I’ve been reading up about email deliverability.
Very interesting subject, I know. But it’s really important. When you figure this out you can make way more from your email list.
After all, you can write the best email in the world — but it doesn’t matter if nobody reads it.
Here’s 4 things I’ve learned that you can steal:
1. There’s a bunch of technical stuff you have to do called SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
If you don’t do it, it can mess up your deliverability.
Most email softwares won’t do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
2. Be careful who you email
Most really good email people only email people who have opened one of their emails in the past 90 days.
If you don’t open for 90 days, you get kicked off the list.
Why? Because when people don’t open and click your emails, it makes you look more suspicious to Google. So if people aren’t opening and clicking your emails, it’s best to just get rid of them.
Also, a lot of those email addresses are probably “spam traps”. A spam trap is an old email that the owner abandoned. Google monitors these. They assume anyone who emails them is a spammer. If you email them, they will act accordingly.
I know it hurts — you work so hard to get email subscribers, and not emailing them feels like throwing money away.
But you’ll throw way more money away if you go to Spam!
3. You can test whether your emails are going to promotions.
How? Set up a few test inboxes — these can be free Gmail accounts that you open.
Then, before you send out any marketing email, send that email as a “test” to these inboxes.
If you go to Promotions, change a few words in the email and then send another test. Keep doing this until you stop landing in Promotions.
4. At the end of the day, deliverability is mostly just about sending good emails.
If people like your emails, they’ll open them, click on them, and respond to them.
If they open them, click on them, and respond to them, Google will see that and send you to the inbox.
If they ignore your emails and report them Spam, Google will see that and send you to Spam/the promo tab.
You don’t have to do everything right to hit the inbox. If you mess up every now and then, you’ll be fine. But if you mess up a lot, Google will punish you for it.
-Theo
P.S. If you liked this email, feel free to send me a reply and say so. If you do then maybe I will give more deliverability tips!