With more consumers than ever before preferring email as a contact method, digital debt collection efforts are leaning heavily into that channel. The issue is that there’s a difference between your message arriving at an email provider’s server, and making it through to a consumer’s inbox. That difference is the essence of email deliverability.
While digital debt collection outreach offers plenty of benefits, a business only unlocks them when an email actually reaches the intended recipients. Let’s go over what your business needs to know about email deliverability.
Email Deliverability is the Current Backbone of Digital Debt Collection
In simple terms, email deliverability is the number of emails that make it into inboxes divided by the number of emails being sent. Email deliverability is influenced by a host of different factors such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), email list hygiene, subject line content, maintaining a consistent send schedule and more. All of these factors need to be monitored since they’re key drivers of consumer engagement and impact your bottom line.
There’s no shortage of products and services that can send emails for a business, but not all of them work the same way on this critical element. A debt collection email that doesn’t make it into an inbox isn’t just a missed opportunity for repayment, it could also be a potential compliance issue. If a business is sending legally required information by email, Regulation F requires that the methods used be “reasonably expected to provide actual notice” to the consumer.
Proactively monitoring and managing deliverability metrics is the industry-leading way to demonstrate compliance with this standard and ensure your digital strategy meets CFPB expectations.
How Domain Reputation Impacts Email Deliverability
A domain is the part of an email address that appears after the “@” symbol, and it’s commonly set up as the business name. Domain reputation is the overall health and credibility that mailbox providers assign to branded domains. Think of it like a credit score, the better it is, the more likely your emails are to make it into inboxes. Here are the key best practices for maintaining a good domain reputation:
- Work to maintain good email list hygiene.
- Make it easy for people to unsubscribe from emails.
- Actively authenticate the email addresses being sent to.
- Track email deliverability, including delivery rates.
- Avoid using “spammy” subject lines and email content.
- Address spam complaints quickly and efficiently.
When a domain reputation isn’t up to par, it often has detrimental effects on digital debt collection strategies due to delivery issues. If a message never reaches a consumer, there’s no chance of a repayment.
Email Deliverability Challenges Debt Collectors Need to Know
Digital debt collection strategies often have to walk a delicate line when sending emails. These messages need to be transparent and consumer-first to get past spam filters. Some of the phrases that are used in traditional collections like “pay now” or “immediate action required” are likely to get flagged by email providers as spam. The subject lines for debt collection emails should avoid threats and/or giving a false sense of urgency, and instead focus on providing clarity and value for the consumer.
Email subject lines should be transparent and non-deceptive. Additionally, if a debt collector is sending a disclosure required by Regulation F, the debt collector must do so in a way that is “reasonably expected to provide actual notice” to the consumer. The things a debt collector can do to show it sent an email in way that it is “reasonably expected to provide actual notice” is to include in the subject line the name of the creditor to whom the debt is currently owed, and one additional piece of information (e.g., a truncated account number, the name of the original creditor, the name of any store brand associated with the debt, etc.)
Another common email deliverability challenge is list hygiene. In many areas of debt collection, especially with older or dormant accounts, businesses have a higher chance of running into out-of-date data. If a business continually sends emails to addresses that are no longer active, their email deliverability and domain reputation will take a hit. It’s important to regularly scrub email lists to catch inactive addresses. Email verification processes can also help you weed out “bad” email addresses, which could help lower soft and hard bounce rates.
Even when an email makes it into an inbox, there’s still a chance it could be ignored. Modern email providers track how often recipients are interacting with messages from branded domains. If the majority of emails being sent go unopened, archived or ignored, there’s a risk that email providers will flag future messages from your domain as spam. That’s why it’s important to personalize the message and send time to increase the engagement rate. A strategy that can be made more cost effective and efficient when intelligent digital debt collection software is used.
Email Deliverability is a Priority with the Right Partner
There are plenty of software platforms and services that can help businesses send emails, but how many also work on email deliverability and domain management? Retain has a dedicated Email Operations and Deliverability team that monitors email debt collection programs to proactively keep them in line with best practices, combined with a patented optimization engine that uses AI and millions of consumer data points to make updates to email strategies in real time.
Want to Know How to Improve Collection Rates? Get Retain
Retain can help your debt collection emails get seen and engaged with by more customers. Talk with our team to learn more about how focusing on email deliverability could improve your collection rates and email performance.
