Drive Traffic, Avoid The Spam Folder With Effective EMail Campaigns

Email remains a powerful communication tool for auto shops like your Quick Lane.

According to one study, almost 70 percent of adults say email is essential or important to their lives. Among adults between the ages of 18 and 30, known as Generation Z, 83 percent believe their use of email will stay the same or grow in the next several years. 

How do your email campaigns stand out among all the promotional content and spam flooding inboxes?

You can use some valuable strategies to Increase the chances of landing in your recipients' inboxes and boost email open rates. 

Here are six key components that help improve email deliverability and open rates.

Getting to the InBox

1. Get permission

Customer inboxes are getting crowded with offers and notes from family and, yes, spam from a long list of bad actors. How do you get your messages through all the digital noise? Getting permission helps.

For instance, Sensible Driver sends an email confirmation notice. This dramatically increases open rates. Typical open rates for our newsletters range from 20-40% (or higher). When customers have agreed to receive your emails, they are more likely to view it.

Such “opt in'' procedures prevent customers from flagging your messages as spam. The higher your spam rate, the less likely your future messages go directly to the inbox.

2. Avoid Spam Triggers

Steer clear of using all caps, exclamation marks, and words commonly associated with spam in your subject lines and content. 

Avoid words like ‘Sale’, ‘Clearance’, ‘Discount’ and others. These can trigger spam filters and divert your emails away from recipients' inboxes.

3. Maintain a Clean Email List

High bounce rates and low engagement can signal email providers that your content may be irrelevant or perhaps your list has problems–and both issues affect deliverability. 

Regularly clean your email list by removing unresponsive users–customers who have an active email but never open your campaigns. The Sensible Driver team reviews lists for “zombie” emails and runs them through a process to remove them from lists. This helps ensure high deliverability and open rates. 

4. Whitelisting – Sender Reputation

Sending bulk emails from your home computer or office system may get blocked at the front door of major email services such as Yahoo and Google.

“Whitelisting,” which is an accreditation of sorts for companies that send email campaigns, adds credibility to the sender. The flip side are companies that are “blacklisted,” and their campaigns automatically send up a red flag before they ever hit your inbox.

There are a number of steps needed to get whitelisted, and the Sensible Driver program has met those criteria. As a result emails sent through the Sensible Driver platform achieve an extremely high deliverability rate.

5. Build Trust and Recognition

Consistency in sender name and email address establishes familiarity, reducing the chances of your emails being marked as spam by the recipient–your customer or prospect. 

Use a recognizable sender name that aligns with your brand or organization. Remind users to add your email to their contacts. 

Sensible Driver also encourages recipients to add the email sender’s name to their contact list. Emails from senders in a contact list usually don’t end up in the spam folder and help maintain your whitelisting.

6. Authenticate Your Emails

Email service providers–companies which bundle large-volume email campaigns and deliver them to email boxes–use several methods to assure deliverability. 

That includes items such as Implement Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) to authenticate your emails. This assures email providers that your messages are genuine and not spoofed.

Sensible Driver works directly with ESPs to meet their criteria by entering identifiers on the domain level and within the email campaigns themselves. 

Send Relevant Content

Once you have successfully made it to their inbox, now you want them to click on the email and engage with the content you are providing. 

There are several key elements necessary to increase your click through rate:

1. Craft Irresistible Subject Lines

The subject line is the first impression your email makes. Make it concise, engaging, and personalized. Experiment with curiosity, urgency, and relevance to pique the recipient's interest. Avoid spammy phrases and excessive punctuation, as these can trigger spam filters.

2. Make it personal

Address recipients by their first name and segment your email list based on their preferences, behaviors, and demographics. Sending targeted, relevant content demonstrates that you understand your audience's needs, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Address the recipient by their first name and not “my friend” or “dear.” Personalized messages have a higher response rate and are less likely to land in the spam folder.

3. Use Unsubscribe Links

Using an unsubscribe link is required by the CAN-SPAM regulation. Yet, customers are bombarded by emails that do not contain or have a nonworking unsubscribe link. The likelihood your campaign of being tagged as spam increases without a working unsubscribe link.

Most unsubscribe options are at the bottom of the email. Consider: Do you really want to send information to customers who don’t want to receive it? Do you want to take a risk of your future emails getting blacklisted by Yahoo, Google and Microsoft

4. Optimize for Mobile Devices

With mobile devices being a primary means of email consumption, ensure your emails are responsive and visually appealing on various screen sizes. A well-formatted email encourages recipients to read on, contributing to higher open rates.

5. Nail Your Send Times

Timing is crucial. Although cell phones have given your customers 24 by 7 access to campaigns, some days definitely work better than others.

Are you sending on days that lower your number of views such as New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Super Bowl day, the day before a big holiday?

Sensible Driver experiments with sending emails at different times and days. Create A-B list testing to see how days or times affect your open rates.

6. Segment and Target

Divide your email list into segments based on factors like demographics, purchase history, or engagement levels. Sending tailored content to specific segments enhances relevance and engagement, driving higher open rates.

7. Keep it Concise and Scannable

Busy recipients often scan emails before deciding whether to engage. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and concise language to convey your message quickly. Make it easy for subscribers to grasp the main points at a glance.

Improving your email open rates and ensuring your emails land in recipients' inboxes requires a multifaceted approach. From crafting compelling subject lines to delivering valuable content and maintaining a healthy list, each aspect contributes to your overall success. 

By adhering to these strategies and staying attuned to your audience's preferences, you can enhance your email marketing efforts and achieve higher open rates and engagement.

For more information about getting into the inbox, call the experts at Sensible Driver, 888.699.6963.

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