Email Deliverability Test: 10 Proven Methods to Ensure Your Emails Hit the Inbox

To prevent Spam Flags, Adhering to Key Principles for Email Delivery Test Success is
More Crucial Than Ever

Let's chat about nailing the perfect landing for your emails - right in the recipient's inbox. Given that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are rigorously filtering spam, which now comprises an astonishing half of all email traffic, it's more important than ever to conduct email deliverability tests before starting any cold email campaign. 
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These tests are your secret weapon in keeping your legitimate emails from being mistakenly labeled as spam. Maintaining a spam rate below 0.1% is essential to safeguard your sender‘s reputation. 

Typically, the results of a deliverability test are presented as a score, providing a concrete metric to measure and guide improvement efforts. The objective is to attain an acceptable deliverability rate, typically around 95% of successful deliveries, with a bounce rate not exceeding 3%.

With Gmail's 2024 spam update just on the horizon, it's the perfect time for us to up our email game. Let's get savvy with managing our email campaigns and embrace some smart strategies to stay one step ahead.

Regularly Clean Your Email List

When it comes to enhancing your email deliverability test scores, remember it's all about choosing quality over quantity.

Workers are increasingly changing jobs more frequently. For instance, in the United States, 30% of the workforce changes jobs annually, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor. Maintaining accurate and clean email lists has never been more crucial.

Email list hygiene involves regularly updating and purging unresponsive contacts or subscribers, typically those who haven't engaged with your emails in the last 6 to 9 months. 

This practice is vital in protecting your email reputation and ensuring the success of future campaigns, as sending emails to inactive recipients can significantly damage your sender status. 

To maximize engagement and maintain positive reception, it's advisable to conduct targeted campaigns and limit follow-up emails to no more than three. This strategy helps in keeping your communications effective and appreciated by the recipients.

If you're uncertain about the data quality of your existing list, you can use tools like Bouncer or Debounce. 

Adopt a recipient-focused approach

In recent times, we've seen a real shift in how cold emailing is done. Gone are the days of aggressive sales pitches and one-size-fits-all messages. Now, it's all about getting a little more personal and a lot more strategic. 

We're focusing on building genuine relationships and taking the time to truly understand what the recipient needs. It's a kinder, smarter approach that's all about connecting in a meaningful way.

Modern cold emailing strives to empathize with the unique challenges of our prospects and create personalized content that genuinely resonates. Much like in real life, it's all about establishing a connection before making any requests.

By prioritizing personalization and targeted prospecting, these emails are not only reaching the right audience but also significantly increasing engagement and creating a more receptive environment.

This evolving strategy is proving to be essential in establishing and nurturing long-term client relationships.

Use custom domain

Opting for Gmail or Outlook for your business communications might come across as a bit less formal. It could even cause some recipients to mistake your email for spam, which could lead them to quickly dismiss it or, in a worst-case scenario, label it as spam.

Furthermore, these platforms aren't really built for sending out a large volume of emails all at once, and this can increase the likelihood of your messages getting flagged as spam.

Prefer email service providers (ESP) with good reputations like Flodesk or MailerLite.
Additionally, they offer extra services such as spam filtering, bounce handling, and email list management.

The domain name of your website is also important. If it has a bad reputation, it will be more difficult for your emails to reach their recipients.

Warm up the email

It is highly recommended to use tools specifically tailored to enhance every aspect of a cold email campaign. 

Among the available options, lemlist stands out by offering comprehensive assistance throughout your campaign journey. Its AI technology is here to help you craft highly personalized, multichannel campaigns that ramp up engagement.

Getting it right is crucial, and lemlist's Smart Enrichment feature is a gem, extracting valid email and LinkedIn details without the need for user profiles.

The platform's Warm-up & Deliverability Booster is also tirelessly working to make sure your emails land right in the recipient's inbox, dodging those pesky spam filters.

Moreover, if you're keen on reaching out across various platforms, lemlist's Multichannel Outreach is your go-to for connecting with leads via email, LinkedIn, and more.

And for a bonus, its seamless integration with popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive makes your campaign not just smoother but also more impactful.

Implement Opt-In / Opt-Out options

It's essential to avoid making the recipient of your email feel pressured, emphasizing the importance of allowing them to choose whether they want to receive your content.

Opt-in mechanisms necessitate users to actively confirm their subscription, usually by responding to a verification email, before being added to the mailing list.

Conversely, opt-out provides the option to withdraw, typically through an “unsubscribe” button. This button should be visible. Placing the unsubscribe option too low in the email can be counterproductive, as recipients might perceive it as hidden and subsequently label the email as spam. 

Avoid purchasing email lists

Using rented or purchased email lists can be quite risky, as they might have been collected from other websites through methods that are generally considered unethical.

Furthermore, there are organizations dedicated to combatting email spam by setting up honeypots and spam traps. These traps identify and flag spammers by catching emails sent to old or invalid addresses that still receive some traffic.

Getting involved with these lists can negatively impact your email deliverability and potentially harm the reputation of both your IP address and your company.

Even if you decide to change your tactics later on, repairing your sender score and IP reputation can be a time-consuming process.

What's more, lists available for sale often contain unresponsive or unqualified contacts, rendering them ineffective for marketing purposes. It's important to be cautious when considering these options for your email marketing efforts.

Optimize for Mobile

Ensuring mobile-friendliness is key to success in today's email marketing landscape.

In today's digital landscape, mobile devices have become the go-to platform for reading emails, accounting for a whopping 44.7% of email opens. Moreover, a significant 71.6% of consumers tend to delete an email right away if it doesn't display well on their mobile devices.

The consequences of not optimizing your emails for mobile are quite substantial: it can result in decreased engagement metrics, such as clicks and conversions, a lower return on investment (ROI), an increase in unsubscribes, and even damage to your brand reputation, as it can fall short of meeting user expectations. You don’t want this to happen. 

Comply with local email regulations

Follow the rules. Compliance with local regulations, such as GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, and CASL, among others, is a crucial element of a successful email strategy.

Adhering to these laws, as well as the requirements of your email sending platform (ESP), safeguards you as the sender from potential legal consequences and ensures your contacts are treated following their regional expectations.

This dual compliance is vital for both legal protection and maintaining positive relationships with your recipients.

Monitor over time

Email deliverability metrics are vital for measuring the performance of email marketing campaigns. 

Key metrics to monitor include: 
- Delivery Rate: Measures how many emails successfully reach the server.
- Deliverability Rate: Indicates the percentage of emails that bypass filters to land in the inbox.
- Open Rate: Tracks the proportion of emails opened by recipients.
- Click-Through Rate: Calculates the percentage of recipients clicking a link within the email.

Additionally:
- Spam Rate: Assesses the volume of messages marked as spam.
- Spam Complaints Rate: Indicates the percentage of emails reported as spam by recipients.
- Soft Bounce Rate: Reflects temporary delivery issues (e.g., full inbox).
- Hard Bounce Rate: Represents permanent delivery failures (e.g., invalid email address).

These metrics collectively provide insights into:
- Technical Delivery: Understanding server and inbox reach.
- User Engagement: Gauging recipient interactions with the email.
- Content Effectiveness: Assessing how compelling and relevant the email content is. 

Use Email Deliverability Tools

It is highly recommended to use tools specifically tailored to enhance every aspect of a cold email campaign. 

Among the available options, lemlist stands out by offering comprehensive assistance throughout your campaign journey. Its AI technology is here to help you craft highly personalized, multichannel campaigns that really ramp up engagement.

Getting it right is crucial, and lemlist's email finder & verifier feature is a gem, extracting valid email and LinkedIn details without the need for user profiles.

The platform's Warm-up & Deliverability Booster is also tirelessly working to make sure your emails land right in the recipient's inbox, dodging those pesky spam filters.

Moreover, if you're keen on reaching out across various platforms, Lemlist's Multichannel Outreach is your go-to for connecting with leads via email, LinkedIn, and more.

And for an added bonus, its seamless integration with popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive makes your campaign not just smoother but also more impactful.