Overview
Email deliverability is the art of ensuring your emails land in the recipient's inbox rather than their spam or junk folder. Achieving this increases the likelihood that your message will be seen and interacted with, which is crucial in the context of higher education, where engagement can directly influence a prospective student's decision-making process.
In light of tighter spam filtering algorithms adopted by Internet Service Providers (ISPs like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail), adhering to email deliverability best practices is more crucial than ever for the success of your email campaigns.
Tip 1: Creating an Effective Opt-In and Opt-Out Process
Establishing a clear opt-in and opt-out process for your email campaigns is key to pleasing your audience and improving email deliverability. By allowing users to subscribe and easily unsubscribe voluntarily, you ensure that your emails are sent to those genuinely interested in your content, and you respect their choice to disengage, which maintains a positive user experience. This positive engagement and respect for user preferences signal to ISPs that recipients value and trust your emails, which helps keep your messages out of the spam folder.
Use labels to easily identify opt-in users and tailor your content to meet their preferences, enhancing both engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, ensure your unsubscribe mechanism is straightforward and accessible—this not only complies with email marketing laws but also enhances your reputation as a trustworthy sender. For detailed instructions on adding an unsubscribe button to your emails, refer to our comprehensive guide on email opt-out processes.
Tip 2: Sunsetting + List Hygiene
Regular maintenance of your email list is vital to improve deliverability. This involves removing unengaged subscribers, a practice known as "sunsetting."
Why List Hygiene Matters:
Improves Engagement Rates: Keeps your list fresh and focused on engaged users.
Protects Your Reputation: Prevents damage to your domain's reputation from repeated sends to disinterested recipients.
Implement a system to automatically label and exclude inactive users from future campaigns, ensuring only engaged recipients receive your communications.
Tip 2: Warming Your Domain
Domain warming is essential for building a reputable sender profile with ISPs. It involves gradually increasing your email sending volume to establish credibility and reduce the risk of being marked as spam. This is particularly important for new domains with no prior reputation.
Focus your first campaigns on sending emails to recipients like applicants or prospective students who have previously shown engagement (e.g., opened emails). This strategy not only enhances engagement rates but also strengthens your sender reputation.
Tip 3: Sending at the Right Frequency
Finding the right balance in email frequency is crucial. Over-sending, especially beyond your typical patterns, can trigger ISPs to mark your emails as spam, adversely affecting your deliverability.
Best Practices for Email Frequency:
Evaluate Your Audience: Determine the engagement level and adjust your sending frequency accordingly.
Maintain Consistency: Stick to a regular sending schedule to establish predictability and trust with ISPs.
Slowly Introduce Changes: Once you have a stable open rate, gradually introduce more emails into your schedule.
Avoid the temptation to drastically increase email frequency in response to short-term goals. Focus on building a sustainable communication strategy that nurtures potential students' interest throughout their decision-making journey.
Tip 4: Crafting Effective Subject Lines
Your subject lines are crucial elements that will ultimately determine whether a user opens your emails. Although ISPs continue to evolve their filtering systems, it’s wise to avoid using common spam phrases. Examples to avoid include "Act now!", "Exclusive deal!", "Guaranteed," or "Risk-free." These can trigger spam filters and decrease the likelihood of your emails being opened.
Use Copilot to help generate your email subject lines.
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