What Is Email Deliverability: Do Your Emails Reach the Inbox?

In the last decade, email marketing has been growing at double-digit annual rates. Valued at 8.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, the global email marketing market is projected to increase to 18.9 billion by 2028. As the name implies, the sector’s backbone is email.

The two key attributes of email functionality are email delivery and email deliverability, the terms so close in meaning that it’s hard to see daylight between them. However, they play distinct roles. Delivery is the act of sending an email to the recipient’s mail server, while deliverability ensures the email reaches the recipient’s inbox.

It is like firing a shot: delivery is the bullet reaching the target area, but deliverability is hitting the bullseye. A missed shot means a lost customer.

What Is Email Deliverability?

In a nutshell, email deliverability is the ability of an email to successfully land in the recipient’s inbox without being flagged as spam or bouncing back. It’s like making sure your letter reaches the right mailbox, not getting lost along the way or tossed into the junk pile.

Email Deliverability vs. Email Delivery

Now, though the words sound similar, there is a clear distinction between the two. When you hit “Send” on an email, two critical steps determine its success: the two Ds—delivery and deliverability. Delivery is the first leg of an email’s journey. It’s like sending a letter and knowing it has reached the recipient’s mailbox. If your email doesn’t bounce back, it’s delivered. However, the purpose of sending an email is to have the recipient see it. Which may not be the case. Here, deliverability kicks in as it is about making sure your email not only reaches the inbox, safely bypassing the dreaded spam folder or the junk mail, but also gets noticed. 

Why Is Email Deliverability Important?

To illustrate the importance of email deliverability in achieving email marketing goals, let’s imagine your business heavily depends on a successful targeted email marketing effort. The core measure showing your marketing campaign’s efficiency is ROI. The ROI directly depends on email deliverability, as a successful email that reaches its recipient is a doorway to further actions such as clicking through, subscribing to a newsletter, or making a purchase.

All those email recipient’s actions are the direct consequences of the coveted conversion. The higher your conversion rates, the more efficient your email marketing campaign is.

Side by side with email deliverability is email engagement, a gauge measuring recipients’ reactions to your email. There are several key metrics, like email open rate, click-through rate, time spent, etc., each showing the degree of the recipient’s interaction with the email and further action the message inspires them to take. Moreover, such indicators as movement actions and feedback signals show whether the recipients moved the message from spam to their primary mailbox or show negative moves such as deleting or marking it as spam.

The analysis of these metrics is vital for assessing the overall campaign success.

Good Email Deliverability Rates

So, what is a good email deliverability rate and what is the industry’s take on this? Let’s see what benchmarks to measure that parameter exist.

Defining a good email deliverability rate is tricky. Return Path’s statistics show that only about 79% of commercial emails make it to the inbox. The rest often end up in spam folders or get blocked. The holy grail of achieving 100 percent deliverability is beyond reach. So, a good benchmark is a deliverability rate of 95% or higher. Bounce rates should stay below 3%, and spam rates should not exceed 0.08%. Tracking these metrics can help ensure your emails reach their intended audience effectively.

Methods to Assess Email Deliverability

Let’s proceed to the tools and techniques for monitoring and evaluating your email deliverability.

Customer feedback, though a good old tool, may not effectively measure and monitor email deliverability as it only highlights issues after they occur. Businesses relying on email marketing should use a more proactive approach.

Advanced email analytics is one of the key methods to gauge how your email performs. The method includes monitoring bounce rates, tracking open and click-through rates (CTR), and analyzing ISP feedback. By leveraging these analytics, businesses can quickly identify and address issues affecting deliverability.

To further fine-tune email deliverability, seeding lists and feedback loops come in handy. Seeding lists involve sending test emails to a set of addresses to check where emails are landing and how they are displayed across different email clients. Feedback loops will notify senders when recipients mark an email as spam to provide a fix and avoid further issues.

Bounce management analysis helps identify hard bounces to remove them from the mailing list, while ISP and SMTP code analysis helps understand why emails are not delivered.

Maintaining a strong sender reputation

Email sender reputation is like a scorecard used by email providers (Gmail, Outlook) to judge your email-sending habits. A strong reputation boosts your email deliverability, ensuring your emails reach recipients’ inboxes instead of the spam folder. On the other hand, a poor reputation can put your email marketing efforts at risk.

Key factors affecting email sender reputation:

1. User engagement: High open rates, click-through rates, and low spam complaints indicate your emails are relevant, enhancing your reputation.
2. Email service provider: Choosing a reputable email service provider helps maintain high delivery standards and protects your sender reputation.
3. Spam complaints: Keeping spam complaints low is crucial. High rates of complaints suggest your content is unwanted, damaging your reputation.
4. Sending volume: Gradually increase your email volume. Sending too many emails too quickly can appear spammy.
5. Bounce rate and list management: Regularly clean your email list to remove invalid addresses. High bounce rates signal poor list management and harm your sender reputation.

To maintain a strong sender reputation, focus on engaging content, choose a reputable email service provider, minimize spam complaints, manage your email volume, and keep a clean email list. This will ensure your emails resonate with your audience.

Best practices to enhance email deliverability

Now that we have explored the multiple aspects and importance of email deliverability, it is time to brush up on best practices to enhance it. Here are the most essential steps:

• Authenticate your email domain: Enable SPF and DKIM to verify your identity and prevent spoofing, thus improving your reputation with ISPs.
• Maintain proper IP allocation: As your email volume grows, use a dedicated IP address. Warm it up gradually to build trust with ISPs.
• Optimize the opt-in process: Use a double opt-in method to ensure your list is full of engaged recipients, reducing the likelihood of being marked as spam.
• Craft engaging subject lines: Avoid common spam phrases and focus on creating subject lines that convey value and relevance.
• Regularly clean your email list: Use a dedicated email checker to remove inactive and unengaged users to maintain a healthy email list and positive sender reputation.
• Avoid spam traps: Keep your list clean and never purchase email lists to prevent sending to spam traps.
• Send valuable content: Focus on sending emails that recipients find valuable and engaging to maintain high interaction rates and positive feedback from ISPs.

Manage email volume effectively

Here are the basic and efficient strategies to control the volume of emails sent to avoid spam filters:

• Moderate email volume: Avoid sending too many emails in a short period of time. Each email provider has specific limits (e.g., Outlook and Gmail allow 300–500 emails daily). Keep your sending volume low and use multiple addresses if necessary.
• Maintain a good sent-to-received ratio: Ensure a balanced ratio of sent-to-received emails. Aim for a 4:1 ratio (four sent emails for every received response).
• Gradually increase sending volume: Avoid suddenly sending large volumes of emails, as this can trigger spam filters. Start with a small volume and gradually increase it over time.
• Pace email sending: Spread out your email sends throughout the day instead of sending them all at once. Use scheduling features offered by your email service provider to distribute your emails effectively.

Personalize and segment your audience

Audience segmentation and personalization are beneficial for email deliverability. In a nutshell, audience segmentation is the division of email subscribers into smaller groups based on criteria like age, gender, location, and interests.

This is crucial for personalizing content and ensuring relevancy, which in turn boosts engagement. By sending tailored emails that resonate with specific audience segments, marketers can significantly improve open rates and click-through rates, resulting in better deliverability. Such segmented emails are less likely to be marked as spam, improving sender reputation and increasing the chances of emails reaching the inbox.

Implement a suppression list

To maintain a healthy email list and improve campaign metrics, it’s essential to implement a suppression list for unengaged recipients. Identify leads who haven’t interacted with your emails in three, six, or twelve months, depending on your sales cycle. Regularly review and suppress these contacts from your active list to ensure that your metrics reflect a more engaged audience.

Ensure a compliant opt-in process

Opt-in email marketing involves sending promotional emails to subscribers who have explicitly agreed to receive them, ensuring compliance with laws like the CAN-SPAM Act and the GDPR. This approach guarantees a genuinely interested audience, leading to higher engagement and effective campaigns. Single opt-in allows quick sign-ups, while double opt-in includes a confirmation step, reducing fake sign-ups and spam.

Provide easy opt-out options

Ensuring recipients have an easy way to opt out of your emails is crucial for maintaining a healthy email list. By providing a simple and clear unsubscribe option, you respect your recipients’ preferences and comply with legal requirements. That not only prevents your emails from being marked as spam but also helps you maintain a more engaged and interested subscriber base.

Foster brand recognition

The “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” adage should be the logo of email marketing. To follow it, craft a compelling welcome email that sets the tone for your brand, introducing your brand’s mission.

Understanding your audience is crucial. Segment your email list based on demographics, preferences, and engagement levels to tailor content that resonates with each group.

Creating visually appealing and branded email templates is another effective strategy. Use your brand’s colors, logos, and design elements consistently across all emails to reinforce brand identity.

Regularly send informative and engaging content, such as product updates, promotions, and helpful tips, to keep your audience interested and informed. Make sure you include interactive elements like videos, polls, and surveys.

Optimize the email content

To enhance brand recognition through email marketing, businesses should employ several email content optimization strategies. First, crafting compelling subject lines is crucial, as they are the gateway to your emails being opened. An effective subject line should be concise, relevant, and enticing to encourage recipients to click and read further.

Next, personalizing content is essential; addressing subscribers by name and tailoring the email content to their preferences can significantly boost engagement. Additionally, maintaining consistent branding across all emails is vital. This includes using the same logo, colors, and fonts to create a memorable brand image that subscribers can easily recognize.

Lastly, utilizing interactive elements such as images, videos, and call-to-action buttons can make emails more engaging and memorable, fostering a stronger connection with the brand.

To Sum Up

Long story short, email deliverability is key to the success of email marketing campaigns. Achieving high deliverability enhances engagement and ROI. Here is a lineup of actionable steps to improve email deliverability:

1. Authenticate your domain: Implement SPF and DKIM to verify your identity and prevent email spoofing.
2. Maintain proper IP allocation: Use a dedicated IP for large volumes and warm it up gradually.
3. Optimize the opt-in process: Use double opt-in to ensure a high-quality, engaged subscriber list.
4. Craft engaging subject lines: Avoid spammy words and make your subject lines concise and compelling.
5. Provide a preference center: Allow recipients to manage their email preferences to increase engagement.
6. Clean your email list regularly: Remove inactive subscribers to maintain a healthy list.
7. Avoid spam traps: Keep your list updated and never purchase email lists.
8. Send valuable content: Focus on creating relevant and engaging emails for your audience.