Learn how to set up your campaigns to reach inbox and how to avoid the spam folder or "not delivered" status due to potential spam.
In this article, you can find the most important aspects of your campaign results:
I. Quality contact database
Your contact database and its quality have a great influence on the delivery of campaigns and the good reputation of your mailing. By law, you are only permitted to send newsletter to contacts who have previously opted in to receive email marketing campaigns or to your active customers (as a part of an existing business relationship).
When collecting new contacts, we recommend activating the double opt-in process, as a double verification of a new contact. As a result, only contacts who are genuinely interested in your mailing are saved in your database. You can also avoid fraudulent or invalid addresses (known as "spam traps").
We also recommend that you maintain a single contact list in Ecomail app to work with your in-app contacts as efficiently as possible. Within one contact list, you can segment contacts according to the information you know about them. You can send individual mailings to the created segments (narrower contact circles) and you can better personalize the content of the email.
The contact database (similar to the mailing results) should be checked regularly and updated if necessary. Make sure your database is up to date and clear it from inactive contacts by unsubscribing them. You can do this by using segmentation or even automating the reactivation process.
II. Domain verification
A verified sending domain is another essential element for trustworthiness and good delivery results. You can find out if you already have a verified domain in the account in the Account management > Domains > section by clicking on the DNS settings check.
If possible, we recommend verifying a bounce domain (for mailing) and tracking domain (for collecting clicks) for even better credibility and protection of your domain reputation.
III. Campaign and newsletter content
If you've set up a domain and reviewed your contacts in the database, we can now focus on the campaign you're about to submit.
When creating a campaign, pay attention to following:
the sender's address is on a verified domain
there are no:
- exclamation marks
- capital letters (CAPSLOCK)
- other elements of urgency or inappropriate, offensive words or phrases encouraging inappropriate behaviour (Send your bank account number, etc.)
we do not recommend using emojis in the subject, or using them wisely
The newsletter should also meet the following conditions:
correct ratio of images to text (ideal is about 70:30 or 60:40, in the ratio of texts: images) - mail servers / spam filters give negative points for full-image newsletter or return this email, because the content of images can not be as easily checked (as plain text) and it takes longer to load. Therefore always insert alternative texts and links below the images
link to the online version - so that the recipient can always view the email correctly (in case the email does not display well, the recipient has the option to click on this link and NL to view it). This element is already in the preset templates in Ecomail
the header should include your company logo and a brief introduction
in the footer, state the reason why and on what basis you send the newsletter (eg. where did you obtain the contact info)
the unsubscribe link must be included in each newsletter and should be easy to find for contacts. This element is already in the preset templates in Ecomail
In the "testing" step of creating a campaign, don't forget to test the campaign in a spam test. Its results will alert you to any shortcomings that you should consider before submitting your campaign. We advise you to modify the campaign as recommended:
The most common spam test messages:
DKIM_VALID: related to domain verification (if the domain is verified, you don't have to pay attention to the message, it is only informative)
FREEMAIL_FORGED_REPLYTO: you use a freemail address (such as Gmail) in the reply-to address, this might appear to the mail servers as untrustworthy
FROM_EXCESS_BASE: test only points to diacritics in the "sender name" field
HTML_IMAGE_RATIO: the ratio of images:text is not correct (higher than 70:30) - mail servers / spam filters give negative points for full-image newsletter or return this email, because the content of images can not be as easily checked (as plain text) and it takes longer to load
URI_HEX: long hexadecimal sequence of the link - in newsletter there is a link with too long sequence of characters [a-f and 0-9] after a special symbol (eg #) - if you have inserted a video (eg. from Youtube) or used our merge tags in the link, ignore the message
If the Spam test displays a message that you do not understand, do not hesitate to contact support. (A list of messages and their explanations is also available)
IV. Email ethics
We do not recommend sending newsletters too often, with the same content, to the same contacts.
What type of message do you plan to send? Are these regular discounts? Weekly newsletter? Use the information you know about users for personalized mailing.
If you are just getting started with mailing, we recommend that you send the first mailings and then work with reports on submitted campaigns, where you can find out which users are active and what times work best for them.
In general, however, it is not good to send your mailings every day (or several times a day) to the entire audience. This is considered a spam practice. On the contrary, segment the database into sub-groups and send individual mailings. You can find out more about segmentation in our knowledge base.
What if newsletters end up in the promo / bulk folder?
Since you send a bulk mail from Ecomail, the classification of mailings as bulk is OK = the default position is the same for everyone and violation is penalized. It is important to distinguish the promo / bulk mailbox from the spam folder - the promo / bulk folder is intended for business messages.
Typically, after sufficient activity of the recipient (opens emails, clicks on links), email clients begin to sort the emails themselves into primary folders.
Please note that individual mail recipients (List, Center, Gmail, etc.) evaluate the mailing according to their own algorithms - each of the recipients is sensitive to individual elements to a different extent. If you notice your emails go to the spam folder and you have checked all of the above for the mailing, contact our support at support@ecomail.app. We will be happy to check the situation with you.