Avoiding Email Jail: Top Tips to Improve Deliverability

Email marketing can be a powerful tool for engaging with customers and driving revenue, especially in today’s digitized marketplace. Email has become the forefront of conversation, and since it is so easy to use, business owners would be foolish not to take advantage. However, it's also easy to make mistakes that can land your emails in "email jail," where they remain unseen or are flagged as spam. 

Here are a few important statistics that highlight why you should avoid email marketing mistakes:

• According to the 2023 Consumer Trends Index, 52% of consumers made a purchase directly from an email.
• 59% of buyers say that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
• 44% of B2B marketers cite email marketing as their most effective marketing channel, based on the study done by the Content Marketing Institute
• The 2023 Consumer Trends Index also states that email even outperforms social media posts by 13% and social media ads by 11%.

Overall, email marketing is too significant to be ignored. But more importantly, shoddily done email marketing poses more dangers than not sending them at all. To help you keep your email campaigns on track, here are the top email marketing mistakes to avoid and tips on how to prevent them.

1. Getting Off on the Wrong Foot

Congratulations! Someone just subscribed to your email list, so what are you going to do next? If your answer isn’t ‘immediately send them a welcome email,’ you’re missing the best opportunity for engagement. By far, your most read email will be the first email you send to your subscribers. Why? Because it’s sent when readers are still thinking about you. They just subscribed. You’re fresh in their minds. As soon as someone signs up for your email campaign, you should send them an email that explains who you are and what they can expect from you. Welcome new subscribers to your email list. Introduce your business. Tell them what’s ahead.

2. Buying Email Lists

Purchasing an email list might seem like a quick way to build your audience, but it’s fraught with risks. Emails sent to purchased lists often result in low engagement rates and high spam complaints, which can damage your sender reputation and lead to your emails being blocked. Solution: Build your email list organically. Use sign-up forms on your website, social media promotions, and lead magnets to attract subscribers who are genuinely interested in your content.

3. Overusing Batch-and-Blast

Sending the same email to your entire list without any segmentation or personalization (batch-and-blast) is outdated and ineffective, especially if you reuse emails and send the same message to the same people multiple times. This approach can lead to high unsubscribe rates and low engagement. Solution: Segment your email list based on customer data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and engagement levels. Send targeted and relevant content to different segments to improve engagement.

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4. Ignoring Your Mobile Users

Want a sure-fire way to send your email conversion rates way down? Don’t optimize for mobile. Up to 70% of your readers will be reading your email on their mobile devices first. If you’re not ensuring your audience can read your emails on their phones or tablets, you’re making a big mistake. Formatting for mobile devices should be simple and clean, with images and texts that are easily readable on a small screen. You have limited real estate, and you don’t want to make your reader do any more work than is necessary. Keep content to a single column and use smaller images. You also need to test your emails on mobile apps yourself to ensure that they’re coming across the way that you want them to. There are even AI tools today that can optimize your email into a mobile-friendly format.

5. Neglecting Transactional Emails

Transactional emails, such as order confirmations and shipping notices, are often overlooked as marketing opportunities. However, these emails typically have high open rates and can be used to promote additional products or services. Solution: Include personalized product recommendations or promotional content in your transactional emails. Just make sure the primary purpose of the email remains clear to comply with regulations.

6. Using Too Many Images

Your first instinct may be to load up your emails with eye-catching, professional pictures that will excite your readers. While this isn’t wrong in and of itself, it’s important to remember that many of your readers may view emails with images turned off. If you don’t have a plan B, you’re missing these clients altogether. Plus, larger images slow your email loading speed and create a bad user experience, causing them to close the email before they even get to see it fully. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use images at all, it just means that you need to be judicious with how you use them. If you use the right alt text, your viewer will still be able to get a good idea of what your email is about even if the images don’t load.

7. Failing to Offer Unsubscribe Options

Not providing a straightforward way for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails is a quick way to get flagged as spam. It also frustrates your audience and can lead to higher unsubscribe rates. Solution: Include a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in every email you send. Definitely offer some kind of opt-down option, allowing recipients to reduce the frequency of emails rather than unsubscribing completely.

8. DKIM, SPF and DMARC

Domains that have not set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly may find that their               emails get quarantined as spam, or are not delivered to their recipients. They are also in danger of having spammers impersonate them.  Carmichael regularly configures these email authentication methods for our customers in order to ensure the highest level of deliverability.

Avoiding email jail requires a commitment and a proactive approach to evolving trends and regulations. By following the guidelines above, you can improve your email deliverability, engagement, and overall campaign success.

At Carmichael Consulting Solutions, we specialize in helping businesses navigate the complexities of email marketing. Whether you need assistance with strategy, deliverability, or choosing the right ESP, we’re here to help. Contact us today to learn how we can support your email marketing efforts and keep you out of email jail.