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Deliverability: How to Increase Your Newsletter Delivery Rate

Do you want your newsletters to arrive straight into your subscribers' inboxes, and not into spam?


Deliverability: How to Increase Your Newsletter Delivery Rate

Mailbox spam filters are strict and it is not so rare for an email to be blocked, so let's say that deliverability does not happen by chance.

The list is long, it can depend on many factors such as relevance, data protection, content, the right technical configuration...


With this short article I will help you with simple tips and explanations to improve your deliverability rate (the delivery capacity of your newsletter).


Data protection compliance is key to good deliverability


Deliverability is closely linked to data protection compliance and therefore to the recipient's interests.

This means you need to consider some basic rules.

Quick and painless, here are the 5 commandments for data protection:

  1. Be respectful : Any data processing that is not covered by the explicit consent of individuals requires legal authorization.

  2. Be moderate : data processing must be appropriate for the purpose.

  3. Be appropriate : data can only be processed for the purpose for which it was collected. And that purpose must be communicated.

  4. Be careful : make sure you take technical and organizational measures for data processing, to prevent improper use.

  5. Be transparent : People need to know how their personal data will be used.

So what to do? Activate the double opt-in and comply with the GDPR:

  • Collect your contacts with clear consent and explicit action from users

  • the privacy policy must be explicit and available for the user to read at any time

  • recipients must have the right to unsubscribe at any time (without entering a password). It is therefore mandatory to insert it in the footer of the newsletter, together with the link to the privacy policy.

  • activate Double Opt In: that is, the process of confirming subscription to the mailing list. This will also help you verify that the email addresses are valid and real, as the email must be opened to confirm the address (it also avoids the subscription of email addresses written incorrectly by the user).


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Opting-out management (i.e. revoking consent to receive marketing communications):

  • the opt-out process should be as simple as possible for the user

  • Each newsletter, email or SMS must have an explicit option to unsubscribe

  • Avoid obstacles, such as entering passwords or too many questions about the reason for unsubscribing. You can ask for reasons on the unsubscribe confirmation page.

  • there should not be a two-step unsubscribe procedure, i.e. with a second request by email.

The object counts!


The subject of your email or newsletter has a lot of influence on your deliverability rate: many times it is the direct ticket to ending up in spam.

So what to do? Let's look at some best practices for creating good objects.

The key part of the message should be placed at the beginning. If you are promoting a giveaway, the first word to include is Giveaway.


The ideal length of the subject is around 30-50 characters , this ensures that it is fully and correctly displayed on any device. This length is also recommended as it brings good opening rates while still offering enough room for creativity.


To avoid ending up in spam, it is recommended to avoid words that sound like "ad" and capital letters.


Personalization can help: the more personalized the subject line, the greater the emotional reaction of the user receiving the email. There is nothing we like to hear more than our own name.


Are there dangerous terms? Yes!

If your overall reputation as an email sender is already established, you can use “dangerous” terms, such as urgent or free. This will not affect your deliverability. If you are still working on your reputation, words like these may be the reason why your email ends up in spam.


Here are some examples of words and phrases to avoid in your subject line:

- Money: such as "1 million euros", "please pay the bill", "do you have debts?" "there is a gift for you", "Congratulations, you have won", "Save now", "Free"

- Winnings: "Collect your prize", "You have been selected for...", "Exclusive gift".



KPIs and deliverability


The magic formula is content and relevance + good numbers = deliverability

Open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates are the important metrics and indicators in email marketing.

These not only measure campaign performance, but are also the best way to track deliverability.

For example, a high open rate and a low bounce rate can have a positive influence on the deliverability of your emails.

The magic word is relevance : if you are relevant you will not end up in the spam box.


So what metrics should you monitor and how?


The open rate: open means relevant

Open rate is the number of unique recipients who opened an email.

This therefore considers the number of people who opened the email , but not the total number of opens.

If, however, all the openings of a single recipient are also counted, we speak of the total opening rate. This figure is usually greater than the opening rate (on average, a newsletter is opened 1.6 times by each user).

The formula for the calculation is: (number of bounced receivers)*100.


What influences open rate?

  • the object

  • cleaning the list

  • the brand recognition/awareness rate

  • the sender

  • the competition.

It is therefore very important to keep your lists "clean", which means that the first thing to do is to divide the contacts between active and inactive , checking the last interaction. To these segments of contacts, inserted in an extra list, it is recommended to send dedicated campaigns to try to reactivate them.


Click-through rate: clicks mean interest

Click-through rate is the ratio of recipients who clicked on a link in an email and is often called CTR.

Like the open rate, you can consider all clicks (total click rate) or each recipient who clicked can be counted only once (unique click rate).

In this case we take into consideration the unique CTR.


What influences click-through rate?

  • the copy

  • the design

  • the structure

  • the products/services

  • the call to action buttons.

To optimize the CTR there are some small tips. First of all it is better to write short paragraphs and messages that include the most important information, in which you pay maximum attention to spelling and avoid long and convoluted sentences. Express yourself in a clear, distinct and understandable way.


Email design also has its influence: your email must be visually appealing. So use high-quality images and divide the content into well-structured sections. Remember that most readers scan the text before reading.


As for call-to-action buttons, they should be placed after the text and in a color that stands out: let your readers know that the button was designed to be clicked.


The bounce rate

The bounce rate, or failed deliveries, is the ratio of failed deliveries to the total number of recipients.

There is a difference between "hard bounces" that is, users to whom the email cannot be delivered and "soft bounces" that is, those to whom the message cannot be delivered temporarily. Among the latter there are also bounces due to spam.


Bounce rate is influenced by 3 main factors: incorrect email addresses, technical errors, and a full recipient's inbox.

To reduce bounce rate, it is recommended to remove duplicate or incorrect addresses from your mailing lists and collect subscribers with the Double Opt In procedure.


No message to unsubscribers: the unsubscribe rate

The unsubscribe rate indicates the number of recipients who unsubscribed from the newsletter after delivery.

This is influenced by;

  • the lack of interest

  • irrelevant content

  • sending rate too high

  • contacts not voluntarily registered.

What to do to improve the unsubscribe rate? Definitely improve the quality of the mailing list, change and test the frequency, earn the trust of the recipients and check the layout of the email from mobile.

Technical aspects to increase the deliverability of your newsletters


There are technical prerequisites for good deliverability.

The most important is the authentication of the sender as safe and reliable, a procedure that can be done with various systems.


It is also recommended to increase the sending volume gradually , so that the recipients can get used to it. A sudden increase in emails can be seen as spam.


But let's see better!


SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: What are they?

SPF ( Senders Policy Framework) allows you to certify that the sender's IP address is authorized to deliver emails. With this protocol, you can prevent third parties from improperly using your domain. This protocol is particularly effective against phishing attacks (computer fraud carried out by sending an email with the counterfeit logo of a credit institution or e-commerce company, in which the recipient is asked to provide confidential data, justifying this request with technical reasons).


DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is an encryption protocol that allows you to sign your email with your domain.


These two protocols complement each other and protect against different types of attacks.


DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Report and Conformance) links the two previous protocols and informs the domain owner in case of phishing.


Bottom line: More trust, higher deliverability rates


To summarize, here is a checklist with all the points to check to increase your deliverability:

  • Verify your domain (SPF, DKM, DMARC)

  • Dedicated IP addresses ensure better delivery

  • Don't buy email addresses

  • Remove inactive, bounced and unsubscribed recipients

  • Use a GDPR compliant registration procedure, i.e. with Double Opt In

  • Avoid using spammy terms in your subject line

  • Send relevant content.


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