Everybody receives a lot of emails in a single day. So much so that consulting it every day is now a routine: it’s part of our daily life. However, for those whose job is to send emails, it’s not always that simple… With spam filter evolution, it’s not always easy to find yourself on the right side of the fence. So, in this article, we dressed up a list of simple actions, but often forgotten, to maximize your e-mail display and deliverability.
The basics
Email deliverability
Email classification is done automatically through spam filter of the mailing platforms. An email is evaluated by these filters according to several criteria, which determine a relevance score. Therefore, the higher the score, the more your message is considered undesirable.
Choose your email marketing solution wisely
The first step to ensure that your messages are not detected as spam is to choose the right mailing solution. This step is important because anti-spam filters examine the reputation of IP addresses used for each shipment and block those from their blacklist, which affects the display of your message. Therefore, we advise to opt for a serious solution like Dialog Insight, which works to improve all of its IP addresses in order to prevent this type of problem.
The sender address
Your recipient trust for your sender address directly affects the email deliverability. If people do not trust or recognize the name of the company sending those emails, they will simply not open them. Try not to change the name or address of the sender too often as it builds a reputation for anti-spam filters over time.
The 3 essentials
1.The email subject
The email subject is one of the determining factors of the opening rate, which is directly related to the relevance of the message. So, by increasing your open rate, you decrease your chances of being considered undesirable to spam filters. Here are some basic rules to follow in order to improve your email subjects:
- DO NOT WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS;
- Be clear and concise: make sure you do not exceed 50 characters, otherwise it will be cut and your opening rate will be penalized. You can use an online tool to count pixels and character (there are many available with a simple search in Google!);
- The object must be directly related to the content of your email;
- Pay attention to the words you choose (some words are directly associated with spam senders. This is the case of: free, offer, promo, urgent, 50%, etc.).
2. Your email content
Nowadays, the key word in marketing content is: quality. Producing quality content allows you to build a reputation as an emailer. The more relevant your email content is, the more people will be interested in opening your future emails, and it’s a great advantage for your deliverability. To achieve this, some elements are essential, here are a few:
Images
A good ratio between the number of images and the amount of text is very important because anti-spam filters cannot read images. They should always be a visual support for the text and not replace it. Accordingly, a single big picture as an e-mail is not a good idea. Remember that most email platforms do not automatically display images when receiving an email. Also, make sure sure to add alternative text to your images, in case they do not display.
Unsubscribe link
In order to comply with C-28 law, ALWAYS add a functional unsubscribe link in each of your e-mail submissions. An email that does not contain an unsubscribe link is more likely to be considered a spam and therefore increases your chances of being the subject of a complaint by your recipients. Some platforms, including Dialog Insight, offers you an unsubscribe form that you can simply drag into your email when creating it and make it easier for you.
Other links
Before you press send, make sure all the links in your email are working and that none of them are pointing to a non-existent web page. Links that are broken or do not lead anywhere make it seem less credible. Short URL links can also harm your reputation.
3. Your contacts list
Take time to clean up your contact list so you do not keep addresses that never open your emails. It doesn’t help in increasing your opening rate. Moreover, these contacts are probably not interested in what you offer, since they never opted in. I would also like to add that we strongly recommend not buying a contact lists. It relates to the same reason as before: they are not interested, which can lead to a decrease in your opening rate. A good tip: you can invite your recipients to add you to their address book. It reduces your chances of landing in the spam box.
For the most advanced (the HTML template)
If you’ve ever had to create a message in HTML, you know it isn’t a simple affair, largely because of the differences between the various email clients. Softwares such as Outlook and Thunderbird work quite differently from Web-based clients such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com. To ensure a successful display, keep the following points in mind:
- Unfortunately, email software doesn’t support the use of Flash, JavaScript or other effects you may wish to include in your messages. Such features are usually blocked by spam filters or sent to a junk mail box. Avoid background images that are also not supported.
- Simplify your layout as much as possible. Spam filters do not like to see too many colors in an email, so stay on the sober side. Opt for a layout that can be read vertically and use standard fonts (e.g. Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc.). You should also limit your use of bold, italic or underlined in your content. The width of your template should not exceed 650 pixels.
- Place the most important content in the message preview area. This is the area that’s displayed before the message is opened. Although the size of this area varies widely according to the email software used, the top-left part of the message will always be the one displayed
What about mobile devices?
To optimize a template for mobile devices, choose a structure with a single column. Design any calls to action so that they can be easily clicked with a finger. The text should also be large enough to be easily read. One last tip: use responsive email design so that your template adjusts to any device on which the email could be read.
To wrap up
Finally, creating perfectly rendered and delivered emails for every platform is more complex than it seems. That’s why a level of expertise in the matter is required. Dialog Insight continually develops simplified solutions on its platform to help you apply all these elements easily and to adapt it to your business reality. If you need advice to define the content of your messages, contact us. Our team is there to help you!