Deliverability refers to the likelihood of your email marketing email being successfully delivered to your subscriber's inbox. Certain things increase your odds for delivery, such as your contact information being in your subscriber's address book. Similarly, some things decrease your odds of delivery your spam rating, the amount of images in the email, etc. There are so many issues to consider when dealing with deliverability, it's difficult to keep them straight!

Email marketing companies report statistics back to you based on your sends. The information includes delivery statistics, open rates and click-through percentages. As an email marketer, it always works to your advantage to stay on top of these statistics and adjust your campaign accordingly. For now, we'll stick to delivery rates. Working with an email marketing company will increase the odds of your email being delivered, but no company can 100% guarantee that your email marketing newsletters will make it to your subscribers' inboxes. Basically, delivery depends on what internet service providers (ISPs) do after they receive an email. Thus deliverability is largely based on your direct email marketing reputation.

So how can you ensure that your reputation isn't tarnished? First, don't send too many marketing messages. Subscribers don't want to be bombarded with the latest product or promotion. That being said, it is a good idea to increase email frequency to subscribers who are generally engaged with your branding meaning they often open emails and click on links in them.

If you want to increase your deliverability, the key is testing. Try sending a text-only version of your email. Sometimes, emails with too many images get caught up in the recipient's email platform and are marked as spam. Include a bank of links at the top of emails with unsubscribe, forward to friend and view on mobile phone links. Also, and this is huge, make sure that all emails follow the spam legislation of the country you're sending from and to. In the US, this is called the CAN-SPAM act

If you're experiencing low response rates, once again, try to test your sends. Tweak different variables within your email marketing strategy, like timing, subject lines and images. Different subscribers have different preferences, so learning what they like is a huge benefit for your email marketing campaign.