Email Deliverability Guide

Email marketing is a fantastic tool to nurture your audience, communicate, sell, and to build lasting relationships with your customers.

As business owners, we pour so much into crafting content which we feel will resonate with our audience, email deliverability, regardless of business size and stage, often gets overlooked.

Email deliverability = the ability of your emails to successfully land in the recipients' inboxes.

It involves more than just hitting the 'send' button; it’s about how your messages are received and perceived by email servers and your audience. Its a complex topic with endless blogs, videos, trainings.

I am going to tell you all of the things use in Funnel Sketchers to increase our ability to land in the inbox. These are the basics, and this is not a comprehensive full guide to email deliverability, but it will certainly help!

Things you can do when creating your emails

1. Keep Your Subject Lines Clear and Engaging

The subject line is the first impression your email makes.

Avoid using overly promotional words like “free,” “buy,” or “discount,” which can trigger spam filters.

Instead, focus on clear, engaging, and honest subject lines that accurately reflect the content of your email.

Personalization, such as including the recipient's name, can also increase open rates and engagement, signaling to email providers that recipients value your emails.

2. Use a Recognizable Sender Name

Using a recognizable 'sender name' (We call this the 'From Name' in Funnel Sketchers) builds trust with your recipients. Whether it’s your company name, a brand, or a key person within your company, consistency in the sender name helps establish familiarity and credibility. This not only improves open rates but also reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam, as recipients are more likely to engage with emails from a known source.

3. Optimize Email Body Content

To improve deliverability, keep your email content concise and relevant.

Overly lengthy emails can deter engagement, while sparse content may not provide enough value to the reader. - See what I mean about this being a guide? There are no hard and fast rules. What this means in essence, is that you do you, and try to stay consistent, its all about people engaging with your content.

Include clear calls to action and make sure any links are relevant and lead to trustworthy sites.

Avoid using too many different colors, fonts, and images that can distract from your message or look unprofessional, as these can also trigger spam filters.

4. Avoid Spam-Trigger Keywords

Certain words and phrases can trigger spam filters and cause your emails to land in the spam folder. Terms like "act now," "guaranteed," or "risk-free" are commonly flagged. It's important to communicate your message effectively without relying on these trigger words. Tools like Mail-Tester can help you check your content for potential spam triggers before you send your emails.

5. Regularly Update Your Content Strategy

Email preferences and behaviors change over time, so it’s important to keep your content strategy fresh and updated. Regularly review your email performance metrics to identify what types of content resonate best with your audience.

Things you can do in Funnel Sketchers

1. Set Up a Dedicated Email Sending Domain

What is it? You Sending Domain, is how the internet routes emails. It Rather than sharing the domain provided for all users, a dedicated email domain is a single private domain you use to send and receive emails. Within Funnel Sketchers- you have the ability to create your own dedicated domain.

Why it matters? Not having a Dedicated Email Sending Domain often results in your emails going into SPAM despite practices good emailing. This is why we provide lots fo videos and domain support to help ypu get set up!

When you set up a Dedicated Email Sending Domain, you can gain full control of your reputation and email deliverability. This means you can work your way into all emails going into the inbox while avoiding that SPAM folder.

How to Set it Up? We have a mini quiz in our roadmaps on this. Once you get your result it will send you the right video sequence to follow to get all domain set!

2. Remove Invalid emails

What is it? An email bounce occurs when an email is not delivered or rejected by the recipient's email provider. There are two types of bounces.

1. A hard bounce occurs when an email address does not exist.

2. A soft bounce is a temporary failure, and some more reasons, like the recipient servers being down or the mailbox being full.

Why it matters? Too many bounced emails will harm your domain reputation leading to emails going to SPAM.

What to do?
Regularly remove those invalid email addresses which have bounced.

2. Add Your DMARC Record

What is a DMARC Record? Think of a DMARC record as a set of rules for your business's emails. It tells email servers how to handle your emails when they arrive. For your emails to be successfully delivered, they must pass certain security checks (known as DKIM and SPF) that align with your DMARC rules. If an email doesn't pass these checks, it could be rejected, returned, or even end up in the spam folder.

Why Should You Set Up a DMARC Record?

new email rules in February 2024 states that a Dmarc is needed for people sending to over 5000 people at a time. However this may change, so it is good to be prepared and set it up anyway!

Setting up a DMARC record helps maintain your business’s email reputation and ensures your emails reach your customers' inboxes. Without a DMARC record, email providers might be skeptical of your emails and could mark them as spam, which means they might not be seen by your customers.

How Can You Add a DMARC Record? Adding a DMARC record is straightforward:

1. Log into your domain's DNS settings. This is usually where you manage your website's domain name.

2. Add a new TXT record with these details:

   • Type: "TXT"

   • Name: "_dmarc"

   • Content: "v=DMARC1; p=reject"

This tells receiving email servers to reject emails that don't meet your DMARC policy.

Check Your Setup After setting up your DMARC record, it’s a good idea to check that it's working correctly. You can do this by using a DMARC checker tool available online.

By following these steps, you'll help ensure your emails reach their destination safely and keep your business communication smooth and professional!

3. Use the Proper “From Email”

What is it? The “From Email” is the email a recipient will see when receiving an email.

For example, your Sending Domain might be “hi.yourdomain.com” however, you can send your From Email as “test@yourdomain.com” or as "test@hi.yourdomain.com.”

(I use the sub-domain version to make it exact, because theres is ONE version of outlook that makes email display a little odd if the send domain does not exactly match).

Why it matters? Using a “from email” that does not match the primary domain you are sending from can result in poor email deliverability.

How to Set It Up? Whenever you are sending from Funnel Sketchers, be sure your “From Email” has your primary domain in the “From Email"

Any other record will result in poor email deliverability. 

We can set up replies to go to your regular inbox!

4. Add Unsubscribe Links

What is it? An unsubscribe link allows your users to “unsubscribe” from receiving emails from you in the future.

Why it Matters? Not having an unsubscribe link will severely harm your email deliverability rates.

How to Set It Up? We make it as easy as possible to add an unsubscribe link all of your emails. Within the email builder, our “Footer” Element. Be sure to use this or edit and create your own. 

You have two options, you can use the default unsubscribe link we’ve automatically set up for you or you can create your own process.

5. Use Double Opt-In

What is Double Opt-In? Double opt-in is a process where subscribers confirm their email subscription twice. First, they sign up through a form, and then they validate their email address by clicking a verification link sent to their inbox. This ensures that only those who truly want to receive your emails are subscribed, unlike a single opt-in process where emails start being sent immediately after the initial sign-up.

Why is it Important? Using a double opt-in can significantly enhance your domain reputation and the likelihood of your emails reaching inboxes. This is because the process requires subscribers to actively confirm their interest in receiving emails by interacting with the first email they receive from you. This positive engagement boosts your domain's credibility. Moreover, it assures that your email list is filled with people who are genuinely interested in your content, which is a huge plus for any email marketing strategy.

How to Implement Double Opt-In? To set up a double opt-in system, especially if you're using a platform like HighLevel, you'll need to create a specific workflow. This involves a few steps within the software to ensure everything is properly configured. You can typically find detailed guides on setting this up in your platform's help section or resources, like a "How To Build A Double Opt-In Flow" guide.

By taking these steps, you're setting up your email marketing efforts for greater success and ensuring your audience is more engaged.

6. Keep the list clean

What Does It Mean? When managing your email list, it's crucial to stop sending emails to subscribers who do not show any engagement, such as not opening emails or clicking on any links in your campaigns. Continuing to send emails to unresponsive recipients can be counterproductive.

Why Does This Matter? Targeting your emails to engaged subscribers increases the chances that your emails will be opened and interacted with, which helps ensure they land in the inbox rather than the spam folder. On the other hand, continually sending emails to those who don't engage can signal to email providers that your messages might not be wanted, leading them to categorize your emails as spam.

How to Implement This Strategy? If you notice that certain subscribers haven't engaged with your emails for an extended period, consider reducing the frequency of emails you send them or stop sending them emails altogether. It might feel tough to reduce your mailing list size, but maintaining a clean list is key to preserving the health of your email deliverability.

Remember, it’s better to focus your efforts on subscribers who are actively engaging with your content. This not only enhances your performance metrics but also reduces the risk of subscribers marking your emails as spam or unsubscribing due to irrelevance. Ultimately, quality over quantity leads to more effective email marketing.

7. Sending Frequency.

What is the Ideal Sending Frequency? Finding the right balance in how often you send emails helps maintain a good reputation for your sending domain.

Sending emails too infrequently (such as only once a quarter) or too frequently (like multiple times a day) can both negatively impact your email reputation.

Why Is This Important? The frequency with which you send emails affects how recipients perceive your communications. Regular engagement (such as opening emails and clicking on links) by subscribers suggests that you can send emails more frequently. However, if engagement drops, it's advisable to reduce the frequency to perhaps once a week. And if recipients remain unengaged, it's best to stop sending emails to them altogether to avoid damaging your reputation and ensure your emails continue to land in the inbox.

How to Manage Email Frequency? There are various strategies regarding email frequency, but a balanced approach generally works best:

• For new subscribers, especially those who have confirmed via double opt-in, consider sending an email daily for the first five days to foster engagement.

• If there’s no response or action from the recipient within about 20 days, reduce the frequency to weekly.

• Continue with weekly emails unless the subscriber remains unengaged for an extended period (e.g., two months), at which point it's wise to cease sending emails to them.

• Reserve the right to send occasional special promotions or offers when appropriate, but keep these communications concise and infrequent.

Recommendations:

• Initially, you can send daily emails to new opt-ins to quickly engage them.

• If you observe a lack of engagement after one to two weeks, switch to sending weekly.

• For subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails over two months, stop sending them regular emails to avoid being marked as spam.

Remember, it's better to under-send than to over-send, and always prioritize quality over quantity in your email campaigns. This approach will help maintain your domain's credibility and increase the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

A few paid suggestions if email deliverability is something you want to improve further:

Enable Email Validation

What is it? Email Validation will check if the email you are sending is valid or not. Sending to an invalid email can negatively impact your email deliverability.

Why it matters? If you send emails that do not exist or are not valid, it harms your domain reputation leading to poor email deliverability. Meaning emails will go to spam or not be accepted into the mailbox at all.

What are the Costs?

We have a validation service that can be run every 90 days, and we charge £3 for 1000 Email Validations (compared to $12/1000 with MailGun) We would recommed doing this, but it is of course optional.

Set Up a Dedicated Sending IP Address

What is a Dedicated Sending IP Address? A dedicated IP address allows you to send all your email campaigns from a unique and exclusive IP address. By having your own dedicated IP, you gain complete control over your email sender's reputation, which is tied directly to your IP's behavior and history.

How to Set It Up Setting up a dedicated IP is most beneficial for businesses with heavy email traffic. If you're sending over 200,000 emails per week, you'll likely see significant advantages in securing a dedicated IP.

By investing in a dedicated IP address, you're prioritizing the health and efficacy of your email marketing efforts, ensuring your messages reach your audience without disruption.

What are the Costs?
It costs £59 per month for a dedicated IP address with Funnel Sketchers.

Overall...

Patience and persistence are your best tools.

Email deliverability isn't just about avoiding spam folders; it's about connections with your audience.

Each email sent is a step towards understanding what resonates with your subscribers, and nurturing a relationship that contributes to the growth of your business.

Keep monitoring the responses to your emails, adjusting strategies based on subscriber engagement, and staying updated with the latest email marketing practices.

Do not overthink this. it’s a learning process, but one that rewards your business with invaluable insights and customer loyalty.

Essential Email Tools for Monitoring and Enhancing Your Email Performance

Are you looking to test, track, or enhance the health of your email domain? Here are some powerful tools designed to help you troubleshoot and monitor your email sending practices effectively.

1. Test the "Spamminess" of Your Emails The content of your email plays a crucial role in its deliverability. For instance, excessive text or the use of URL shorteners can negatively influence how email providers view your messages. If an email appears too much like spam, it will likely be treated as such.

Here's how you can check the spam level of your emails for free:

• Visit Mail-Tester.

• Copy the unique email address provided by Mail-Tester.

• Create a new contact in HighLevel with the copied email address.

• Send your email to this new contact.

• Return to Mail-Tester and click on “Then check my score”.

• Review the score and adjust your email content accordingly.

This tool is incredibly useful if you're experiencing issues with emails being marked as spam, helping you pinpoint if your content is at fault.

2. Review Your "Email Health Report" To quickly identify any issues with your domain, such as blacklisting or missing email authentication records like DMARC, use the Email Health Report tool. Simply enter your sending domain to discover potential problems. This tool is a great starting point for troubleshooting or verifying your domain's reputation.

3. Advanced Monitoring: Google Postmaster Tools For more detailed insights, particularly if you're sending emails to users with Google accounts, the Google Postmaster Tools can be invaluable. This service provides detailed data on:

• Spam rates

• IP reputation

• Domain reputation

• Feedback loops

• Authentication

• Encryption

• Delivery errors

To utilize these insights, add a record to your sending domain and check the tool regularly. Note that it may take a couple of days for Google to compile data for some reports. If updates aren't appearing, try refreshing your page or accessing it via an incognito window to avoid issues related to browser caching.

For further details on how to use the Google Postmaster Tools and optimize your email strategies, visit their official guide.

These tools can significantly aid in maintaining the health and efficiency of your email campaigns, ensuring your communications reach their intended audience effectively.