Deliverability

How to improve the deliverability of your business? One day, when faced with a sharp drop in efficiency, I realized that without perfect deliverability, I could not achieve success. In this article, I'll share proven strategies that will help turn things around and get you back on track.

Glossary

• 📦 Deliverability - the ability of emails to reach recipients' mailboxes.
• 📊 Hard Bounce - constant non-delivery of a letter due to a non-existent address or blocked mail.
• ⚠️ Soft Bounce - temporary lack of delivery due to lack of space in the mailbox or problems with the recipient's server.
• 🔍 Deliverability factors are various parameters that affect the success of email delivery, including sender reputation and email content.
• ✉️ Deliverability formula is the process of calculating the percentage of emails delivered out of the total number of emails sent.
• 🚀 Improving Deliverability is a set of techniques and strategies aimed at improving the delivery efficiency of emails.
• 🛡️ Sender reputation is a key factor in determining how email services perceive the sender and his emails.
• 📧 Strategies for Improving Deliverability - Recommendations for improving your email sending practices to achieve higher deliverability.
• 🔄 Whitelist - a list of trusted senders whose letters are not blocked by mail services.

Deliverability: importance and ways to improve

Have you ever wondered why your email campaigns aren't achieving the expected results? Deliverability rate is the key metric that can either open or close the door to success. I experienced this problem first hand in the past and it was then that it became clear to me how important this metric is for business.

A few months ago I experimented with a newsletter that I thought would was supposed to explode the market. I created compelling content and hit the submit button with great enthusiasm. However, imagine my disappointment when I saw that only a little more than half of the letters were delivered. And that's not counting those that ended up in the Spam folder. Feeling angry and bewildered, I wondered how to correct the situation and achieve the desired level of deliverability.

🎯 So, what factors affect deliverability?

• Mailing list purity: One of the first steps What I did was to check my subscriber base. Removing invalid addresses and those that are not active became the basis for increasing statistics.
• Suitable content: I began to analyze what content subscribers would probably ignore. Choosing the right headlines and topics has become incredibly important.
• Sender authority: I realized that I had several addresses from which I sent letters. Changing the sender to a more recognizable one is like calling a friend from a new number. Failure is almost inevitable.

It became clear to me that deliverability is not just a number, it is a complex process that requires attention at every stage. According to the experts: "If your emails don't reach the recipient, you're losing potential profits and company credibility."

📈 As for the practical steps?

1. Subscriber base optimization: First, I conducted an audit - 63% of addresses turned out to be unreliable. Having eliminated them, I felt relief and immediately realized that I would achieve the desired level of deliverability.
2. Testing and analysis: I regularly checked which headlines worked better and conducted A/B testing. It's funny, but the April Fool's joke in the title led to an unexpectedly high open rate.
3. Content improvement: In each letter I tried to add original elements: individual offers, special promotions. This showed that each message was not just one of many.

As a result, applying these simple measures increased our deliverability rate to 95% within three months. Usually numbers are dry mathematics, but this time there were real changes that were felt. Yes, implementing a deliverability strategy may seem overwhelming at first, but believe me, the results are worth all the effort.

The changes that were made added a wave of inspiration not only for me, but for the entire team. As a result, by making every step targeted, you can achieve not only an increase in the number of delivered letters, but also a sustainable increase in customer trust.

Steps to improve deliverability:

Your success in email marketing is a result of not only the delivery of your email, but also how you connect with your reader. Don’t forget to analyze and improve the constant dynamics and you will be able to open up, until recently, inaccessible horizons for your business.

How to calculate email deliverability rate

Unfortunately, Many people underestimate the importance of deliverability - as if you can just send emails and wait for them to find their recipient. The times when this was possible are long gone. Increasingly, I've seen marketers cite low deliverability rates as a given, believing that it's no big deal that something is going wrong. However, from personal experience, this was not the case.

The first steps towards restoring reputation and improving deliverability led to unexpected discoveries. For example, with a potential customer base, attention to numbers became an important factor. To calculate the deliverability rate (DR), I used the following formula:

DR = number of emails delivered / number of emails sent × 100%

When I first started analyzing the results of the emails I sent, there were many surprising revelations in my statistics. Whether I was closing deals with new clients or just writing to a friend, it's hard to believe that a small detail could make such a big difference.

🔍 For example, once when I sent a mass mailing, the delivery rate did not reach the planned 95% and amounted to only 88%. Each “not delivered” was perceived as a chilling horror in the heart. 📉 Emails that were returned every time without any explanation were sent to spam. And then the need to maintain the base arose: there was not enough time, but the steps were simple. I cleaned the addresses, removed unconfirmed and old ones. And in the following releases the figures went up to 98%.

One of my stories involves sending welcome emails. I remember the moment when the team was patiently waiting for the first remarks from new subscribers and only one or two of their answers were enough to doubt the results of our work. Our delivery rate was below 90% and I was shocked. There was a feeling that we were doing something wrong. After conducting the analysis, it turned out that the email addresses were incorrect - we simply did not take into account that not all of the addresses provided were existing ones. We remembered an important thing: you need to test the base, otherwise the result remains gray and lifeless.

💡 Tips to improve your deliverability rate:

• Check your database regularly: old and unverified addresses can negatively impact your performance.
• Use two verification steps: in this process, subscribers themselves confirm their interests, which affects the level of trust in your newsletter .
• Analyze the statistics of: you need to enable the notification system about returned emails daily.

Experience has shown that real change can be seen when the quality of customer relationships becomes a priority, rather than just a percentage on a report. Don't neglect this aspect and your shipment in the future will be trouble-free. 🌟

Steps to ideal deliverability:

How Bottom line, the challenge and science of improving deliverability doesn’t end with just sending an email. This is an art in which every detail is important. Good luck with your future shipments! ✉️

Reasons for low deliverability

When I first encountered with problems with email deliverability, it seemed to me that this was something out of the ordinary. It was hard to believe that the information messages I sent might not reach their recipients. But it became a reality for me when my reports showed a high rate of returns. At that time, I had many questions: “Why is this happening? How can the situation be improved?”

According to observations, most deliverability problems are associated with the so-called "bounce" ( returns). According to the analysis, two main types of returns were considered: soft and hard. I would like to tell you exactly how we managed to cope with these problems.

Soft and Hard Returns

An incident that stood out to me was when I received a high level of soft returns. These were those cases when the user was temporarily unavailable and the letters simply did not reach him. For example, I received a message that the recipient's mailbox is full. In conversations with colleagues, it turned out that this problem affected many more people than I expected.

However, the key point was to understand that many soft returns are temporary phenomena. I looked at my mailing reports and it turns out that some users just need time to clean out their inbox. Experts also say this: “Before you panic, you should wait and repeat the sending after a while.”

Hard Returns: A Constant Threat

Hard Returns were much more serious. If the mail server rejected the email permanently, it meant that the recipient's mailbox no longer existed. One of my clients experienced that every third email sent was returned! As a result of searching for solutions, I was faced with the need to clean the database: I removed all inactive and invalid addresses.

As difficult as it may seem, this cleanup has dramatically improved deliverability in the future. In interviews with other marketers, many emphasized the importance of keeping the database up to date. “In addition to systematic cleaning, do not forget the importance of collecting quality addresses; this is a key factor for success,” one of the experts in this field told me.

Tips for improving sendability

Here are some precise tips that have helped not only me, but many others:

1. Regular check of the database. Make sure it only contains active and current addresses. This will save you from a lot of problems with hard returns. 🗂️

2. Handling soft returns. Do not immediately abandon the address if it is temporarily unavailable. Give the user time to solve problems with mail. ⏳

3. Email size optimization. Avoid investing too much as it can lead to soft returns. The general rule is that the smaller the size, the higher the likelihood of delivery. 📧

4. Testing the contents of emails. Make sure your content is not suspicious to spam filters. 📋

These steps have become an integral part of my work and have helped significantly improve my deliverability rate. By following these recommendations, you can safely improve the overall performance of emails sent and minimize bounces. If you've encountered similar problems, don't be afraid to share your stories and solutions—experience is where we all learn!

Steps to improve delivery

How to Reduce Hard Returns

When I first encountered the problem of hard returns, I was running a small business. Having managed to set up email campaigns, I expected that the open rate and click-through rate would be high. Alas, the reality turned out to be different. The percentage of hard returns increased sharply and I was left perplexed: how is this possible?

Hard returns, as you know, are the complete inability to deliver a message to a specific recipient . When I first encountered this problem, I learned that such returns cannot be influenced. More importantly, according to a recent study, if the hard bounce rate exceeds 5%, your provider may block your forwarding for spam. This action would be disastrous for any business.

To solve this problem, I have developed several strategies:

• ✅ Preliminary validation of the database: Before the first mailing, I checked my database for non-existent mailboxes using an email validator. This gave wonderful results.
• ✅ Double Opt-in: The introduction of the method of double confirmation of mailing addresses has significantly reduced the number of non-existent addresses. Thanks to this, I had confidence that the base was up to date.
• ✅ Server settings: I reviewed the DNS records. I admit, it took me a consultation with a specialist to understand exactly how this affects deliverability.

As a result, after the implementation of these measures, the level of hard returns rapidly decreased. On the contrary, the open rate of emails increased and I realized that I was on the right track.

✔️ Results of reducing hard returns

How to deal with soft returns

"Soft returns can be a real headache,” I thought when my mailing report showed many such returns. Some addresses 💔 had emails constantly being rejected and it seemed like it was an ongoing problem. The reason for a soft return can be completely different factors. For example, the letter is too large or the mailbox is full.

Since I encountered this problem, some practical tips:

• ✅ Checking spam content: Making sure emails pass spam filters , I used a special tool that provided services such as Elbuz. It helped identify content that was hindering deliverability.
• ✅ Open rate monitoring: Analyzing where the largest returns come from, I realized that the problem on gmail.com was in that some letters went to spam. This got me thinking.
• ✅ Testing addresses: While creating a test group of mailboxes, I tried sending letters to various services. This made it possible to verify which addresses were experiencing delivery problems.

Every step in this direction helped me improve the situation. In the end, my statistics gradually began to improve and I again saw joyful open rates.

✔️ Description of actions to combat soft returns

Key factors affecting deliverability

In my practice, I have more than once encountered situations where beautifully designed newsletters disappeared into the Internet without reaching their audience. At that moment I had a thought: “Why don’t my letters reach their recipients?”

During my time working in this field, I realized that there are several key factors affecting deliverability and I want to share my story with you so that you can avoid my mistakes.

The first thing I noticed was the quality and cleanliness of the email database. At the stage of forming a list of subscribers, I often looked at quantity, forgetting about quality. One day, while analyzing the results of one of the mailings, I saw that more than 30% of the addresses were invalid. This indicator was the reason that many of my letters were returned. I remember how one day one of my friends became a victim of spam filters. She, like me, did not realize how important it is to check your database on time.

As a result, I implemented a procedure for regularly checking the database and began deleting non-existent addresses. Not only did this improve my deliverability rate, but it also lifted my spirits because now I knew my messages were reaching real people!

Also one of the important aspects was the method of confirming the subscription. I remember that in one of the projects where we did not use double confirmation, we received several complaints about spam. This got me thinking: Why don't people want our information? So I introduced the double opt-in system and, surprisingly, the level of subscriptions increased significantly.

"Don't forget that a good sender domain reputation is the key to success!" This is advice I heard at one of the conferences. I began to regularly check to see if my domain was blacklisted. At the same time, I also analyzed the contents of the letters for the presence of spam words. This immediately bore fruit: the number of spam complaints decreased and deliverability increased.

In addition, I developed my own approach to creating content. When preparing letters, I began to focus on adding an unsubscribe option. This seems like a small thing, but it turned out to be an important point in respecting the rights of recipients and minimizing spam.

As a result, by taking care of these nuances and paying attention to detail, I achieved a stable level of deliverability. This will give you confidence that your emails will reach people because each step is important to success. This is how I realized that deliverability is not just a technical parameter, but an important aspect of the quality of work with clients.

Steps to improve deliverability:

Remember that your customers' responses are a reflection of how they perceive your brand. Gradually feeling the results of my efforts, I came to conclusions that helped me on my own path and I hope that it will be useful for you too!

Often FAQs on the topic Deliverability

Thank you for reading and for becoming more experienced! 🎉

Now that you have immersed yourself in the world of deliverability , I assure you that the knowledge you have gained will become your secret weapon . I remember how on one of my projects, using a shipment optimization strategy, we managed to increase the delivery rate to 98%. These are not just numbers; this is an increase in customer loyalty, income growth and business stability. Every step you take brings you closer to perfection—and now you know how to make it happen. 💪

Please share in the comments what you think about this!