Improve your deliverability for your email marketing
Most companies don’t think about deliverability until they have a problem and yet it’s one of the most important factors in email marketing. If your emails don’t reach your contacts then all the time and effort spent on content, design and strategy could be wasted. This weeks quick blog discusses how a small change can make a big difference.
How to improve deliverability?
The first step is getting access to your DNS record and installing what is known as email authentication protocols. This a very important part of email marketing, you need the correct email authentication or you risk of having your emails blocked and/or having your domain blacklisted. The three primary authentication protocols are SPF, DKIM & DMARC, by having these in place you authenticate the sending server in the eyes of the filter. This improves your deliverability because your email marketing provider has permission to send emails on your behalf.
What does SPF/DKIM/DMARC mean?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a method for recipients to check your domain registry where you’ve authorised your host or your sending service to deliver emails on your behalf. In other words, it helps your recipients determine if an email is a scam or not.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is a little more complex but in essence is still an email validation system designed to detect email spoofing by providing a mechanism to allow receiving mail exchangers to check that incoming mail from a domain is authorised by that domain’s administrators and that the email is from a legitimate sender.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a technical specification created by a group of organisations that want to help reduce the potential for email-based abuse by solving a couple of long-standing operational, deployment, and reporting issues related to email authentication protocols.
Word of warning – due to its technical nature, even seasoned marketers may need help putting the right structure in place.
Will that improve my open rates/bounce rate and click throughs?
Not on it’s own no. Being completely honest, no ESP can promise to improve these metrics for you with a domain pack. It is a significant part of the email marketing process yes but it also requires other aspects of your marketing plan to be considered.
- Check the quality of your data – when did you last do a send to everyone? Have you checked the validity of the data? Do you know who is engaging and who may need waking up?
- When, why and what are you sending? – Are your campaigns targeted or are they spray and pray? Do you personalise your campaigns? Do you send frequently?
- Are your emails accessible? – Do they land well on email? Do they look good on all every device? Are your calls to actions clear? Accessibility is being able to access content by everybody.
- What are your email details? – Is your from name a person or a company? Whats your from address? What is your subject line? Do you include preview text?
By understanding these points, you will be able to investigate if you need to make changes to your database, campaign layout or your email marketing plan. These aspects teamed with the domain pack will help you improve your engagement levels.
If you would like to have a chat with us about your email marketing strategy or installing a domain pack feel free to get in touch on email or give us a call on 01392 447200
Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection feature…
What is Mail Privacy Protection?
Anyone with an Apple device that has recently updated iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 may have opened their Mail app and been prompted by a Mail Privacy Protection message.
