Email marketing's effectiveness and ROI have been proven time and time again, but concerns about spam have left many marketers and business owners wary. Will my email messages get through to the inbox? How do I avoid being lumped in with spammers?
Email service providers (ESPs) have done much to allay these concerns by automating many CAN-SPAM and deliverability requirements and building strong relationships with internet service providers (ISPs) to support better email marketing deliverability and take care of the nitty-gritty technical details that marketers shouldn't have to worry about.
But some ESPs have gone too far, asserting that they can provide email deliverability rates as high at 99.99 percent. This is misleading and frankly not possible. You'll want to choose an ESP that offers a number of important email deliverability features and services -- something we'll get into briefly later in this article -- but much of email marketing deliverability is in the hands of marketers themselves, and it all starts with following email marketing best practices.
Before we get into the practical aspects and tips for implementing best practices to improve email deliverability, let's first take a look at some important research findings from Aberdeen Group that provide a roadmap for better deliverability.
The attributes of best-in-class marketers
Aberdeen Group conducted a study earlier this year called "Demystifying Email Deliverability," which surveyed 517 companies using email marketing and identified the top performing organizations (called "best-in-class"), as well the factors that affect email marketing deliverability.
Several findings do indeed point to the importance of ESPs. More than three-quarters (76 percent) of the best-in-class marketers said they rely on ESPs for services that affect deliverability such as email certification and deliverability monitoring. More than 70 percent of the businesses surveyed said that one of the main reasons they use ESPs is to ensure deliverability.
But the study doesn't stop there. Aberdeen also identified the specific practices and attributes that help best-in-class marketers achieve some of the highest deliverability rates in the industry. Best-in-class email marketers who take their cues from customer behavior by segmenting email messages achieve an average email deliverability rate of 90.2 percent.
These email marketing leaders, who represent the top 20 percent of businesses using email to market goods and services, have seen a 9 percent year-over-year improvement in deliverability, compared to average industry performers, who saw no growth in deliverability scores.
Among the success metrics identified are segmentation, personalization, list hygiene, and opt-in strategies, all best-in-class practices businesses must master to meet marketing goals.
How you can become a "best-in-class" email marketer
Thanks to the Aberdeen study, businesses of all sizes can follow the example of best-in-class marketers and aim for deliverability in the 90 percent range. The key is to take a close look at your current email marketing campaigns and begin following some of the best practices outlined in the report. The following tips provide practical steps marketers can implement over time to boost their deliverability rates.
Make sure you have permission. Many consumers today are fed up with receiving spam or unwanted email. The following guidelines will protect you from gaining the stigma of a spammer and help your emails get delivered to your recipients:
- Be sure to ask permission to send mail, and then confirm email addresses during this process. Asking for permission is a great time to set expectations, ensuring your customers know how often, and under what conditions, they will receive email communications from you.
- Make it easy to opt out by implementing requests to unsubscribe from your list within 10 days. You can leverage technology to include a preference center driven unsubscribe link.
- Don't change your mailing frequency unexpectedly; you could alienate your customers. If you wish to make a change, simply let the customer know why. Transparency is always the best policy.
- Monitor hard bounces and ensure you obtain complaint feedback from your ISP.
- Make sure you understand CAN-SPAM regulations and follow its guidelines. Check the FCC's website if you're unsure of the fine points.
Next page >>