How to improve your email deliverability

Deliverability and marketing automation go hand in hand: a CRM strategy without good deliverability won't help you reach your sales targets.

In a previous article, we invited you to discover 10 best practices for deliverabilitybest practices, particularly when setting up your delivery marketing automation.

Today, we'd like to take a closer look at the creation of your marketing emails so that they comply with MailBox Providers' rules. Because over and above good setup practices, each and every one of your mailings has an impact on your deliverability.

142.16 billion emails were routed in France in 2022, according to DMA (Data & Marketing Association France), here are 10 tips to preserve your reputation and maximize your chances of conversion!

1. Email marketing subject line: first contact with your recipients

You might think that the subject line of your emails has no direct impact on deliverability... but it does! Well-formulated, attractive email subject lines encourage recipients to open your marketing emails. And the more your emails are opened, the more you gain recognition from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as a sender offering quality content targeted at the right audiences.

A few tips on how to get your emails opened with a quality subject line:

• Put the key subject at the beginning of the object
• Propose an email subject that covers the content of the email
• Avoid spam words (SPECIAL OFFER)
• Use few or no emojis, as not all are read by ISPs
• A/B testing
• Limit punctuation (!!!) and capitalization (PROMOTIONS)

2. Mirror link, the best practice

The mirror link is a link included in your emailing allowing recipients to access a web page on which an HTML copy of the message sent is placed. This link, often placed in the header of marketing emails, is not an obligation in terms of deliverability, but rather a good practice to be applied on a daily basis.

Emails are sometimes not correctly read by MUAs (Mail User Agents). By integrating a mirror link in your email header, you offer the recipient an alternative solution for reading your message.

Your communication will arrive safely via their browser, and you'll avoid being spammed by your recipients! And this is where " mirror link " and " deliverability " are closely linked: a good experience of your communications by your recipient will prevent you from being flagged as spam by MBP.

3. Your HTML as a treasure trove for MBPs

You may not know it, but the code in your marketing emails is scanned by MailBox Providers to make sure you're not spam or a virus. As a result, you need to be vigilant when writing your HTML to make it easier for the robots to read.

Here are a few essential prerequisites for passing the filters:

• Check the quality of your code against international standards, in particular the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Avoid forbidden beacons
• Don't forget mobile users, and think about code that's optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.

4. Balancing text and design

If you'd like to put your entire product catalog directly inside your newsletter... the MBP have decided otherwise! If your HTML exceeds a certain weight, it will be automatically blocked by anti-spam filters.

It's best to respect the rule of 1/3 images and 2/3 text, so that your emailing doesn't take too long to display (some recipients may become impatient and ignore your message), but above all so that its weight doesn't exceed 100k. Gmail will truncate your e-mail if this is the case, inviting the recipient to click on the "display entire message" hypertext link.

Here are some best practices to help you make the most of your deliverability:

• Add alternative text in case images are not displayed
• Limit emojis and punctuation, which MBPs are not fond of

5. Personalization: content for every customer

A personalized email has a 29% higher unique open rate and a 41% higher unique click rate. This reinforces the fundamental principle of deliverability: higher interaction rates with your marketing emails have a positive impact on your reputation.

From the subject line to product selection, every element of an email can be adapted to suit individual preferences and appetites. All you need to do is make sure you have the necessary information in your customer data platform to be able to use it in your marketing emails. Be careful not to ask too much, however, as the RGPD stipulates that you can only keep the information you use in your database.

6. What multimedia content should you allow yourself?

On average, a European scrolls the equivalent of a 180-metre journey on his or her smartphone every day. To capture their attention, innovative and disruptive digital content is essential. The problem is that some formats are poorly perceived and not read by MBPs.

Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind for good deliverability:

• Stick to small GIFs that display quickly
• Choose a static image with a link to a hosted video rather than a video embedded directly in the email.
• Never include attachments

7. Spam words: not everything can be said!

Spam words are words that are monitored by messaging services to limit promotional and fraudulent messages in people's mailboxes. The MBP algorithm is instructed to block these words.

But what are they? There is no definitive, public list of words to ban. However, four categories of words should be avoided:

• Words related to the promotion, such as " free ", " gift " or " special offer ".
• Words encouraging action, such as " don't hesitate ", " limited time " or " hurry up ".
• Health-related words such as " effortless ", " weight loss " or " online pharmacy ".
• Money-related words such as " earn money ", " profits " or " easy money ".

Spam words must therefore be banned from your emails, both in the subject line and in the body of the email, otherwise you risk damaging your reputation and seeing your emails land directly in your contacts' spam folders.

8. Beware of links in your emails

In the presence of a suspicious link, your communication risks being perceived as dubious and automatically redirected to your recipients' junk folders by MBP. This will damage your reputation and considerably reduce the chances of your e-mail being opened.

So, before you send any :

• Not broken
• Redirect to the right page
• Not blacklisted
• Are hosted on a reputable site

9. Hidden content: transparency for greater trust

You don't do it on your website, so don't do it in your e-mails. Hiding tone-on-tone content is strictly forbidden by MBP filters, otherwise your communications won't get through. Not only will your communications not be read, but your reputation will suffer!

On the other hand, certain elements should be clearly visible in your email: the brand name, postal address, a telephone number and a contact email address.

10. Unsubscribing from marketing emails: the reader is king

The unsubscribe rate represents the percentage of users who have voluntarily left your mailing list following a campaign. It indicates the number of subscribers who have chosen to disengage from your marketing emails. If a consumer is not satisfied with the offers they receive by e-mail, they will unsubscribe themselves 60% of the time.

A high unsubscribe rate has negative implications, reducing the deliverability of your emails and your company's overall reputation. It can also lead to identification as spam by major email service providers such as Gmail or Yahoo. It's therefore vital for you toidentify these contacts and systematically exclude them from your communications (push list). By avoiding annoying consumers who aren't interested in your communications, you're acting positively on your reputation and meeting the prerequisites of the RGPD.

On the Splio platform:

• Addresses on our customers' push lists are automatically excluded from their mailings.
• Contacts generating 3 consecutive soft bounce messages are automatically added to the push list.

5 things to check to avoid spamming your marketing emails

According to 74% of consumers, spam is email they didn't ask to receive. In the majority of cases, they either declare your email as spam or unsubscribe from your communications. If many of your contacts do either of the above, your reputation with MBPs will suffer enormously.

The right questions to ask before sending:

• Have I segmented my database correctly?
• Will my content interest my target audience?
• Have I remembered to exclude my mailing list and inactive contacts?
• Does my email contain an unsubscribe link?
• Have I been careful not to use spam words?

Find all our advice in our deliverability guide 👇