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Marketers are dealing with a trend whose algorithm doesn't change much. Email marketing doesn't require much but it calls upon marketers to do the basic things right.
Email marketing software is used for marketing, sales and customer service functions. For marketing teams, email marketing software aids them in administering email templates, aligning CRM efforts, sending and delivering survey emails, running promotional campaigns and also helps to put in place a customer-focused newsletter.
A well-coined email copy needs to be doing its intended job. Delivered, opened, read and converted. Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still here to stay. Email marketing is one of the digital marketing trends to watch out for.
Factors that can decrease email deliverability
1. Spam content
This is usually with the subject. If your email subject line is more inclined to make pitches and quick sales, it will be deleted or worse - marked as spam and unsubscribed. Spam filters try to identify content that violates email providers' policies. They use algorithms to identify words or phrases that spammers use and look out for bad headers and bulky attachments.
2. High Bounce Rate
As a marketer, you want to keep your bounce rate at 2% or less. If your bounces are already within that number, don’t worry too much—that’s normal. However, something isn't quite right if your bounce rate rises to 5% or higher. Let's differentiate the bounces:
Soft bounces are generally temporary and usually indicate an overloaded email server. Your email service provider will try to resend the email campaign several times (usually five) before giving up. In most cases, soft bounces will turn into a successful delivery after multiple attempts.
Hard bounces: Hard bounces are more severe because they’re permanent failures. Maybe the domain is no longer valid, or the email contains a typo. It’s essential to remove all email addresses with hard bounces as soon as you find them. Campaign Monitor and other ESPs will automatically suppress any email addresses that result in hard bounces.
3. Phishing attacks
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message.
Tips To Improve Email Deliverability
1. Run opt-in campaigns
You can craft an engaging opt-in email message and share it with your old and new contacts. You can then request your old contacts to opt-in again and find a way to do away with those who no longer respond. You can choose to do away with the emails of those that don't respond.
All you need for your growing business are engaging and active contacts that can help you boost your deliverability rate and improve the chances of having your emails shared with contacts outside your current contact database.
2. Authenticate Your Domain
According to a Litmus study, one of the top sources for email marketing statistics, less than 40% of brands use three effective methods of email authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Authenticating your domain helps tell your email clients who you are, rather than a spammer.
3. Include the Opt-Out Option Clearly
This is a highly advised practice. It is possible that the customers will get tired of getting your emails. So make it easy for them to stop your email messaging.
You should include unsubscribing information even for transactional messages like shipping updates or appointment reminders. Not everyone wants to get these kinds of details by text.
4. Segment Your Emails
When you write a well-prepared copy to your audience, the chances are high that you will have an email copy that converts. This, therefore, makes it relevant to segment your emails. Segmented emails fetch more clicks than non-segmented emails. To have segmented emails requires you to start by segmenting your email contact list.
The segmentation criterion is usually defined by the type of the business and email marketing campaign objectives.
Your email contact list can be categorized according to;
Demographics
Industry
Client interests
Source of lead
Contest participation
Sales funnel drop-off. These help you to segment your email contact lists accordingly.
Think through your customer's needs and wants and endeavor to include them in the email to motivate the reader to act on your message.
5. Do use double opt-in.
Double opt-in means that after someone subscribes to your email list, you send them a follow-up email with a confirmation link ensuring they actually want to receive email communications from you. The customer who goes along with the double opt-in is committed to receiving your email campaigns
6. Double-check the “from” line of the email message
The “from” line is that part of the email that shows the names of the mail sender. The “from” line is as essential as the entire body in the email message since it handles a significant role of showing the recipient who sent the message.
The “from” line is what gets the first impression of the receiver, and then the receiver decides whether to open it or not. Being a stranger to people you contact, you need to eliminate suspicion and ensure that you earn the client's trust by crafting a good “from” line. Therefore, it is advisable to always review the “from” line before clicking the send button so that you correct mistakes and put things right. Just in case there is anything faulty.
A mix and match of the “from” line is another good way of capturing the prospect's attention, especially when you are doing a new email campaign. However, having a similar “from” line every time you are doing a new campaign may seem so familiar to the prospects and might turn out to be boring in the end. Therefore, a mix and match are highly recommended to avoid such cases.
Here are examples of mixing and matching the “from” line;
From Jefferson
From Jefferson Mathews
From Jefferson Mathews at Monkeypesa limited.
These three are different and may not be familiar every time you send out a new marketing campaign to the recipient. This might therefore keep them interested.
To get the best of the “from” line, ensure consistency in your writing, factor in your leads' perception, craft a line that gets into your prospects' expectations. And finally, think of whom your prospects would be the keenest talking to.
7. Polish your email signature
An email signature is an integral part of the email message that one wouldn’t ignore. Email signature informs your audience about your location, the company names, and how best they can contact you. This is crucial in building an excellent, cold email template.
A well-thought-out and clearly defined email signature shortens the email body thus making the message more understandable and transparent.
To make an excellent and valuable email signature ensure that;
The email signature makes you look trustworthy
Strictly add what is necessary
Don't congest the signature
Make a neat and clean HTML