Bid Coach: Improve Your Email Deliverability Rate to Subcontractors

Challenge:

When it comes to delivering your invitations to bid, it’s no surprise that an email invitation remains the most effective method of distribution. However, subcontractors can’t respond with proposals if they never get your ITB, so making sure that your invitations are getting maximum deliverability is vital to getting top, qualified bids back. While email is the most effective method of distributing your invitation to bid, the threat of ITBs getting caught in spam filters or marked as spam can make it seem the least attractive to general contractors. So, how do you make sure your invitations to bid emails don’t get marked as spam by subcontractors?

Analysis:

First of all, what classifies as spam? Spam is electronic junk mail. Unsolicited email that is sent out in bulk mailings are classified as spam. Spam is the main reason why some general contractors avoid email and prefer to communicate through other channels, like fax. But these other channels are not as effective when it comes to reaching your subcontractors who operate out in the field and live by their mobile phone. Make sure you double check if your ITB emails are in compliance with the 7 CAN-Spam Requirements.

Solution:

Luckily we have some great tools and tips to help make sure your invitations to bid get delivered and seen by your subcontractors. Improve your chances that your email invite won’t end up in your subcontractors’ junk folder.

• Have Your Subs Implement a Whitelist – If you’re using a bid management software, they will have instructions of how to request your subs whitelist your company, which avoids your invites getting marked as spam. A Whitelist, also called Approved or Safe Sender List, adds your email address (sender-ID) to a legitimate list your sub has created and will ensure your ITB delivers to their inbox.
• Check Your Email Bounce Rate – If a lot of your subcontractor emails bounce back, it means you’re not keeping their information up-to-date. It is an indicator of the quality of your subcontractor list. A bidding software can help improve your email bounce rate by scrubbing your subcontractor database list to remove bad information.
• Avoid Trigger Keywords – Certain keywords are known to be spam flags. Check out HubSpot’s email-spam-list to avoid using these words in your email subject lines and increase your chances of getting past spam filters.
• Use a Valid From/Sender Email Address – Use your name or company name in the “sender” field so that the subcontractor recognizes who it is from. Unrecognized senders quickly get deleted or sent to junk. Do not use ones such as updates@, reminder@, noreply@.