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<p>To emoji or not to emoji? Can sending a test email actually harm deliverability? Is my title too vague? Too specific?</p>
<p>Email marketing is an artform and mastering it takes more than a quick how-to. But even if you’re a pro at emails, you may be making minor mistakes that can have a major impact on deliverability.</p>
<p>In this episode, we’re walking through 10 common email marketing mistakes to avoid, plus, a few bonus tips and tricks for prime deliverability. We also mention a few big brands that miss the mark.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-33684 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/rOz61a0r-email-mistakes-scaled.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Email marketing mistakes" width="1114" height="2560" /></p>
<h2>Main takeaways</h2>
<ol>
<li>Your “friendly from,” or sent from email address should be a name your subscribers recognize.</li>
<li>Don’t use too many emojis in your subject line. Emojis can look cheap and spammy.</li>
<li>Don’t type out a full URL. Instead, add a link to a click here button.</li>
<li>Don’t send too many emails in a short period. This leads to subscriber burnout.</li>
<li>Proofread your emails before sending them.</li>
<li>If you’re setting up a <a href="https://sendgrid.com/blog/what-is-dmarc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DMARC</a>, make sure you’re doing it correctly.</li>
<li><a href="https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502492-how-to-prune-cold-subscribers-from-your-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clean out your list regularly</a>. Otherwise, you’ll keep emailing cold subscribers which harms your deliverability.</li>
<li>Think about your needs and carefully choose one ESP. Don’t bounce from one ESP to the next.</li>
<li>Don’t put so much content and imagery in an email. The email may get cut off.</li>
<li><a href="https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2971364-the-all-important-double-opt-in" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Use a double opt-in</a>! Otherwise, you’re bound to have subscribers on your list who didn’t mean to subscribe. That’s a fast-pass for complaints and cold subscribers.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Pullquote</h2>
<p>(26:24) <em>“You know when Amazon will come up to your house and deliver something to you, and they’re in an Amazon marked truck or something so you’re like, someone’s coming up to my door, I know who it is, I see the Amazon thing on their car and that’s what they always do. I know what to expect. That’s sort of like the mail that you’ve been sending from your ESP for a while. And then as soon as you switch to a new ESP, and maybe you are just trying it out, it’s sort of like when Amazon shows up to your house and they’re just in a normal car.”</em> ~ <a href="https://twitter.com/alyssa_dulin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@alyssa_dulin</a></p>
<h2>Links</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://convertkit.com/deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ask Your Deliverability Questions</a></li>
<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/avoiding-spam-traps-the-right-way/id1515377286?i=1000480306250" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deliverability Defined Episode 5: Avoiding Spam Traps The Right Way</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/emojis-email/#:~:text=Summary%3A%20Our%20research%20shows%20that,of%20an%20email%20being%20opened.&amp;text=Share%20this%20article%3A&amp;text=Many%20newsletters%20and%20marketing%20emails,emojis%20in%20their%20subject%20lines." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Emojis in Email Subject Lines: Advantage or Impediment?</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Try ConvertKit&#8217;s deliverability in action</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s now free to use ConvertKit with an audience of 1,000 subscribers or less! Start building your audience and reaching their inboxes: <a href="https://convertkit.com/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convertkit.com/pricing</a>.</p>
<h2>Stay in touch</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deliverability-defined/id1515377286" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Apple Podcasts</a></li>
<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1ElZx2zrhvllOkbPzSfGxX" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spotify</a></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/convertkit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/convertkit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/convertkit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.deliverabilitydefined.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deliverability Defined Website</a></li>
</ul>
<p>To receive email notifications when new episodes of Deliverability Defined are available, or to submit topic suggestions, <a href="https://deliverability-defined.ck.page/d1d644385c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sign up to our email list</a>.</p>


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