Skyrocket your email deliverability: 5 must-know tips for small businesses

You’re an entrepreneur. You eat, sleep and breathe your business. Every day you’re hustling to keep your company running, innovating new ideas, and working to grow your customer base. Email is one of your most powerful tools for reaching new leads and staying in touch with loyal customers. But what good is sending emails if they’re not even making it to the inbox? As a small business owner, maximizing your email deliverability is essential. Follow these 5 must-know tips to skyrocket your emails straight to the inbox and start seeing real results.

Keep your email list clean and engaged

Want your small business email marketing to soar? Start with a squeaky-clean email list! Remove uninterested contacts and focus on engaged subscribers. A smaller, targeted list means higher open and click rates – and less chance of landing in the spam folder. Remember: your database is only as good as the quality of the contact details in it. So, make sure you utilize a contact enrichment API to ensure your database is full of clean and accurate contacts and data.

Build an engaged email list

Collect email addresses from happy customers and website visitors who opt-in to your messages. Ask engaging questions to learn their needs and interests. Personalize your outreach and send relevant content – your subscribers will appreciate your thoughtfulness!

An engaged email list is marketing gold. These loyal fans open your messages, click links, and buy from you again and again. They also spread the word about your awesome business! Focus on quality over quantity here. It’s better to have 100 highly engaged subscribers than 1,000 barely interested ones.

Clean up your list regularly

Review your email list regularly and remove any stale, unresponsive or complaint-filing contacts. Check for signs like:

• Bounced messages – Remove invalid email addresses to avoid delivery issues.
• Low open or click rates – If someone hasn’t engaged in 6-12 months, they may no longer wish to receive your messages. Remove them from your list.
• Spam complaints – Remove any contact who marks your message as spam to prevent damage to your email reputation and delivery.
• Irrelevant recipients – Remove anyone who should not have been on your list in the first place! Only keep contacts who actively signed up to receive your messages.

A clean, targeted email list is the foundation for successful email marketing. Take the time to build quality relationships with your subscribers and regularly prune your list.!

Choose a service provider that prioritizes email deliverability

Choosing an email service provider (ESP) that prioritizes deliverability is key to getting your campaigns into inboxes. Some top options for small businesses include:

MailerLite has an average deliverability rate of 95.4% over the last three rounds of testing by Email Tool Tester. Their affordable plans, intuitive interface, and deliverability focus make them a great choice for small businesses.

Mailgun’s shared and dedicated IP environments can maximize delivery rates and build a strong sender reputation. They offer flexible and scalable solutions for companies of all sizes. For small businesses, Mailgun’s pay-as-you-go plan is very budget-friendly.

No matter which ESP you choose, look for one that actively monitors major email providers like Gmail and Outlook to stay on top of any changes that could impact deliverability. An ESP that frequently tests and optimizes their own IP addresses and servers will also help ensure your emails reach the inbox.

Create relevant and valuable content

Creating valuable content your audience actually wants to read is key to skyrocketing your email deliverability. When your subscribers open your emails and click your content, email providers see you as a sender of useful information, not spam.

So how do you create content your subscribers will love? Focus on their needs and interests. Survey your list to find out their biggest questions and concerns. Then create content that provides helpful solutions and advice. Take a tutoring business for example. Say their students are constantly asking about learning on the go. They might want to come out with a blog or a “how to” with tips on doing just that!

Share authentic stories

Share stories from your own experiences building a small business. Talk about your successes, failures, lessons learned, and how you overcame challenges. Your subscribers will appreciate your honesty and find your stories highly relatable. Stories also help to build trust and connection with your audience.

For example, you might share how you once wasted money on an ineffective marketing campaign and what you wish you knew then. Or tell the story of how you landed your first big client through networking and persistence. Keep your stories authentic and aim to inspire or motivate your readers.

Highlight customer success

Feature stories from your happy customers. Show how your product or service made a real difference. Customer stories and testimonials are powerful social proof that builds credibility and trust in your brand.

Interview one of your best customers and ask them questions about their challenges before using your product, how your product helped solve those problems, and the benefits and results they’ve seen. Share that interview in your email newsletter or on your blog. Your subscribers will love learning from a peer.

Creating valuable, authentic content focused on your audience’s needs is the key to skyrocketing your email deliverability. When your subscribers eagerly await and engage with your emails, email providers will see you as a trusted sender and your emails will soar safely into more inboxes. Now get out there and create awesome content your subscribers will love!

Follow best practices for email design and copy

When it comes to email deliverability, following best practices for design and copy is key. Some small tweaks can make a big difference in your open and click rates. Here are the top 5 things to keep in mind:

• Make your subject line irresistible! Aim for 7 to 9 captivating words that capture the essence of your message. Be specific and use the subject line to highlight the benefit to really grab your readers’ attention.
• Keep your branding consistent in your email. Use your company logo, color palette, and fonts for a professional look your subscribers will recognize. This builds familiarity and loyalty to your brand.
• Break up your email into easy-to-read chunks. Use headings for scannability and keep paragraphs short, around 2 to 3 sentences. Bulleted lists are eye-catching and help convey information simply. Make your emails mobile-friendly too, since many people read email on the go.
• Share exciting news and updates! Put a positive spin on your content to energize your readers. Announce sales, new products, events or milestones to show how your business is growing and thriving. Ask open-ended questions to start a conversation and engage your audience.
• Review and test your emails before sending them. Double check for any spelling, grammar or formatting errors. Make sure all links work properly and your email displays well on both desktop and mobile. Test on multiple email clients and devices whenever possible. Your readers will appreciate a polished, professional message.

Following these best practices for email design and copy will have your open and click rates increasing in no time. Keep experimenting and optimizing to build lasting relationships with your subscribers and boost the success of your email marketing campaigns!

Monitor and optimize your email deliverability

You’ve worked hard to build your email list and create engaging campaigns, so make sure those emails actually reach your subscribers! Monitoring and optimizing your email deliverability is key to getting the most out of your email marketing efforts.

Check your inbox placement

See where your emails are landing for your subscribers—the inbox, spam, or trash folder. Use a tool like InboxReady by Sinch to track your email deliverability rates and see how often your emails make it to the inbox. Aim for at least 90-95% inbox placement. Anything lower means your emails risk getting marked as spam.

Review spam complaints

Check if any subscribers have marked your emails as spam. Then, determine why—are your subject lines too salesy? Is your content irrelevant or low quality? Make adjustments to your email program to avoid similar complaints in the future. Reduce spam complaints to under 0.1% of your list size.

Analyze bounce rates

Bounces happen when emails can’t be delivered. Soft bounces mean temporary issues, like a full inbox, while hard bounces indicate invalid email addresses. Monitor your bounce rates—under 5% for soft bounces and under 2% for hard bounces is good. Then, scrub hard bounces from your list to keep it clean.

Send at optimal times

Most people check their email in the morning, so try sending between 6-11 AM. Sending in the middle of the night or on weekends can lead to lower open and click rates, damaging your deliverability. A tool like InboxReady can determine the best times for your audience.

Warm up new campaigns

If you make major changes to your email content or frequency, warm up your campaign by starting with a small portion of your list, like 10-25%. This helps email servers learn your new sending pattern and avoids sudden spikes that could be flagged as spam. Gradually increase the volume over time as deliverability improves.

By monitoring these key metrics and making continual optimizations to your email program, you’ll establish a stellar reputation with email providers and keep your subscribers engaged.

Boost your email deliverability

As an entrepreneur dedicated to the success of your business, optimizing your email deliverability is a crucial step towards achieving real results in your email marketing efforts. In this article, we’ve outlined five must-know tips to help you skyrocket your emails straight into your subscribers’ inboxes.

Incorporating these strategies into your email marketing routine will not only improve your email deliverability but also enhance your overall success as an entrepreneur. By staying committed to delivering valuable content and nurturing your subscriber relationships, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your business goals through email marketing. So, take these tips to heart, implement them in your strategy, and watch your emails soar to new heights of success!