Email deliverability is becoming a new frontier in frustration and futility, especially to the DIY marketer. From IP reputation to content filters and even the reputation of your own domain, there are an increasing number of factors that can destroy your deliverability in short order.
DIY marketers are feeling the crunch the most. The open source revolution carried a promise that any geek-minded individual with a computer and a dream could get, create, or hack together pretty much any piece of software they could possibly need, for free. But the level of sophistication of the war on SPAM has caused thousands of honest entrepreneurs and really smart webmasters to falter as their deliverability rates approach zero.
So, is the answer a new plugin, a fancy script or maybe even a new open source application that boosts deliverability? Far from it.
Today's deliverability landscape is bleak, and without the use of three “hacks” for improving it, expect to be left in the dust with a majority of your email marketing blasts left undelivered.
Hack 1: Spy on the ISP's by watching your deliverability rates. This can be accomplished on your own, by creating a “seed list” of addresses spread across the various ISP's. (If you make your own seed list, be sure to use multiple addresses for each ISP or email provider, and spread them out across the alphabet). This more DIY method of monitoring your deliverability is tricky and you'll want to check each one of those addresses daily to see if your messages are getting through.
The alternative (which I prefer honestly) is to use a paid service that automatically does this for you - they'll give you a seed list to import into your list, and report back within 48 hours about your deliverability statistics. Either route you take, you'll be able to see where your
emails are getting blocked or labeled as bulk, which will help you know how to boost deliverability for future maillings.
Hack 2: This isn't so much a hack as it is a “throwing in of the towel.” At one point or another, you'll look at your deliverability rates and say - “Jeez, I could try to fix this myself, or I can pay someone to get good deliverability for me.” Luckily, there are paid autoresponder services out there that are inexpensive and ruthlessly maintain awesome deliverability day in and day out. Some examples include Constant Contact, iContact, Ninjaresponder, AWeber, and MailChimp.
Hack 3: Use the mailing checklist below, and mail at periodic intervals (like every 3 days, once per week, twice per day)… Being consistent and mailing “clean” emails will greatly boost your chances of good deliverability.
The “Deliverability Checklist”
[] The email is formatted simply, without scripts, attachments, or complicated coding.
[] The email content has been run through a SPAM Checker (a simple google search will yield a bunch of free ones)
[] The “From” and “Reply-to” addresses in your header are addresses on your domain, or a domain you have control over.
[] Use of ALL CAPS is kept to a minimum, especially in the subject line.
[] Any links in your email are pointed to a domain that has not been blacklisted (use redirects on your own domain if you're not sure)
If your email marketing is suffering from poor deliverability, then following the simple steps in this article should put you in the clear. But no matter what your deliverability rate, you're still missing the boat on email marketing if you haven't seen this video.
