Improve your email deliverability: The secrets to send your holiday emails straight to the inbox

For many of you, your busiest season is coming up and you’ll want to make sure that your marketing campaigns are in the best shape possible to maximise on the potential opportunity. You’ll be wanting your email marketing campaigns to reach their intended destination. Follow our helpful pointers to guide your holiday emails to the inbox.

Make sure the ISPs know it’s you

Firstly, it’s a good idea to make sure your recipients know they’re receiving an email from you. Choose a from name that represents your brand, perhaps it is as simple as your brand name (i.e. Mailjet). Your domain name will also need to be linked to your company’s website, to prove you are who you say you are. We’ve all received SPAM emails from people who from a distance look reputable. But if you look a little closer, you’ll see their dodgy domain name and hopefully think twice before clicking on any fishy links.  

Secondly, you’ll want the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to know who you are, and that you’re one of the good guys. Set up your SPF (Sender Policy Framework) authentication, so your emails reflect your DNS record. You’ll also want to set you DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), another authentication that reflects your DNS record. The final layer of authentication is to set up DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance). If this all sounds like nonsense, don’t worry, all reputable email service providers (like Mailjet) will have support teams to help you make sure you’re set up to get the best possible deliverability.   

Finally, while you’re on the deliverability best practice bandwagon, make sure your WHOIS is up-to-date and publicly viable. That way everyone knows who you are, that you’re a credible company and, more importantly, not a spammer. If you’re already sending emails, hopefully you’ll have some of our email deliverability best practices (if not all) in place already. If not, “chop chop” and get it implemented so you can maximise your holiday email marketing efforts. Need more ideas? Check out our Email Deliverability best practice guide.

Get your content on point

Your email content not only needs to capture and engage your audience, it should also follow a few golden rules to ensure your emails land safely in the intended recipient’s inbox. Engaging content starts with the subject line. Always opt for something enticing, but be sure not to use CAPITALS or spammy words such as “free”, “cash”, etc. This is not exclusive to your subject line, but also applies to the body of your email. It's also important to keep the subject line between 35 and 50 characters long - this will prevent you from looking like a spammer and make it easier for the recipient to understand the content of your email.

Create content that is contextually relevant to your subscribers. For example, you could segment your data not only by gender, but also by age group so you send content that's applicable to their generation. If your email is relevant to your recipients, they are more likely to open it, which will help in your email deliverability reputation battle. Do you sell gifts? Segment the gift type based on the customer’s previous purchases, or by your most popular categories for those who have never purchased from you.

Finally, let your recipients know they’ll be hearing from you. Send your emails consistently. For example, if you’re sending a weekly email, you might find that Tuesday is your prime day. Or if you email a recipient after an action, you may have even mastered the art of emailing in real-time. You have time to test and find your optimal sending frequency before the holiday season kicks into action.

Don’t buy data

It is never a good idea to buy something that the recipient doesn’t want to receive. Perhaps you’ve bought your loved one a gift that is more suitable to your tastes than theirs… The same applies to buying data. The members of the list do not want to hear from you, so in layman's terms, it's a waste of money.

Make the effort to clean your existing contact list by sending inactive contacts a ‘we miss you’ email to see if you can re-engage them. If they don’t want to hear from you anymore, removing them from your email list will improve your email stats. Worried you'll have no one to send your amazing campaigns to? Use your social channels to grow your email contact list. They say that the money is in the list, so make your list as strong as it can possibly be.

More holiday cheer

Remember, it is not too late to strengthen your email deliverability so you are at the top of your game for the busy holiday season.

If you’ve had success implementing some of our deliverability secrets, share it with us. We’d love to hear your success stories, so tweet us @Mailjet using the #MailjetDelivers.

Want to define your email strategy to win customers over this holiday season? Check out Mailjet's Ultimate Guide To Holiday Emailing.