Good practices for deliverability

In this article, we will give you some tips on how to improve the deliverability of your emails.

What is email deliverability?

The deliverability of an email refers to its ability to reach its recipients in the main inbox, and not be filtered or put in a spam folder.

The deliverability of email campaigns is an essential part of your marketing operations. It translates into an overall deliverability rate or inbox placement rate.

That said, many factors can influence the deliverability of your emails:

• The quality of the email address used (Use of a personalized and authenticated domain name)

• Hygiene of your email address database

• The reputation of the IP addresses of the dispatch servers

• The rate of spam / bounced

• The use of spam words

Most importantly, the deliverability of your emails depends above all on your practices.

You must monitor your email deliverability statistics.

From a technical point of view, we advise you to do 3 things:

1. Use a personalized and authenticated domain name

2. Clean your contact list regularly from contacts in the bounced and unsubscribed status

3. Sending emails only to people who have explicitly permitted you to do so.

1. Using a personalized and authenticated email address:

Many receiving servers filter the emails according to the flow of reception by setting up anti-spam filters.

To avoid your email being filtered as spam, it's strongly advised to use an e-mail address with a personalized domain name and thus proceed to authenticate it with our services.

This way, you will gain credibility with your contacts, and from a technical point of view, the email reception servers will acknowledge the reputation of your domain.

To authenticate your domain name, follow the procedure described in this article, and contact our Support Team if you need further assistance. 

2. Clean up your contact list:

It's very important to have a clean contact base, so it's essential to keep a close eye on it.

Sending emails to non-existent recipients will lower your deliverability rate and this can also damage the reputation of your email forwarding domain name.

Your contact database may contain 2 types of email addresses that limit your deliverability:

• Non-existent addresses that will be marked "Bounced".
• Inactive/unsubscribed addresses

Email providers analyze your campaign data and penalize you when your emails are not opened. It's therefore essential to delete all your contacts that are in either of the two groups. 

2.1 Deleting non-existent addresses:

There are 2 types of non-existent addresses:

• Old/deleted email addresses
• Misspelled email addresses

On systeme.io and thanks to the filters available on your contact list, you can get the list of your contacts in "Bounced" status with one click.

To know more, simply follow the procedure described in this article.

2.2 Deleting inactive addresses:

Your inactive contacts cause your opening rate to drop, which directly impacts your reputation with email providers.

Why do some email addresses become inactive? 

There are several reasons:

• Your emails become spam and are no longer seen by the customer

• The customer is no longer interested in the activity/services you offer

• Your customer receives too many emails and doesn't have time to open yours

To manage these inactive addresses, start by classifying them in a new list by adding TAGs. 

There are 2 ways to do this:

1. Undertake specific re-engagement campaigns
2. Permanently delete these addresses

If you decide to delete these contacts from your contact list, you can use the filters offered by systeme.io to delete the contacts according to the time limit chosen for this purpose.

To know more, follow the procedure described in this article.

3. How do I respect good emailing practices?

Sending emails to your contacts is a great way to keep in touch with them so that you don't fall into oblivion, but it has to be done properly.

3.1 Targeted e-mailing:

During an email marketing campaign, knowing your target audience is vital, because it allows you to address only those people who correspond and are really interested in your content or offer.

Good targeting means making sure that all the contacts on your list are interested in what you have to offer them, and therefore more likely to open your message, read it, or even reply to it.

If you send your email campaigns to all your contacts without any personalization, you will have bad opening rates. Always keep in mind, that not all your contacts are interested in the same things, and if you constantly offer them content that doesn't correspond to them, they may stop opening your emails or label you as spam.

To keep their interest, you must segment your contacts according to their preferences to better share your content by targeting their expectations, you can use TAGs for this purpose.

IMPORTANT: You should never send emails to contacts who have not permitted you to do so - doing so will ruin your statistics!

Furthermore, the purchase of a contact list is strictly forbidden.

3.2 Take care of your subjects and content, time for test campaigns :

The subject of an email is the first showcase of your message but also of your business.

It is the first impression of your email. Whether someone will open the email, is often dependent on the subject. Optimizing it means directly influencing the opening rate of your emails.

There are several good practices to be followed:

• Don't leave the subject empty
• Avoid shock words, polemics, and capital letters
• Limit poignant characters, such as numerous exclamation and question marks, 

The subject must make it clear that you are trying to bring value to your recipient, it must attract them, not drive them away. To entice the recipient, inserting personalization elements in the subject line of the email can considerably increase the opening rate. 

3.3 Beware of "spam words":

Spam detection by artificial intelligence has come a long way, and for many years now it is based not only on the presence of a word but also on:

• The email context
• The number of occurrences of the word
• Its placement in the email
• The spelling

To determine in which category (main mailbox, promotions, spam, etc.) an email will be classified, email providers scan its entire content.

Avoid "spam words" as they can contribute to your message ending up in spam, so beware of the words used in the content of your emails. 

3.4 Make it easy to unsubscribe:

Talking about deregistration when you're looking to improve deliverability can make you grind your teeth, yet here's a thought to understand the importance of this option: 

When a user receives an email they don't want, they are presented with 3 options:

1. To unsubscribe

2. To not open any more emails

3. Report the e-mail as spam

Being regularly reported as spam will have a catastrophic effect on your deliverability and may even get you blacklisted by email providers. If the customer just won't open your emails anymore, you will also lose deliverability, as your click-through rate will drop.

Therefore, the unsubscribe option is by far the best, so make sure to add it!

There is no magic bullet to improve your deliverability rate, you just have to be rigorous, respect the few basic rules listed, and keep in mind that your statistics will always depend on your practices. 

Article Annex: 

How to authenticate your personal domain name