Archive for the 'Deliverability' Category
March 3rd, 2010
Here’s the latest spin on why email marketers shouldn’t have to worry about opt-ins. According to the CEO of one marketing database company, this time, it’s the economy. Because, really, who can afford to follow best practices these days? Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that. Naturally, his company is there for you in these troubled times. Go ahead and read the whole thing, including (especially) the comments. I’ll wait right here…
Read more of “Unsolicited Email: Follow the Money”…
February 18th, 2010
We spend a lot of time talking about and counseling our clients on obtaining permission. Having a good, solid program to allow people to opt-in to your mailings is critical to the success of your campaigns. Email marketing has matured to the point that most people understand that concept and agree that permission is absolutely essential to keep complaints low and connect with those people who want to receive the mailings.
But permission isn’t the only thing you need to consider. The most common problem I see is a failure to set proper expectations about the type or frequency of emails. A few simple steps when designing your subscribe process that can avoid problems down the road are:
- Provide a link to the online version of a recent mailing (any item stored in our Delivra Content section can be linked to).
- Let your subscribers know when or how often you’ll be sending (“We’ll send your newsletter on the first Monday of each month”)
- Let the user know what address you’ll be sending from. (“Add newsletters@example.com to your address book”
- Send a “hello” message automatically after sign-up thanking them and reiterating all of the above.
- If you have multiple newsletters or options, allow your subscribers to choose at sign-up or modify their options down the road (Delivra can help create a profile form to do this.)
Setting the right expectations up-front can help avoid problems down the road.
Kris Dougherty | Deliverability & Operations
February 12th, 2010
The caller to our offices surprised our salesperson with the question: “Can you guys provide me with a list of 500 million email addresses?”
When you’re in the email marketing industry, inquiries from would-be list buyers are, sadly, not uncommon. “No,” came the reply from our salesperson, “that’s not our business.” Usually the conversation ends right there. But our salesperson couldn’t let this caller go without satisfying his curiosity:
“What do you need with a list of 500 million email addresses, anyway?”
“Because I need to get this out to EVERYBODY.”
Read more of “The Ultimate Campaign”…
February 10th, 2010
I attended a local bridal tradeshow with a friend of mine who is getting married soon. When we arrived we signed in with our contact information. I was asked to give my e-mail address. I threw caution to the wind and gave them my e-mail address. My e-mail address was then given to all the exhibitors. Lucky me and wow has my inbox (and junk folder) been flooded!!
I have been on the other side of that tradeshow booth. In my previous job, I helped manage, attend and follow up with booth attendees for a few tradeshows. They did about 15 tradeshows a year and we came back from those shows thinking we hit the jackpot with all of these e-mail addresses. So, I am guilty of this too.
Read more of “Tradeshow…Rules of Engagement”…
February 5th, 2010
According to a 2007 Forrester Research study, 35% of subscribers open an email because of what’s in the subject line.
Although the data is three years old the message is more relevant than ever. Why?
Read more of “It’s Worth Repeating: Subject Lines are KEY!”…
January 29th, 2010
I get a lot of questions from large senders that all follow the lines of “what can I do to make sure my emails make it to the inbox?” Enough so that I sometimes feel like a broken record. Which is why it is always nice to find someone else answering the question the same way. I recently read an interview with Mario Marlisa, Channel Relations EMEA at Return Path, on the topic of Email Deliverability, and found his answer to the question perfectly aligned with the advice we’ve been providing for to our own customers.
Read more of “Large email list? Get delivered with segmentation and engagement”…
January 21st, 2010
Early in 2009, an agency client of ours made a huge mistake. Our Deliverability team noticed an increase in the complaint rate for the mailing list of one of their clients–a national consumer brand that you’ve almost certainly heard of. Some investigation revealed that an employee of the agency had added purchased addresses to their mailing list.
Besides being a clear violation of our Terms of Service, using a purchased list is also a huge mistake for the reasons described here. So we demanded that the agency purge the bought list from our system, or else take their business elsewhere.
The agency complied, and all the bad addresses were removed, but their deliverability to the newly-cleansed mailing list continued to suffer. The reputation of their dedicated IP address had taken a severe hit because of the complaints from recipients who were emailed previously without having opted in.
Read more of “Domain-based Reputation: Closer than you think?”…
January 15th, 2010
Sadly, it looks like the cost-cutting measures over at AOL (laying off around 1400 staff members) have hit their postmaster department particularly hard. Hopefully this won’t lead to any problems with delivery, but if it does, I’m willing to bet that response time to inquiries and resolution will be affected.
Read more of “AOL’s Postmaster department takes a hit…will email suffer?”…
January 13th, 2010
On the popular N.Y. Times blog Freakonomics, contributor Daniel Hamermesh speculates about why he’s receiving less spam these days:
I assume that the spammers realized that the return per period of time — the price of the activity — was less than its marginal cost: the opportunity cost of their time. They have shut down the business and moved to other activities that might yield higher returns.
Read more of “Where Have All the Spammers Gone?”…
January 8th, 2010
Want to capture your recipient’s attention before they even open their email? The subject line of your email is probably the part you think least about, but could enhance your open rate and conversion substantially. Have you ever received an email with a subject line like this:
From: Mortgage Broker
Subject-Save now! You can get the best deals at our website today if you only just open the email and read more or click our offer…….
Whew! I am tired just typing that one. Believe it or not, I see emails like this come through all the time. This is literally the subject line and the From text that I read. I won’t pick on this email marketer as I know there are tons out there doing the very same thing.
What I do want to do is point out my Top 5 Tips to compel someone to open your email:
Read more of “Get Creative with Your Email Before You Even Design”…
