Let's talk about spam

Top tips on email deliverability plus how my newsletter got cancelled

Apr 26

Welcome to Connectable #019 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

I am so thrilled to have you here!

I want to help your business succeed. I want to inspire change. I want you to question your current processes and align yourself with the needs of your audience/community. I want you to attract the right people, solve the right problem and create superfans.

The medium? Email.

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🕸 Want to work with me? Visit my website.

Hey there, apologies for taking my sweet time in sending out my next newsletter, Substack decided to mark me as spam and shut me down. Apparently, it was a tech error but I’ll be honest, I was a little sad. Thankfully I’m back up and running and so, while we’re on the topic, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk a little more about spam. I know email deliverability is not the more riveting of subjects, but it’s actually kinda important…

Let’s talk about deliverability

You may have written the best email in the world, but if it doesn’t arrive in the sender’s inbox, it’s all been for nothing. If your email deliverability sits below 95% you’re not only leaving money on the table, you’re also harming your sender reputation, meaning your emails will slide their way into spam and promotion tabs or worse, not get delivered at all. As an email sender, you have to regularly assess and pass the roadblocks standing in your way.

Where do the problems lie?

Your overall goal is to protect your sender reputation and not get labelled as an unreliable sender by tech barriers such as spam filters or blocklists. Below are some things to consider.

1. Bounces

Bounces occur when mailboxes reject your email and send it back. The more bounces, the worse your reputation gets. Bounces are often divided into soft bounces and hard bounces.

A soft bounce is usually a short-term problem occurring due to, for example, your receiver’s inbox being full, the email being too large in size, specific mailbox tech issues or anti-spam/virus requirements not being met.

Hard bounces occur due to a permanent deliverability problem, which most often happens because the email address doesn’t exist or there were typos. This can occur very often if you purchase an email list, so be wary of this. Make sure you immediately remove email addresses that are hard bounces. It’s up to you to purge them.

2. ISPs

Internet service providers (IPSs) mark spam in accordance with the number of emails that are being sent (spammers typically send a high volume all at once). As such, try not to act out of character, and go from sending one email a day to suddenly sending 10 in a day. Added to this, if you have a large list, send them out in batches (it’s good to test different sending times anyway).

3. Authentification

Ready for some tech jargon? Yeah me neither… all you have to know is that there are 4 authentification protocols which protect our inboxes from spam and viruses and you can create a policy for each of the protocols. Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), Domain-based Message Authentication (DMARC), Reporting, and Conformance, and Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), which inserts your business logo next to the subject line, all ensure mailboxes know that you are who you say you are. Click on the links to learn more.

4. Spam complaints

Not only mailboxes can mark you as spam, but so can the owner of the inbox. The bottom line here is that you want people to be able to EASILY unsubscribe so that they don’t mark you spam (which is very bad news for your sender reputation). Playing hide and seek with your unsubscribe link is a great way to get marked as spam.

5. Engagement

Open rates and engagement do in fact also have an effect on deliverability. The lower the open rate, the more suspicious you are. This is where everything I have previously talked about in my newsletters comes into play. Be valuable, be trustworthy, and be who your audience needs you to be so that they actually want to open your email. This goes way beyond subject lines.

Some overall handy do’s and don’ts from email on acid:

DO include an unsubscribe link – it’s the law.
DON’T ever buy an email list.
DO practice consistent list hygiene.
DON’T skip email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI.
DO consider using double opt-in for list signups.
DON’T email your lists infrequently.
DO choose your sender name and subject lines carefully to avoid spam complaints and maintain higher engagement.
DON’T batch and blast your entire email list.

Takeaway: Don’t get cancelled.

Something awesome for the week 🚀

The InkHouse Blog - by Eman

Looking for copy secrets, website and email teardowns and business strategies? Eman regularly shares her insights on her blog and I particularly love her teardowns. Join her as she dives into the good and the bad of your favourite brands.