Email deliverability is one of the most critical factors in successful email marketing. No matter how engaging your content or compelling your offers, if your emails don’t reach your subscribers’ inboxes, your campaigns can’t succeed.
Deliverability isn’t just about avoiding spam folders — it’s about building trust, credibility, and consistent engagement with your audience. Here’s a guide to the key cornerstones of great email deliverability.
1. Use a Recognisable “From” Address
The email sender name and address are often the first things recipients notice. A consistent and recognisable sender:
- Builds trust and credibility
- Reduces the likelihood of spam complaints
- Improves open rates
Tips:
- Use your official domain (e.g.,
@yourorganisation.co.uk) rather than free email addresses like Gmail or Outlook - Keep sender names consistent across campaigns
- Avoid generic or misleading email addresses
A clear, trusted sender encourages recipients to open your emails and signals legitimacy to mailbox providers.
2. Authenticate Your Emails
Email authentication protocols are essential for deliverability. They prove to email providers that your messages are genuinely from your domain.
Key protocols include:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Verifies your sending server
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a cryptographic signature
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Aligns SPF and DKIM and protects against phishing
Proper authentication reduces the chance of your emails being flagged as spam and helps maintain a strong sender reputation.
3. Maintain a Clean and Engaged Email List
A healthy email list is crucial. Sending emails to inactive or invalid addresses can hurt deliverability and damage your sender reputation.
Best practices include:
- Remove hard bounces promptly
- Re-engage dormant subscribers with targeted campaigns
- Use confirmed opt-in (double opt-in) to ensure subscribers really want your emails
An engaged list improves open and click-through rates, which in turn signals to providers that your emails are wanted.
4. Monitor Content Quality and Relevance
Email content affects deliverability as much as technical factors. Spam filters consider content quality, formatting, and user engagement when determining whether to deliver emails.
Tips for high-quality content:
- Avoid excessive use of promotional keywords like “Free,” “Buy Now,” or all-caps text
- Keep a balanced text-to-image ratio
- Personalise content to your audience’s interests
- Include a visible unsubscribe link to comply with regulations
Relevant, well-formatted content keeps subscribers engaged and reduces complaints, improving deliverability over time.
5. Send Consistently and Respect Frequency
Irregular sending patterns or sudden spikes in email volume can trigger spam filters. Consistency helps mailbox providers recognise your sending behaviour as normal.
Best practices:
- Establish a regular sending schedule
- Avoid long periods of inactivity followed by large campaigns
- Gradually scale your sending volume as your list grows
A predictable sending pattern helps maintain a strong sender reputation and keeps emails reaching inboxes reliably.
6. Monitor and Measure Deliverability Metrics
Finally, tracking the right metrics allows you to spot issues before they become serious problems. Key metrics include:
- Bounce rates (hard vs soft)
- Spam complaints
- Open rates and click-through rates
- Inbox placement tests
Monitoring these metrics helps you identify trends, maintain good list hygiene, and continually optimise your campaigns.
Final Thoughts
Great email deliverability is a combination of trust, technical setup, list management, and relevant content. By focusing on these key cornerstones, UK businesses and organisations can ensure their emails reach the inbox, engage recipients, and achieve meaningful results.
At Email Blaster, we help organisations send secure, reliable, and fully optimised emails that maximise deliverability — keeping your messages in front of the audience that matters most.
