13 Solid Ways To Improve Marketing Email Delivery Rate (eCommerce)
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The average email delivers an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. While the average varies across industries, there’s a ballooning problem—your marketing emails are not getting delivered to your customer’s inbox. With the average email deliverability rate nearing 89% with stricter regulations, it is only getting tougher.
In today’s blog, we’ll be covering 13 ways to improve your eCommerce email delivery rate with a detailed overview.
1. Build authentication with SPF
3. Protect yourself against cyber attacks with DMARC
6. Create emails that users want to click
8. Refine Email lists every 3 months
9. Ask customers to confirm twice (double opt-in)
10. Create emails that read well on mobile
11. Don’t hide your Unsubscribe option
12. Do your homework on international laws
13. Know which tool is right for you
Sender Policy Framework(SPF) is a standard authentication method protecting your email from spoofing(identity theft). It prevents your email from ending up in spam. Adding your SPF record to the DNS lets you provide a public list of senders that are approved to send emails from your domain.
The receiving servers then verify if these emails are legitimate and originate from a server authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain.
Learn to create an SPF record in 5 easy steps:
Start making a list of all mail servers and IP addresses you can use to send emails from your domain. Start with web servers, ESP mail servers, in-office mail servers, mail servers of subscribers’ mailbox providers, and third-party mail servers sending emails on your behalf. Reach out to your ESP for any queries regarding this.
While it might seem a no brainer to not add your non-sending domains to the SPF record, cybercriminals might try to impersonate them and send phishing emails. Hence, add both—sending and non-sending domains to your SPF to protect them from spoofing.
At this stage, the SPF validates your sender’s identity by comparing the sending mail server’s IP address with the list of approved IP addresses. This is found in the DNS record.
Your DNS record maps the URLs to the numerical IP addresses. The next steps involve a bit of work. Refer to the guide for help.
Once you have your SPF record, publish it to your DNS by logging into your DNS manager. Please note that your DNS lookups are limited to 10(including nested lookups). Finally, verify your DNS using an SPF record checker.
Domain Keys Identified Mail(DKIM) uses a digital signature conveying a receiver an email knowing that it is sent by an authorized domain. It proves that the email hasn’t been altered and is legitimate. Before setting your DKIM record, you will need—a list of domains and third-party applications, a DKIM package for the server, a DKIM key wizard, and a DNS manager.
You can go ahead and create a DKIM record by:
You will be needing a DKIM package to install on your email server. Before you select a DKIM package, run through the email server’s OS. The installation process varies according to different DKIM packages and OS.
Generate your public and private key pairs using a DKIM key wizard. Mention the selector names for your key pairs. These selector pairs inform receiving email servers where to find public keys for each domain.
Next, you need to publish your public key by creating a TXT record to the DNS. As for your private key, it will be hidden by your DKIM package.
You will need to work with your ESP and hosting provider to configure your email server. The last step is to use a DKIM record checker to confirm if receiving servers can locate your public key. The reason? This is done to authenticate that your email came from a genuine domain, concluding the testing of your DKIM setup.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance(DMARC) ensures your recipients that the email is not a spam or phishing attack. It also helps outgoing emails that didn’t make it through SPF and DKIM servers, decide the next course of action.
Follow these steps to set up your DMARC record:
In your DNS hosting provider, you’ll find a prompt to create the DMARC record or find the TXT section to edit. Depending on the interface, you will find three fields namely Host/Name, Record Type, and Value. Select TXT from the dropdown list as the record type.
Type your host value under the format _dmarc.mydomain.com and insert this code under the value information field:
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarcreports@mydomain.com
Save your DMARC record and validate the same using a DMARC check tool
Brand Indicators for Message Identification(BIMI) is an email specification requiring brands to display their logos next to the email messages. Together with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, BIMI helps in email deliverability. Let’s create a BIMI record:
Prepare your IP with a warm up to signal the ISP that your emails are relevant and build a good IP reputation. Here’s how you can do it:
A dedicated IP is exclusive for sending your emails. It isn’t shared by other users, giving you more control over the sender reputation. This helps brands with a high percentage of active users where high-volume emails are the norm.
Send your warm up emails according to this schedule:
Before you go ahead, we recommend you check the daily limit set by the email host.
Spammy words that make promises too good to be true, create unnecessary pressure, or are unethical must be avoided. As per Mailmodo, here's a list of spammy words and symbols that will severely hurt your email deliverability—
Spammy symbols
Spammy words
There’s a long list of spammy words, before you send your emails, test your email with an email spam checker to write spam-free emails.
The average open rate for retail is 27.24%. To ensure you meet this baseline, create emails that users click instantly. Start by:
Add a sender name followed by the name of the brand to evoke trust. 42% of customers say the sender name is the first thing they look at before clicking emails.
34% of users open emails after reading the subject lines. It is also known to improve clicks and conversions. Create curiosity gaps in the subject lines, personalize beyond first name, feature relevant topics such as trends, etc.
Trigger emails are activated when a user completes a specific action like subscribing to a newsletter or signup. The best part is that these emails boast an open rate and CTR of 38.03% and 6.76% respectively.
Want to know what kinds of trigger emails should you be sending?
You can send:
Write your emails by factoring ‘What’s in it for me?’. Customers will find your emails useful if it offers tangible value. Use these tips to make your email valuable:
Offer a discount or a promo code to grab the reader’s attention. Product bundling, limited-time offers, BOGO, free shipping on AOV, and flash sales are equally effective in getting users to click.
Use contractions and write as if you’re writing a fifth grader. Keep sentences short. Use exclamations and an active voice to keep it engaging. Here’s an example of a good email that is conversational and engaging.
While a bad example for a marketing email would look like this—robotic and salesy and lack of full stop.
Remember, you must keep it simple so even a third grader must be able to understand easily.
Make lives easier by offering a solution to a problem. Define the problem, agitate(describe how the problem is causing trouble), and next explain how your problem is the ideal solution.
Here's a real-life example of an email written using the approach.
Cleaning your email lists every 3 months will improve your sender reputation. You will want to follow these steps to clean your emails:
Hard bounce refers to emails that can’t be delivered due to permanent reasons such as invalidity or strict spam filters. Filtering these emails will improve your sender score(scale of 1-100) so your emails are delivered to more recipients.
Find all inactive subscribers and work on re-engaging them. While the norm is to delete them, sending re-engaging emails will reduce the list of inactive users, unlocking new opportunities for sale. You can send a dollar-off discount, give them access to new arrivals, offer membership benefits, or join anniversary emails.
Here’s a brilliant example of a re-engaging email selling the exclusivity behind signing up for a membership program.
A signing-up anniversary email is another captivating way to re-engage your customers.
In the era of tougher cyber laws, it's best to ask your customers to confirm using the double opt-in. This will allow you to maintain a quality subscriber list as the consent is communicated clearly.
Ask users to confirm in the email once they sign up so you build a steady email list. A practice that will help you achieve deliverability over time.
Pangaia uses the double opt-in method for users to confirm their email addresses. It also declares their consent to subscribe to marketing emails.
Before you start sending out double opt-in emails, you might want to factor these elements:
Designing mobile responsive emails can increase your mobile CTR by 15%. To create emails that translate well on mobile, here’s what you can do:
A single-column layout(600-640 px) helps to scroll and the information doesn’t break apart on mobile.
The text is easily visible, making the user experience smooth. It’s scalable since it is built in HTML that easily adapts to any device. Not to forget it is compatible across all email service providers.
The ideal width size for mobile is 320 px which avoids disturbance while scrolling. This provides a better viewing experience in landscape orientation.
Live texts are present in the HTML code which immediately activates when your images fail to load. This way the user can understand the message with the text.
Always include an unsubscribe link in the footer of your emails so customers can easily opt-out. This will improve your clickthrough rates, improve sender score, thereby improving email deliverability.
We recommend you to familiarize yourself with the laws of the geography you operate. The CAN-SPAM Act of the USA mandates all commercial and marketing emails to include an unsubscribe link, with clear instructions on how to do it.
Further, it states that any request to opt out must be fulfilled within 10 days.
As long as you follow the international laws on emails, you are going to do just fine. In the context of the USA, here are 2 federal Acts, you would want to note down:
CAN-SPAM Act
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act specifies 7 laws to abide by:
Also read: How to Increase Email Marketing ROI (Updated 2024)
GDPR
As per the GDPR law, eCommerce brands are required to:
While this might be overwhelming, an email marketing tool that can help you with compliance can make things easier.
While email marketing tools are plenty, there are a couple of factors you should consider before investing in one.
Evaluate your selection based on:
In the end, choose the email automation tool that ticks all the boxes.
While Google might answer by saying 95% or more is a good email delivery rate, it unfortunately isn't as simple. A good score for others might not be realistic enough for you.
Besides, what's accepted in one industry would be frowned upon in another. Case in point, many countries don't mandate consent for B2B emails. So, the delivery rate is naturally lower.
When subscribers love reading your emails and your sending domains don't get flagged as spam, you are much closer to attaining your ideal email delivery rate. Once you nail this, cleaning your email lists every 2 weeks takes you even closer.
Ultimately, if your email delivery rate is higher, and your metrics don't translate to revenue, your email delivery rate is no good. The day when email marketing revenue pays for your ESP costs, you'll have achieved your good email delivery rate.
First things, both aren't the same, a mistake most brands make. Let's get it out of the way.
Email delivery is the percentage of emails sent from your domain to your subscriber's email server without a hard bounce. In contrast, email deliverability is the number of emails that reach your subscriber's inbox without bouncing off, ending up in spam, or worse—end up getting blacklisted.
While there many ways, using your ESP to check your email delivery rate is an easy method. Log in to your ESP dashboard and look for Campaigns, Reports, or Analytics. Look for the email delivery metric that's expressed in percentage.
As per the email sender guidelines 2024, all senders who send 5000 messages must have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication for their domains. Next, they must have forward and reverse DNS records. If the spam rates exceed more than 0.3%, senders will be permanently blacklisted. Finally, an unsubscribe link must be visible in the email.
Try reaching out to the ISPs who blacklisted your IP and know the process of coming out clean. You'll have to find the reasons of what leading to the blacklist. All blacklist operators will provide ample information on what what can be done to revoke the action.
It's always the simplest things that senders don't implement—such as not warming up IPs, spammy content, and not using first-party data.
Choosing the best ESP involves more than just cost. Evaluate your email marketing needs—how many emails you send daily, weekly, and monthly. Then, you'll find out what kind of campaigns do you run? Is it targeted email marketing, or drip marketing, and what's your email workflow like?
You will have to decide based on deliverability, list management(how easy is it to filter email lists), preference centers—what channels do they prefer? and options to opt-out. Wrapping up, you'll have to factor in scalability, customer support, and ease of use.
This one won't be easy if haven't been diligent with your email marketing in the past. Start monitoring the number of spam complaints—use the feedback loop in Google Postmasters to identify what went wrong. Be cautious—let's say you send 5000 messages, you'll make sure 15 of those emails shouldn't end up as spam.
For that, you'll have to:
With these tips, your email delivery rate will eventually increase, but there’s a problem.
98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem Convertcart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
How we can help you:
Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.
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