESP data into a single score for each domain/IP address. It is advisable to use this score as a comprehensive measure of your email health.
• HubSpot (paid) – While HubSpot is an all-in-one solution that provides more than just email marketing, its email marketing solution stands out as one of the best in its category. Utilizing HubSpot as your email marketing software offers the advantages of user-friendliness, attractive templates, additional tools, and comprehensive reports. Thanks to HubSpot’s powerful CRM and automation capabilities, it offers nearly limitless possibilities to cater to your specific email marketing requirements.

If you require assistance in enhancing your email deliverability efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team possesses extensive experience and expertise in the field of Email Marketing and can assist you in maximizing your results.