What is email deliverability?

When you send an email campaign, you want your messages to reach your audience's inboxes. Email deliverability is all about whether your emails successfully arrive in the primary inbox, rather than getting caught in spam filters or blocked entirely. It's not just about an email being "delivered" to a server; it's about making it past various gatekeepers to land where it can actually be seen and opened by your subscribers. A high deliverability rate means your valuable content reaches its audience, making your email marketing efforts worthwhile. Think of it like this: your email service provider (ESP) might tell you an email was "delivered," but that simply means it reached the recipient's mail server. Deliverability goes a step further, ensuring that mail server then places it into the main inbox folder. Factors like your sender reputation, email content, and technical setup all play a big role in this journey. Understanding and improving email deliverability is key to maximizing your email marketing ROI.

Why it matters for your marketing

Good email deliverability is essential for any marketing team. If your emails consistently land in spam folders, your carefully crafted messages go unseen, and your marketing efforts are wasted. This directly impacts your campaign performance. Lower deliverability means fewer opens, fewer clicks, and ultimately, fewer conversions and sales. Your return on investment (ROI) for email marketing will suffer significantly. Poor deliverability can also harm your brand's reputation. If subscribers expect emails but never see them, or find them in spam, it erodes trust and diminishes your brand's value. This can also lead to higher unsubscribe rates or spam complaints, further damaging your sender reputation. Ensuring emails consistently land in the inbox helps maintain a healthy relationship and supports your overall marketing goals.

How to improve your email deliverability

Improving email deliverability involves a mix of technical best practices and smart content strategies. By focusing on these areas, you can significantly increase the chances of your emails reaching the inbox.

Maintain a clean email list

Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers, invalid addresses, and hard bounces. Sending to outdated or uninterested contacts signals to ISPs that your emails aren't valuable, hurting your sender reputation. Use double opt-in to ensure subscribers genuinely want your emails, starting your relationship strongly.

Implement email authentication protocols

Technical setups like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) are crucial. These protocols verify your emails are legitimately from your domain and haven't been tampered with. Correct setup tells ISPs you're a trustworthy sender, making spam flagging less likely.

Craft engaging and relevant content

Your email content plays a major role. Avoid spammy words, excessive capitalization, or too many images without enough text. Personalize content and ensure it provides value. Emails with high engagement (opens, clicks, replies) signal to ISPs that your content is desired, boosting your sender reputation. Low engagement or spam reports will hurt it.

Monitor your sending reputation

Your sender reputation is a score ISPs assign based on your sending history. Factors like bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and engagement rates contribute. Tools can help monitor your domain's reputation. A poor reputation can lead to emails to be blocked or spammed, so active management is key.

Test and segment your campaigns

Before a large send, test emails across different clients and devices. Use segmentation to send targeted content to specific audience groups. Sending relevant content to engaged segments improves engagement and reduces spam complaints, positively impacting deliverability.

Key metrics to track

To understand your email deliverability, it's vital to monitor specific metrics that provide insights into how your emails are performing with ISPs and subscribers.

Bounce rate

This metric shows the percentage of emails that couldn't be delivered. A "hard bounce" means the address is permanently invalid, while a "soft bounce" is a temporary issue. High bounce rates, especially hard bounces, severely damage your sender reputation. Aim for a bounce rate under 2%.

Complaint rate

The complaint rate measures how many recipients mark your email as spam. Even a low rate (e.g., above 0.1%) can harm deliverability. This strongly signals to ISPs that your emails are unwanted, leading to more aggressive filtering.

Open rate

While not a direct deliverability metric, a consistently low open rate can signal deliverability issues. If emails land in spam, people won't see them. A healthy open rate suggests emails reach the inbox and resonate.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Similar to open rate, a good CTR shows your content is engaging and valuable once opened. High engagement, including clicks, tells ISPs subscribers want your emails, helping maintain a positive sender reputation. Email deliverability is a fundamental aspect of successful email marketing. It's about ensuring your emails arrive where they can make an impact. By cleaning lists, authenticating sends, creating valuable content, and monitoring key metrics, you can significantly improve deliverability. Make these practices a regular part of your strategy to ensure your messages reach their audience and drive better results.