Techniques for Increasing Email Deliverability and Open Rates

Learn everything about Email Deliverability and Open Rates and how to increase them to get more people reading your messages.

Giuseppe D'Angeli

Giuseppe D'Angeli

CEO & Email Marketing Expert

Last Updated on Dec 8, 2022

Digital media campaigns rise and fall based on various factors, but none are more critical than email deliverability and open rates. After all, what’s the point of creating a fantastic campaign if your emails don’t even make it to the intended recipient? That's why ensuring good email deliverability is crucial for success with digital media campaigns.

Yet, with the average open rate for email campaigns hovering around 22%, there’s plenty of room for improvement. And inboxes are constantly filling with promotional emails, so standing out from the competition can be challenging.

Fortunately, you can use specific techniques to boost your email deliverability and open rates. In this guide, we will take a closer look at deliverability, open rates, and some of the best tactics for improving both.

Let’s start by looking at some key terms and metrics you should understand before diving into deliverability. Then, we’ll explore some of the most effective techniques for boosting your email performance.

Email sending steps

Image 1: This illustrates the process from an outgoing email to the inbox of the recipient.

Defining Email Deliverability and Open Rates

Before you can learn how to improve your email deliverability and open rates, it’s essential to understand the basic terminology.

Email deliverability is the ability for an email to be successfully delivered to the intended recipient's email address. Businesses need to ensure that their emails reach their target audience - this is the primary goal of email deliverability. This means avoiding spam filters, ensuring that emails are not blocked by ISPs (internet service providers), and making sure emails make it to the intended inbox.

Open rate measures how many people open an email sent to them. This metric measures how effective the email campaign is, showing how many people have taken the time to read the message. Open rates can vary depending on a range of factors, such as the type of email, the subject line, and the content of the email. If your open rates are low, it’s likely a sign that you need to update your email strategy.

Good email deliverability and open rates are essential for any successful email marketing campaign. When these are high, more people receive and engage with the emails, which can result in more sales and conversions. But for many businesses and brands, this is easier said than done.

Why increasing email deliverability and open rates are important

To ensure your emails reach the intended recipients, you must ensure your email deliverability and open rates are as high as possible. This is especially important if you’re running an email marketing campaign for a product or service.

Having a high email deliverability rate means that your emails are being delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox so they can actually read them. A high open rate means your emails are being opened and read - and increases the chances of the recipient taking action.

Good email deliverability and open rates are essential for a few reasons:

1. Increased target audience engagement

First, it helps create engagement with your target audience. When people see your email in their inbox and open it, they are more likely to engage with it, leading to more sales and conversions.

2. Enhanced authority for your brand

Second, it helps build trust and credibility with your target audience. If your emails are delivered and opened, people are more likely to trust that the content is relevant and useful. And when they trust your brand, they’ll be more likely to engage with it.

3. More effective marketing campaigns

Finally, it helps increase the visibility of your brand. When people see your emails in their inbox, they are more likely to remember your brand and associate it with your products and services, which can help drive more sales.

Increasing email deliverability and open rates is essential for any email marketing campaign. It helps create engagement, build trust and credibility, and increase your brand's visibility - essential if you want to grow your business.

Now that you know why email deliverability and open rates are important, let’s look at some of the most effective techniques for boosting your email performance.

Strategies for Increasing Email Deliverability

Cleaning and organizing your contact list

Cleaning and organizing a contact list in email marketing is crucial in any successful email marketing campaign.

An organized and clean contact list ensures that your emails will be delivered to the right people and that they will be more likely to open and read them. An unorganized list can send emails to the wrong people or, worse, to people who have unsubscribed from your list.

Additionally, a well-organized contact list allows you to segment your audience and target different segments with specific content and messages.

This is an essential part of any successful email marketing campaign, as it allows you to send tailored emails to different audiences and maximize the impact of your campaigns. Finally, an organized contact list also helps you to stay compliant with data protection laws and regulations, as it ensures that you only have permission from contacts to send them emails.

Utilizing email authentication protocols

Email authentication protocols are essential for email marketing because they help ensure an email message's authenticity, protect against malicious and fraudulent messages, and help ensure that legitimate messages are delivered to the intended recipients.

Authentication protocols help to ensure that emails are coming from a legitimate source and that the content of the email is not malicious or fraudulent. By verifying the sender of an email, email authentication protocols can help to prevent phishing attacks, which are a common way for attackers to gain access to sensitive information.

Authentication protocols also help to ensure that legitimate messages are delivered to the intended recipients. This is because authentication protocols help verify that the email's sender is legitimate and that their emails are not intercepted or blocked. This helps to ensure that emails from legitimate sources reach their intended recipients and that important messages are not blocked or lost.

Utilizing email authentication protocols is an integral part of any email marketing strategy, as it helps to ensure that messages are delivered to the correct recipients, that the content of the emails is legitimate, and that email accounts are kept secure.

List of email authentication protocols

Protocol Description
S/MIME Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is a standard for public key encryption and signing of e-mail messages. It is an IETF standard specified in several RFCs.
DKIM DomainKeys Identified Mail is an email authentication method that uses public-key cryptography and digital signatures to verify the authenticity of emails sent from a particular domain.
SPF Sender Policy Framework verifies the domain name associated with an email message and ensures it comes from a source authorized by the domain's administrators.
DMARC Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance is an email authentication protocol that allows senders to specify how emails should be authenticated and how any failed authentication attempts should be reported.

Leveraging email delivery services

Email delivery services are an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes that want to increase their reach and engagement. Leveraging these services can help you send targeted emails to specific audiences, track the success of your campaigns, and ensure that your emails are delivered reliably and on time.

Using an email delivery service ensures that your emails are delivered securely, with an appropriate level of encryption and authentication. This protects your customers' data and helps prevent emails from being flagged as spam or blocked by internet service providers. Additionally, email delivery services can optimize your emails for various platforms and devices, ensuring they look great no matter where they are being read.

Another key benefit of leveraging email delivery services is the ability to track the success of your campaigns. Email delivery services can provide detailed analytics to show how many people are opening your emails, what links they are clicking, and how many are taking the desired action, such as making a purchase. This information can help you fine-tune your campaigns and ensure that you target the right audience and send out the right content.

Finally, email delivery services can help ensure that your emails are delivered reliably and on time. Many services offer features such as email scheduling, so you can plan out when your emails should be sent, and also offer real-time delivery monitoring to ensure that your emails reach their intended recipients.

Leveraging email delivery services is an essential tool for businesses of all sizes that want to increase their reach and engagement and ensure that their emails are delivered reliably and
on time. With the right service, you can track the success of your campaigns and optimize your emails for various platforms and devices.

List of email delivery services

Service Price Features
Sendgrid Pay-as-you-go Bulk email delivery, analytics, real-time notifications, A/B testing, dedicated IPs
Mailgun Pay-as-you-go Bulk email delivery, analytics, real-time notifications, A/B testing, dedicated IPs, dedicated support
Mailjet Pay-as-you-go Bulk email delivery, analytics, real-time notifications, A/B testing, dedicated IPs, dedicated support, advanced automation tools
Amazon SES Pay-as-you-go Bulk email delivery, analytics, real-time notifications, A/B testing, dedicated IPs, dedicated support, advanced automation tools, integrated with other Amazon services
SparkPost Pay-as-you-go Bulk email delivery, analytics, real-time notifications, A/B testing, dedicated IPs, dedicated support, advanced automation tools, integrated with other Amazon services, built-in security

Strategies for Increasing Email Open Rates

Crafting effective subject lines

Subject lines are one of the most important elements of an email campaign, as they are the first thing that your subscribers see when they receive your message. Crafting effective subject lines is essential for email marketing success, as it helps to ensure that your subscribers open your emails.

When crafting effective subject lines, it’s important to use engaging and relevant language to the email's content. Your subject line should be short, sweet, and to the point, giving your subscribers a clear indication of what they’ll find inside the message. It’s also essential to ensure your subject line is unique and stands out in the inbox.

It’s also important to avoid using words that might trigger spam filters. Spam filters often flag commonly used words such as “free” and “discount”, so it’s best to avoid them in your subject lines.

It's important to test different subject lines to see which ones work best for your audience. Using A/B testing, you can determine which subject lines are most effective for your subscribers and use them for future campaigns.

Crafting effective subject lines is an essential part of email marketing success. Using the tips outlined above, you can ensure that your emails are opened and read by your subscribers.

Optimizing email design and layout

Email design and layout are important for email marketing as they can help ensure your emails are effective and engaging for your target audience. Optimizing your email design and layout can help create a positive user experience, boost your open and click-through rates, and ultimately increase conversions and revenue.

Here are a few tips to help you optimize your email design and layout:

1. Use a Responsive Design

A responsive design ensures your emails look great on any device or screen size. This makes it easier for recipients to read and interact with your emails, no matter which device they use.

2. Keep It Simple

Simple, clutter-free design helps ensure your main message is visible and easy to read. Try to keep the layout of your email simple, with a clear hierarchy and plenty of white space.

3. Focus on Your CTA

Your call to action should be clear and prominent in your email design. Make sure it stands out from the rest of the content, is easy to spot, and is placed in a prominent position.

4. Include Visual Content

Visual content can help break up text and make your emails more engaging. Incorporate visuals such as images, videos, and infographics to help draw attention to key messages and calls to action.

Optimizing your email design and layout can help create a positive user experience, maximize engagement, and increase conversions. By following these tips, you can ensure your emails are effective and engaging for your target audience.

Personalizing emails

  • Personalizing emails is an essential part of email marketing as it helps to increase engagement and conversion rates. Personalizing emails can be done in various ways, including using the customer's name in the subject line or body of the email, including a personalized message, and sending emails with content tailored to the customer's interests or needs.
  • Personalizing emails allows marketers to create a more personal connection with their customers. This helps build trust and loyalty, as customers feel they are being addressed personally. Personalized emails make it easier for customers to identify the sender and remember the content, leading to higher open and click-through rates.
  • Personalizing emails can also help to increase conversion rates, as customers are more likely to take action when they feel they are being addressed personally. Marketers can also use personalization to segment their email lists, sending content tailored to different customer groups.

It's an important part of email marketing. It helps build trust and loyalty with customers, increases engagement and conversion rates, and makes it easier for customers to identify and remember the content.

Ideas for personalizing emails

Idea Description
Personalized Greeting Start the email with a personalized greeting based on the recipient's name or other personal details.
Referral Source If a recipient was referred to you, thank them in the email and mention the referral source.
Interested Topic If you know the recipient is interested in a certain topic, reference it in the email.
Location-based Content Include relevant content based on the recipient's location.
Behavioural Targeting Use behavioural targeting to show the recipient content that's tailored to their interests.
Call to Action Include a call to action in the email so that the recipient knows what to do next.
Responsive Email Design Example

Emails should be readable on all devices. Test it on desktop, tablet and smartphone before hitting the send button.

Conclusion

Increasing email deliverability and open rates are essential for email marketing success. When digital media noise is forcing audiences to pick and choose which messages to respond to, optimizing your email marketing can make the difference between successful campaigns and missed opportunities. If you don't have the right strategy, you could miss out on potential leads and customers.

To ensure your emails stand out among the competition, focus on optimizing your email design and layout, personalizing content to appeal to different audiences, and ensuring a high level of deliverability. With these strategies in place, you can build successful email marketing campaigns that help you reach and engage your target audience.

By applying these tips, you can create more effective, engaging, and deliverable emails with higher open and click-through rates. Once you have the basics in place, you can implement more advanced techniques to help further increase your email marketing success.

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