In our recent webinar, our email experts highlighted why achieving high deliverability is crucial for any travel brand to successfully share important operational information with its passengers. While sending emails may seem simple, both technical and non-technical challenges can limit your success. In this article, our specialists explore these challenges and provide practical solutions to overcome them.

Key challenges in operational email deliverability

1)  Inconsistent email service provider (ESP) requirements

Different ESPs, such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, have unique rules for managing email sends. These include: 

• Connection limits: When you send emails, your ESP has to connect to the email server of the recipient's ESP. Connection limits refer to the maximum number of connections that your ESP can form with the recipient's ESP server at the same time.
• Message limits: The number of emails you can send per connection.
• Retry times: How long your platform should wait before attempting to resend a failed email.
• Authentication protocols: Specific methods for verifying the legitimacy of your emails.

Failing to follow these guidelines can lead to delays, throttling (reducing your sending speed), or even blocking your emails altogether. Understanding and adhering to ESP-specific guidelines is crucial for smooth email delivery. 

2)  Recipient behaviours

Recipient behaviour can significantly impact your email deliverability. Here is why: 

• Mistakes and outdated addresses: Over 77% of email bounces (failed deliveries) occur due to invalid or inactive addresses. Encourage subscribers to double-check their information during signup and update their details regularly. 
• Spam traps: These are email addresses designed to catch spammers. Sending emails to them can severely damage your sender reputation. ESPs may use inactive addresses as spam traps to identify companies with poorly maintained lists.
• Negative impact on reputation: Recipients clicking the "spam" button instead of deleting unwanted emails can hurt your sender reputation. While not completely avoidable, travel brands need clear and relevant messaging to minimise the risk of readers marking your emails as spam

3)  Authentication and compliance

It’s fairly technical, but implementing robust security measures like SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and TLS are essential for building trust, preventing email spoofing, and protecting email transmissions from interception and tampering. While these elements may not be your direct responsibility, you should share these tips with whoever is responsible to ensure important elements of deliverability are not missed.

Compliance with regulations such as GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act is also essential, including adhering to ESP guidelines for bulk sending, managing spam rates, and respecting user privacy through responsible data handling.

You can watch the recording of our webinar to learn more about these challenges and how to overcome them. We’ll be writing up a guide going into more depth on these topics as well, but in the meantime, contact us with any questions and we’ll help wherever we can.  
 

Effective strategies for improving deliverability 

Achieving high email deliverability for operational emails requires a well-rounded approach. This section combines effective strategies and practical tips to ensure your critical messages reach the intended audience. 

1)  Reputation management and analytics

A positive sender reputation is essential for achieving high deliverability rates for operational emails. Here are some ways to build it:

• Maintain clean email lists: Regularly remove invalid, inactive, and spam trap addresses from your list (more on this later). 
• Obtain verified sender domain: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols to verify your emails are legitimate and originate from your authorised domain. This builds trust with ESPs and reduces the chances of being flagged as spam.
• Send relevant and timely content: Focus on delivering operational emails that are essential for users, such as flight delay communications or cancellations. Ensure these emails are sent promptly to avoid delays in critical communications.
• Encourage engagement with operational emails: Motivate users to open and interact with operational emails by clearly outlining the purpose of the email in the subject line and providing concise, actionable content. 

2)  Optimise content quality

To maximise the impact and effectiveness of your operational emails, focus on these key elements of content quality: 

• Clear and concise communication: Use clear, concise, and professional language in your operational emails. Avoid jargon or overly promotional language as well as exclamation marks. Focus on providing the user with the information they need to complete the intended action or understand the status of their account/order.
• Branding and recognition: Maintain consistent branding elements in your email design, including your logo and colour scheme. This helps recipients recognise your emails as legitimate and builds trust.
• Responsiveness: Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly by using responsive design and optimising the layout for smaller screens. Test your emails on different mobile devices to ensure proper rendering.

3)  ESP integration management

Effective ESP integration management ensures smooth email delivery. Keep these practices in mind: 

• Follow ESP limits: Configure your email sending infrastructure to follow the connection and message limits of each ESP you use. Familiarise yourself with the specific guidelines for each ESP to avoid delays or blocked emails (if you’re already our customer, don’t worry, we take care of this for you).

4)  Continuous monitoring and reporting

To maintain high standards of email deliverability, prioritise continuous monitoring and reporting with these steps:

• Monitor key metrics: Track bounce rates, and delivery rates using your analytics. Analyse these metrics regularly to identify trends and areas for improvement. Aim for low bounce rates (ideally below 2%), and high delivery rates (above 95%).

Email deliverability: an ongoing process

By following the approaches outlined in this article, you can take control of your operational email deliverability and ensure your critical messages reach the intended audience. Remember, email deliverability is an ongoing process: Continuous monitoring, adaptation, and a commitment to best practices are essential for building a positive sender reputation and fostering trust with recipients.  

For more insights, make sure to read our blog post featuring first-hand recommendations from our deliverability experts; Getting email deliverability right. It’s filled with practical advice to help you optimise your email performance.