Podcast Summary: Email Deliverability: What Every B2B Marketer Needs to Know

Episode Details:

• Title: Email Deliverability: What Every B2B Marketer Needs to Know
• Podcast: The Exit Five CMO Podcast
• Host: Dave Gerhardt
• Guests: Alex (Owner of Understory Agency) and Sarah (Rev Ops and GTM Strategy Lead at Vector A Martech)
• Release Date: June 19, 2025

1. Introduction to Email Deliverability

Dave Gerhardt opens the discussion by emphasizing the enduring importance of email as a marketing channel. He highlights the challenges associated with enterprise marketing automation platforms, such as rigid templates and cumbersome code editing. To address these issues, Dave introduces Knack, a no-code email platform favored by Exit Five for its ease of use and efficiency.

"Email, in my humble opinion, is still the greatest marketing channel of all time. It's the only way you can truly own your audience today." [00:00]

2. Identifying Deliverability Issues

Sarah delves into how marketers can differentiate between low open rates caused by poor subject lines and those stemming from deliverability problems. She recommends utilizing tools like HubSpot's email health pane to assess overall email performance against industry benchmarks. Sarah emphasizes examining metrics beyond open and click-through rates, such as unsubscribe and bounce rates, to identify potential deliverability issues.

"A huge mistake is to look at subject lines and open rates and click through rates rather than unsubscribe rate." [05:35]

3. Tools and Platforms for Email Deliverability

Alex shares his agency's preference for Instantly, citing its superior email warm-up capabilities and effective management of sender pools to avoid spam filters. He contrasts Instantly with platforms like HubSpot and Marketo, noting that specialized tools can offer better deliverability outcomes for outbound email campaigns.

"We own and operate an agency called Understory. So we help SaaS companies scale via email, GTM Engineering and paid media... It's a massive component of our business." [03:16]

4. Reply Rates and Data Hygiene

The discussion shifts to the importance of reply rates as indicators of deliverability. Alex explains that his agency focuses on tracking positive replies rather than opens or clicks, arguing that replies are a more reliable metric for inbox placement.

"If you found a tactic that works really well and your reply rate drops significantly, it’s a good indicator that you’re not landing in the primary inbox anymore." [07:38]

Sarah adds that managing replies is crucial, especially for marketing emails. She advises against using "no-reply" email addresses to foster engagement and recommends tools that facilitate reply management to maintain high engagement levels.

"Don't use a no reply email address because then you can't see if someone's replying and like the whole point is to start a conversation." [09:59]

5. Dealing with Security Bots

The rise of security bots that mimic human interactions poses challenges for tracking genuine engagement. Alex shares an anecdote illustrating how bot activity can distort metrics, leading to misleading indicators of campaign performance.

"If you can’t get past spam filters, there's a good chance you're also going to start landing in spam." [08:51]

Sarah advises monitoring unusual engagement patterns, such as consistent opens without clicks or responses, to identify and mitigate bot interference.

"If you see someone opening every single email but never clicking through or responding, it might be a honeypot or security bot." [23:19]

6. Unsubscribe Links vs. Opt-Out Messages

A key topic is the effectiveness of including unsubscribe links versus opt-out replies in emails. Alex argues that opt-out replies (e.g., replying "no thank you") can enhance sender reputation by demonstrating engagement to email service providers (ESPs).

"People replying to your emails... it's showing ESPs that people are replying and actually replying to your emails, which helps your sender reputation." [19:49]

However, Sarah cautions that legal compliance often mandates the inclusion of unsubscribe links, making it essential to balance reputation management with regulatory requirements.

"Legally, like in most compliance laws, you cannot require someone to reply to unsubscribe." [20:29]

7. Re-engaging Low-Engagement Contacts

Sarah suggests personalized, one-to-one emails as an effective strategy for re-engaging contacts who have become inactive. She recommends offering high-value content to entice recipients to renew their interest and update their information.

"Send a high value asset in that email and see if you can get them to update their information or just start to be marked as re-engaged." [36:52]

8. AB Testing Subject Lines

Effective AB testing of subject lines requires adequate sample sizes to yield meaningful results. Sarah recommends targeting at least 30% of the email list, preferably around 500 recipients, to ensure statistical significance.

"The rule within our agency is 500 people minimum in a test. If there's not a minimum of 500 people, you don't know what you're actually testing." [38:52]

Alex adds that subject lines should be concise and conversational, avoiding gimmicks like excessive capitalization or misleading phrases.

"Send subject lines that look like internal conversations within your company to encourage higher open rates." [40:03]

9. Building a New Email List

When constructing a new email list, both Alex and Sarah advocate for focusing on opt-in strategies rather than cold outreach. They emphasize creating valuable content that attracts subscribers organically, supplemented by targeted marketing efforts like paid ads.

"Start with what kind of content do I want to put out there? Why is it valuable to my target audience?" [42:34]

Dave Gerhardt further elaborates by outlining a formula: develop a compelling offer, leverage customer interviews to understand needs, and use gated content to build the list.

"We have a welcome sequence from that of people that are coming in. We welcome and introduce them to our newsletter. That's the right way." [43:27]

10. Warming Up a New Email Domain

For new companies, Alex strongly advises against sending cold emails from primary domains to protect their sender reputation. Instead, he recommends using secondary domains with limited daily send volumes and gradually increasing activity to build credibility.

"As a new company, do not send any cold emails from your primary domain. Only use it consistently to reach out to customers, partners, and employees." [48:31]

Sarah echoes this sentiment, advising a slow and steady approach to building email reputation, starting with the most engaged audience segments.

"Start with the most engaged, smaller audience, expand, and work your way out to the older records." [50:09]

11. Final Insights and Takeaways

The session concludes with key takeaways:

• Prioritize Reply Rates: Focus on genuine engagement metrics over superficial ones like open rates.
• Use Specialized Tools: Leverage platforms tailored for outbound email to enhance deliverability.
• Maintain Data Hygiene: Encourage sales teams to keep CRM data clean to support effective email campaigns.
• Balance Compliance and Reputation: Ensure unsubscribe processes comply with laws while maintaining sender reputation.
• Gradual Scaling: Warm up new domains slowly to establish a positive sending history.

Sarah provides a comprehensive warm-up schedule guide, which is shared with listeners for practical implementation. Both guests encourage ongoing education and adapting strategies based on performance metrics and audience behavior.

"If you do a change, see how people interact with that. If they don't mind, then it's a win. If they do mind, then what's the point?" [38:26]

Notable Quotes:

• "Emails are feeling like the good old days." — Alex [24:25]
• "It's like the name of the scam really is don't put all your eggs in one basket." — Alex [29:20]
• "An email with very little value is considered spam." — Sarah [27:16]

This episode provides valuable insights into the multifaceted aspects of email deliverability, offering actionable strategies for B2B marketers to enhance their email campaigns' effectiveness and maintain a strong sender reputation.