Four Key Lessons From My First Role as an Email Deliverability Consultant

by Trey Naivar, Email Deliverability Specialist at Email Industries

Stepping into the world of email deliverability consulting has been an eye-opening journey. The past few months have been filled with learning, challenges, and significant growth. Here are the four main lessons I've learned starting out in this field.

1. Understanding the Importance of Email Authentication

Email authentication is critical to successful email deliverability. It involves setting up protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols help verify the sender's identity and ensure that emails are not tampered with during transit. Since the Yahoo/Google crackdown, this is more important than ever.

Key Takeaways:

• SPF: Allows domain owners to specify which mail servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of their domain, helping prevent spammers from sending messages with forged "From" addresses.
• DKIM: Adds a digital signature to emails, making it possible to verify that an email was sent and authorized by the owner of that domain.
• DMARC: Builds on SPF and DKIM by adding a layer of policy that instructs the recipient's email server on how to handle unauthenticated emails (reject, quarantine, or report).

Setting these up correctly ensures that emails have a higher chance of landing in the recipient's inbox rather than the spam folder. Not having these configured correctly can lead to significant deliverability issues.

2. The Significance of List Hygiene

Maintaining a clean email list is crucial for maintaining high deliverability rates. This involves regularly updating and cleaning your email list to remove invalid, unengaged, or dangerous addresses. Sending emails to outdated or uninterested recipients can lead to high bounce rates and spam complaints, which negatively impact your sender reputation. Unwittingly sending to traps and other dangerous addresses will very quickly harm your reputation as well.

Key Takeaways:

• Regular Pruning: Remove hard bounces (invalid addresses) immediately, and consider removing subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails over a certain period (e.g., six months).
• Engagement Tracking: Use engagement metrics to identify and segment your audience based on their interaction with your emails. Focus on re-engaging or removing inactive subscribers.
• Opt-In Practices: Implement double opt-in procedures to ensure that new subscribers are genuinely interested in receiving your emails.

Keeping your list clean improves deliverability and enhances the effectiveness of your email campaigns by targeting a more engaged audience.

3. Monitoring and Managing Sender Reputation

Sender reputation is like a credit score for your email domain. ISPs and email providers use this reputation to determine whether your emails are trustworthy and should be delivered to the inbox.

Key Takeaways:

• Monitor Regularly: Utilize tools that provide insights into your sender reputation. A good monitoring tool helps you identify and address issues promptly. Google Postmaster is useful if you send to a lot of Google addresses, but you’ll need something more robust to see the whole story.
• Avoid Spamming: Sending emails too frequently or to unengaged recipients can harm your reputation. Focus on quality over quantity.
• Feedback Loops: Enroll in feedback loops provided by ISPs to receive notifications when recipients mark your emails as spam. This allows you to take corrective action quickly.

Maintaining a positive sender reputation is an ongoing effort that requires consistent monitoring and adjustments based on recipient engagement and feedback.

4. Crafting Relevant and Engaging Content

Content is key when it comes to email marketing. Even with perfect technical setups and a clean email list, the content of your emails plays a critical role in deliverability and engagement. Engaging and relevant content encourages recipients to open, read, and interact with your emails, which positively impacts your sender reputation and deliverability rates.

Key Takeaways:

• Personalization: Tailor your emails to the interests and behaviors of your recipients. Use data such as past purchases, browsing history, and demographic information to create personalized content.
• Value Proposition: Ensure that each email provides value to the recipient. This could be in the form of useful information, exclusive offers, or engaging stories.
• Clear Call-to-Action: Make it easy for recipients to understand what action you want them to take. Clear and compelling calls-to-action improve engagement rates.

By focusing on delivering valuable and relevant content, you not only foster better relationships with your subscribers but also improve the overall effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

My journey as an email deliverability consultant over the past few months has been enlightening. Understanding the technical aspects of email authentication, the necessity of maintaining a clean email list, the importance of monitoring sender reputation, and the impact of crafting engaging content are key elements that have shaped my approach to email deliverability. These lessons are just the beginning, and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow in this field, surrounded by some of the best and brightest in the email deliverability world.

Today's article was brought to you by Trey Naivar, who's an Email Deliverability Specialist at Email Industries. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest email deliverability news and insights.