How to Improve Email Delivery

Email delivery is the most important aspect of email marketing. After all, if your email is not delivered, it will never be read. Here are some ways to improve your email delivery when sending mass email marketing campaigns.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• One or more lists of email addresses
• Email marketing program

1. Explain up front to subscribers or customers when to expect the emails you will be sending them. If you are sending a newsletter, explain the dates and even the times that the subscriber should expect the emails. When sending purchase confirmations, explain how the email system works and advise them what sort of emails to expect based on their actions. Make sure you stick to your published schedule.
2. Ask the subscriber to add the "from" address to their address book. Most email clients will use the address book to identify approved senders and deliver the message to the inbox. If a message gets sent to a bulk or junk folder it is subject to the recipient simply deciding to mark all emails in that folder as spam, which can negatively affect your email reputation. Do not continually alter your from address, either; pick one and stick to it.
3. Confirm subscribers. When someone signs up to receive your newsletter or other email offer, make sure you confirm their subscription. This is the best way to ensure that your list contains people who really want to read your email messages. Improperly formatted email addresses can be weeded out of your system, and it ensures that other people do not sign up addresses that they do not control.
4. Provide an opt-out option to your subscribers and honor unsubscribe requests no matter how they are received. According to the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 (U.S.), you have 10 days to remove someone from an emailing list. They can send you an email request, call you or use an unsubscribe tool to request removal, and you are required to comply. If you continue to send emails to people who have requested removal, you will subject yourself to negative publicity, be labeled as a spammer, and ruin your email reputation. Enough complaints might even land you in court for violating the CAN-SPAM act.
5. Follow all the CAN-SPAM requirements. Each email that goes out must also include your company's physical mailing address and a privacy policy statement. The entire privacy policy can be placed in the message, but a link to the policy on your website will also suffice. Although the CAN-SPAM law is not ideal, it is the only law in the U.S. currently addressing the growing spam issue.
6. Clean out failed emails. When an email cannot be delivered it is said to have "bounced." The bounce message is a failed delivery report sent out by the mail server through which you are sending. A permanently failed email message should trigger complete removal of the address from your list. It will never work. Continuing to send emails that constantly fail is a surefire way to reduce email delivery. If a recipient's Internet Service Provider (ISP) sees a certain percentage of the email messages you are attempting fail, your mail server may be greylisted (slowed down), blocked temporarily or blacklisted. Being blacklisted might affect delivery to other mail servers and negatively affect your email reputation across the Internet.
7. Segment your email lists to target email messages more efficiently. After collecting data on the clients in your email address list, you should craft your email messages to meet their specific interests. The more segmentation you do, the more personalized and effective your email messages become. Improvements to your messages and segmenting your email lists helps improve each of the other areas previously mentioned and will maintain your email reputation.

Tips & Warnings

• Many email marketing programs help you manage bounced email, unsubscribe requests and message personalization.