What's the best way to get your emails delivered and avoid spam filters?

All modern ESPs can authenticate clients' domains (with SPF and DKIM). Each sender can implement and monitor DMARC using a tool. But in fact, it's difficult to compare email platforms' deliverability. Inbox placement is a collaborative effort and shared responsibility between the ESP and marketers. ESPs must approve and monitor their clients’ email practices, as failure to do so can cause their IP space being blocked by anti-spam groups like SpamHaus. Deliverability is determined by reputation, which is formed by IP address, IP space reputation, domain reputation, content, engagement, and other factors. ESPs assign IP addresses to senders from shared IP pools based on their reputation. A dedicated IP is not suitable for every sender.

Make sure you check your ESP's IP reputation first - you can do this with a free tool online. All ESP's will tell you that they are the perfect fit - but they aren't. Some are cheap (and you can tell) Some have all the bells & whistles (that you won't use yet) Make sure you demo the platforms and look out for: - How easy is it to use and pick up without training - How easy is it to customise? - Does it/will it easily integrate with our CRM?

While almost every ESP supports SPF and DKIM and the rest of the listed features, the most important thing is to actually implement and use them. When selecting an ESP, look for features that support your needs and workflows, but also consider their reputation for deliverability, verified with third party testing.

- Make sure your technical back-end (DNS records) is properly setup especially your email domain. This is crucial and the 1st stop when doing Email Marketing. - Always do advanced segmentation. Sending the right email to the right people. Make sure your timing is considered. - Avoid spammy word that can trigger emails to go straight to inbox.

In 2024, good ESPs come with everything needed to ensure that your emails have good deliverability. They also closely monitor customer activities, such as bounce rates and spam complaints, to ensure that your email marketing program is on the right track. Currently, it's even easy to separate infrastructures for different types of customers. So, if you're using a good ESP and notice that your IP doesn't have a good reputation, it's time to take a look at your strategy. Review segmentation, list data sources, and DNS settings to ensure the best possible performance.

Make 'unsubscribe' as easy as you want them to 'subscribe'. Never buy an email list, it will bring disaster for your business. It's the fastest way to blacklist your domain as it violates CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

One way to build and nurture a quality email list is to create a welcome sequence that ties in with the incentive that prompted them to sign up for your list. Too often, businesses just add the subscriber to their primary list without orienting them to the benefits.

Never buy or rent an email list—it’s not worth the risk. Instead, focus on offering genuine value in exchange for sign-ups. If your offering is truly valuable, people will look for your emails and be eager to open them, especially in those crucial early stages. I strongly recommend using double opt-in. It’s one of the most effective ways to ensure you're sending to real, engaged email addresses that actually want to hear from you.

Not only should we not buy, rent, and harvest email addresses, we should make sure subscribers want to receive our emails. And this is why relevancy is key. If our lead magnet is about search engine optimization, don’t send emails about how to lose weight. As long as we stay relevant, provide useful insights, and inject personal stories, we’ll build a bond with our subscribers. And the result is they’ll read and engage with our emails, and eventually buy.

Quality beat quantity every time. You ideally want a list full of buyers. This means you need to be testing and optimizing your opt-in process through different lead magnets and opt-in offers to see what drives the best subscribers. And then, make sure you track data on your new subscribers as they come into your welcome flow. How long does it take someone to purchase? What's the conversion rate? etc.

Go beyond just using the subscriber's name. Add personalized product recommendations, location-specific offers, or even content tailored to their previous interactions with your brand. Regularly update your segments. As subscriber's preferences change, so should your segments. So, review and refine them to stay relevant. Respect your subscriber's privacy. Use data responsibly and ensure your subscribers feel valued, not spied on.

Effective email marketing hinges on segmenting your audience and personalizing messages. By categorizing subscribers based on factors like their behavior or location, and tailoring emails to these segments, you boost engagement and loyalty. Utilize your ESP’s tools like dynamic content for this. This targeted approach not only resonates more with recipients but also helps reduce spam complaints and unsubscribes.

Here are my TOP 3 recommendations: 1. Create an engaged segment (people who opened the last 45 days) and start sending it to these people. Aim at hitting at least 35-40% OR. 2. Send some CTR "deliverability booster" campaigns: An example could be an email to collect your birthday date with a text like "we want to make you a gift for your birthday...let us know your birthday and we'll send you a gift" --- this can help you get more CTR which is a good sign for your domain and Gmail, Outlook... 3 - If you follow steps 1 and 2 and some emails are landing in Promo, send plain-text emails for a few weeks. This will make your emails look like personal emails and should be able to help hit the Inbox.

Start small... segment by engaged and unengaged. Your engaged segment should be the one that you focus 90-95% of your emails on. Send one or maybe two per month to the unengaged segment (depending on your sending frequency) to try and re-engage. Then you can take it up a step and start segmenting based on buying habits. Create a VIP segment, a one-time segment, and a non-buyers segment.

Segmentation and personalization are game-changers. Here's how to enhance this strategy: Start Simple: Segment by open rates or purchase history. Even basic segmentation delivers more relevant content, boosting engagement. Personalization Power: Go beyond names. Use website behavior (e.g., abandoned carts) to suggest relevant products or content. This one-on-one touch builds trust and loyalty. By implementing these steps, you'll leverage segmentation and personalization effectively, turning subscribers into raving fans.

Most people cram a lot of words in their subject line. You can visit your inbox to verify. I like to write short subject lines because they instantly stand out and catch the eye. Here’s another way to keep the subject line even shorter: blank preheader text. It’s the small text area that comes after the subject line. They say this is the 2nd subject line. I personally like to make it “blank” rather than putting more text. To create this "blank preheader text", type this in your ESP / email marketing tool: ‌

Preview emails and check... >>Multiple inboxes (Gmail, Apple, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.) to make sure that you email shows up correctly in each inbox. >>Check mobile versions >>Check plain text versions >>Check how the email shows up in dark mode >>Check spam score

Strong advice on testing! Here's how to make it even more impactful: Test what resonates: A/B test emojis or personalization elements in subject lines. This can dramatically increase open rates if done strategically. Track beyond opens: Measure click-throughs on specific CTAs [calls to action]. This reveals what content truly drives subscriber action. By focusing on these areas, you'll gain deeper insights to optimize for both opens and engagement, maximizing the impact of your campaigns.

Subject lines don’t just boost opens. They PRIME customers to buy. 3 mechanisms to draw engagement: 1. Curiosity Gap: > ‘This still haunts me…’ > ‘THIS is ruining your skincare routine’ > ‘She said what?!?’ 2. Immediate Value (‘I’ll save this’): > ‘6 steps to better sleep’ > ‘3 mantras that attract wealth’ > ‘kill productivity with these 7 hacks’ 3. FOMO: > ‘50% off for 1 week only’ > ‘10 spaces left (going, going, gone)’ Psychology will always be the grounding principle. No hacks, just human behaviour!

Use the analytics provided by your ESP to track metrics such as bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement rates. Regularly review these metrics to identify any issues that could affect deliverability, such as high bounce rates or low engagement. Most importantly, address any problems promptly by cleaning your email list, adjusting your content strategy, or improving your email design.

You want to monitor your results so that you can do more of what's working well and less of what's not working. Every ESP has a dashboard or analytics tool that you can use. Biggest metric to track and optimize is Click Rate or Click Through Rate. An emails single job is to get the click. So the more clicks that you get, the more successful your email was.

Prioritize building a relationship with your list over making the next sale. This will compensate for many “bad” things and put you more in the primary tab. Even if any of your emails land in the promotion tab or spam folder, your audience will search their inbox, try to hunt down your emails, and even mark them as "not spam" whenever they find them there. Other things like only sending out emails to people who subscribe, sending out valuable, entertaining emails, and curating your list will help you achieve this.

This is going to be especially important for 2024. Make sure you're only emailing to people who have subscribed to your list. Make unsubscribing easy Provide relevant and valuable content

Always warm up your email account first. Then you need to approach email as you would send it to your mum. Keep a low pressure language and don’t spam. Treat it like a conversation.

Clean your list regularly. Segment subscribers based on activity and, if they've been unengaged for 30, 90, or 180 days (depending on how often you email), create a Sunset email campaign just for them. This campaign is meant to give them one last chance to remain subscribed. Without doing this, you will continue to send emails to subscribers who don't ever engage with your brand, which sends a signal to email providers that you are not a reputable brand. To avoid landing in the spam folder, make sure as many of your subscribers are actively engaged.

An important aspect often overlooked in customer communication is email deliverability. Ensuring your emails actually reach your customers is critical. A useful tool for this is Google Postmaster. It helps monitor and manage your email sender reputation and spam rates. Keeping an eye on these metrics can prevent your emails from being marked as spam, maintaining the health of your IP reputation. This is especially vital in email marketing and regular customer communication, as it directly impacts the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.

Don't assume that anything in email marketing, including automation and authentication, is "set it and forget it". Regularly review your metrics and pay attention to those that you don't see in your platform's dashboard. Google Postmaster Tools, blocklist monitoring, DMARC reports, and others are key parts of your deliverability toolbox.

Realize it's impossible to avoid the spam filter (or Google's promotion folder) 100% of the time. You will end up in spam occasionally—even Google's own emails often end up in their own spam folder, yeah talk about so-called "deliverability issues". That's just the name of the game. The best thing you can do is to simply write entertaining and valuable emails that people want to read (crazy right?). Then, even if you end up in the spam folder, they'll look for you and it won't even matter as much. Some other tips are: - incentivize people to reply to your emails - keep the conversations going - include a link to click in every single email (but no more than 3) - send regularly so people remember you And forget about everything else.

I use the DELIVER framework. D - DNS Setup, Infrastructure, & Sender Reputation E - Engagement L - List Quality I - Identify Content Issues V - Validate Mobile Optimization E - Establish Timing & Frequency R - Recipient Personalization & Segmentation There are likely thousands of inbox placement factors with different weightings, but they fall into these groups. Engagement likely has the highest weighting, with things like stars & favorites, forwards, opens, and clicks having the highest weighting. Like SEO the best way to get emails into inboxes is to create emails that people love.