By Julia, Deliverability Expert

“I don't want no scrub, a scrub is an email that can't get no love from me.”

Here at Campaign Nucleus, we want to make it as easy as possible for our users to produce the most successful email content possible. With that our team has done some research and put together some information we’ve found helpful in creating our own emails.

Let’s start simple – what are the things that every recipient is going to notice about your email?

1. Your sender
2. Your subject line
3. Your content

Now let’s talk about how we can utilize all 3 of these factors to create the MOST TOP NOTCH EMAIL possible!!

Sender:

When you see an email in your inbox, what is the first thing you see? Likely, the sender’s name. Are you more likely to open an email that appears to be sent from a specific person or one that declares a corporation. Likely, a specific name.

Well, your audience feels the same. This means you can improve your user engagement simply by using a more personalized sender, such as a team member, to make your communications seem more “human”and less “AI generated.”

For example, an email being sent from Julia from Nucleus may perform a bit better than one being sent from the Biden Administration (although that may have more than one reason for performing poorly…).\

With that, consistency is also always key – it’s a good habit to keep one sender and domain affiliated with each type of content being sent.

Subject Line:

Following the sender, you likely immediately notice the subject line affiliated with the email.

When it comes to subject line, there are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Topic – always make sure your subject line sticks to the point. No one wants to open an email that has nothing to do with the subject line… it appears deceiving

• Length – your subject line length can actually drive your engagement. Short subject lines (below 50 characters) & longer subject lines (above 70 characters) actually have been found to receive more engagement than average-length subject lines.
  

Content:

The last thing the recipient will see but generally the most important portion of the email for them to see.

There are lots of considerations to be made when designing our content & every audience type responds differently to different copy types.

We encourage individuality in your sends but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be concise – the average human has a reading attention span that ranges from 10-15 seconds… that isn’t very long.

• Consider your call to action – it’s good practice to include multiple links within the email & our system makes it easy to determine where your audience is engaging the most within your email.
  

• Always check variables – we want to make sure we do not address our recipients as “Hello %recipient.first%.”

• Make your email readable – this includes but is not limited to:
  • Having a nice layout – easy to read & pictures should never outweigh text
  • Using color and branding wisely
  • Ensuring pictures are high enough quality that they engage your audience (although too much data can slow your email load time & that isn’t great either)

For more information be sure to contact our team for training or insight and visit your Nucleus Resource Library!

OR

INBOX PLACEMENT VS. DELIVERABILITY

By Julia, Deliverability Expert

I’m sure you’ve wondered, at one point or another, what we are really monitoring during our domain warming phases.

Well, I’ll tell you…

The two main things we are watching while determining how quickly or slowly we can increase our sending volume is:

1. Deliverability
2. Inbox Placement

I am sure you’ve heard both of these terms used by our email team; let’s discuss what they are, why they are important, & how we can be tracking them.

The WHAT

Deliverability implies to the rate at which your sends are getting through to the server

Inbox placement refers to where your email lands – whether it lands in spam, your promotional inbox (‘other,’ ‘promotions,’ etc.), or your primary inbox.

The WHY

Deliverability is a key player in your email ‘delivering;’ it simply means the rate at which a server is allowing your messages through to the recipient. This does not ensure where the email will land within the inbox, just that the server did not fully block the message.

Inbox placement is, arguably, even more important because it determines where the email lands within the inbox. Since many of us are not regularly looking through our junk mailboxes, I think we can all agree the email will reach the most recipients when it is visible in the general inbox.

The HOW

When it comes to tracking your success with deliverability, we are looking at our deliverability rate. The closer the deliverability rate is to 100%, the better!

In terms of our inbox placement, we will be monitoring our open rate. While it can be impossible to precisely measure our inbox placement, a higher open rate means that more people are likely seeing the email, meaning it is more likely to be landing in our recipients’ general inbox

The graphic above shows us a couple of different servers & their deliverability and open rate. It is a great example of how our deliverability & inbox placement can reflect on each server differently.

Building up your Email Subscribers Without Breaking Down your Domain

By Julia, Deliverability Expert

When it comes to expanding your email subscriber list for marketing content, remember that QUALITY OVER QUANTITY is not just a saying but a strategy that can empower your marketing efforts. By focusing on quality, you ensure that your messages reach the right audience, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.

I understand the temptation to construct a list of millions of people to ensure your marketing success, BUT without the correct methods of email collection, you can actually hurt your success rather than help.

Let’s talk about why…

Recipients who do not wish to be emailed often respond negatively to emails, even when you are careful to avoid common spam triggers within your content. This can mean that they report you as spam or notify the server that they do not wish to receive your email; this can cause blocks & lower our domain/IP reputation. If they choose to delete without opening or refuse to engage (opening, clicking, saving in folders, etc.) with the email, it can also have poor consequences. That tells the server that they are not interested in your content, and it can hurt your inbox placement, even with previously engaging emails.

DO… subscribe users who have signed onto your email list on their own will

**feel free to even offer them the opportunity to confirm their subscription

​DON’T… offer incentives, such as prizes, for people to sign up

​​**Subscribers rarely engage long-term with this route of email collection

DO… regularly sort through and unsubscribe unengaged recipients 

**If they aren’t helping your cause, they are hurting it

​DON’T… purchase email lists

**These lists often include duplicate, invalid, expired, or foreign emails that likely have no interest in supporting your cause

If you’re ever wondering if someone would be a “good” subscriber or a “bad” subscriber, ask yourself this: Would this person bring valuable interactions to my email campaigns?

You can review the differences between positive and negative engagement below: