The year is 2022. Some people might say that emails are an archaic method of communication, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the business world, emails are still going extremely strong and used for a variety of purposes, including sales, marketing, content promotion, link building, email affiliate marketing and so on.

There are three main challenges that email outreach people face: spam filters, bounce rates, and people simply ignoring their emails. 

The solutions to all of these problems are somewhat interconnected, but today we will be focusing on some strategies that can help you reduce your email bounce rates and improve deliverability.

1. Set Up Proper Authentication For Your Email Domain

First off, if you rely on cold emails for any of your business processes, it is essential to set up proper authentication.

The three main authentication protocols are:

• SPF;
• DKIM;
• DMARC.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a DNS record that verifies your email domain is authorized to send email on behalf of your company. 

This helps to prevent spammers from spoofing your email address and sending messages from your domain.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a cryptographic authentication method used to verify the email sender’s identity. DKIM allows email receivers to verify that an email was sent by a trusted party and not spoofed.

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is a policy that allows email receivers to determine the level of authentication and security that should be applied to email messages from your domain. 

DMARC also allows email senders to receive reports on the messages that are sent from their domain.

Just using these three protocols for your email domain will dramatically improve your deliverability and ensure that your pitches don’t automatically get flagged as spam. 

2. Do Not Purchase Email Lists

The first reason is that email lists are often outdated, meaning that the email addresses on the list may no longer be active. 

The second reason is that email lists may contain a lot of invalid email addresses, which can lead to a lot of bounces and decreased deliverability. The third reason is that email lists may be illegally obtained, which can lead to legal trouble.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use your own email lists, however. If you do keep an email list of your own, you should regularly clean it up. 

There are a few ways to clean your email list for email outreach. One way is to use an email verification tool to check for invalid email addresses.

 Another way is to remove email addresses that have bounced or that have been unsubscribed from your list. You can also remove email addresses that are not associated with a valid domain name.

3. Include A Professional Email Signature

When you are emailing a company, it can be helpful to have their physical address included in your email signature. This way, if the recipient wants to reach out to the company in person, they will have the information they need.

 Additionally, if the company is looking for new customers, they may be more likely to reach out to businesses that have a physical address listed in their email signature.

This much is obvious, really. But did you know that an email signature with a physical address is actually a legal requirement by the FTC? In addition to a physical address, your email should also always include an option to opt-out or unsubscribe from further communications.

4. Avoid Images And Attachments In Cold Emails

Images and attachments can be blocked by email providers, which can prevent your email from being delivered or seen. Instead, try to embed content in email. Additionally, many people disable image loading in their email client to save on data usage or to protect their privacy, which can also prevent them from seeing your email.

A lot of scam emails send attachments or pictures to people out of the blue, so if your initial email to a person includes one of these things, it’s very likely to go directly into the spam folder.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with using attachments or images after a person has already replied to you and they expect it.

5. Avoid Spam Words

Spam words are words that are often associated with spam emails, such as “free,” “money,” “discount,” and “sale”. Email subjects, such as “get your best dedicated server”, “flat 20% discount on all shirts”, or “flash sale – hurry up”, are bound to land your emails in the spam folder. 

However, these are just a few of the most obvious spam word examples. Nowadays, spam filters have a huge dictionary with hundreds, if not thousands, of words and phrases. 

It is impossible to keep all of them in mind when composing your cold emails. Some words that don’t necessarily sound spammy to you might actually trigger spam filters, causing your pitch to never even be seen by your recipient.

One thing you can do before hitting “send” is run your email copy through a spam checker. There’s plenty of these available on the Internet, and it only takes a few seconds to do it, so there’s really no reason for you to ignore this step, especially if your deliverability is on the line.

The same goes for general grammar and spelling mistakes: having these within your email copy makes you look unprofessional, and can even trigger spam filters on top of that.

6. Warm Up Your Emails

An email warmup solution is a tool or service that helps you increase the chances that your email marketing messages will be delivered to the inboxes of your subscribers. 

It does this by gradually increasing the number of messages that are sent to each subscriber’s inbox over a period of time. This allows the email service providers (ESPs) to get to know your sending patterns and determine that your messages are not spam.

Some email warmup solutions, such as Lemwarm work in a simple but genius way: they connect you to a system of their users, and send emails to them on your behalf. On the recipient’s end, the tool automatically replies to your email. 

If your email lands in their spam folder, it also automatically marks it as not spam. This process increases your overall email engagement rates and improves your sender reputation.

Don’t Spam, Build Relationships!

When doing mass cold outreach, it’s important to remember that on the receiving end, there is a human being, just like you. So, respect their time, and communicate in a way that will leave them with a positive impression of you and your company.