5 Clever Tricks That Help Improve Your Email Deliverability

When it comes to marketing for your home services business, email is king. In fact, 59% of marketers say email gives them their largest return on investment (ROI). Compared to other channels such as social media and paid search, email is a relatively cost-effective way to reach customers. 

However, email service providers are more sophisticated than they used to be, and they’ve gotten much better at filtering out potential spam. Unfortunately, this causes problems for businesses who send legitimate marketing emails, only to find they’ve ended up in customers’ spam folders. 

It’s frustrating to see your emails aren’t getting delivered, because it represents both wasted effort and marketing dollars. Luckily, there are some things you can do to put a stop to that. We’ve got 5 clever tricks to keep your customer emails out of the spam folder and improve overall email deliverability.

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Choose Smaller Email Audiences

The first step in creating a good email campaign is to determine your audience, a process known as segmentation. This is extremely important if you want your emails to really resonate, because no one wants to get an email that clearly wasn’t intended for them. 

Sending an email blast to your entire contact list actually increases the likelihood of your email being labeled as spam. Instead, choose smaller, more targeted audiences you can reach with automated email campaigns. 

Some examples:

• A coupon incentive targeted only to customers you haven’t serviced in the past 6 months or more

• An aging equipment campaign targeted only to customers who have older equipment they haven’t upgraded yet

Pro Tip: Try “drip campaigns”, which allow you to send multiple emails based on certain customer criteria. These work great for unsold estimates or expiring maintenance agreements. You can automatically trigger the emails to stop once the recipient accepts the estimate or renews the agreement.

» Learn how Marketing Pro can help you target your audiences and set up drip campaigns

Give Your Contact List a Good Scrubbing

If you haven’t gone through and cleaned up your contact list in a good while, it could be costing you both money and effort. It also hurts email deliverability when your messages consistently go unread or get deleted altogether. Dust the cobwebs off your contact list at least a couple of times a year to keep it high-quality. 

Tips for effective contact list cleanup:

• Merge duplicate contacts, and have customers re-verify their information the next time they call.

• Remove inactive and unengaged contacts who have never responded to previous email campaigns.

• Group your contacts by using tags. Tags allow you to effectively target your email campaigns and get better engagement.

Remember that quality, not quantity, is the key to keeping a contact list that works for you, not against you. 

Provide Engaging, Educational Content

One very easy way to improve email deliverability and set your business apart from the rest is to include educational content that customers find useful. This adds value to your email communications and makes customers more likely to engage with them. 

A few great ways to do this:

• Offer seasonal advice that’s relevant to your area.

• Link to helpful blog articles on your website.

• Share your latest YouTube videos.

Pro Tip: If you don’t already have a YouTube channel, consider creating one. Video is a powerful tool to engage customers because it gives your business a physical face, which helps build trust.

» Learn how one company used Marketing Pro email campaigns to promote their videos

Keep Your Email Subject Lines Free of Spam Triggers

This is a big one. If your email subject lines are sub-par, you can be sure your emails will end up in the spam folder. Good email etiquette means making sure you stay away from spam triggers when crafting your subject lines. 

Examples of common spam triggers:

• All caps

• Excessive punctuation

• Words like “free”, “deal”, and “now”

Above all, make sure your subject lines are relevant to the actual message in your email. Keep them short, clear, and free of spam triggers, and you’ll get much better engagement rates.

Pro Tip: Resonate with your customers by including their name in your subject lines whenever possible. Customers are 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines, resulting in better open rates. If you’re using Marketing Pro, you’re able to do this now in your email campaigns!

Stick to a Consistent Email Send Schedule

If you want your emails to get opened instead of dumped in a spam folder, find an email sending schedule that works for you, and stick with it. Being all over the place with your sending schedule actually makes your business seem more erratic, which damages customer trust and email deliverability.

Create a sending schedule that closely aligns with when your emails are opened and viewed the most. You may have to test a few different days or times before you hit a sweet spot. Once you’ve found it, automate your emails so they’re sent at that day and time going forward.  

Email your customers when they expect you to, and offer them relevant content they’ll actually want to receive. These two things make a winning combination that will earn you both customer trust and repeat business.