Deliverability Defined

Everyone strives to reach the inbox of their subscribers. While many factors determine deliverability, it’s no secret that reputation is among the most important. So what can you do to fix a broken reputation? How can you know what your reputation is or if it needs improving? And what role does an ESP play in working email magic?  Like most things with deliverability, the answers aren’t always str...

Every creator hopes for thousands of YouTube subscribers, Instagram followers, and Twitter likes. But if you’re approaching your email list with a similar “more is better” mentality, you may be missing the mark.  In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss why not all email subscribers are created equal and why smaller, high-value lists are healthier than a massive list filled with cold and unenga...

If you see a sudden and dramatic drop in your open rates, don’t panic. There could be an easily fixable solution behind those scary numbers. And even if it takes a bit more digging, your open rates aren’t the be-all and end-all metric for measuring success.  Nevertheless, lower open rates could signify a larger issue, whether it’s your marketing strategy or something as simple as an HTML error. In...

Are you intimidated by Twitter? Do you scroll and consume 24-7? Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Twitter can be invaluable for building an audience and boosting visibility. If you’re strategic and intentional, Twitter can help you reach massive creator milestones.  In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa discuss actionable steps to growing a following on Twitter and expanding your email lis...

Sending one-time emails to your entire list may feel like a familiar and reliable default. And automating anything related to email might sound intimidating. However, automation opens the doors for incredible results and makes your life as a sender much easier. It’s a cardinal rule of business that you should never treat every customer (or every subscriber) the same. The beauty of automation is th...

So often we view emails as a one-way conversation. In reality, there are plenty of complicated mechanics that go on behind-the-scenes between both sender and the receiving server. But what really goes on when an email bounces? Is it the fault of the ESP? Should we clean our lists of every email address that bounces?  Like everything with deliverability, finding the why behind your email bounce rar...

Even veteran senders get nervous before pressing send . There’s always that worry in the back of our minds: What if I send this to the wrong group of people? What if I send a test email by mistake? What if there’s a broken link or typos or lingering placeholder text?  So, if and when the dreaded email fail happens to you, what can you do?  We’ve all received an email fail and every pro sender has...

Do you really understand deliverability? Is a career in deliverability right for you? Deliverability is a niche topic and it’s sometimes hard for friends, family, and curious ears to understand. But aside from innate curiosity, if you’re a sender, learning what a deliverability expert does can provide incredible insight into how deliverability actually works. From educating to solving problems and...

So much of deliverability is fixing issues after you realize there’s a problem. But what about solving problems before they become a problem?  There are ways to predict your deliverability future and improve not only your business but your subscribers’ experience as well. In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa outline tips for proactively preventing deliverability issues before your email even reache...

With hundreds of big creators monopolizing YouTube, starting a channel from scratch and beating YouTube’s notoriously tricky algorithm is no small feat. Take it from Ben Schoeffler, a content creator who’s learned a few tricks for bypassing the algorithm with email marketing.  YouTube doesn't provide the names of your subscribers. So while it may sound counterintuitive, going off YouTube is often...

No matter how much we plan and analyze, there will always be things outside of our control. When it comes to email deliverability, avoiding automatic clicks is sometimes the hardest pitfall to avoid. Nevertheless, there are ways to stand up to security systems and work around the (almost) impossible.  In this episode, Alyssa and Melissa explain why automatic clicks are so common and what you can d...

Deliverability isn’t an exact science. There’s no hard and fast rule for success, and advice may vary from time to time. But of all the grey areas in email marketing, switching ESPs is probably the most confusing.  If you’ve wanted to make a change in your service but haven’t pulled the trigger for fear of damaging your deliverability, you’re not alone. That said, there are ways to switch it up wi...

In an era of streaming services and a pandemic that’s pushed touring to the side, monetizing music has never been harder. While it may sound old-fashioned for a rockstar, emails can unlock your income potential.  In this episode, we’re speaking to the musicians looking to monetize and turn casual followers into fans and superfans. Learn to stay strategic with your releases, use Instagram to build...

To emoji or not to emoji? Can sending a test email actually harm deliverability? Is my title too vague? Too specific? Email marketing is an artform and mastering it takes more than a quick How-To. But even if you’re a pro at emails, you may be making minor mistakes that can have a major impact on deliverability.  In this episode, we’re walking through 10 common email marketing mistakes to avoid, p...

As writers, email marketing should come easy, right? You already know how to engage an audience, use your voice, and create a compelling read. But sometimes, your skills as a narrator don’t always transfer. And, like many writers, maybe you write alone for too long, hesitant to share your work with an email address outside your own. In this episode, we’re battling the mother of all monsters: write...

Realizing that you have a problem is the first step to solving a problem. And when you notice some of your subscribers starting to disengage, jumping on a re-engagement campaign is probably your solution. But like anything else, there’s a right and a wrong way to re-engage. In fact, if you're not careful, your campaign may do more harm than good. So what’s the right way to win back cold subscriber...

After spending Season 01 chatting all things technical, we’re kicking off Season 02 with some general advice for making a living and building an audience online.  In this episode, we’re going to take a step back to define “creators”, help you push past the starting line, and make the task of asking your audience to subscribe a little less awkward. Even if you’ve nailed deliverability basics, growi...

We’ve made it through the inaugural season of Deliverability Defined! Since we’ve covered so many important deliverability topics over the course of this season, we wanted to bring you our top takeaways. If you do nothing else, these strategies will help you significantly improve your deliverability. We’ll be back in January with brand new content. Thanks for making season one what it was and we’l...

Everyone in the email world wants more subscribers – that’s a given. But how you go about getting those people on your list can have a major impact on your email deliverability, which, in turn, affects all your other email metrics.   In this episode, we’re discussing some best practices on how to grow your list effectively so that you don’t get penalized for having subscribers on your list that do...

We want to empower you to take as much control of your email marketing as possible and that includes addressing deliverability issues. A deliverability audit is a great place to start if you want to assess the health of your email marketing efforts. Throughout this episode, we take you through some of the things we check when doing a deliverability audit so that you can start doing them yourself....

It’s starting to look like fall in many parts of the country, so you know what that means! Pumpkin spice! Just kidding. Back-to-school! Today, we’re going to do a little vocab lesson and make sure we’re all up-to-date on the lingo being tossed around in the deliverability world.  We’re going to define each term, and if need be, point you to more in-depth resources about each one. Get your baggy sw...

If you've ever downloaded or used one of those free tools or applications that sync with your email inbox and automatically unsubscribes you from email that you don't open very often, there's a chance your email data is actually being used by someone else's inbox placement test to determine where their messages land. It’s impossible to know if an email actually hits the primary inbox, but these fr...

As you’ve no doubt discovered, email deliverability is a complex topic. There are a number of factors that affect deliverability for senders, and it’s easy to get lost in all of the information when something goes wrong.  In this episode, we discuss some of the frequently asked questions we get at ConvertKit, and some practical strategies for improving your deliverability.  Frequently Asked Questi...

It’s election season, and with that comes controversy, advertising, and extra emails in your inbox. In recent years, there have been claims that email providers, specifically Gmail, have filtered emails based on political beliefs. Congressman Greg Steube from Florida complained to the CEO of Google because he believed that his emails were being filtered to spam because he is a Republican.  In a si...

Gmail has become ubiquitous as the leading mailbox provider. Gmail is also often considered the most advanced in terms of filtering and features among online mailboxes. And with so many users, it’s critical to understand how Gmail thinks about deliverability.  Apart from keeping your emails safe, Gmail also includes a ton of other features that are helpful to both senders and receivers. That said,...