When you send emails, it is essential that they reach their recipients and end up in their inbox rather than in a separate folder or in spam. Deliverability and inbox placement are intrinsically linked and greatly contribute to the success of your email campaigns. Discover the best practices to improve your inbox placement and thus increase your deliverability rate.
What do we mean by inbox placement?
When you send an email, your goal is for it to be placed directly in the recipient’s inbox. We’re talking about the primary mailbox here, not categories like “Others,” “Promotions,” and definitely not spam or junk.
Why? Because emails received in the primary mailbox are much more likely to be opened and read than those landing in other folders.
Inbox placement depends on the email provider, which will sort based on the content of the message and the reputation of its sender. Hence, it’s crucial to particularly care for these two elements.
So, your main goal for your campaign to be successful is to make sure your emails arrive in the right place. Wondering how to improve inbox placement?
10 Best Practices to Optimize Your Inbox Placement
If the emails you send are neither seen, opened, nor read by their recipients, your deliverability rate will be poor, as will your engagement rate. To avoid this, here are 10 best practices to implement:
1) Use quality subscriber lists
The first step to improve your inbox placement is to ensure you are sending emails to a quality subscriber list. Avoid buying or renting pre-made email lists or collecting addresses unethically. Instead, prioritize obtaining voluntary contacts.
Also, consider regularly cleaning your lists to keep them up to date. Here, using software specializing in verifying and cleaning mailing lists can be extremely useful, if not essential, especially for larger lists.
2) Ensure you get permission from your contacts before sending your emails
This rule is essential and, moreover, obligatory by law. Before sending emails to your subscribers, you must therefore obtain their explicit permission. Use double opt-in registration forms in which they can confirm their interest.
This will allow you to maintain a list of subscribers who are engaged and interested in your communications, and also greatly reduce the risk of spam complaints.
3) Avoid spam practices
To improve your deliverability rate, avoid certain practices at all costs, such as using suspicious words in the subject or body of your emails, and sending irrelevant or misleading messages.
Also, make sure to place a unsubscribe link in your email. It should be clear and visible. Those wishing to unsubscribe can do so easily, thus avoiding spam complaints.
4) Test before moving on to real sends
Create a test contact list, much like a dress rehearsal before the show. This could consist of colleagues or friends, for example. Before the final send, first address the email to people on this list to ensure it arrives in the right place.
This will allow you to detect any deliverability problems without impacting your campaign.
5) Segment your subscriber lists
Segmenting your mailing lists is an effective way to increase your deliverability. Group your subscribers based on their demographic characteristics (age, marital status, profession, etc.), buying behaviors, interests, etc.
By sending targeted and relevant content to specific segments, you increase your chances of obtaining high open rates.
6) Pay attention to the quality of your emails
Before sending your messages, check their quality (spelling, formatting, links, call-to-action buttons, images, html tags, etc.). If necessary, use verification tools to identify any potential problems or errors.
Well-designed emails free of errors are much more likely to reach your recipients’ inbox.
7) Authenticate your emails
Email authentication is an essential aspect to ensure deliverability and inbox placement. It is a set of techniques that allow ISPs to verify the authenticity of a message’s sender. Commonly used methods include SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
8) Be consistent in your sending frequency
The frequency of your email sends can also influence your inbox placement.
Be consistent in your sends and avoid bombarding your subscribers with too many emails in a short period. Establish a precise and strategic calendar.
9) Monitor your engagement statistics
Lately, it seems that ISPs and their spam filters are increasingly using (among other things) engagement rate metrics to decide on inbox placement. These include opens, clicks, responses, etc.
It can therefore be wise to keep an eye on this and ensure that it remains high.
10) Allow for updating of preferences
Allowing your subscribers to update their preferences on a dedicated page means letting them choose the type of content and the frequency of sends.
In addition to increasing their trust and engagement, this practice will also help you maintain a high deliverability rate.
Improving inbox placement and email deliverability is crucial to effectively reach your target audience. By following the practical tips presented here, you increase your chances of directly reaching your recipients and maximizing the impact of your communications.
