The deliverability rate of your email marketing campaigns is absolutely, without a shred of a doubt, crucial to the overall success of your strategy.
A poor deliverability rate has a negative impact on all of your other marketing metrics including opens, click-through and conversion rates (among many others). With an email delivery rate down in the dumps, you're not going to see sales and referrals. Deliverability is possibly the most important factor in the success of your email marketing campaign.
Simply, if your emails aren't reaching the right and intended customers, then how in the world can they act on your content?
Don't fret! We're here to help, armed with our surefire tips to ensure that you're deliverability rate skyrockets.
Include Double Opt-Ins (Always!)
With a double opt-in, you're asking your new subscribers to confirm and then reconfirm their choice to receive your email promotions. Usually, subscribers receive an email in their inbox after the initial opt-in to confirm their email address but also to confirm that they do, in fact, really want to receive your emails.
This process may seem a bit cumbersome but it's now a marketing standard. We'll warn you, however, that after you implement a double opt-in, you may see your subscriber numbers drop a bit. This is normal, expected and will not last very long.
Double opt-ins ensure quality rather than quantity. You'll get engaged subscribers who are excited to hear from you.
As a great side effect, double opt-ins almost eliminate your chances of being thrown into the blacklist wasteland. Instead, with that little confirmation email, more subscribers will in fact add you to their whitelist (exactly where you want to be)!
Coach Your Subscribers
Now, to really make sure you're on that coveted whitelist, take a little space in your confirmation email to ask your subscribers to add you to their address book or contact list. With that little act, their email program will automatically recognize your email address as "friendly." Then, off you go, right into their inbox.
Further, what we mean by "coach your subscribers" is that many people don't know that they have to or should add the email address of their subscriptions to their contact list. In some cases, they may not even know how to do it. Quickly, walk them through how to do it and explain why they need to do it.
Clean Your List
From the dawn of direct marketing, the thorn in every marketer's side is a dirty list. Thankfully, cleaning up email lists is a lot easier now than back in the "olden days."
Cleaning your list ensures that you're seeing what email addresses are inactive, bad or even nonexistent as well as which subscribers opted out.
Be overzealous with your tidying. Don't let your cruddy old addresses clutter up your list.
Not only does your ROI sink, but also so does your credibility, trustworthiness and overall online reputation.
