How to Get Your Emails Into the Inbox Using Flodesk's Deliverability Center 💌💻
Sponsored*Is your email actually landing in your subscribers inboxes?
It can be hard to tell.
And as a busy service provider or coach in the online space, you know email is super important to your business.
Because your emails can’t work for you and make business easier, if they aren’t landing in your subscribers’ inboxes!
Plus you spent time writing an email, picking the perfect subject line, 2nd guessing yourself a few times, sending yourself a test to double check the links (right??), choosing the perfect send time to press send…
And wait.
And wonder.
And maybe refresh your stats a few times. (maybe a lot)
Since it can be more unusual to get responses than not, it can leave you wondering… did your email actually land in your subscriber’s inbox?
But figuring out what's happening behind the scenes with your email deliverability? Unless you’re an email deliverability expert… it can feel like a whole other job (and it actually is).
You've already got enough on your plate. Clients to serve, a business to run, and approximately 527 other things on your never ending do list.
Especially when terms like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC likely mean absolutely nothing to you. Say whaaa. 🙃
What if email deliverability was easy?
Good news… You don't have to keep guessing!
Enter: Flodesk's all new Deliverability Center. ✨
It gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the things that impact your email deliverability, helps you understand what needs attention, and makes taking action a whole lot easier.
What is Email Deliverability?
Before we dive in… what the heck is deliverability?
Email deliverability is about whether your emails actually make it to your subscribers' inboxes instead of getting filtered into spam.
And that's different from email delivery. Because an email can technically be delivered without ever landing in someone's primary inbox.
Email delivery: Did the receiving email server accept your email?
Email deliverability: Where did your email end up after it was accepted?
There are a LOT of factors that influence where your emails end up, including your domain authentication, sending reputation, subscriber engagement, and list quality.
Annnnd for extra fun (but it’s really a good thing in the long run) recently, Gmail, Yahoo, etc. just made deliverability a whole lot trickier.
One thing a lot of business owners get wrong about deliverability.
Your email deliverability is RARELY “bad” because on your email service provider (aka Flodesk, MailChimp, etc.) If you're seeing a drop in open rates and think switching email platforms will magically fix it… not so fast.
Switching platforms may seem like an easy fix. And at first you may see a boost in your stats, while the new server gets to know you. But once it recognizes your domain, you’ll see the same issues again.
In fact, if you keep switching platforms and don’t fix the underlying problem, you could wind up with a blocked domain. 😬 Which is next to impossible to fix. You’d have to get a whole new domain… and who wants that. YIKES!
So what does effect your email deliverability?
YOU! Well, your sending habits.
But don’t worry, maintaining good sending habits is easy. And Flodesk just made it all a whole lot easier.
Meet Flodesk's New Deliverability Center
Flodesk is making a public commitment to the best email deliverability in the industry for small businesses. The Deliverability Center is just the beginning.
And I’m obsessed.
Because email deliverability is arguably the most important part of email. After all, if your email isn’t getting to your subscribers, it’s kinda pointless, right?
Luckily, the Deliverability Center makes this easy peasy by bringing all the important pieces of your email deliverability together in one place, shows you what might need attention, and gives you actual steps for how to improve it.
Ready to see how it works? Let me show you around! (and tell you why you should care)
1. Authenticate Your Domain
The very first thing you should do in any email provider is authenticate your domain. I promise this isn't as scary as it sounds. It actually should only take you a few minutes and Flodesk should do it for you automatically with a few clicks.
This is kind of like showing your ID, it’s how you prove to inbox providers that you are who you say you are.
When your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC (and yes, you need all 3) are set up correctly, it verifies your sending identity and protects you against email spoofing.
Do you need a domain email address?
Short answer: Yes.
Long(er) answer? It helps your deliverability, you have more control, less likely to get spoofed, and at the end of the day, you’re a grown up with a whole business. It’s time to have a professional email address.
2. Email Compliance Checklist
CoMpLiAnCe?! I know it doesn’t sound fun, but don’t worry, I’m going to break it down real quick for ya.
Inbox providers have rules that email senders need to follow. These help protect recipients and keep email working the way it should.
Flodesk handles these technical requirements for you, so no extra steps needed in this section!
3. Audience Health of Your Email List
If you've been in my world for more than five minutes, you've probably heard me say:
A bigger email list does NOT mean a better email list.
I would rather have 100 people who love hearing from me than 10,000 people who couldn't care less.
And that matters for deliverability, too.
When you repeatedly send emails to people who aren't engaging, it can negatively affect your sending reputation over time.
Flodesk breaks your audience into four categories: healthy, drifting, at-risk, and unengaged.
And you can click to take a closer look at who's in each category.
Which makes it a whole lot easier to see who's engaging with your emails and who might need a little extra attention.
On a personal note, according to Flodesk, mine needs action. What it doesn’t know is basically my entire photo biz is in there and I don’t email those people anymore, so I’m thinking mine isn’t super accurate, but I’ll be diving in there to check, just in case, later this week.
Not sure what to do?! Not to worry, Flodesk Deliverability Center walks you through, step by step. Which brings me to…
4. Clean Your Email List
This miiiiight be my favorite feature.
When you repeatedly send emails to people who aren't engaging, it can signal to inbox providers that your emails aren't wanted. And over time, that can hurt your sending reputation. Eep! 😬
So you want to archive (my recommendation as you keep their data) or delete inactive subscribers relatively regularly.
Flodesk has set this up to be SUPER easy for you and done in as little as one click.
In the Deliverability Center, you even get to choose how deep of a clean you want to do:
Light scrub: Archives unengaged subscribers who haven't opened, clicked, or purchased in 180 days and have received at least 6 emails in that time.
Standard clean: Archives unengaged AND at-risk subscribers who haven't opened, clicked, or purchased in more than 120 days.
Deep clean: Archives unengaged, at-risk, AND drifting subscribers who haven't opened, clicked, or purchased in more than 90 days.
Recently, Flodesk added an archive feature and I love it! This means it doesn’t permanently delete your subscribers (or their data — hello data obsessed nerd here 👋). It archives them.
Archived subscribers stop receiving your emails but stay in your account. Which means you can bring them back if you change your mind, or make a mistake.
My List Cleaning Recommendation
Depending on your list health, for at-risk and drifting categories that Flodesk will help you determine, I recommend sending at the very least ONE email to tell people you’re deleting them and how to rejoin your list, should they wish to.
Why?
Well… if I suddenly stop getting emails from ya, I’m going to assume you either aren’t emailing anymore or you went out of business. So I think it’s a good ideal to tell em where you went and how to get your emails again if they want them.
I teach you my list cleaning strategy way more in depth inside my masterclass, Email List Detox.
5. Warm Up Your Email List Before You Start Sending Again
Whoopsies. Did you just realize you haven’t emailed your list in… well let’s not talk about it. (Flodesk recommends 8 weeks or longer)
We’ve all been there.
OR maybe you’re deciding you want to move your list to Flodesk (Here’s 25% off of if you want to come join us!)
Before you just start “blasting” your subscribers, it’s a good idea to warm up your subscribers because sudden changes in sending volume can raise red flags.
But not to worry, of course, the Flodesk Deliverability Center makes this easy as pie — wait, how easy is pie? Nevermind. Just trust me, it’s easy.
How Flodesk's List Warming feature works
Flodesk's Deliverability Center includes a four-step warming plan to help you gradually build up your sending.
And rather than making you figure out all the segments yourself, Flodesk can create them for you.
When you select "Create warming segments," Flodesk builds segments based on your list size and adds them to your Audience tab.
The warming segments begin with 50 subscribers, then increase to 150, 200, 350, and so forth.
From there, you choose your sending cadence and schedule your emails. And they even give you a cute little calendar to know how long it will take.
How Often Should You Check Your Email Deliverability?
Good news, you don't need to spend hours obsessing over email deliverability every week.
But you also shouldn't set everything up once and never look at it again.
Here's what I’d recommend:
Before you start emailing regularly: Make sure your domain authentication is set up correctly and give it a quick check up.
After reviewing your data: Pay attention to your email stats (I give my Email Club Members a spreadsheet to review at a glance) if you see an unexpected dip, go into the Deliverability Center and have a look.
Every month or so: Set a date on your calendar and simply pop into the Deliverability Center and take a peek!
If you haven't emailed in a while: Before sending to everyone, consider using Flodesk's list warming tools.
The key here is not to give you more to do or think about but to make taking care of your email list health a priority so email (and business) is a lot easier.
Because your email list is the most important part of your business. It’s the ONE space you own.
After all, if you don’t have an email list, you don’t have a business.
Why Better Email Sending Habits Matter
This is what I ultimately want you to take away:
You don't have to become a technical email marketing expert to start improving your deliverability.
But you do need to pay attention to the things that influence whether your emails are reaching the people who signed up for them.
And luckily, Flodesk’s Deliverability Center makes that easier than ever.
Overall Thoughts
As an email expert, I love it!
I think I’m most excited because this is just the beginning. Coming soon are: complaint rate, bounce overview, and mailbox performance.
Deliverability can be such a daunting topic and when you have so many hats to wear as a business owner, I am thrilled Flodesk is making deliverability something that’s a lot easier to approach, understand, manage, and improve.
I’ve been using Flodesk for YEARS (like basically since day one) and many of my Email Club Members and clients do too.
Not only has the platform changed the way I look at email, they continue to impress me with how they listen to their partners and customers and constantly are making improvements and updates to make email better.
Even when they raised the pricing, it was for a good reason. Read about that here.
Want 25% off your Flodesk Account?
I’m a FIRM believer that the best email platform is the one you’ll use. So this isn’t to tempt you to switch to Flodesk, but if you’re asking me, my favorite Email Platform is Flodesk!
I love their team, I respect what they stand for, and I align with their values. I think their platform is one of the best ones out there and it just keeps getting better.
So, if you’re wanting to sign up or ready to switch to Flodesk, as a Flodesk Partner, I can share 25% off with you!
👉 Sign up here!
One final reminder: No email platform or deliverability tool can guarantee placement in the primary inbox. (don’t listen to the jabronies who “promise” they can get you inbox placement, it’s a scam, they can’t) These features help you manage the factors that influence deliverability and identify potential issues before they become bigger problems.
*Sponsored Content Disclosure: This post was created in paid partnership with Flodesk. All opinions are my own.Links may be affiliate links which means I get a small percentage of your purchase at no cost to you as a thank you. I appreciate your support!
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I’d love to hang with you there!