We talk a lot around here about what it takes to get your emails delivered to inboxes. But hey, maybe that’s not your thing and you’d rather go to spam. No judgment here! If spam is your goal, then definitely do these four things below. But if you’d rather your campaigns actually see the light of day, then we suggest you keep reading so you know exactly what not to do.
1. Not authenticating your sending domain
Email authentication is one of the first checks made when a message is received. Proving who you are in today’s complex email environment is even more important than ever before to ensure your marketing success.
The two types of authentication to look out for are Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM). There are many places to confirm authentication, but the easiest is within your mailbox provider. For example, when you open a message in Gmail and click ‘Show Original’ messages, you can see a breakdown of your authentication status. Traditionally the information is quite easy to understand as they show ‘Pass/Fail’ next to the listed authentication.
2. Sending to uninterested users
One of the fastest ways to kill your email deliverability is to keep sending your campaigns to uninterested users. When we say “interested” we’re talking about those recipients who actually engage with your emails by opening and clicking. Sending to users who haven’t opened or clicked any of your emails in the last six to 12 months could likely be the source of your performance issues as this often increases the number of spam complaints, spam traps, and unknown users. Any one of these negative metrics could ultimately lead to a low placement rate or an increase blocking by some of the large mailbox providers.
