Deliverability Defined

Open rates are an emotional, yet somewhat unreliable metric. When people see a drop in open rate, they tend to think it’s an indication that engagement is down. But email metrics go well beyond open rates. And in many cases, other metrics can tell you much more about the success of your email marketing than open rates alone. 

In this episode, we talk about the meaningful metrics you should be tracking, hard and soft bounces, list hygiene, and what to do if you’re concerned with your metrics. 

Main Takeaways

• Hard bounces should be kept under 2% for all sends. Anything near 5% should be looked at more closely because there are likely greater issues in play. 
• Pay attention to the technical details, such as removing hard bounces from your list and ensuring your domain is set up correctly. 
• Sender complaints should be kept to a minimum. Less than 0.1% is a good threshold. We often see complaints spike when collecting email addresses through something like a giveaway. 
• Click rate is a critical metric for email marketing. This is particularly effective when you have a clear CTA because it allows you to see how many subscribers do what you want them to do. This speaks volumes about your content and if it’s really connecting with your audience. 
• Open rates are not always a reliable metric. The way pixels track email opens can be quirky, and there are many variables involved. 

Links

• Deliverability Defined 001: Avoiding Spam Traps the Right Way
• Deliverability Defined 006: SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• Quick Tip Video: How to Prevent Your Emails from Getting Clipped
• Hey Email

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Email authentication is probably something you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about. But it’s important that you understand what it is and why it's crucial for your email deliverability. 

This episode gets a little technical, but if you’re sending emails to a list, you should become familiar with the jargon so you can leverage all of the options available to you when trying to improve your deliverability. 

In this episode, we talk about why authentication exists, how to quickly determine authentication, and the three types of authentication you should become familiar with. 

Main Takeaways

• Authentication exists to verify that a specific message is coming from a specific sender. This prevents spam and phishing and makes email more secure. 
• Your email address has two from addresses: 1) the friendly-from that the receiver sees, and 2) the return-path, which is your Email Service Provider’s (ESP) domain.
• The quick way of determining authentication is to send yourself an email and pull the message headers. 
• Three Types of Authentication:
  • SPF — Essentially a list of IP addresses that are allowed to send mail on behalf of your domain.
  • DKIM — Uses a public key and a private key to verify the sender. 
  • DMARC — Ties SPF and DMARC to the friendly-from domain that receivers actually see. It’s not for everyone, but highly secure. It’s also technical and requires upkeep. 

Links

• Dmarcian.com

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Note: This podcast episode was pre-recorded and since then, we have changed our terminology at ConvertKit to blocklist instead of blacklist.

Spam traps can elicit a negative gut reaction. It’s probably a natural reaction, and we’re going to talk about how you can avoid spam traps without making things worse. 

Spam traps are an email address that's created or maintained with the purpose of identifying centers with poor list health or collection methods. While it’s good for subscribers, sometimes as a sender you can get hit with penalties to your deliverability score without understanding why. 

In this episode, we talk about the characteristics of spam traps and how to avoid them, list hygiene, and more. We also answer a listener question about emoji use in your subject line. 

Main Takeaways

• Having a double opt-in for your email list is a great way to make sure your list is “clean” and only includes people who want to be there. 
• Pay attention to misspelled email addresses. They can be genuine mistakes, but they can also be spam traps.
• Manage your bounced addresses. They can become spam traps and hurt your list. 
• Spam traps are “invisible.” You’ll never know for sure which address is a spam trap, which is part of the reason they work. 

Links

• Chris Loves Julia

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Listbombing can be a touchy subject because most people think it’s personal. However, it doesn't really matter which email service provider you use or what your website is about—hackers will generally attack any list in any form on any provider that they can find. 

That said, there are ways you can protect yourself from their malicious methods. Even though the sender isn’t the target of the attack, the sender will bear the brunt of the negative outcomes for the health of their list if not caught early enough and dealt with appropriately. 

In this episode, we talk about what listbombing really is, why attackers use this method maliciously, how to spot when you’ve been listbombed, and more!

Main Takeaways

• Listbombing is what happens when email addresses are added to a form on the internet maliciously. It is usually done in order for attackers to gain access to protected accounts without being noticed or to flood specific servers with requests in order to take it down. In either case, the sender is not the target of the attack but they are caught in the crossfire. 
• Having a confirmation email in place is a good first step to preventing listbombing. Forcing the subscriber to confirm before adding them to your list gives them the opportunity to simply not confirm if they didn’t subscribe knowingly. 
• Even if subscribers don’t mark your emails as spam or complain about being on your list, if they don’t engage with the emails you send, that will hurt deliverability and sender reputation, too. 
• Using reCAPTCHA on your forms and leveraging double opt-in are the best ways to protect yourself from listbombing. They’re also great best practices in general. 

Links

• WordPress
• ConvertKit
  
  

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Over the last few episodes, we’ve brought up the topic of content and have essentially talked around it. This show is about deliverability, but it’s surprising how much the content aspect of your emails and website can impact overall deliverability.

Creating personal and engaging content for your emails cannot be overstated. Since your sender reputation has a lot riding on subscriber engagement, it’s critical that the content you provide is enticing and meaningful enough that people engage with it. 

In this episode, we talk about how your content should align from subject line to CTA, giving your subscribers what they want, testing, and more!

Main Takeaways

• The subject line should set the scene for what’s inside the email, and the content of the email should deliver on that promise. Have a clear CTA and make sure it’s relevant to the content and the subject line.
• What made your subscribers sign up in the first place? Try to understand what your subscribers want to learn from you, the value you can provide them, and lean on that in order to be less promotional. 
• Running A/B tests for your emails is a great way to test content, layout, CTAs, and more. Don’t be afraid to send content-rich tests to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your testing. 
• Don’t rely on images. Even if images don’t load, people should still be able to understand exactly what your email is about, what you're saying, and what they should do. It’s good practice so that your entire email isn't ruined if images don't load. Also, make sure that your emails do not exceed 100kb. 
• Make sure your sender name and email are easily recognizable by your subscribers. 

“Your end goal shouldn't be having the highest open rates possible. It really should be having the highest conversion rates possible. And that happens through sending great content, building a relationship with your audience, and providing value to them.” ~ @alyssa_dulin

Links

• Eating Bird Food
• Rasa Malaysia
• Dalgona Coffee
• Craft and Commerce
• 5-Bullet Friday Newsletter by Tim Ferriss

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Getting into your audience’s inbox all starts with sender reputation. It’s the most important factor when it comes to deliverability, and the domain you're using to send your emails is what holds the majority of that reputation. 

Just because you end up in a spam folder doesn’t always mean you’re doing something wrong. And if you are, there are methods and strategies you can use to fix those issues.

In this episode, we talk about sender reputation by mailbox provider, ways to test your deliverability, why your reputation is always being evaluated, and more!

Main Takeaways

• Each mailbox provider (e.g. Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.) has different ways of calculating sender reputation. Your sender reputation ends up being like a credit score except there's nowhere for you to find an exact number and exact reputation, and it isn't universally used by everyone in the same way.
• One way to know if you're having a deliverability problem at a specific mailbox provider is to see if there's been an open-rate drop over time. If your open rate is dropping and you're still doing everything the same, then there's a good chance that they’re starting to send more of your messages to the spam folder. 
• Find ways to get your subscribers engaging with your emails. Ask them questions, get them involved in some way. The more they engage with your emails, the better your reputation will get. When subscribers aren’t engaging, scrub them from your main sending list.
• Always strive to provide value for your subscribers. Think about the questions you’re regularly being asked, or the information people signed up to learn about. Use those as starting points for your content. 

Links

• Google Postmaster Tools 
• Deliverability Guide

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Deliverability Defined is a new show from ConvertKit in which hosts Alyssa Dulin and Melissa Lambert help you navigate the complexities of email deliverability. 

What exactly is email deliverability? And why is it important? Is email marketing still a good channel for communicating with your audience? If you rely on email for your business (or use it at all), these are important questions. 

In today’s episode, we talk about how we found our way to email deliverability as a discipline, the complexities of modern email marketing, why it matters, and more!

Main Takeaways

• Email marketing is a consistent channel that has staying power. Having a lot of followers on social channels is great, but in a few years that platform may not exist and you could lose access to those followers. Once you have them on your email list, you have them for as long as their email remains the same.
• Email marketing provides flexibility that you can’t get elsewhere. You can be as simple and straightforward as you want, or create complex automated campaigns. 
• Email deliverability is like shipping a package in an office building - it might make it to the front desk, but that doesn’t mean it makes it all the way to you. What really matters is that the package actually makes it to your desk. If people aren't seeing your emails, then you're probably not engaging with your audience very well, nor getting the responses you want. 

Links

• Email Deliverability: How to Make Sure You Land in the Inbox
• Deliverability Defined Website

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It's now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 500 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: convertkit.com/pricing.

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