I know a lot of coaches reading this put a lot of time and effort into email marketing to their lists. So, it’s key that all your time and effort pay off by ensuring those emails hit your audiences’ inboxes.
But many coaches don’t really think about the deliverability of those marketing emails. Did you know it’s possible the emails you send from your email marketing service might be rejected, bounce, or end up in spam for reasons you’re not aware of? Reasons like:
- Large file attachments
- Poor IP address and server rating
- Mailbox provider downtime
All of which can result in your email getting lost, sometimes without your knowledge.
So, what can you do to ensure your marketing emails always land where they should?
9 things you can do to make sure your emails are delivered.
You work hard on your emails, so let’s make sure that all that time and effort pays off by implementing a few of these changes:
1. Put a Sender Profile Framework (SPF) in place
An SPF increases your chances of emails getting through by checking and authenticating your domain name and IP address to ensure they are legitimate.
This stops fraudsters from creating spoof accounts and tells the recipient’s email server that your email is coming from a trustworthy source.
The result?
Your email gets through to their inbox with no chance of bouncing or being marked as spam. Something that might happen if you fail to implement an SPF.
The easiest way to set up an SPF is to type into Google: “authenticate with SPF with [the name of your email marketing service, like ActiveCampaign or Mailerlite].”
More than likely your email marketing service already has a help article to show you exactly how to set up SPF with their service.
2. Send your emails consistently
Send your emails on a set day and time. The recipient’s server gets used to this and is less likely to send your emails to spam. Inconsistent sending creates spikes that can send your emails to the junk box.
Plus, your readers know when to expect it every time by being consistent with your sending times.
3. Clean up your sender list
There are always people who sign up for your newsletters, then never open them. And there are a few reasons why this might be:
- They don’t check their email regularly
- They’ve since changed their email address
- They are bot accounts
- The email address has a typo
And these non-clicks really can affect your sender credibility, leading to servers blocking your IP address (and thus your emails!). So, check your sender statistics every few months, and if some users never open your emails, remove them.
Yes, your subscriber numbers will go down a bit, but if they are not reading your emails, cut them loose. Keeping them does you more harm than good.
4. Use a domain email address
Your email address should match your website domain (the bit after the @ in your email). It looks professional and gives the reader confidence you know what you’re doing.
Don’t use domains like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com because it looks unprofessional, and people will think the same about your coaching services.
5. Check blacklists
If you’re already experiencing problems sending emails, then check DNS blacklists. There is a chance your IP address could be on one.
You can do this by using a checker called MXToolbox.
6. Check emails against a spam tool
Another way to ensure your emails don’t end up as spam is to check your emails with a spam tool checker. You can do this via:
Email testing is important if you’re not seeing the deliverability and open rates you want, so add it to your to-do list.
7. Include an unsubscribe link in your emails
Getting sign-ups is one thing. Holding your readers to ransom is another. Always include the option to unsubscribe, and don’t panic when people do. Good news is that if you’re using a reputable email marketing service, they’ll include this unsubscribe link in all your emails for you.
Remember, if they are not reading your emails, then it’s better they unsubscribe anyway.
8. Keep emails short and valuable
People want information fast. So, make sure whatever you’re writing up is valuable to the reader – and keep those emails short.
Most readers will not find a long email interesting, so focus on the most important thing: offering super-valuable content that is useful for them and quick to consume.
Do that, and they’ll be less likely to mark it as spam in their inbox.
9. Try switching email services
Switching email services could help you reach more readers. So, if you feel your content is world-class, it could be the email service letting you down. To find out some great options, check out my article, How to pick a marketing email service for your coaching business.
Things to remember.
Not everybody opens your emails. It could be that they just signed up for a freebie or that those emails are spam bots. So, make sure to check your statistics every few months.
If subscribers never open your emails, remove them from your list so that it doesn’t affect your sender and server credibility.
And if you think “Email is dead long live social media marketing!” you might want to give my article, Is email marketing still working? a read.
Until next time,
Jennie
