
It makes no sense to send emails that nobody reads. But here’s the thing — not all emails indeed make it to the inbox. Some of the emails go to spam. When people say “email deliverability,” they just mean making sure your email actually reaches someone’s inbox.
There are a bunch of little things that can mess up your email getting delivered. If you don’t pay attention to them, people might never see your email — even if it’s really good. The good news? You don’t need to be super technical to fix it. You fair require to know what to check. Let’s go over it step by step.
Step 1: Your Email List Could Be the Issue
One of the greatest reasons emails don’t get delivered? Bad email lists. Maybe you added people who didn’t ask to hear from you. Maybe you’ve been sending emails to the same list for years without checking if anyone’s still interested.
Here’s what happens: if lots of people ignore your emails, or worse, delete them without reading, email providers like Gmail start to think you’re spam. They stop delivering your emails to people’s inboxes. It’s that simple.
What can you do? Clean up your list. Remove emails that bounce. Remove people who haven’t opened anything in the last few months. Only send to people who actually want to hear from you.
2. Set Up the Right Settings (It’s Not as Hard as It Sounds)
Email authentication sounds technical, but it is important. There are three things you require to set up to offer assistance e-mail suppliers believe you: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework. It tells mail suppliers which servers are permitted to send emails for your space. It’s like giving a list of endorsed senders.
If someone else tries to send fake emails from your domain, SPF helps block them. DKIM means DomainKeys Identified Mail. This includes a advanced signature to your emails. It’s like sealing a letter with a stamp, so the email provider knows it really came from you and hasn’t been changed along the way.
DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Verification, Detailing and Conformance. It works with SPF and DKIM to donate additional instructions. It tells email providers what to do if something looks suspicious — like whether to block it, let it through, or report it.
When you don’t have these set up, it’s like sending a letter without a return address. Gmail doesn’t know if it really came from you, so they don’t deliver it. But once these records are in place, it’s much easier for your emails to go where they should.
Most e-mail apparatuses will walk you through how to set this up.. It as it were takes a small time, but it makes a enormous difference.
3. Don’t Send to Thousands of People All at Once
Let’s say you fair made a unused e-mail account for your trade. You load up your list and send an email to 5,000 people right away. That might seem like a great start — but it’s actually a really bad move.
Email providers see that big blast from a new sender and think, “Whoa, this looks suspicious.” They might block your message or mark it as spam.
What you should do instead is send emails in small batches at first. Maybe 50 the first day, then 100, then 250, and so on. This is called “warming up” your email. It’s how you build trust with inboxes. It might take a couple of weeks, but it’s worth it.
4. Write Like a Real Person, Not a Sales Robot
Have you ever gotten an email with a subject like “ LAST CHANCE! ACT NOW!! 🔥”? Did you open it? Probably not.
Emails like that feel fake. They look like spam. And people can spot it a mile away. Worse, so can email filters.
Instead, write subject lines like you’d send to a friend. Keep them short and clear. Say what’s inside. Use your normal voice. You don’t need to yell or trick people into opening.
Same goes for the email itself. Keep it simple. Don’t use 10 images and 5 buttons. Don’t go crazy with colors or fonts. Just say what you need to say. If it looks and sounds real, people are more likely to read—and respond.
5. Make Sure It Looks Good on a Phone
Most people read emails on their phones now. That implies your mail needs to see great on a little screen. If it’s hard to read or buttons are too tiny to click, they’ll just close it and move on.
Test your emails on your own phone before sending. Make sure the text is easy to read, the links work, and everything fits the screen. Don’t make people zoom in or scroll sideways. Keep it clean and simple.
Almost every email platform offers mobile previews. Use them. One quick check can save you from looking unprofessional—or worse, getting sent to spam.
6. Let People Unsubscribe
Some people won’t want your emails anymore. That’s okay. What’s not okay is hiding the unsubscribe link or making it hard to leave. That’s how you get reported as spam.
If too many people do that, your deliverability tanks.
Make the unsubscribe link easy to find. And if you can, give people options. Maybe they don’t want all your emails, just fewer of them. A simple preference page helps keep more people around—and still keeps you out of trouble.
7. Watch Your Results and Try New Things
After you send an email, take a look at what happened. Did people open it? Click anything? Did you get a lot of unsubscribes?
If you take note less opens than regular, attempt changing the subject line another time. If no one clicks your joins, possibly your call to activity wasn’t clear. Don’t be afraid to test different things —l ike sending on a different day or time.
You don’t have to be perfect. But watching the numbers helps you learn what your audience likes — and what they don’t.
8. Keep Email List Clean
I know we already talked about this, but it’s so important that I’m repeating it. If your list is full of bad emails or people who never read what you send, your deliverability will suffer.
Make it part of your routine to go in once a month and clean things up. Remove anyone who hasn’t opened in 3–6 months. Remove emails that bounce. Your email list should be full of people who actually want to hear from you. All this will help you to decrease email churn rate. Check out this email churn rate guide for more tips.
Final Thoughts
Email deliverability doesn’t need to be complicated. You don’t need to be a tech genius or spend hours learning advanced tricks. Most of it just comes down to common sense.
Send to people who want your emails. Write like a human. Make your emails easy to read and easy to leave. Watch what’s working, and adjust as you go.
If you do these things, more people will see what you send. You’ll get more opens, more clicks, and more results from every campaign. And honestly? That’s what email marketing is all about.