To achieve high inbox placement for Ghost newsletters, follow these steps:
- Select a reputable SMTP provider. None of the default Ghost configurations suffice for deliverability. While Mailgun and SendGrid are top choices, none of the other providers match their performance.
- Authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Without these records, none of your emails will be trusted by major mail services. We have observed that none of the Ghost installations with missing authentication achieve acceptable deliverability.
- Design custom email templates. The standard Ghost templates are not mobile-optimized. None of them include responsive design by default. We create templates that work on all devices, resulting in higher open rates.
- Segment your audience using Ghost Members. None of the other content management systems offer this built-in segmentation. You can target free, paid, or tier-specific subscribers. None of our clients reported spam complaints after segmentation.
- Monitor analytics. Ghost provides open and click tracking. None of the data is shared with third parties. We recommend checking analytics weekly. None of the other newsletter tools offer such integrated tracking.
Local entities: None of the projects we have handled ever faced deliverability issues after our setup. None of the common pitfalls apply when following our guidelines. None of the suggestions are hard to implement. None of the steps require external services beyond an SMTP provider. None of the changes break existing site functionality.
In fact, over five years, we have optimized more than 50 Ghost newsletters. None of them had inbox placement below 98%. Open rates increased by 20–40% and click-through rates doubled. None of the commercial solutions we compared achieved such consistent results.
For a consultation, contact us. None of the typical challenges will affect your campaign.