Struggling to get your marketing emails into your audience’s inbox? You’re not alone. As email marketing evolves, so do the challenges of ensuring your emails get delivered. Poor email deliverability can tank your campaigns, causing you to miss out on valuable customer engagement and sales opportunities.

Check out this quick video where Dave Lee, Co-Founder of PlusThis, explains why email deliverability matters and shares top tips to fix it:

In this post, we’ll share 3 essential email deliverability tips that will help you overcome common issues like unclean lists, spam traps, and low engagement. Plus, we’ll introduce a tool that simplifies the process: ListDefender.

Tip #1. Validate and Clean Your Email List
One of the biggest factors affecting email deliverability is the quality of your email list. Sending emails to outdated, invalid, or unresponsive contacts can lead to high bounce rates, damaging your sender reputation.

Why List Cleaning Is Crucial for Email Deliverability:

• Inactive or invalid email addresses increase bounce rates.
• Regular list cleaning ensures only engaged and valid contacts receive your emails.
• Some email service providers may even require you to clean your list if your bounce rate is too high.

Here’s What You Can Do About It:

• Use a list validation tool to automatically identify invalid emails.
• Remove hard bounces, unsubscribes, and inactive contacts.
• Schedule regular list cleanings to keep your database fresh and healthy.

Although list cleaning can be a tedious task, it’s so important for improving your email deliverability and ensuring that you reach the right audience.

Tip #2. Avoid Spam Traps, Bots, and Bad Actors

Spam traps, bots, and fake email addresses can harm your sender reputation and drastically reduce your email deliverability. These bad actors often infiltrate your email list through unsecured signup forms, making it harder for your emails to land in inboxes.

How to Protect Your Email List from Spam Traps:

• Implement CAPTCHA on all your sign-up forms to block bots.
• Use email verification tools to spot fake addresses before they enter your list.
• Filter out suspicious emails, such as those containing random strings or temporary domains.

By securing your forms and blocking bad actors, you’ll improve the overall health of your list and reduce the chances of your emails being flagged as spam.

Tip #3. Track Engagement and Boost Email Open Rates

Email engagement—including opens, clicks, and replies—plays a massive role in email deliverability. Believe it or not, internet service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are monitoring engagement activities to determine whether your emails are worth delivering to their users’ inboxes.

Why Email Engagement Matters for Deliverability:

• Low open and click-through rates signal poor engagement, which can lead to your emails being marked as spam.
• Engaged contacts improve your sender reputation, leading to better deliverability over time.
• ISPs prioritize emails from senders with high engagement rates.

Here’s What To Do About It:

• Segment your list based on engagement levels and create targeted campaigns.
• Regularly clean your list to remove unengaged contacts.
• Provide valuable content that encourages readers to open and click your emails.

By focusing on sending relevant content to an active audience, you’ll improve both your email deliverability and your overall marketing results.

Improving your email deliverability requires consistent effort, but the results are well worth it. By focusing on list validation, spam protection, and boosting engagement, you’ll ensure that your emails land where they belong.

And, if you want a simple, automated solution designed to manage your email list and protect your deliverability, check out ListDefender and sign up for the waitlist here.