Next from the ‘What’s stopping you’ series Validity’s Sender Certification expert, joins us to discuss the best ways to make sure your email lands in the inbox
We know that email deliverability is crucial for marketers. This is often heightened around the peak season, but it can be a challenge for marketers all year around and at key points such as platform migrations.
On average 1 in 6 emails don’t reach subscribers inboxes and this can have a big impact on campaign performance and that all important revenue. So, what is stopping marketers from reaching the inbox?
In this on-demand webinar RedEye and their sender certification partner Validity will look at the immediate and long-lasting importance of improving deliverability, and a guaranteed way to increase your inbox placement success, over your competitors.
Validity is the global leader of email deliverability solutions, providing tools and insights to improve email deliverability and engagement and RedEye has always tried to go above and beyond to help educate and provide expert advice to our clients on deliverability, having dedicated in-house experts to support marketers achieving the best they can.
What are the differences between deliverability and inbox placement?
The traditional deliverability rate is measured as ‘sent minus bounce rate’. However, that doesn’t mean all of the delivered number lands in the inbox.
Actually, over the years we have seen that only 83% of ‘delivered’ emails actually make it into the inbox.
Let’s give an average of a 2% bounce rate, which means 17% of your emails will be going into the junk folder, a considerable amount that could never be seen, equalling lost revenue.
So, although you may be reporting a 98% delivery rate, it is more likely to be only 83% of that landing in the inbox.
What other reputation metrics influence my inbox placement?
‘We often liken sender reputation to something like a credit score for email markers’ says Guy.
This informs how mailbox providers view email senders. Metrics such as spam complaints which send a very strong negative signal about the quality of the emails generated will heavily influence where your future emails are placed.
The more negative the response or less opens you receive, the more your reputation will be impacted negatively. Flip that and the more opens and engagement you receive, the more likely you will head straight to the inbox!
For a full rundown of the different measures that impact your reputation, you can visit the Sender Score website.
Why do marketers struggle with inbox placement?
One of the main reasons is the sheer volume of emails that are being sent been growing and growing since the pandemic.
Overall consumers are being bombarded with emails placing more stress on mailbox providers to process all this additional volume and it also means there is far greater competition for ‘eye-share’ (and share of wallet) in more congested inboxes.
Disposable income is also at a low and customers are now making much more considered purchases.
On the other hand, there is also more pressure on marketers to send more emails to get more conversions to hit their targets! But we do stress that sending more emails doesn’t equal better results.
Rachael says that ‘even if you are under pressure to hit targets, and you are encouraged to send more (upping frequency and volumes) if you aren’t sending the right message to the right segment, that will cause disengagement and hinder your inbox placement’.
What is sender certification?
This essentially means you have a VIP ticket, it’s a global email accreditation program.
Validity will audit your emails against legal and best practices to give you a trusted status that ISPs love, thus sending you to the front of the queue to get into the inbox.
Receiving this trusted sender status can offer some great benefits.
On average a certified email programme receives over 10% better inbox placement, overall improving deliverability and a better chance of success.
But also, perhaps most importantly, it can lead to peace of mind that your campaigns are being fully delivered.
A specific use case of benefit is if you are moving to new to a new marketing platform, warming up your reputation is a key first strategy to undertake.
Not doing this right from the start could cause permanent damage, so building that new reputation is such an important part that cannot be underestimated.
For more background on the importance of this, read our article about warming up your IP address by our Compliance Director Tim Roe.
How can sender certification help with the performance of peak?
When it’s peak season, the battle for the inbox is vital! So reputation is key and getting it ready ahead of the season is imperative.
Those who do not have Sender Certification tend to have a decrease in deliverability into inboxes over the cyber weekend, due to large send volumes.
This also creates lasting damage long into the Christmas shopping season. Whereas those with Sender Certification are prioritised over this season which has long-lasting benefits into the Christmas sales period and way beyond into the new year.
It’s not too late to work on your deliverability in the lead-up to peak, sending to smaller, more considered segments to improve your engagement and in turn your reputation, plus there is still enough time to be audited and achieve your trusted sender status if you were to opt into a programme such as Validity.
Watch the full video now on our YouTube channel
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