Ensuring your emails reach recipients’ inboxes is crucial for effective communication and marketing. Implementing best practices and proper warm-up techniques can significantly enhance your email deliverability. This guide provides essential steps to optimize your email sending strategy.
1. Set Up a Dedicated Email Sending Domain
- What Is It?
A dedicated email sending domain is a private domain used exclusively by your organization to send and receive emails, distinct from shared domains used by multiple users. - Why It Matters:
Utilizing a dedicated domain allows you to control your email reputation and deliverability. Without it, even with good emailing practices, your messages may end up in spam folders. - How to Set It Up:
If you’re using HighLevel’s LC Email, you can create your own dedicated domain. Follow the step-by-step guide provided by HighLevel to set up your dedicated email sending domain.
2. Set Up a Dedicated Sending IP Address
- What Is It?
A dedicated IP address is an exclusive IP used solely by your organization for sending emails. Email service providers monitor IP addresses to assess the reputation and deliverability of emails associated with them. - Why It Matters:
Having a dedicated IP gives you control over your sender reputation, which is crucial for ensuring your emails reach recipients’ inboxes. - How to Set It Up:
HighLevel offers dedicated IP addresses for LC Email users. Refer to their documentation to learn more about setting up a dedicated sending IP address.
3. Enable Email Validation
- What Is It?
Email validation is the process of verifying the accuracy and validity of email addresses before sending messages. - Why It Matters:
Sending emails to invalid addresses can harm your sender reputation and increase bounce rates. - How to Enable It:
HighLevel provides an email validation feature to help maintain a clean email list. Ensure this feature is enabled in your account settings.
4. Enable “Mark Email Invalid from Hard Bounce”
- What Is It?
This setting automatically marks email addresses as invalid if they result in a hard bounce, indicating the address is non-existent or unreachable. - Why It Matters:
Continuing to send emails to addresses that hard bounce can damage your sender reputation. - How to Enable It:
In your HighLevel account settings, activate the option to mark emails as invalid after a hard bounce.
5. Add Your DMARC Record
- What Is It?
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an email authentication protocol that helps prevent spoofing and phishing. - Why It Matters:
Implementing a DMARC record enhances your domain’s security and improves email deliverability by establishing your domain’s legitimacy. - How to Add It:
Consult HighLevel’s guide on adding a DMARC record to your domain’s DNS settings.
6. Use the Proper “From Email”
- What Is It?
The “From Email” is the address displayed to recipients as the sender of the email. - Why It Matters:
Using a consistent and recognizable “From Email” builds trust with recipients and reduces the likelihood of emails being marked as spam. - How to Set It:
Ensure your “From Email” aligns with your dedicated sending domain and is clearly identifiable to recipients.
7. Add Unsubscribe Links
- What Is It?
An unsubscribe link allows recipients to opt out of future emails. - Why It Matters:
Including an unsubscribe option is legally required in many jurisdictions and helps maintain a positive sender reputation by allowing uninterested recipients to opt out. - How to Add It:
HighLevel’s email builder includes options to insert unsubscribe links into your emails.
8. Use Double Opt-In
- What Is It?
Double opt-in requires subscribers to confirm their subscription via a follow-up email, ensuring they genuinely want to receive your emails. - Why It Matters:
This practice reduces the likelihood of sending emails to uninterested or incorrect addresses, improving engagement rates. - How to Implement It:
Set up a double opt-in process in your email sign-up forms to confirm subscribers’ intent.
9. Stop Sending to Unengaged Emails
- What Is It?
Unengaged emails are addresses that have not interacted with your emails over a certain period. - Why It Matters:
Continuously sending to unengaged recipients can harm your sender reputation and decrease deliverability rates. - How to Manage It:
Regularly clean your email list by removing or re-engaging unengaged subscribers.
10. Send Regularly… Just Not Too Regularly
- What Is It?
Maintaining a consistent email sending schedule without overwhelming recipients. - Why It Matters:
Consistency keeps your audience engaged, while over-sending can lead to unsubscribes or spam complaints. - How to Implement It:
Develop a balanced email schedule that provides value without inundating your subscribers.
Email Warm-Up Strategies
Warming up your email domain is essential to establish a positive sender reputation, especially for new or previously unused domains.
Email Sending Recommendations:
- Start Slowly:
Begin by sending emails to a small number of opted-in recipients. - Gradually Increase Volume:
Over time, incrementally raise the number of emails sent per hour and per day. - **Monitor