The delivery rate of your email campaigns is a variable that depends on many factors.
Every little detail can affect the final result.
We have to be very conscious about all these points!
And review all the aspects strictly. The truth is that it is a difficult task, since the ISPs don’t usually send much information (normal, otherwise spammers could adapt their email campaigns easily).
We need to look for any signs, such as open rates, number of opt-outs, spam complaints, e.g. trying to detect patterns, to make tests and changes, whenever necessary, to see what happens.
The delivery rate cannot be measured without considering all the external factors. There are many factors that should be reviewed. Depending on the sender’s reputation a percentage of the email campaign may be rejected, that is why there are more parameters to take into account.
I remember an article some time ago, namely:
Your email campaign sent to Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo is landing in the spam folder? Where you can see an interesting table. With a bad reputation, up to 83.5% of emails can be rejected.
We’re not talking about the spam folder, but about emails which are not accepted by the destination servers.
But even with a good reputation, some filters may not accept the email. Anyway, I collected some mistakes that many users make Often, and myths, so I know what can be done to improve the delivery rate of your email campaigns.
Myths about the delivery rate of email campaigns
We will start with this short list:
1) If i received the test correctly, all my subscribers will receive it as well
It is not true. When sending an email campaign to many users, even if the tests have been received correctly, in some situations some subscribers could receiving it as SPAM. The opposite is also true, although a test has arrived in the spam folder, this does not mean that all emails will arrive as spam. As explained earlier, it is not a rule.
2) If the email is landing in the promotions tab, it is because something is wrong
It is not true. Usually, email campaigns have promotional contents, therefore the filter will send them to the promotion folder. Not that there’s anything wrong, the promotions folder exists exactly for these emails. If a particular subscriber move your email campaign to the main folder, It is a personal decision, and it will not be applied to other contacts.
3) It doesn’t matter that the mailing list has incorrect or non-existent email addresses. The destination server will just ignore these emails without affecting the sender score reputation
It is not true. If an ISP detects that you are trying to send too many invalid emails, the domain will be blocked, or the server will not accept the emails. And in case you’re a spammer, many of the existing emails will not receive your campaign in the inbox. It is the price to pay for not doing things right.
4) As I have never sent an email campaign, I have a good sender score reputation
It is not true. If a domain has never sent a campaign, it will not have a good reputation, initially it will be a neutral reputation. In the first campaigns, some filters can put some emails in the spam folder to see how subscribers interact with the newsletters. If subscribers mark the email as “This is not spam”, this will be positive for the sender reputation. Otherwise, the reputation may be negative. But the good reputation, as in all aspects of life, will have to be earned. I never lost a fight in kick boxing. But this does not mean I will have a good reputation in this sport, neither good nor bad, until I try to participate in a fight for the first time (and discover how bad I am in this sport). It is a funny example, but I think it is easy to understand.
5) Excessive use of images, or creating an email with a single image will not make any difference because after all it is just an email.
It is not true. The content is very important, you should never neglect this part, if you just send an image without any text in the email body, or very little text with just a link, can be a problem, although many users pay no attention to it, these details are very important. Remember that spammers will do everything they can to pass the filters, meaning they will study all the aspects and try to match them. If you send an email which seems like it is Spam… In short, your email campaigns must follow the rules, it doesn’t matter that you don’t want to spam your subscribers, if the filter thinks the email is not following the rules, the message will just be blocked, even if it is not spam. Fortunately, with Mailrelay you have a spam check button to verify the score of each email, with which you can review your campaign before you send it.
6) It is not necessary to always Include an unsubscribe link, it will not affect the delivery rate
It is not true. If you don’t include an unsubscribe link, you will have several problems. First, it is possible that the ISP will review the email to confirm that there is some form of opt-out, and when it doesn’t find any, the filter will lower your sender score reputation. Also, if the user cannot unsubscribe, he will just flag your email as SPAM. And that will be terrible for you. You don’t have to pay to include an unsubscribe link. If you don’t include this option, you will lose money.
7) The delivery rate depends entirely on the software you are working with
It is not true. It is important to work with a good email marketing software, we know that, but that’s not all. You also need to work with a good mailing list. Updated and double opt-in. You need to send relevant content, that your subscribers will find interesting. You will have to make sure your email campaigns have the proper format, the correct codes. Every aspect is very important.
8) the delivery rate will not change over time
It is not true. There are many factors that affect the delivery rate. And of course it will change over time, you can work to improve the rates, but it can get worse if things are not done correctly. It is not something that is done at the beginning and that you don’t have to work to keep things going well.
9) The IP is the key, there is nothing else to do
It is not true. Obviously having a good IP or IP range can be a good help, but that is not all, there are many factors to be considered. It’s a similar concept to the previous point. It doesn’t matter that you are using a good IP, if the filters find any problem, for instance if you have too many bounced emails, the emails may be blocked, each domain will have a different sender score reputation.
In short
To obtain good results, you will have to consider all the aspects of your campaigns, and the rules of each spam filter you will be working with.
Most of the problems discussed in this article are related to the fact that many users see this process as something static or mechanical.
You will use an email marketing software, a newsletter and a mailing list, therefore you just have to click to send and the messages will go to the inbox of all subscribers. But there are many other factors to be considered. And these factors will affect the results, a simple mistake can make all the difference.
Remember to check the campaigns you send, and to learn ways to improve.
And the most important thing, be careful when creating your email campaigns!