The devils in the details when you take a hard look at bulletproofing your email delivery. Whether you are doing it in house, or working with a high quality vendor such as Vertical Response, who we recommend and utilize for clients at present, some insight that should help you bulletproof email delivery.

1) Make sure you are using double opt in best practices to ensure your list quality is excellent and you don’t trigger complaints from recipients.

2) Utilize Feedback loops (if sending yourself), which enable you to see who is indicating your email is spam, so you can remove them instantly.

3) Use standardized “From” Information: utilize the same address so you don’t force recipients to keep adding new addresses to their address book. If you vary addresses, your spam complaints will go up as well, as your email goes into a spam folder, which triggers a rejection.

4) Add an unsubscribe link at the top of your email - this enables the recipient to easily and instantly remove themselves from your list. If many are forced to scroll to the bottom or dig through the email they will find it easier to complain.

5) Delete your inactive subscribers from your list; yes, you hate to cut down the size of your own list. But, better that you do it yourself so inactive subscribers don’t treat your email as spam.

6) Always have a “white list reminder” for your users; in some cases ISPs will look at the number of time you get added to an address book as a sign of integrity.

7) Remove all hard bounces that come back as undeliverable immediately from your list - if you keep sending them this will send a negative signal to your ISP or List Provider.

8) Make sure your content is relevant to the interest of your subscribers. Don’t stray from your subject matter by sending extemporaneous emails that are not consistent with your audience.

9) Your Subject Line is not only critical to deliver ability (getting opened and read) but also sets the tone for the content that is in the actual email. Make it as creative as you can and test several variances with 10-15% of your list, then utilize optimum content.

10) Incorporate a static IP Address in your campaigns. If working with an email provider, some will offer a dedicated IP for an additional charge. If they offer one it can be worth the fees (especially for larger lists), as some providers group multiple clients under the same IP Address and what another company does can impact your deliverability.

Our take on bulletproofing email deliverability - if you need help with your email marketing please click here to contact me.