The importance of great deliverability

What determines the email journey?

When you’ve designed a beautiful email in your CRM platform’s email design editor, you naturally want it to reach everyone on your list. The following four parameters will determine how well your email will be delivered:

• Your CRM platform which will try to send out all emails
• The ISP
• The Recipient
• You, the sender

The job of the CRM

Think of it this way: A CRM platform’s job is to properly send the email you have created – and deliver it. A good CRM platform is responsible for having the proper systems and architecture in place to support your needs in this matter. Plus making sure that the emails are sent to the doors of the ISPs. It’s then up to the ISP and the recipient to determine if the door is opened and how wide the door is opened. Your responsibility as a sender is to send relevant communication that the recipient wants to receive and being clear on what they can expect from day one. Simplicity and transparency will keep the engagement level high and the unsubscribe rates low.

IPS

The ISP (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) will choose one of three inboxes that your email will reach. It can be the customer’s regular inbox, their “marketing” inbox, or spam. Your credibility as a sender is defined by a qualification process at the ISP. You can think of this as a type of filter for incoming messages. Here, the ISPs look at two things:

• List Quality: How good is your list in terms of valid email addresses. Meaning, how many of the emails are bouncing, are there any misspelled or old email addresses, etc. The better the list quality – the higher the opening rate, and the faster your emails get received by the ISPs. Keep your email lists clean.
• Recipient’s Activity:  How active are your recipients? Are they engaging by opening the emails? How often do they open? The ISPs are constantly monitoring the engagement level, so it is in your interest to keep engagement levels high.

2 tips for the email journey

• Segment your emails and send relevant information
• “Listen” to your recipients. If they are not engaging, ask yourself why? What is your sending frequency, what are you offering and why should they engage? What’s in it for them?

IP Reputation

Now we need to explain a bit more of the nitty gritty. You as a sender get measured by IP-reputation, list quality, and the activity level amongst your recipients. IP Reputation is measured by using different types of metrics. And depending on how well your email communication is considered to be, your IP is scored, often from 0-100 or bad/good.

Determines your credibility

IP Reputation is one metric for determining your credibility as a sender. The large ISPs; Gmail and Outlook Live as examples, use deeper analysis to evaluate your reputation as a sender. They look at subscriber activity and list quality as important parameters. If your subscribers are engaging in your emails, you are achieving higher credibility.

Some examples of engagement are:

• Subscribers are opening emails often
• Different subscribers are opening different send-outs – this shows a wider spread of engagement
• The subscribers are moving the emails from the spam folder to the inbox

How it works at Voyado

This all might sound overwhelming but remember – we are in this together! At Voyado, we are with you every step of the way to ensure you have the best possible foundation to improve your deliverability. From day one we will educate our users to get to a required level of understanding of email deliverability. Thereafter, our support teams are always available to help guide you with any questions that arise along the way. Together we can go towards healthier email lists where your customers get targeted with personalized communication.

Not already a Voyado customer? Get in touch to book a demo and see how Voyado can take your marketing to new levels.