We Used 4 AI tools to Improve Email Deliverability | This Is What Happened

Introduction

Old McDonald had a farm, AI a I-O! Okay, maybe that’s not how the song goes, but it might in the not-so-distant future. I’m a cybernetic organism living tissue over a metal endoskeleton and although AI can’t help us or Old McDonald dig a hole, what if I told you that we can use AI to significantly improve our email deliverability?

In this article, I’ll introduce you to three AI-based tools that my team has been using to increase deliverability. We’re not sponsored by any of them, so you can expect a non-biased demonstration of each tool. Also, I’ve made sure to include two bonus tips for you: one for getting rid of spammy language in subject lines and another bonus tool that will further improve your deliverability. Keep reading, folks!

Welcome to Mailtrap Videos

As they say, if an apple a day keeps the doctor at bay, having AI clean your email list keeps deliverability issues away. Although it doesn’t rhyme as well, it’s still sound advice. Even if you have a clean email list, you need to make sure your addresses are active, especially if you have a lot of catch-all emails, which are prone to bouncing.

To achieve this, we’ll use AI email scoring provided by ZeroBounce, an email validation service that my team has had great success with. This AI tool analyzes vast amounts of data and identifies patterns of email addresses based on their activity. It’s as if AI stood across the street from an email address with binoculars, telling you how active the user is. Pretty neat, right?

I’ve prepared a list of email addresses for this demo—some are active, some are invalid or spam traps, and the like. I’ll click on "New Score List," upload the list I’ve prepared, and let the AI start processing it. In no time, I get the results back. My emails are scored from 1 to 10 based on activity, and according to ZeroBounce, you should only email addresses with a score of 9 and 10. Moreover, ZeroBounce offers an API with which you can automate the process and send CSV files in bulk.

Writing Attractive Subject Lines

Did you know that one in three recipients opens an email after reading the subject line? It's no wonder that subject lines are considered the pickup lines in the world of email marketing. For writing attractive subject lines that catch the eye and curiosity, my team has been using the AI-based title generator by CoSchedule, a marketing management platform that has been helping marketers worldwide for more than 10 years.

I start by opening Headline Studio and navigating to the "Generate" section. There, I enter the topic or keyword for my email, my target audience, and select the desired tone of the title before clicking on generate, which lands me a few high-quality headlines. Now, let's analyze one and see how we can improve it. The AI provides us with in-depth statistics of our headline and, most importantly, suggestions for improvement in terms of word balance, reading grade level, clarity, and more. And voila, you've got rock-solid headlines for your email.

We set an alarm clock to see how long it would take to come up with a catchy subject line with and without AI. Guess what? You can do it without AI, but it will take five times longer.

Making Language Less Robotic

AI is cool, but how do we get rid of the machinery taste of AI-generated language? All we have to do is avoid using phrases such as “Unleash the Power,” “Delve into,” “Maximize,” and other similar words that you'd expect a robot to use. You’ve got to listen to the way people talk—you don't say "affirmative," you say "no problemo."

Avoiding The Spam Folder

Next up, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the dreaded spam folder. Luckily, AI can tell how likely your emails are to end up in spam. Think of AI as your buddy who tells you whether you're dressed well for a date. You wouldn't want to show up wearing something that screams spam, so AI helps you make sure your email is dressed to impress.

For this, we'll use the new tool offered by Microsoft Dynamics, which uses AI to check emails for any spammy content among many other things. To save you time, I’ve already prepared an email copy for this demo. I click on the spam checker feature and it tells me how likely my email is to land in a spam folder. Fortunately, this is a low-risk email, but if you get a medium or high-risk score, it's time to tweak it a bit. Here's a quick tip: avoid using spammy words such as "earn," "limited offer," or "hurry." These words are the email equivalent of wearing socks with sandals—definitely not a good look.

Bonus Tips

For an in-depth report on your spam issues, you will have to bring out the big guns. Be sure to try out Mailtrap's spam report feature. You get a detailed spam analysis which allows you to significantly improve deliverability. It’s not AI, but it's honest work.

Finally, here’s the second bonus—a little gem of a tool that I found for improving email deliverability. It’s called Folder, which works similarly to Grammarly if Grammarly were an AI tool that filtered out spammy words from emails. Simply visit the official website, paste the email address that received a high spam score, and it will guide you through fixing it. Works like a charm.

Old McDonald had a farm—okay, I’m just kidding! That's all for today with the deliverability tools, but you still need to create engaging email content, right? We’ve shot a tutorial about doing exactly that with the help of AI. Be sure to check it out!

Hasta la vista, baby!