Email Deliverability Checklist: 7 Steps to Avoid Spam Folders
Think a persuasive email is enough to bag you a meeting?
Think again.
The content of your cold emails and newsletter broadcasts is important. It’s very important. However, a whole obstacle course of spam traps sits between your painstakingly crafted message and your prospects’ inboxes.
That’s why optimizing deliverability—a measure of how many of your emails are successfully delivered—is so important.
How Email Works: A Crash Course
If terms like “dedicated IP address,” “email service providers,” “domain reputation,” and “email authentication” make you want to destroy all technology and retire to a desert island, don’t worry.
Before we dive into the specifics of improving your email deliverability, it’s worth running over the stages an email goes through after it leaves your inbox. It will help you understand why deliverability best practices are so important.
Here’s the journey an email takes when you hit send:
Email client: You write your email using your email client (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) and click send.
Outgoing server: Your email client connects with your email service provider’s outgoing (SMTP) server and validates your email address.
Routing: The server then uses DNS (Domain Name System) records to locate your recipient’s IP address and mail server.
Delivery to recipient’s server: Your email reaches your recipient’s receiving mail server. The recipient’s server runs SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks to validate your email address and runs your address against a reputation database.
Email client filtering: Your recipient’s email client, like Gmail or Outlook, may apply additional spam filters.
Inbox or spam folder: The email client places your email in the inbox or spam folder.
As you can see, it’s easy for your email to get caught in a spam filter. One way of cutting right through this issue is to use an established third-party service. A tool like Artisan takes care of all aspects of deliverability optimization.
Want to see how Artisan can connect you to more of your ideal prospects? Get in touch to arrange a demo.
Step 1 – Authenticate Your Emails: Build Trust With Email Service Providers
Email service providers conduct a range of checks to verify your email address and check it’s not associated with spam before delivering it to your recipient’s inbox. The first step in boosting deliverability is to make sure your authentication protocols are correct.
Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are email authentication protocols (or verification methods) that email service providers use to check you’re not a spammer.
Here’s what the terms mean in simple language:
Sender Policy Framework (SPF): Checks your email comes from a trustworthy server.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): Ensures the email hasn’t been altered in transit.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC): Combines SPF and DKIM results for additional security.
You provide the information needed to run these protocols in your DNS TXT records. You’ll usually be able to access your DNS settings through the dashboard of your hosting provider, who will also provide instructions.
Use a Custom Email Domain
Sending emails from a branded domain increases trust and limits the chance of emails being marked as spam.
A custom domain is simply an email address that uses a domain you own and that’s associated with your brand: ava@artisan.com, for example, as opposed to ava7645@yahoo.com.
Here’s why you should use custom domains:
They’re often preferred by ESPs and email clients.
They allow you to build a strong sender score.
They appear less spammy to recipients.
If you’re running multiple cold email campaigns, you may need to “spin up” new email domains similar to your main brand domain, but in all cases, you should opt for custom, not third-party, domains.
Use a Trusted Hosting Platform or Third-Party Email Platform
Your choice of host can affect your deliverability score in the following ways:
IP reputation: Shared hosting may result in a domain IP address with a poor sender score.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup: Your host must allow for correct protocol configurations.
Mail server quality: Some hosts have unreliable servers or are flagged as sources of spam.
Always check third-party review sites before opting for a host. Generally speaking, the big players—GoDaddy, HostGator, Dreamhost, etc.—are the most reliable. Alternatively, a dedicated email tool will take care of authentication, meaning you don’t have to worry about the technicalities.
Step 2 – Maintain a Clean Email List
A clean email list is one that’s made up of real addresses that real people check. Regularly removing inactive recipients and subscribers who no longer want to receive your emails will limit harm to your sender score.
Remove Hard Bounces and Inactive Subscribers
There are two ways to deal with hard bounces and inactive subscribers: re-engagement campaigns and regular hygiene checks.
Re-engagement campaigns are relatively straightforward. First, you send a series of broadcasts offering valuable content aimed at inactive subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in several months.
At the end of your campaign, you send a warning email to those who didn’t open your re-engagement emails explicitly asking them if they want to remain on your list. If they don’t respond or say no, you remove them.
Hygiene checking requires the use of a third-party service. If you’re running cold email campaigns, without a base of opt-in subscribers, this will be your primary method for ensuring the quality of your list.
List hygiene tools test the validity of email addresses by using a mix of techniques like syntax checks, cross-references with blacklists, and identification of IP addresses associated with spam.
Use Double Opt-In for New Subscribers
To double opt-in or not to double opt-in. It’s an eternal question. We recommend a double opt-in for one simple reason: it reduces the potential for harm to your sender score, and your domain reputation will benefit in the long term.
Implementing a double opt-in is straightforward and usually involves clicking a few buttons in your email provider’s dashboard. It’s a simple task, but it can have a big impact.
The flip side of this equation is allowing your subscribers to opt out. Clearly include an unsubscribe link. For one thing, it’s a legal requirement. But it will also save you the job of having to remove unwilling subscribers manually.
Step 3 – Optimize Your Email Content
If you’ve managed to reach the recipient’s email client, you’ve done a good job. But the battle isn’t over yet. This is where content and behavior analysis happens, and a few simple steps can help you avoid the spam folder.
Craft Engaging Subject Lines (Avoid Spam Triggers)
Here’s a list of spam words to avoid in your subject lines and body copy:
Financial triggers:
Earn extra cash
Lowest price
Make money
Credit card offer
Urgency triggers:
Act now
Limited time
Don’t miss out
Offer expires soon
Hurry!
Unrealistic promises:
Risk-free
Satisfaction guaranteed
Once-in-a-lifetime
Miracle
100% free
Promotional phrases:
Free access
Winner
Exclusive deal
No cost
Sensational language:
Amazing
Incredible
Guaranteed
Congratulations
Unbelievable
“Shady” offers:
Easy income
Work from home
Get paid
No catch
Marketing triggers:
Buy direct
Order online
Get your discount
Limited offer
Personalization triggers:
Tailored for you
Special offer just for you
Exclusive invitation
Hand-picked
You’ve been chosen
Encourage Replies and Interactions
Replies signify that your emails are valuable. It’s one of the primary ways email clients identify email addresses you view as important. Replies can also affect your domain score at the ESP level.
The best way to encourage replies is with concise body copy and a well-chosen CTA. Research shows that “interest questions” of the form “Would you like to learn more?” tend to perform best. As always, however, there’s no substitute for your own testing.
Keep a Good Text-to-Image Ratio
There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not images trigger spam filters. The research is somewhat limited, but some studies show a positive effect.
However, there’s also strong anecdotal evidence that images in cold emails can trigger spam filters. For newsletters? Go for it. Images can boost engagement. With cold email, we recommend erring on the side of caution.
Of course, do your own testing. But use all-text email as a starting point for your outbound campaigns.
Include a Clear Unsubscribe Link
This is non-negotiable. Email clients filter emails based on the inclusion of an unsubscribe button. Oh, and it’s also a legal requirement pretty much everywhere in the world.
Personalize at Scale With AI
If you’re running large campaigns, creating tailored content can be prohibitively time-consuming. In these cases, AI-based personalization will prove incredibly useful.
Artisan’s AI BDR Ava, for example, draws on multiple data sources to create personalized emails at scale. One of the outcomes of this is that you’re much less likely to end up in either a server-side or client spam folder.
Step 4 – Monitor Your Email Deliverability Metrics
Deliverability is simply a measure of how many emails land in your recipients’ inboxes (inbox placement). Aim for a deliverability rate of 90% and above.
Tracking services tend to use a mix of data to determine this figure, including ESP feedback loops (which notify senders about spam complaints), behavioral data like opens and replies, and bounce rates.
Track Open Rates and Bounce Rates Regularly
Your open and bounce rates are a direct window to your email deliverability. Regular tracking gives you important data that helps you ascertain your true deliverability rate, and that’s why it’s useful to analyze historical performance.
If open and bounce rates are increasing, that’s a strong indicator you’re optimizing your email delivery well.
Monitor Your Domain Reputation
Certain third-party tools offer domain-related sender reputation scores. These are useful for tracking your overall standing with ESPs and mailbox providers (MPs) and mimic the scores they compile themselves. Sometimes, they may use third-party scores directly.
Here’s a list of the main services offering sender scores and related data:
Sender Score by Validity
Barracuda Central
Cisco Talos Intelligence
Google Postmaster Tools
Microsoft SNDS
Regularly Check List Hygiene
Irrespective of whether you’re running a regular newsletter or outbound campaigns, it’s essential to run regular hygiene checks. Removing duds from your list is one of the easiest ways to improve deliverability.
Step 5 – Segment Your Email List for Better Engagement
Segmentation is the key to personalization. And personalization is the key to higher engagement. Simply personalizing a subject line, for example, can increase open rates by a factor of ten.
The result of deeper engagement? A stronger sender score and mailbox providers that view you as the polar opposite of spammy.
Use Behavioral and Demographic Data to Segment
While segmentation is powerful, it’s important to remember that you can’t slice up your email list endlessly. Most businesses simply don’t have the capacity to create that much content, even with scalable automation tools.
A handful of well-chosen behavioral, psychographic, or demographic variables is usually enough to see good results. Determine which are most applicable to your market and run with them.
Here’s an overview of the main ways to segment your list:
Demographics:
Age
Gender
Income
Education
Location
Psychographics:
Values
Interests
Lifestyle
Personality (e.g., introvert, Type A)
Organizational status
Behavior:
Previous opens and replies
Purchase behavior
Product sage rate
Brand loyalty
Decision-making stage
Don’t Overcomplicate Segmentation
Segmentation isn’t about creating hyper-unique content for every subset of your market. It’s about determining which key variables are most important for your audience, marketing strategy, and product and personalizing within that context.
For example, a high-ticket SaaS company will likely benefit much more from segmenting by prospect decision-making stage compared to a high-end watch brand, where income and organizational status will be much more important.
Step 6 – Send Emails at the Right Frequency and Time
Sending at the right time and with the right frequency can have a stark effect on your engagement metrics, which will, in turn, impact your sender score.
Here are some quick sending benchmarks:
For your newsletter list, 2 to 3 times per week is best (Campaign Monitor).
For cold email lists, 4 emails (one initial cold email and three follow-ups) are ideal (Woodpecker).
However, there’s no substitute for your own testing. Your audience may be radically different, preferring one email per week or, at the other end of the spectrum, one or more emails every day.
Test, test, and then test some more. Which leads nicely onto the next point…
According to HubSpot, between 9 am and 3 pm EST on Tuesday is the best time to have your emails land.
But there’s a caveat. Guessed what it is?
There’s no substitute for testing. We know we sound like a broken record, but it needs saying again and again.
Remember that following up with prospects needn’t be time-consuming. Artisan, for example, helps you send messages at the right time by automating and sequencing follow-up. All emails are timezone-adjusted.
Want to see Ava, Artisan's AI BDR, in action? Schedule a demo to see how she can connect you with more of your ideal leads.
Step 7 – Test Your Emails Before Sending
Running tests flags problems before they have a chance to hurt your domain reputation and sender score. Email senders that add checks to their workflow can identify and remedy problems more quickly and cost-effectively than if they encounter them at a later stage.
Run Spam Tests
Automated spam programs usually formulate a spam score with a mix of the following:
Content analysis: Flagging of words and phrases that might trigger mailbox provider filters.
Inbox placement test: The use of seed lists to test inbox vs. spam folder placement with a representative number of emails.
Sender reputation test: Assessment of IP/domain reputation using third-party scores.
Spam filter simulation: Prediction of deliverability by running tests against simulated spam, phishing, and spoofing models.
Use Inbox Previews
Inbox previews let you see your emails on a range of devices. Preview platforms are relatively inexpensive, and you don’t need to check every campaign, especially if you’re using a standard template.
Send Test Emails to Yourself
Manually send a few test emails to yourself and your team members to catch any formatting errors or spam triggers. You would be surprised how seeing an email in a different context (your own client) can alert you to mistakes.
Why Stress Over Email Deliverability? Let Artisan Do the Work
Email deliverability requires attention to lots of moving parts. List hygiene and validity, spam filters, technical protocols, personalization of email copy—the list goes on.
It’s hard work. But instead of manually managing every step, AI-powered tools like Artisan handle these processes effortlessly and transform your email marketing.
Artisan is a next-gen AI email outreach platform. Its virtual business development representative (BDR) called Ava handles all aspects of prospecting, filtering, lead qualification, email creation, domain warm-up, and, of course, deliverability optimization.
If you would like to see how Artisan can boost your email deliverability, help you reach your best-fit prospects, and boost your sales revenue, get in touch to arrange a demo.
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