Deliverability
is the single most complex and frustrating aspect of email marketing
that hinders program success. On average nearly 19 percent of all
opt-in email is not delivered by ISPs because it is perceived as
SPAM.
There
are five types of deliverability issues: design and copy triggers,
authentication, accreditation, blacklists, and bounce management.
1.
HTML/Copy Triggers (ISP and Client Filters)
There
are phrases in email copy or components of an HTML design that can
get emails caught in ISP or client SPAM filters. Some of the obvious
ones include excessive use of exclamation points, upper case text,
and use of words like FREE in subject lines and email body copy.
Apokrisis has compiled a list
of common triggers.
There
are a number of ways a company can monitor their emails to ensure
they are not being blocked for this reason:
·
Subscribe to end-user e-mail filtering services to check if your
e-mail is blocked. Apokrisis can help with this monitoring.
· Make sure your writers and designers are aware of filter
trigger words and other creative issues.
· Make unsubscribe language and subscription management options
clear and easy to follow.
· Create "seed accounts" with top ISPs, and monitor
e-mail delivery.
· Avoid "spammy"-looking subject lines and content.
2. Authentication
Authentication
is an industry-driven initiative to provide a structure within the
Internet’s email system to ensure good email is good and beat
the bad email. There are three initiatives released out in the industry,
and though each has a big booster, none have become industry dominant.
SPF
SPF, once known as sender permitted form, works by looking at an
incoming message's sender address and the server sending it. If
the server is authorized to send e-mail on behalf of the domain
name in the sender address, the message gets through. If not, it's
filtered as spam.
SPF
relies on what's called the "envelope address," the sender
address appearing as the "return-path" in the e-mail header.
It only looks at the domain name (the portion of the address after
the "@"), not the complete address. SPF doesn't confirm
the message came from a specific user at that domain name, only
that it came from that domain name's server.
To
get through SPF filters, senders must publicly identify servers
authorized to send e-mail from their domain name in their DNS record.
It's not a time-consuming, difficult, or costly endeavor. If you
send e-mail from your own server, your IT folks should be able to
handle it. If you use an e-mail service provider (ESP) to send your
bulk e-mail, they should handle this for you. All the major ESPs
use it, as do most major ISPs. Additionally, hundreds of thousands
of organizations that send e-mail have already published SPF records.
There's
an additional benefit to publishing your SPF record. You know all
those bounces you receive from spam e-mail that appear to be from
your domain but aren't? An ISP filtering with SPF technology won't
send them to you. It "knows" the message didn't originate
from your server.
Sender
ID
Very similar to SPF, but the ID area of the domain is further down
in the email, making it a little more difficult to cheat. Microsoft
has begun to implement Sender ID checks on e-mail coming into MSN
and Hotmail accounts. It's only one factor in a scoring system to
determine what e-mail is spam. Microsoft says it will increase the
weight Sender ID carries within that formula as the company sees
how it works going forward.
Domain
Keys
DomainKeys uses information published in a sender's DNS record much
like SPF and Sender ID. The twist comes at the send. Here, DomainKeys
requires an extra step: a digital "signature" must be
attached to each outgoing message. Yahoo and Earthlink have implemented
this.
3. Accreditation (Whitelisting)
Accreditation
is the process of having your email program vetted by a third party,
which gives it a seal of approval. You are then added to a “whitelist”
which ISPs can subscribe to. Whitelisted emails are automatically
delivered and do no have to go through the SPAM filters of the ISP.
Bonded
Sender, Habeas Users List (HUL), and ISIPP's Accreditation Database
(IADB) are three large whitelists.
ACVB
and Apokrisis should research the feasibility and expense of pursuing
accreditation.
4. Avoiding Blacklists
Blacklists
are the opposite of whitelists – third part organizations
like SpamCop maintain lists of known spammers. People are added
to the list when they are reported either by a user or a participating
ISP.
The
best thing to do is to not get on blacklists, though they are not
as important as they used to be – ISPs use them as one factor
among many to determine if an email is SPAM or not.
Occasional
monitoring of the larger blacklists and active coordination with
their staff, though time consuming, is an important component of
a deliverability program.
Apokrisis
did not have time to review the top blacklists for this report,
but this is a task that should be conducted soon and then repeated
monthly or quarterly.
List
of blacklists: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/Blacklists/
5.
Bounce Management
There
are a number of reasons why a mail server may not be able to successfully
deliver an email, and these are called “bounces.” Bounced
emails result in an error message that is sent back to the emailer,
and there are a number of codes that explain the reason for non-delivery.
It
is important to monitor bounced emails on a list, because one of
the factors that and ISP uses to determine if an emailer is spamming
or not is a measurement of the percentage of total emails sent versus
the number of bounced. If that percentage gets too high, then it
could trigger the spam filter.
Bounces
are the easy part – you know what happened. Often many emails
are never delivered and no message is sent. The other areas of deliverability
attempt to minimize those, but in the meantime ACVB would benefit
from instituting a consistent bounce management program.
Here
are some tips to help effectively deal with or minimize e-mail bounces:
-
ISPs recommend retrying hard bounces no more than three times.
In our experience, retrying a hard bounce only once after a period
of two to four days is sufficient.
- Remove
hard-bounced addresses from the list either immediately or after
the retry attempt fails. Remove soft-bounced addresses from the
list if the address repeatedly generates bounces over a period
of four to five e-mail campaigns.
- Scan
keywords when processing bounces to help deal with nonstandard
bounce messages.
- Use
a double or confirmed opt-in subscription process to minimize
incorrect and false addresses from the start.
- Use
an e-mail change of address service to help combat e-mail address
churn in your mailing list.
- Add
an e-mail address update link to your e-mail and a profile update
form to your Web site, enabling subscribers to update their address
and preferences.
- Consider
contacting bounced subscribers via postal mail or phone (if you
have contact information and permission) to obtain their new e-mail
addresses.
- To
ensure subscribers enter their e-mail addresses correctly, include
a script that checks for syntax errors upon submission. Additionally,
consider requiring subscribers reenter their addresses in a second
box.
- Monitor
bounce messages (particularly from key ISPs and domains) for signs
of e-mail rejection. The message may have been rejected due to
blocking or filtering, and you may need to contact the administrator
of the receiving system.
- Monitor
bounce rates continually, and establish a benchmark. Analyze the
cause, and take appropriate action when a message lies outside
of the norm. Though average bounce rates can vary dramatically,
if your rate continually rises above 5 percent, you may have list
input or hygiene issues.
- Pretest
messages for potential spam-oriented content to help minimize
rejections by ISP and corporate spam filters.
Apokrisis
can recommend researching either bounce management software or a
service that can facilitate this process.
Deliverability
is an overwhelming task at times, but paying attention to ensure
maximum deliverability will improve effectiveness of your email
campaigns and improve overall email ROI.
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