Make sure your content doesn't trigger deliverability red flags. Emails that have a poor text-to-graphics ratio or use a "from" name that isn't recognized are less likely to be delivered. To ensure deliverability, follow these guidelines:
- Use an email provider that has tested templates that support a good balance of text boxes and graphics.
- Make sure your messages contain less than 60 percent HTML or graphics.
- Test your emails before issuing an entire campaign to ensure your graphics/text balance won't create deliverability problems.
- Use a recognizable and consistent email address and "from" name for all of your emails. Encourage your recipients to white-list this address. This will usually trump all other anti-spam checks in delivering mail to large ISPs.
- Know your audience. For instance, in B2B, it is important to include keywords in your content and test these keywords periodically to ensure they remain relevant. Your audience will judge your mail based on the content. It plays the biggest role in influencing whether someone will click or complain.
Know your stats. Leverage as much data as possible in order to figure out your version of "normal" performance. Knowing where you stand makes it much easier to avoid serious issues, as you can react to potential problems quickly. It also makes it easier to pat yourself on the back when you improve your results. Having an intimate knowledge of your stats is critical in helping you differentiate between suspected delivery issues and poor client response.
Guard your reputation as a good email marketer. With email marketing, reputation is everything, and it's key to keeping your deliverability rates high. To a large degree your reputation will be affected by how many spam reports are filed against you. To avoid spam notices:
- Send relevant emails. The more relevant the mail, the more likely it is to be delivered and opened. Leverage the use of technologies such as dynamic content, email automation ("workflows"), and segmentation, in order to provide the most timely and relevant content to the recipient.
- Make sure your emails are easy to recognize. Use subject lines that carry a consistent theme that recipients will associate with your brand.
- Ensure content is clean and professional.
- Treat each email deployment as a million-dollar commercial. Use a mission control style checklist process to minimize deployment mistakes.
- Monitor your open rates, click rates, and other key indicators. If they're declining, revisit the relevancy of your campaigns and tweak content and subject lines to be more appealing.
Know your customers' interests. No matter how good your message is, if it's not relevant to the interests of your customers, it's a failed campaign. Knowing your audience is the best way to ensure your email campaigns connect with your customers. Base your campaigns on what they want and like, aligning their interests with what you have to offer. Here are few tips that will help you get to know your customer better:
- In exchange for contact information, offer your customers something of value: a newsletter, a free seminar, or more information about your products and services.
- When gathering contact information, gather only the demographic information you really need. Asking for unnecessary information annoys people and may discourage them from signing up.
- Manage your contact lists so you can respond quickly and efficiently to requests for more information or requests to unsubscribe.
- Since email addresses can change frequently, maintain the integrity of your email list by carefully tracking the number of bounce-backs or undeliverable emails after every campaign. Monitoring lack of response to your campaigns is an important aspect of knowing your audience.
Use transactional emails to your advantage. Transactional emails are highly relevant and personalized communications and therefore are more likely to be opened than regular email campaigns. Transactional emails can be as simple as:
- "Welcome" and "Thank you" notices
- Password reminders
- Invoices
- Shipping notifications
Since the customer is expecting these emails, you've already reached a level of personalization that opens the door for you to learn even more about them. Include additional promotions based on their preferences while also asking for feedback or suggestions. The more information you gather, the more personalized you can make your email communications.
What to look for when choosing an ESP
You should consider an ESP that goes above and beyond basic compliance management.
The ESP should have:
- Dedicated deliverability staff whose sole responsibility is to constantly improve technology and services to help ensure that your emails get to the inbox.
- Strong familiarity with the top-tier internet service providers and third-party spam scoring services.
- Demonstrated industry leadership, through participation in the shaping and promotion of email marketing best practices with industry organizations such as the Email Sender and Provider Coalition and the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
Whether you're a big box retailer or small business owner, much of your email marketing campaign success and deliverability performance is under your control. Find the right ESP that is a fit for your business, follow email marketing best practices, and enjoy the rewards and ROI of one of most effective tools for marketing your business online.
Jeremy Saibil is director of deliverability for Campaigner.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia at @iMediaTweet. Follow Saibil at @goingpostal.
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