Even with the extensive range of communication platforms available today, email is still an effective way to interact with your customers and reach new prospects.
However, you can only reap the benefits of your efforts by ensuring your emails end up in your recipient’s inbox. You can achieve this by testing your email deliverability regularly to avoid that dreaded junk folder. Here’s what you should know about email deliverability and how to test it.
What Is Email Deliverability?
For starters, email deliverability should not be confused with email delivery. Your email delivery tells you whether your recipient’s server received or rejected your emails. The latter might happen because your recipient’s email address is invalid.
On the other hand, email deliverability tells you whether your email ended up in your recipient’s inbox or spam folder. In other words, you can have a great email delivery, but suffer poor deliverability if your email ends up in the spam folder.
So, why are your emails going to the spam folder? Email spam has always been a serious issue, which is why most email service providers have filters in place to prevent deceptive emails from reaching their clients’ inboxes. These spam filters assess your emails based on several criteria, including your subject line, content, links, email reputation, and more.
The problem is that these filters are not perfect, as they often mark legit emails as spam. Now, before you wage war against spam filters, it is important to note that they mostly do an essential job; just have a look at your spam folder occasionally to see all the email scams and dirty marketing tactics you have avoided.
So, while hoping that email service providers continuously improve their spam filters, you can focus on knowing how these email spam filters work and testing your email deliverability regularly.
Why Should You Test Your Email Deliverability?
Performing email deliverability tests give you insights that allow you to fine-tune your campaign strategy to prevent your email from ending in the spam folder, enabling you to reach more people.
This helps you save time, energy, and money you might otherwise spend on an ineffective campaign that yields no results. What’s more, as email spammers are constantly finding new ways to trick email filters, email deliverability testing tools are also updated to match those efforts and help you keep your emails in your recipients’ inboxes.
The 4 Best Email Deliverability Testing Tools
Now that you are all set to test your email deliverability, here are five of the best tools you can use to perform these tests.
1. MailTester.com
MailTester is a robust tool that enables you to check the quality and deliverability of your emails in a few easy steps. You just need to send your message to the email address generated on its website. It will then return an insightful report showing you whether your email account is authenticated, an assessment of your mail server and sending IP, content, or if you have broken links, just to name a few.
It will also provide a score from 1 to 10 considering all these factors, and indicating the likelihood of your email reaching your recipient’s inbox. This email checker allows you to analyze up to three messages per day free of charge, while offering a pay-as-you-go plan or monthly and yearly subscriptions.
MailTester also allows you to bulk-check your email list to get rid of invalid email addresses, improve your deliverability, and boost your campaign’s ROI.
2. Unspam
Unspam is an email spam checker that provides a comprehensive report on your email deliverability after checking your subject line, broken links, HTML best practices, IP blacklists, and more. It is easy to use, allowing you to check your email by sending it to the testing address it provides.
This tool also enables you to create more effective campaigns through its eye-tracking prediction heat map that helps you know the most and least engaging parts of your designs, while giving a clarity score to identify cluttered areas.
Its free version lets you test up to 10 emails per month and offers a premium version starting at $14 per month.
3. GlockApps
GlockApps is another effective email spam checker that can help you improve your deliverability by running your email content through spam filters and highlighting issues that might cause your email to go into the spam folder.
Like the previous tools, you only need to send a copy of your message to the email address on its website to receive a comprehensive report. This tool also features a DMARC Analyzer to protect your domain from spoofing and phishing. Its free version allows 3 email spam tests per month, and the premium version starts at $59.
4. Mailtrap
Mailtrap covers all your email testing essentials by checking your email’s headers, links, subject lines, and more to give you an in-depth report. Its collaborative platform lets you share the testing space with colleagues and view the results in real-time, making it easier for your team to identify and address issues that might affect your deliverability.
You can also use Mailtrap to check the HTML and CSS support for the most popular email clients, including Gmail, Apple, Mail, and Outlook, to view the list of unsupported elements, fix them, and test your email again. This feature also allows you to optimize your emails for specific email clients or devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops.
Mailtrap has a free version for new users to try out and multiple premium subscriptions for freelancers, teams, businesses, and more.
Avoid Spam Folders by Leveraging These Spam Checkers
Testing your emails’ deliverability is essential, whether you are just starting your email campaign or have already invested in it. It helps you avoid any deliverability issues to ensure that your emails reach your recipients’ inboxes, allowing you to enjoy the results of your hard work and focus on other goals.
You can try out these tools to find the one that best suits your needs and budget, and make your email marketing campaign successful.