How to stop landing in the promotions tab… forever

Okay, maybe not forever – nothing is ever 100% when it comes to the beast that is email deliverability…

And that beast is something I’ve noticed plaguing virtually every single Sports Nutrition brand’s email marketing…

Now, if you’re not familiar with that term…

It’s basically a hidden stat – you can’t see it, but it’s there.

The best way I can explain it…

… is a sort of range from 0 – 100:

The closer it is to 0? The higher the odds of your emails landing in the spam/promotions tab.

The closer it is to 100? The higher the odds of your emails landing in the primary tab.

And after being on hundreds and hundreds of newsletters – of Sports Nutrition Brands – after nearly a decade of bodybuilding…

Virtually EVERYONE always lands in my spam/promo folder.

And YOU are very likely no exception.

So here are 7 simple ways to fix that:

• Use double confirmation opt-in at the signup
• DO NOT let people sign up with fake/throwaway/alias email addresses – ask for their Full Name or even a phone number at the opt-in…

(That way you also easily get their data for hitting them with some SMS marketing…)

• Try to solicit as many replies to your emails as possible. Either bribe them, or just be interesting/entertaining enough to get replies organically.
• Email regularly – every day preferably – from the moment someone signs up, so you stay top-of-mind and they don’t forget you and report you as spam

(Not to mention how much emailing daily does for you differentiation itself…)

• Set up all your technical settings properly (DKIM/SPF/DMARC) –contact your ESP for help with that.
• Minimise the number of links in emails (1-3 preferably).
• The fewer the images/graphics you have – the better.

(ZERO being the absolute best number.)

And so on.

There are more tips.

But honestly to me?

The absolute most important deliverability tip is two-fold:

A) Write interesting and entertaining emails – which would people want to read…

B) Sell/promote them offers & products which they would want to buy.

If you do those two things?

Pretty much all of your deliverability problems sort themselves out automatically.

And that’s not by accident.

All the Gmails, Outlooks, Yahoos etc…

What do they all look for?

They look to provide THE BEST user experience for their users.

Why?

To keep them on their platform for as long as possible.

(So they can make more money off of them…)

And if YOU provide a good email experience to your subscribers?

Well…

They’re naturally going to reward you for it with higher deliverability.

(i.e. more in the primary tab, rather than the spam/promo tab.)

Now…

I’m going to be shameless in plugging this but – on my very own homepage?

I say this is the main goal behind my entire “Email Storyselling” method:

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I send an email every day on just some of the strategies and systems needed to give your current & potential customers – on your email list – an experience SO GOOD that they’ll simply refuse to buy from anyone else afterwards. That’s the intended goal behind „Email Storyselling“.

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So if you want to reap the rewards of „Email Storyselling“…