Optimizing Email Delivery: Ensuring Your eDMs Reach the Right Inbox

Electronic Direct Mail, or eDMs, are a great way to communicate directly with a large audience at a low cost. The challenging part is ensuring that your recipient receives and opens your campaign.

With the rise of email marketing, there is a plethora of software systems on the market. Choosing the one that works best for you can often be perplexing. From our experience, we recommend either GoMail (our own version of Campaign Monitor) or MailChimp. If you're considering other systems, we suggest that you take into account:

• Ease of use
• Availability of automation features
• Reasonable pricing, considering your current and future email needs as your database grows, and ensuring proper email delivery.

The average open rate for all industries is just 21.33%. To achieve or improve on this, having good engagement with your customer base across all touchpoints is essential. Additionally, we recommend the following six key points to help improve your open rates:

1. Content is key

It’s crucial that your message stands out from the noise - you need engaging and informative content. Always consider your target audience. What do they want to know? What can you provide to make the email a valuable resource rather than a sales pitch? If you make your eDM useful, your readers will continue to open it every time.

2. Whitelisting Emails

If you're not in their contacts, your emails could be marked as spam. An easy solution to this is getting your customers and staff to whitelist your email, ensuring it's recognized as legitimate and not ending up in the junk folder.

3. Spring Clean Your Mailing List

Your mailing list must be up to date, with consistent data, correct email addresses, and relevant subscribers. It should be specifically tailored to your product or service. Consider splitting your database into different groups and sending slightly different emails to each group. Personalized data like "Hi Bruce" in your mailing list also increases the chances of better connecting with your customers and staying out of their junk mail folders.

4. Be Sure to Proofread

Sending a spelling mistake in your eDM is detrimental to your brand identity and could lead to your eDM being marked as spam - especially if it appears to be a computer-generated typo. Ensure proper punctuation and minimise industry jargon and colloquial terms. Re-read your content one last time before posting - or better still get a colleague who hasn’t read it yet to check it before it goes. Once it’s gone, that typo is forever...

5. Subject Lines Matter

The subject line is the first point of contact for your eDM. According to OptinMonster, 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone, while 69% delete emails solely based on the subject line. Keep the subject line short and sweet, around 7-10 words. Create a subject line that your mailing list would open. Use symbols and emojis judiciously, as too many can trigger spam filters. Analyze your previous email campaign data to identify what has worked in the past.

6. Set a Success Goal

Define what success means for your eDM. Whether you want to direct people to your website, inform them about a new product, or build brand awareness, achieving a 100% open rate is unlikely without giving away too much, which might be perceived as spam.

Bonus tip - Email Authentication 
There are three major methods used in email authentication, all based on DNS TXT records:

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
• SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)

These methods authenticate the sending domains or IPs you plan to use as the "from" address, improving the chances of reaching recipients' inboxes and avoiding the spam folder. You can implement these by adding TXT records to your DNS settings with your host provider.

These aren't foolproof systems, but they are a good place to start.