How to Improve Systeme.io Email Deliverability (BEST Practices) [2024]

Sending emails through the Systeme.io platform can be a great way to reach your audience. However, as a new user, you may face some initial challenges with deliverability until you establish yourself as a trusted sender.

Implementing some best practices early on can help your account get into the desirable low-risk sender pool more quickly.

Be Patient During the Quarantine Period

When you first create an account with Systeme.io to use their email service, your account will start off in a “quarantine” period.

Specifically, your email broadcasts will be heavily throttled, with delays ranging from a couple of hours up to 12+ hours between sends.

This throttling will continue until you meet two basic criteria: sending at least 500 emails from your account and having your account open for a minimum of 16 days.

Once your account graduates from quarantine, your emails will be sent out much more quickly.

However, in the meantime, you’ll need to remain patient as you build up experience on the platform.

Just be aware that this probationary period is not meant to discourage usage, only to prevent misuse.

As long as you focus on building your list ethically and crafting emails your subscribers will appreciate, you’ll make it through the quarantine delays before you know it.

Focus on Email Quality

To successfully complete quarantine and land in the ideal “low-risk” sender pool going forward, your emails during the intro period need to clearly demonstrate quality and care for your list.

Systeme.io has a few key benchmarks they expect ethical, low-risk users to meet initially:

• Average open rate across emails of at least 20%
• Bounce rate kept under 1%
• Very limited spam complaints or spam report rate close to 0 if possible

Meeting and exceeding these deliverability benchmarks indicates that your subscribers genuinely have an interest in opening and engaging with the emails you send out.

Low bounce rates also show your list is kept clean from outdated or invalid addresses.

To hit these goals, you’ll need to ensure you have legitimate consent from all list members, and only email those who have opted in and truly want to receive messages from you.

Avoid using spam trigger words commonly flagged.

Think from the mindset of your subscriber – what types of emails would you be excited to have land in your inbox?

By focusing on serving your audience well rather than solely promoting to them, you’ll stand out from the start.

Use a Custom Domain and Business Email

Though Systeme.io provides all users with a default branded subdomain to send from (e.g. yourbrand.systeme.io), it’s highly advisable to connect and verify a custom domain of your own to send emails through instead.

Using your own branded domain paired with a professional business email address can give your broadcasts a more legitimate appearance right out of the gate. Recipients will feel like they’re receiving an email from an established company rather than something unofficial.

There are also practical advantages and protections that come with custom domains.

Social media platforms can sometimes flag or block emails sent from the default Systeme.io branded emails due to past abuses.

Verified custom domains bypass this. Plus you are able to seamlessly switch ESPs if needed without impacting subscriber communications.

Setting up a domain and business email through G Suite only costs a few dollars per month – a minor investment that can pay off enormously through higher credibility and delivery ability.

Build Your Mailing List

While sending high-quality emails is crucial during your first few weeks on Systeme.io, you don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture either.

Your mailing list itself will be one of your most valuable assets no matter what email service provider you use.

Unlike fickle social media platforms where reach and results can disappear overnight due to algorithm shifts or other external factors, no one can take away access to subscribers you rightfully earned.

As you put effort into building your list sustainably, you’re cementing a reliable communication channel that will serve your business for years to come.

That’s why in tandem with crafting emails, you should continually test and optimize your lead generation flows across channels.

Don’t worry about monetization right away either. Focus first on providing value and building relationships.

Once you have an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you, smart email marketing and offers will convert naturally without aggressive pushing.

Think long-term when list building.

Don’t Be Too Sales-Focused

One common beginner mistake is immediately blasting every new email list signup with endless promotions, offers, and affiliate links without ever establishing trust or sharing helpful information.

Don’t fall into this short-sighted trap!

While you will eventually monetize your list, you first need to demonstrate real value to subscribers and build loyalty.

Instead of only pushing sales content, share more about your own entrepreneurial journey, lessons learned, actionable tips, behind-the-scenes info, etc.

This educational style helps you stand apart from the countless emails people receive daily.

You want your messages to provide entertainment or usefulness even without any offers attached.

Subscribers will grow to recognize and look forward to content from you, particularly amidst crowded inboxes.

Don’t hide the fact you have services/products for sale either though. Occasionally spotlight your offerings neatly tied to informational content.

The key is striking the right balance, without going overboard in either sales or value directions.

Always test to see what resonates best with your audience.

Develop an Email Schedule

Instead of blasting your list sporadically whenever you simply have a new promotion or affiliate deal, take the time to thoughtfully map out a structured editorial calendar for your broadcasts going forward.

Plan how frequently you will email – daily, weekly, bi-weekly, etc.

Schedule key topic areas, series ideas, and types of offers you’ll send when. Tie this into seasons, events, or other marketing activities as makes sense.

As you learn more about your list’s preferences, you can fine-tune timing around optimal days and times for the highest open rates. Your schedules may vary across segments too depending on their interests and levels of engagement.

Start planning things out on an editorial calendar and continue refining it over time. Thoughtful email scheduling is crucial for longer-term list growth and monetization.

Never get complacent sending one-off random messages.

Use Scarcity and Urgency Sparingly

When not overdone, injecting scarcity or urgency into an email promotion can encourage quicker conversions and higher sales from subscribers already predisposed to purchase.

If you overutilize aggressive scarcity and urgency though, you risk alienating portions of your list by coming across as overly salesy or pushy.

And the tactics can lose their effectiveness if you cry wolf one too many times.

So whether it’s strict purchase deadlines, limited seating/stock warnings, or special discounts about to expire – sprinkle these in occasionally when they authentically apply to boost conversions from cold traffic.

But don’t make them an annoying mainstay of all emails. And temper language so it incentivizes rather than threatens.

You want to motivate truly interested subscribers to move faster while avoiding negativity from the rest.

Segment Your List

Treating all list subscribers exactly the same fails to account for the diversity of interests, preferences, and levels of product awareness that inevitably exist within even mid-sized lists.

Not personalizing well ends up leaving engagement or revenue on the table.

That’s why from the very beginning you should get in the habit of segmenting your lists based on relevant behavioral or demographic data to allow for more customized messaging in your broadcasts.

For starters, tag all signups with the specific lead magnet, content offer, or channel they initially came in through. Track geographic data like country and language too.

Also, tag past purchasers of specific products distinctly from general subscribers.

Based on these tags, you can craft emails with more relevance to the history users have had with you already, sending newly signed-up subscribers a different onboarding sequence from existing purchasers for example.

Keep adding new tags as appropriate when you release fresh offers, content or products.

Great email service providers like Systeme.io make it easy to handle list segmentation at scale. Take advantage of it.

Targeted emails always outperform generic blasts. Segmentation is crucial for maximizing the value of your list over the long haul.

Final Thoughts…

Implementing these tips can help you succeed with Systeme.io’s email service and grow your business through email marketing.

Let me know if you have any other questions!