BATS CRM is not an email delivery service, therefore we are not experts in email delivery, spam filters, or inbox placement.  We provide email sending service from BATS via SendGrid platform and we maintain our SendGrid account up to date and technically correctly based on best practices and we monitor the health of our account and IP addresses.  We are asked often about Inbox placement of emails, but that is not a service that we provide.  There are no guarantees in today's environment that your emails will be delivered to Inbox, especially if you are mass emailing using automated email campaigns.

We have compiled a list of some proven techniques that will amplify your email deliverability rates.  Email Service Providers (ESPs) are constantly updating their tools and techniques to fight spam, so you must stay vigilant and continue to update some of these recommendations as rules evolve.  We will try to keep this recommendation list as fresh as possible.

1. Do not use free email services for sending commercial email: ESPs do not like to see commercial email being delivered from free email services such as @gmail.com @yahoo.com @outlook.com @hotmail.com etc.  Commercial messaging coming from free email accounts has high likelihood of being routed to Spam folders.  Always use commercial domain names to conduct business correspondence.
2. Verify your SPF and DKIM: The SPF will tell the email provider which IP address and hostname is allowed to send emails from a domain. The DKIM is an encrypted digital signature that tells the receiving inbox provider what an authentic email from this domain should include. (i.e. headers, specific text & body paragraphs, and logos).  SPF and DKIM settings can be updated on commercial domains only, they cannot be applied to free email addresses.  Please see this KB Article about instructions on how to update your company's SPF record.  Then contact our help desk for instructions on how to update the DKIM records.
3. Use a dedicated IP address:  Emails that are sent via BATS' SendGrid account benefit from the fact that we send millions of emails per month and we keep our account's reputation very high.  However, a dedicated IP address can improve your email deliverability if your company sends more than 100,000 emails per month, your emails are clean, and the technical structure of your DNS is tightly controlled.  We offer a dedicated IP address service for high volume senders via our SendGrid account.  We pass the cost of the dedicated IP address to you on your monthly BATS invoice.  If you are interested in moving to a dedicated IP address for email sending please contact our help desk.
4. Ask your customers to add your email to their address book: This will improve your company’s credibility with email service providers.  This is a long and tedious process, but over time it will add most value to your deliverability factor.  
5. Remove multiple links and consolidate them into a landing page on a website: Using multiple links in emails can be essential for conversations, however using too many links in a single email can trigger the spam filters and make your email hit the spam folder. We suggest creating a separate page on your website or a landing page to house all of the links that you normally send on an email, such as your reviews/testimonials, company information, etc., then add the link to this page to your email templates.
6. Keep the subject lines short and sweet: Concise wording is important to be sure that your subject lines are not cut off and they draw your recipients in. Be sure to avoid clickbait language that sounds spammy. This will not only send your emails to the spam folder but it will also immediately raise your block rates. There is nothing that you can do to fool the spam filters, be genuine and straightforward.
7. Write the email as if you’re writing to a friend: Ensuring your emails are personalized will help not only your delivery rate but also your open rates. Personalized emails tend to have 29% higher open rate than others. 
8. Unsubscribe option in your email footer:  Having an unsubscribe option in your email legitimizes your email even further.  We are providing you with an example that you can use in your BATS email templates.  See this KB Article for details. There is a transactional version as well as a sales version.

Unsubscribe links are strongly recommended only for automated sales emails, they are not necessary for transactional notification emails or On Demand Emails because there is no automation to unsubscribe from.


1. Avoid trigger words: ESPs constantly update their list of spam trigger words in their algorithms to filter your emails. One single spammy keyword can affect your email deliverability. Try your hardest to avoid the following spammy keywords:
1. Best prices
2. Clearance
3. Offer
4. Discount
5. Get paid
6. No credit card
7. Free
8. Sale
9. Order
10. Upgrade
11. Purchase
2. Use proper grammar and formatting: Both of these play a crucial role in user engagement. Writing in all CAPS can also trigger spam filters. As we mentioned above, write as if your writing to your friend. Do not use multiple colors, not only is it bad practice and decreases your email deliverability, it also does not reflect as professional which can also trigger spam filters.
3. Remain consistent with branding: Every email you send should be consistent in its branding, which includes the same look, tone of voice, color scheme and language.
4. Use correct structure in the email body: Make sure that the body of your email is structurally "clean".  That means no unnecessary nested tables, images, links, tracking and analytics cookies, etc.
   

BATS does not provide a service for writing or improving your email templates.  These tips are provided to our customers to guide them in implementing the industry best practices for improving email deliverability.  We can help you with configuration of your SPF and DKIM records, but the rest is up to you.  If you need outside help, you can easily find qualified marketers and email designers on fiverr.com or similar freelance service.