Email deliverability, inbox rates, and bounce rates are three essential metrics for email marketers to keep track of for successful campaigns. Email deliverability is the measure of how successful an email campaign has been in getting emails delivered to their intended recipients. Meanwhile, the inbox rate is a measure of the emails that reached the intended recipient’s inbox as opposed to their spam folders. And finally, bounce rate is the number of emails that are rejected by the receiving server.
Maximizing Email Deliverability
For optimal performance, email marketers should focus on creating email campaigns with a high deliverability rate. It’s important to ensure that your emails are being sent from a reliable platform in order to preserve your reputation and guarantee the highest level of delivery success. Additionally, identify and eradicate email list errors and unsubscribe inactive users to maintain a healthy list.
What Is Inbox Rate?
The inbox rate (or inboxing rate) is the measure of how many of those emails are sent to the inbox as opposed to the spam folder or bounced. To calculate this figure, simply take the number of emails that reach the inbox and divide it by the total number of emails that were sent. Your goal should be to obtain a 100% inboxing rate, while taking into account factors such as the 25 most popular email domains that are tracked by third-party partners (i.e., Gmail, Yahoo, Comcast, Hotmail, AOL, etc.).
What Are Bounce Rates?
Email bounce rates come in two varieties: hard bounces and soft bounces. Hard bounces mean that the email is completely undeliverable and are typically due to either the email address/recipient not existing, the domain the email was sent to does not exist, or the receiving server has permanently blocked delivery. Soft bounces signify a temporary issue and occur when the server or mailbox is full, the server handling the recipient email is down, or the email is too large to be delivered.
Understanding Email Open Rates
When you send an email, you want people to actually read it! That’s why it’s important to keep track of something called “email open rates.” This number shows you how many people have opened your email out of the total number of people you sent it to.
Let’s say you sent an email to 100 people and 50 of them opened it. Your email open rate would be 50%. This number helps you see how well your email is doing and if people are interested in what you have to say.
There are a few things that can affect your email open rate. For example, the subject line of your email is really important because it’s the first thing people see when they receive your email. If your subject line is boring or doesn’t make sense, people might not open your email.
Another important factor is the time and day you send your email. If you send your email on a weekend when people are busy with other things, your open rate might be lower. But if you send it on a weekday when people are more likely to be checking their email, your open rate might be higher.
Finally, the content of your email is also important. If you write an email that’s full of interesting and useful information, people will be more likely to open it. But if you write an email that’s boring or doesn’t make sense, people might not bother to open it.
An overview
Email deliverability, inbox rates, and bounce rates are all essential components of any successful email marketing campaign. By focusing on high deliverability, maintaining a clean email list, and tracking your inbox and bounce rates, you can ensure your emails land in your customer’s inboxes and have the best chance of converting.
One factor that could be impacting the performance of your email deliverability is email authentication. Email authentication helps ensure that the emails you send out are not being spoofed or impersonated by malicious actors. You can implement authentication protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance).
Another way to boost your deliverability is to carefully monitor your sending frequency. Make sure to keep your sending cadence consistent, as sudden spikes or changes in the frequency of emails sent can have a negative impact on your deliverability. Also, consider optimizing the timing of your emails. Try sending emails at different times throughout the day to see which time works best for your customers.
Optimizing your subject lines is another important tactic when it comes to email deliverability. Being creative with your subject lines can help your emails stand out in the crowded inboxes of your contacts. Additionally, be mindful of the language used in your emails; avoid the use of salesy words and phrases which can end up in a spam filter.
It’s worth emphasizing the importance of having a clean email list to maintain a good reputation and healthy email deliverability. Prune inactive contacts by sending them re-engagement campaigns, and use sign-up forms to capture fresh leads and potential customers.
You should also be aware of common email delivery blockers. These include email address typos, sending to outdated domains, suspicious URLs, and rejected emails from mailbox providers. You should regularly audit your contact list to remove any of these blockers.
Make sure your emails are optimized for mobile devices. A survey from Litmus found that nearly half of all emails are opened on mobile devices, so design them in a way that’s mobile-friendly. This includes using a single-column layout, keeping content concise, using larger fonts, and compressing and optimizing images.
Finally, segmenting your contact list is important to ensure your emails are reaching the right people. Segmenting allows you to customize your emails based on user interests, location, buying behavior, and more. Doing so increases your open and click-through rates and boosts overall email performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, understanding and optimizing your email deliverability is essential for any successful email campaign. Following the strategies outlined above will help increase open rates, improve customer engagement, and boost the effectiveness of your campaigns. Investing in email deliverability will provide long-term benefits that will ensure your emails reach their intended recipients without detection from spam filters.
Did you know! You can boost up your email open and inbox rate by using service like Mystrika, that does AI warmup and builds your email reputation.