It’s an age-old adage that “the best defense is a good offense.” This sentiment couldn’t be truer in the battle for email marketing supremacy. While average marketers wait for problems to surface, the best marketers see problems in advance – then move decisively to eliminate them. Here are our top tips for improving your delivery rates before even sending an email…
1. Clean your lists – It should come as no surprise to veteran email marketers that checking email addresses is vital for ensuring strong delivery rates. Duplicate emails, inactive email addresses, suspicious domain names, and generic email accounts all make your emails look like spam and damage your delivery rates in the process.
2. Ensure your front end is optimized – Don’t wait until you start seeing incorrect email addresses in your lists – eliminate this problem when users sign up. Employ an email address checker to determine whether emails used to sign up for your lists are valid. If they aren’t, make sure users correct their mistakes or are removed from your lists.
3. Quickly remove unsubscribes – Even the best email campaigns don’t appeal to everyone. Although you have 10 days to remove unsubscriptions by law, process these as soon as possible to avoid users marking you as spam. Oh, and you are including an “unsubscribe” option in your emails, aren’t you?
4. Attempt re-engagement with inactive subscribers – An easy way to improve your lists without removing as many subscribers is to check in with recipients who have been inactive for a pre-determined amount of time. Use software to do this in an automated fashion – check back in if a user has been inactive for a few months, then send a follow-up message a week later. If you don’t hear anything back, remove that email address from your list.
5. Check feedback loops – Even if you’re not sending spam email, people might complain about the frequency or content of your promotional emails. Contact your ISP to track the number of these leveled against you. If that number is too high or growing, you’ll need to change your email tactics.
Being prepared is imperative for successful email marketing campaigns. If you do your homework, your mass emails will be in a great position to bring in customers.