How to maximize your Deliverability, Opens, and Replies? (Checklist)

How to maximize your Deliverability, Opens, and Replies?

There could be many reasons for low deliverability in your campaigns. Make sure your accounts and campaigns are set up properly to improve open rates.

1️⃣ Account Setup

1. Choose Reliable Domains

   • ✅ Purchase ".com" domains, as they are more reputable. We recommend buying domains from Cloudflare as they include free SSL certificates. 👉 Learn more

2. Choose a Reliable Email Service Provider

   • ✅ Google Workspace: Offers the highest deliverability, especially to other Gmail/GW users, providing a competitive advantage. 👉 Learn more

   • ✅ Email Accounts per Domain: Limit 2 to 5 email accounts per domain to distribute the workload and mitigate risk.

3. Technical Setup (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC): These act like digital visas for your emails, proving you are a trusted sender and increasing acceptance rates. 👉 Learn more

   • ✅ DMARC: Ensure DMARC is set up correctly.

   • ✅ DKIM: Ensure DKIM is set up correctly.

   • ✅ SPF: Ensure SPF is set up correctly.

   • ✅ Custom Tracking Domain: Use a custom tracking domain.

2️⃣ Warmup

1. Warmup Your Email Accounts: Warm up your email accounts for at least 2-4 weeks before sending cold emails and keep warmup on indefinitely.

   • ✅ Warmup Duration: Have the accounts warmed up for at least 2-4 weeks before starting campaigns?

   • ✅ Mailbox Warmup Active: Is 'Mailbox Warmup' enabled?

   • ✅ Campaign Warmup Active: Is 'Campaign Warmup' enabled?

   • ✅ Warmup Score: Is the warmup score over 90%?

   • ✅ Warmup Limits: Are you using the default warmup limits?

3️⃣ Campaign

1. Contacts: Always verify and clean up your email list using our built-in Email Verifier.

   • ✅ Verify your leads: Did you verify your list and only send to 🟢 Valid contacts?

   • ✅ Targeted Leads: Are the leads you sourced your ideal customer?

2. Sequences: Use Spintax and personalization to make each email unique.

   • ✅ Plain Text: Use plain text to improve deliverability.

   • ✅ Remove Images and Links: If open rates are low, remove images and links from your emails.

   • ✅ Spintax: Use heavy Spintax to make every email unique. 👉 Learn more

   • ✅ Personalization: Personalized your emails with 'Dynamic Fields' to engage recipients? 👉 Learn more

   • ✅ Reduce Spam-Trigger Words: Avoid using spam words by checking your email copy.

   • ✅ Follow-ups: Limit the number of sequences until deliverability issues are resolved, then gradually add more.

3. Schedule: Test and adjust your strategy as needed.

   • ✅ Days: Avoid sending emails on weekends and holidays.

   • ✅ Time Window: Ensure your sending window is large enough and during your prospects' work hours.

   • ✅ Open Tracking: Although disabling Open Tracking can improve deliverability, it eliminates the ability to track open rates. If your campaign is already performing well, and you're happy with the results, consider disabling open tracking to further boost deliverability.

4. Sending Volume: Gradually increase sending volume. Don’t start with high volumes right after warmup.

   • ✅ Gentle Ramp-up: Start by sending 5 campaign emails per day post-warmup, then gradually add 3-5 more every day. Starting slow with your email campaigns will prolong the life of your sending accounts rather than burn through them quickly. For example:

     • 🗓️ Campaign Sending Day 1: 5 daily campaign emails per mailbox

     • 🗓️ Campaign Sending Day 3: 10 daily campaign emails per mailbox

     • 🗓️ Campaign Sending Day 5: 15 daily campaign emails per mailbox

   • ✅ Sending Limits: Sending too many emails can result in them being flagged and ending up in spam folders. We recommend max 20-40 campaign emails per mailbox, per day. Lower your sending limits if your open rates drop below 40%.

5️⃣ Monitoring and Adjusting Campaigns

6. Monitor and Adjust Campaigns: Regularly monitor your email campaign performance.

   • ✅ Open Rates: Check open rates daily.

     ✅ Reply Rates: Check reply rates daily.

   • ✅ Bad Campaigns: Pause poorly performing campaigns immediately.

   • ✅ Prepare Backup Accounts: Regularly create and warm up new domains/email accounts. This ensures you have backups ready if any accounts face deliverability issues, allowing you to continue sending without downtime.

   • ✅ Run multiple campaigns simultaneously: Email services often flag certain words, phrases, or repetitive content patterns, impacting your open rates. Having different types of campaigns improves deliverability. If you notice one campaign with less than 20% open rate and another with over 80%, it could indicate flagged content. Temporarily reduce or pause the low-performing campaign and create a few new ones. Additionally, our Campaign Warmup feature can further enhance your content's deliverability.

7. Benchmarks

   • 📌 Bounce Rates: Keep bounce rate at 3% or less to prevent emails from being marked as spam.

   • 📌 Open Rates: Strive for a open rate of 50% or higher. If low open rates, consider revising your subject line and check if your emails are getting flagged as spam. If so, pause the campaign and allow the warm-up process to run until your emails clear the spam filter.

   • 📌 Reply Rates: Strive for a reply rate of 5% or higher (1 response per 200 emails sent), indicating that your emails engage recipients.

   • 📌 Close Rates: Strive for a close rate of 8% or higher (1 closed deal per 12 positive interaction). This measures the effectiveness of turning your prospects into actual customers or achieving the desired outcome.

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