Why You Need Better Email Deliverability: It’s Much Less Elusive Than (A) Hummingbird

by | Apr 18, 2014

Market IntelligenceMarketingTips & Tricks

signed, sealed deliverability

Did you know that customers who receive marketing emails spend 138% more than people who don’t get those messages (source: Convince & Convert). You’re sending marketing emails, but what if your messages aren’t reaching inboxes? Marketing emails drive revenue, so you better make sure your system is working.

We’ll keep this simple.

Valid email addresses are only the beginning of a marketer’s email deliverability journey. If you aren’t thinking about your company’s domain reputation and content clarity, getting started isn’t as hard as you thought (and if you think you have it under control, you should definitely skim this list to make sure you haven’t skipped a step).

Overview:

  1. Sender Score
  2. Complaint Levels
  3. Email IP Authentication
  4. Content Relevance & Accuracy
  5. CAN-SPAM Compliance

CURATE YOUR REPUTATION

83% of the time, email doesn’t make it to the inbox due to reputation (source: ReturnPath).

Sender reputation is the most common reason for failed email delivery. While content scoring used to reign king of recipient-based spam filters, systems are now moving toward reputation-based scoring, allowing for more accurate sender blocking – and more accurate sender approvals. Good for legitimate marketers? You bet.

That being said, many companies still use both methods of spam filtering, and reputation-based scoring won’t solve all of your spam issues. To be safe, here’s what you need to look into (pronto):

1.  Sender Score
IP addresses appearing on just one of the 12 major blacklists had email deliverability 25 points below those not listed on any blacklists (source: Convince & Convert).

Sender Score (like credit worthiness) indicates an email source’s trustworthiness by comparing that sender reputation to other email sources. The score can predict how mailbox providers will evaluate the email source.

Action Item: Check your score at SenderScore.

  • 0 – 100 scale
  • Factors email behavior and volume, complaints, blacklisting, inactivity, hard bounce rates, volume consistency, unsubscribe capabilities, etc.

2.  Complaint Levels
43% of email recipients click the spam button based on the email “from” name or email address; 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line (source: Convince & Convert).

You know that users can put a negative tag (very easily) on a sender by clicking the “this is spam” button. Heck – you probably do this on your personal email.

Action Item: See if you have been blacklisted at DNSStuff.

  • Monitor complaint trends throughout each of your email campaigns.
  • Even recipients who have opted in to your company’s messaging can click “this is spam” (irrelevant content, unrecognizable sender, email frequency).

3.  Email IP Authentication
Verify your domain’s identity.

Action Item: Implement an email validation solution.

  • Examples: SPF (Sender Policy Framework), SIDF (Sender ID Framework), and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail).
  • Attach separate authentication records based on the type of email communications such as promotional marketing email, customer newsletters, corporate transactional email, etc.

OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT

Relevance is trending. It’s the new personalization – and some might call it a micro-version of segmentation. Don’t alienate your customers and prospects with emails that could be seen as spammy.

4.  Content Relevancy & Frequency
If marketers optimized their emails for image blocking, ROI would increase 9+% (source: Convince &  Convert).

Don’t send unnecessary or irrelevant emails to your customers and leads – instead, send content that will add value. Dig deeper than your usual segmentation list approach and personalize each email campaigns. In a friendly way, make the “why this email” connection for your user if it’s not obvious (hint: you’ll probably always think the connection is obvious, but be careful that you don’t make that your default).

Action Item: Use a marketing automation system to test frequency levels and pinpoint the optimal level for each micro-segment.

  • Your value proposition must be clear, even with images turned off.

5.   CAN-SPAM Compliance
CAN-SPAM does NOT require all recipient email address to opt-in, but it does require the sender to offer a simple, visible way for recipients to opt out. Take extra care to showcase relevant content to neutral contacts (those who haven’t opted in or out). Achieving permission is your first goal when communicating with neutral contacts. Here are the ways you can maintain compliance:

  • Don’t use false or misleading header information
  • Don’t use deceptive subject lines
  • Identify the message as an ad
  • Tell recipients where you’re located
  • Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future emails from you
  • Honor opt-out requests promptly
  • Monitor what others are doing on your behalf

If your marketing team has turned a blind eye to email deliverability in the past, now’s the time to discover the risk you’ve been taking at the expense of your marketing revenue. Simply looking into items like reputation, complaints, IP authentication, content, and CAN-SPAM regulations will not only broaden your marketing reach — it will also make sure your marketing efforts are affecting your revenue.

 

Curious to learn more about email deliverability? Check out these resources:

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