FIX YOUR EMAIL ISSUES

Do it now!

So what do you need to know about email as an entrepreneur to fix your deliverability issues?

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you can’t be an expert in everything BUT you do need to have a general understanding of how most things work so you can make good decisions about whatever comes up.

I have been running Orangefish.ca for over 15 years and the one thing I still struggle with is email.  I sometimes feel like just when I have it figured out something changes somewhere, and you have to dig into it again.  It is not a “set it and forget it” thing that is for sure. 

Most people will think email seems simple. Someone wants to your hear about your business so they subscribe to receive email from you, they get added to your list, you create an email and send it and they receive it and read it.

It sounds simple and I wish it were that simple but there are rules to follow, regulations, policies and technology that have been put in place to protect the average Joe. These things do make it much more complicated and over the years I have seen these changes make it more challenging to reach the inbox of people that do want to hear from you and your business.

The evolution of email has made it much more complicated to understand. One thing I know is that you need to pay attention to your data and recognize if you have a drop in deliverables, then try to figure out why that has happened.  

I have outsourced a lot of the programming and technical components of my business but anytime I ask the same resources about email – people who are super smart about most things’ tech say “No, I don’t know anything about email. It is way too complicated.”  And, they are not wrong, it is complicated, and it is work to figure out what is happening when these mysterious changes occur.

I always have so many questions about email so I thought I would share a few of them here with some answers that I found using my bff google.

1. Who makes decisions about what actually reaches a person’s inbox?

Google did not have an answer to this question. It must a really good one. If google doesn’t have the answer how could I have it????

2. If someone has subscribed to your mailing list, why does your email end up in their SPAM or JUNK mail folder?

I found this great article with a list of things to look at.  I know I have been guilty of the following:

• Number 5 – List Hygiene – I always thought more is better, that is not true in this case.  Get those people that never open your emails off your list. They are not helping you and might even be costing you money! Would you keep trying to contact a friend that never returns your calls?  No, so stop wasting your time and money with these people that are taking up room on your list.
• Number 6 – Image Heavy emails – They say a picture is worth a thousand words right or a thousand dollars?  Hmm not if it is causing you to not reach your customer. It is actually costing you money, not making you money.  You need to have some text to get in your customers inbox.
• Number 12 – Your IP has a bad history – I had this happen in the beginning and had no clue what it meant. I was using a shared server and other companies on the server got blacklisted and my business was automatically guilty by association. There was no quick fix.  At the time I could either move to a dedicated server – which would cost more money or just wait it out. Super frustrating.  Make sure this one does not happen to you.

3. How can you reduce or eliminate these challenges with email deliverability?

If you are just starting out or have been having some challenges with your email deliverability check out this great resource from Optin Monster.  Go through every item on this list.  It will help you start to get a handle on your email challenges and maybe even avoid some altogether.

Troubleshoot your email issues

4. How can you make sure the email you are sending is good and following the rules?

The optinmonster resource really is great and out of all the tests on that list, I found this one to be super useful and it is free – so no excuses not to do it.

https://www.mail-tester.com/

5. Why is the onus now on the average customer to make sure a company they have subscribed to ends up in their actual inbox?

Most people will not know even know how to do this and the fix is to give them instructions BUT how can you give them instructions if  your email is going to their junk mail folder in the first place????  This is called whitelisting and the more people that know about it the better.

Get whitelist instructions for your business here.

Take Action: Fix Your email Issues Today

1. Read emails going to Spam? Reasons why it happens and what to do about it.
2. Use this as a guide to troubleshoot your email challenges
3. Test your email using the mail-tester.com tool
4. Get whitelist instructions for  your business and share them with your customers

Good luck with your email sending.

Until next time,