Deliverability: ensuring smooth communication with your customers

Deliverability deliverability is the principle that messages are successfully delivered to the recipient’s inbox. Although it is a difficult metric to calculate, it can be assessed using delivery rates (the number of emails received compared to the number of emails sent) and open rates by ISP.

This is an indicator that must be monitored regularly because good deliverability is never a given! It is earned over the long term, and depends in particular on the reputation of the mailings. It is therefore essential to take corrective measures as soon as the first alerts are received and not to wait for a deterioration in reputation that is difficult to recover.

So, even before you start thinking about the structure and content of the email, it’s essential to consider the marketing pressure when developing your strategy and communications plan.

Indeed, too many emails sent will generate reactions that will degrade your deliverability rate to over-solicited recipients: a high number of unopened emails or unsubscribes, or even spam reports will damage your reputation.

In addition to marketing pressure, there are various rules to follow to ensure that emails are sent in a way that meets ISP expectations.

Checklist of things to do before launching your marketing operations

• Ensure IP reputation: reputation is calculated by ISPs based on quality criteria and sending history
• Manage and choose domain names well - sending domains must be configured in the DNS (Domain Name Systems) for messages to be considered authenticated by ISPs
• Paying attention to the cleanliness of the database (cleaning up opt-outs, inactives, NPAIs, hardbounces, spam traps, ensuring the quality of addresses in acquisition and securing online forms, etc.)
• Plan for a ramp-up (or warm-up) phase when setting up a new IP address – Send increasing volumes of emails to “warm up” the IP address in accordance with the rules established by ISPs
• Respect routing rules and be vigilant about the pace of campaigns and marketing pressure (not too much, not too little!)
• In some cases, when quantities are large, send transactional emails from a different IP address than promotional emails so that they are not affected in case of problems. It is otherwise advisable to use different sub-domains
• Pay attention to the content and relevance of messages
• Simplify de-registration processes
• Avoid SpamWords: urgent, free, 100% refunded, earn money, cash ...

One of the driving forces for a good deliverability rate is the construction of your emails.

Checklist before sending

And even if you have prepared your messages well, don't forget to check their effectiveness by monitoring these 6 key indicators:

• Open rate: the number of emails opened out of the number of emails sent - Evidence of customer appeal and engagement = well targeted audience
• Reactivity rate: the number of clicks on the number of emails opened - proof of relevance of the content.
• Bounce rate: the number of undeliverable emails out of the number of soft & hard bounces sent - Checks if the database is "clean
• The conversion rate: the number of individuals who have carried out the desired action out of the number of individuals reached by the campaign - Proof of success of the campaign which answered the questions of one to one: to whom (targeting), when (timing and commercial pressure) and what (relevance of the offer and quality of the content)
• Unsubscribe rate: Number of unsubscribes out of the number of emails sent - Allows to check the relevance of the content and a good management of the commercial pressure
• Forwarding rate and complaint rate: used by webmails to determine whether an email should be treated as spam or not

So if you don't want to damage your reputation and be blacklisted by ISPs it is essential to check that each of these rules is followed before launching your emailing operations.

And if you really want to become an expert on deliverability, check out our experience!