I guess your emails are landing in the spam folder more than the inbox; that’s why you are reading this blog. If you are worrying and tried multiple ways to make it land in the inbox but still failed, then this blog is for you.
Why do you think you land in the spam more than the inbox? Because you are spamming. Did I trigger you? Are you saying, Anirban, I am here for a solution not wanting to be blamed after thousands of different ideas? I intentionally did it, as this blog will be a fresh start for your email outreach.
Last year, the email delivery rate was 84.%, and with time, the efficiency is reducing; the number of emails sent and received daily in 2023 is 347.3 billion. In the year of 2019, there were 56% of emails marked as spam. In your case, you send value-driven emails. It is very frustrating and time-consuming as you try so many ways and don’t find the perfect email delivery; what if I tell you that this blog will change your email deliveries forever, and probably you won’t land in the spam folder again? Now, let’s dive deep into the game, Shall we?
First thing first, before we proceed further, let me clarify what spam email is. Spam or junk email refers to irrelevant, unwanted emails that often come in bulk to a large recipient.
There is a difference between spam and spam folders; not every mail that lands in spam is spam; there is a role to play for the Internet service providers, email clients, and recipients who might be considered spam. There is also an anti-spam (GDPR, CAN-SPAM Act, CASL) law.
Build your Email List
As discussed in the last blog, email is the best channel to talk with your audience or prospects directly. You need to understand it will not benefit you if your emails land in the spam folder. You need to build your email accordingly. Here, it would help if you kept some basic things in mind,
- Never buy emails from any third-party
- Never share your email list with anyone else
- Don’t scrape data with various tools to build your business; It will destroy the credibility.
Remember, you want a list of people genuinely interested in receiving your emails, not some random people you have never engaged with. The best idea to build a strong email list is organic way. It will take more time and effort, but the time will be worth giving.
Mind your email subject lines
Email clients check for the trigger words in your subject lines; if they feel it is related to spam, they will immediately put it in the spam folder.
According to Hubspot, there are words to avoid at any cost. They are
- Clearance
- Buy direct
- As seen on
- Additional income
- Be your boss
- Earn $
- Extra income
- While you sleep
- Money making
- Potential earnings
- Cash bonus
- Fast cash
- Increase sales
- Save up to
- Serious cash
- Why pay more?
- Once in a lifetime
- Web traffic
- Free Consultation
Plan now, you won’t regret it later.
Use a trusted IP address
An IP address is a unique set of numbers assigned to a sender by an ISP. It is listed in the domain name system and used to send emails on behalf of your domain name.
There are two types of IP addresses: shared and dedicated. Let’s understand them in more depth.
Shared IP address: These addresses are used by multiple senders, increasing the sending volume and frequency. In this case, you have nothing to do as it will also depend upon the other senders.
Dedicated IP address: In this case, there is one user and one server; no one else can send any mail. This is a good choice for a company profile and if you are sending more than 50,000 emails.
It would help to consider every aspect of your business and the requirements. Don’t forget to warm up the IP address before using it.
Authentication of the mail
It is a bit of a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s the most crucial aspect, as you must verify yourself to prove that you are sending legitimate emails. Recipients always expect authentic emails or may not open them and mark them as spam. Here are some ways to do it.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF): It confirms your identity by comparing the sender’s IP (domain’s DNS record) with a list of IPs authorized to send from that domain.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): ensures that email isn’t tampered with during the transmission/sending.
Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC): It leverages the power of DKIM and SPF by requiring both to send and deliver mail.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI): It attaches your business’ logo to your emails, making them more recognizable to recipients.
Clean up your list regularly
The most important aspect of outreach is understanding that every email is not helpful for your business. Some people subscribe to a particular thing, and once they are done with that, they generally don’t open the emails, or sometimes people change their emails. Lastly, people might be no more interested in your emails. It’s okay to send fewer emails who are interested and regularly engage with your emails more than sending more people who aren’t engaging or not interested.
Regular cleaning will also help you identify the actual audience and their demand; it will never land in the spam folder again.
There is a concept of Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce; let’s understand it in depth.
Hard Bounce:
A hard bounce happens when you send a message to an email which doesn’t exist. Mostly, people use fake emails to skip providing their email IDs.
Soft Bounce:
It is not a big deal as it is all about the message’s delay. It might not be sent immediately, but it will be sent later. They may have an away message or auto-reply.
Monitoring
Keep monitoring your emails, checking the metrics with time, and building a report. You need to understand the basics before you know any other terms. You can start with these.
- Spam Complain
- Open Rate
- Delivery Rate
- Click Through Rate
- A/B testing
If you observe negative trends, congratulations, as it is the process of growing. Keep trying and adopt new ways and send emails to an accurate list of prospects to get the maximum benefits.
Send excellent and relevant content
Send emails relevant to their needs or fulfil the reason they subscribed to your emails. If you are sending cold DMs to offer your service, you need to be more careful; we, in B2Boutbox, check our emails multiple times before sending.
No one reads content that is not relevant and not fulfilling their reasons to subscribe. If you keep sending irrelevant content, people will not bother to open it again and unsubscribe within the next second.
Conclusion
Emails are the most crucial marketing component; you must understand that the better you use them, the better and more fruitful they will be for your business. If your emails go to the spam folder, it impacts your whole business as it involves a marketing budget, resources and time. Avoiding the spam folder seems tricky, but with the right strategy and this blog, you can change your game forever.
Do you know you don’t need to do it all? You can leave it all on us. We are here to help you out.