The New Year is always a good time to revisit some of the basics as we ramp our for a new year of marketing, list building and business development.

Here are some refreshers for improving your inbox delivery rates in 2017 and beyond.

1. Engagement is Crucial.
We've talked about this time and time again, and it continues to become more and more important. The major email providers know who's opening your messages and who isn't. They want to deliver your mail only to those recipients that want it! So.... plan to increase engagement with your subscribers this year by creating means for 2-way communication and interaction.

2. Be careful with images.
I've heard it more times than I can count "I'll just send a giant image with my text so the filters can't read the content". Strike a balance between text and images and don't try to use images for deceptive purposes. It will backfire 100% of the time.

3. Domains matter.
Not only the domains you're sending from, but the domains you're linking TO! Affiliate networks, marketers with poor domain reputations, and the like will impact your delivery rates and ultimately your reputation. This also includes link shorteners.

4. Deliver what you promise.
It's long since been the mindset of marketers that once someone signs up for your list, you have the right to send them anything and everything that you decide they should receive. The problem is... more often than not, they signed up for something very specific. Over time, you stray away from that specific type of content and start sending more unrelated emails. This causes them to stop paying attention to your messages, unsubscribe, or worse, complain that you're spamming them. Simply stick to what they opted in for. If you want to ask for permission to mail other types of offers, do so by adding surveys, sending them to other opt in offers, etc. But an email address on your list is simply not permission to email anything and everything to them.

5. Automate (with caution).
Automation is a great way to ensure that subscribers are getting they types of messages they want, when they want them. But be careful that they're not getting too many messages by being in multiple campaigns.

6. Check your code.
Make sure that your HTML is clean! (Don't copy and paste the HTML from Word!)

7. Don't hide the unsubscribe link.
If someone doesn't want your mail, let them opt out. The other alternatives are far more destructive to your email program and the overall health of your email marketing. If you don't have an easy way for them to get off of your list (or change the type of subscription), then they'll simply hit the spam button.

8. Remember CAN-SPAM.
Always comply with the CAN-SPAM laws! PERIOD.

9. Ask subscribers to whitelist you.
After someone subscribes to your list, ask them to whitelist you or add you to their safe senders list. Not only does this ensure that they get your message to the inbox, but it also sends a message to the email provider that people do want your mail.

10. Avoid spam trigger words.
While the email providers have gotten far more sophisticated than just looking for some key words, the content of your email still plays an important role as to where it's placed (inbox, spam folder, or rejected for content in general). It's a good idea to run through, at the very least, a tool like Spam Assassin (or similar) which is including in nearly all mail clients.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•