Getting the emails to the inboxes

In a world where billions of unsolicited email messages are clogging up our in boxes it is a constant challenge to stay one step ahead of the spammers, and ensure that legitimate emails get delivered to recipients' in boxes.  There are many strategies and technologies available to assist in improving deliverability and it is important to understand how to best deploy these solutions when launching an email campaign.

Understanding Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

The most important factor when sending emails is your reputation as an e-marketer with your Internet service provider (ISP).

The reputation for the quality of the email marketing sender is linked directly to the reputation of your Internet Protocol (IP) address. Every computer connected to the Internet is assigned a unique number or IP address. If you share that IP address with other people, and those people send spam, your reputation will be damaged as a result. Having your own IP address ensures that your reputation is determined by you alone.

Your own sub domain is also important, as a number of spammers use a technique known as "spoofing". This is when an email appears to be sent from a particular address, but is actually sent from a different address. This is why you sometimes receive spam that appears to come from your own email address.

How ISPs Authenticate a Legitimate Email Sender

There are two main protocols available to email senders: SenderID and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM). Sender ID is used to verify if a sender is authorised to send from the sender’s domain. This is of interest to e-marketers with large Hotmail recipient lists, as the technology was first introduced by Microsoft as way of authenticating emails.

DKIM is a relatively new protocol and is adopted by ISPs such as AOL, Gmail and Yahoo! In its simplest form, DKIM is technology that looks at the sender's domain (the bit of the email address after the @ sign) and verifies if the email did, in fact, come from that domain. If it doesn't match then there is a possibility that the email won't go through or get flagged as potential spam.

Business solutions for sending email 

Businesses can join the Sender Score Certification program from Return Path, which some ISPs use (Hotmail and Yahoo! in particular) to verify that you are a legitimate e-marketer. The program analyses the traffic sent through your IP address and performs numerous manual and automated checks on the content, together with how unsubscribes and complaints are handled. If successful, the IP address is ‘certified’, which is one important factor in the reputation of the address and therefore an important factor in deliverability. Other protocols such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which allows software to identify messages that are or are not authorised to use the domain name, can also be used.

Each technological solution in itself will not provide you with an overall solution, but when used in conjunction with each other, the odds of deliverability through the application of technology are greatly enhanced.

However, there is currently no substitute for the human element. Adopting best practice for not only template design and content but also complaint handling and managing unsubscribes, is the best way to maximise your deliverability.

Planning and testing your email marketing campaign 

A good email marketing campaign requires planning, testing, and measuring. Many businesses are in too much of a hurry to send out their marketing material and don’t give enough thought to content. Subject lines are considered one of the most important factors in an email’s open rate and can often be the deciding factor in a recipient clicking on the "Report as Spam" button. This causes alerts to get sent out to their ISPs, which if not acted upon can result in the sender becoming blocked or added to blacklists.

Businesses should test their campaign in various email programs. Just because it looks good in the preview window doesn't mean it will look the same once it has been sent out to all recipients. Marketers can set up test accounts with free providers such as Gmail and Hotmail, and then manually test their campaigns against these accounts on each browser and hardware platform. However, tools exist to help automate this process and your email service provider (ESP) should be able to help. And if you have your email professionally designed, make sure your designer has tested it across platforms. (And yes, we can help on both fronts ~ shameless plug.)

Marketers should also check the distribution list before sending an email. Make sure that the email marketing campaign is sent to a list that is permission-based. The company that sends their email, either in-house or through an agency, can be held liable for sending spam.

Also, make sure your email list is up to date. A mistake that many businesses make is to wait too long after acquiring a recipient's permission before sending an email.  It is often the case that many recipients forget that they have signed up to receiving the material and when an email newsletter arrives in their inbox they report the sender for spamming. If a business is not regularly contacting their email list, permission to send the material can go stale. One idea is to send an email to all the recipients reminding them of what it is that you can offer and why it is beneficial to receive the email.

Sending and measuring your email

Businesses will often plan and test the formatting of their email and then make the mistake of sending an email campaign to their customers using a home email address like "@yahoo.com" or "@hotmail.com". To ensure that your email has the best chance of finding the recipient’s inbox a company should always use their businesses website domain. Most businesses will already have an email account setup under their domain name. Another option is to set up an additional address exclusively for their email marketing campaigns.

In your first campaign, make sure your company name is included in the subject line, from-name, reply-to address, and throughout the email’s content. Be sure to remind recipients how they got on your list. This will hopefully prevent them from hitting the spam button which could hurt your company's email reputation.  Of course you must always include an unsubscribe link.

It is essential that marketers continually review their reports and update their lists. Many businesses fail to do this and subsequently don't notice when their list is steadily shrinking. It is important to keep a track of your open rates and click rates by reading the distribution reports and continually trying to improve your email deliverability to achieve the best ROI possible.

Want to know more about getting delivered? Contact us today.