As an email marketer, you have two immediate goals to turn subscribers into customers. First, your email has to land in an inbox – not the spam folder. Second, subscribers have to open your Email.
Want better inbox placement without guesswork?
To help accomplish these goals, here’s a list of 15 tips to improve Email delivery and Email open rates:
1. Create a sense of urgency
Use value-driven urgency phrases that encourage subscribers to take action immediately and improve engagement — which also helps your inbox placement and open rates.
2. Avoid spam words
Certain spam-trigger words can hurt your Email deliverability by increasing the chance of landing in the spam folder — and lowering open rates
3. Don’t use all CAPS
Using capital letters in your subject line can trigger spam filters. Overuse of punctuation like !!!! can cause the same problem.
4. Resend unopened emails
When an email isn’t opened, consider tweaking the subject line and resend it to give subscribers another chance to open it.
5. Test delivery times
Don’t rely only on generic timing data. Evaluate your own campaign data to find optimal send windows that boost open rates and support better deliverability performance.
6. Segment your lists
Break your list up by buying habits, engagement signals, and lifecycle stage. Better segmentation improves relevance, engagement, and email deliverability. Learn more here.
7. Personalize your “From” name
Personalization builds trust. CrazyDude@gmail.com doesn’t inspire much confidence. Consider using your first name and your company name in the “From” name, like Bob@ABCCompany.com.
8. Send emails at different times
If your open rates aren’t where you want them, look at your data and try to send emails at different times.
9. Clean up your list
It’s a good idea to clean your list every six months or so. Remove the email addresses that bounce back. Cleaning your list also gives you an opportunity to segment your list at the same time.
10. Treat your subject line like a headline
Great subject lines follow the same principals news headlines use to attract attention. Write something short and interesting that captures the point of the email.
11. Test your subject line
Give your open rates a boost by testing your subject lines. Use A/B testing to compare two subject lines, and let your audience decide which one is best.
12. Get personal
Personalize the subject line with a subscriber’s name, add a personal message and segment emails to ensure relevancy. Continue the personalization in the email, like this example from an airline that uses the subscriber’s name in the email text:
13. Use a spam checker
Before you hit send, run your email through a spam checker to make sure there aren’t any problems. Juvlon offers a spam checker that provides a spam score and alerts you of potential delivery issues. You can make changes before you send the email to increase your better inbox placement
14. Check your email reputation
If your emails have poor response rates, or if subscribers have reported you for sending shady emails, your email reputation could be damaged. If that’s the case, your delivery rates will suffer. See what your reputation is with this tool.
15. Avoid over saturation
Test adjusting the frequency of your campaigns — too many sends can hurt engagement and email deliverability, while a more balanced cadence often improves open rates.
By following these 15 tips, you can improve your deliverability and open rates – two things every marketing wants.