Deliverability in 18 days: Get your emails signed, sealed, delivered!

As you asked yourself which strategy will improve email deliverability, our in-house expert was already jotting down these tips for you! 

Straight from Reynier Matos Padilla, ecommerce master and Head of Deliverability at Aument, here are the steps you can take to improve your email deliverability. 

To make the task less daunting, we suggest covering one point a day. That way, in less than one month of weekdays, you’ll have improved your chances of hitting customers’ inboxes tenfold.

Master the basics of email deliverability

1. Avoid spam trigger words.
   Culprits include: Cheap, Giveaway, Free, Cash, Offer, Don’t wait, and of course “$$$”. There is a long list of words that can flag your email as spam. The best way to avoid packing too many into your email is to write naturally, like you would to a colleague, and to use a tool like Aument.

    

2. Never buy email lists or send unsolicited emails.
   To avoid sending unwelcome marketing, ensure all recipients have opted-in to receive your emails. You can learn how to clean your email lists here.

    

3. Avoid multiple words in all caps.
   Avoid sounding like you’re shouting!

    

4. Write to one person.
   When you draft your subject line and message content, it’s natural to think of the thousands of people who are about to receive it. However, writing is far more effective than speaking to an individual person, with a personal subject line and a personalized message.

    

5. Do not use free email domains as your main business email address.
   Emails ending with @gmail.com, outlook.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc. are red flags to spam detectors. Set your business email under your domain name.

    

6. Beware of saturating your audience with emails.
   Saturating your contacts with newsletters can lead them to unsubscribe or ignore your emails. Even worse, annoyed recipiente might mark your emails as spam. Most brands find that the sweet spot for email sending cadence to be 1 to 3 newsletters per week.

Perfect the subject line

7. Avoid multiple emojis in the subject line.
   When using emojis, try to stick to one and make it relevant.

    

8. Avoid clickbait or misleading subjects.
   In other words, don’t “bait-and-switch” by using deceptive subject lines. This will tempt recipients to hit the spam notification button.

    

9. Make your subject line engaging!

   Here are some tips for crafting subject lines:

• Entice curiosity, but don’t be too clever. You want to make them curious enough to open, but without being so cryptic that the subscriber doesn’t know what you’re talking about.
  
• Insert numbers, which are always eye-catching.
• Use a fun, joking, or conversational tone.
• Speak in the language and style your subscribers would use themselves.

Focus on the email content

10. Don’t use 100% image-based emails.
    Your text-to-image ratio should respect the 60/40 rule in email design. The most common guideline you’ll hear is no more than 40% image coverage and a minimum of 60% text. While exceptions exist, this rule will generally keep you from any deliverability issues.

11. Create visible call-to-action buttons.
    Play around with colors to get a good contrast on buttons. Call-to-action buttons invite readers to take an action, such as shop now, buy with discount, or see best sellers — so they should stand out!

13. Write engaging and helpful content.
    One way to help your emails land in the primary inbox — not in the spam folder — is to tell your audience what you need while also offering value in return. Email campaigns don’t become a primary sales channel, if you see them as only that!

     

14. Optimize content and design for mobile.
    It needs to be said, because many brands forget this. Use a larger font – small fonts are difficult to read on mobile.

     

15. Slim down your images.
    This means weight, not shape! High definition images are wonderful for print publications, but make emails more likely to hit the spam folder. Tiny JPG is an easy tool to compress images.

     

16. Include your email header with your brand name at the top of your emails.
    This might seem simple, but it helps people remember your brand identity with a consistent header.

     

17. Always include your physical address at the end of the email.
    You legally must include your business physical address. Spam filters spot when you don’t do this!

     

18. Always include an unsubscribe link.
    This is also a best practice that saves you from receiving angry messages via email or social media from those who don’t want to hear from you.
    

Now you know how to improve email deliverability…

Put it into practice! Choose one strategy to improve email deliverability per day to apply, and in 18 days you’ll be en route to excellent email deliverability results. 

Want more tips on this subject? Write to us and tell us what you’d like to hear from our Head of Deliverability!