Deliverability Best Practices by Tamara Gielen
Hello, my name is Tamara Gielen Blogger Community manager Speaker Independent consultant Trainer Based in Belgium 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Some of the brands I ve worked with: 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Some facts
5
6
7
Over 90% of all email traffic is spam ISPs are focused on keeping their users happy by blocking messages their users don t want They can t do this manually! 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 8
Factors that influence deliverability
Typical ISP process 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Behavioral factors in deliverability Content Words Bad html code Low text-to-image ratio Not sending in MIME blog.wordtothewise.com/ 2010/09/content-basedfiltering/ Poor database hygiene Hard bounces & unsubscribes are not removed Old lists Too many spam complaints Bad opt-in practices Irrelevant messages Too high frequency Bad sender/domain reputation 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 11
Technical factors in deliverability IP address or domain is blacklisted Bad server configuration Sending speed, throttling, mx connections No SPF & Sender ID record DKIM & DomainKeys are not implemented 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 12
What s new?
Gmail introduces Priority Inbox 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Hotmail sorts your inbox as well 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Hotmail helps you get rid of unwanted email in bulk 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Microsoft will determine inbox delivery based on According to Return Path, Microsoft will soon start using engagement metrics to determine whether it delivers a message into your inbox or junk folder on an individual basis: Message read, then deleted Message deleted without reading Message answered Frequency of receiving and reading messages from a certain sender 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Common myths about deliverability
v
Identifying deliverability issues
Delivery Rate Inbox Delivery Rate
Source of most deliverability issues User complaints Unknown users Spam trap addresses Sending infrastructure Sending consistency (volume & frequency) Content and e-mail headers 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 24
How to identify a deliverability issue? Signs of trouble Falling open & click rates (overall + per ISP) Spikes in bounce rates (overall + per ISP) Monitor delivery logs Sign up to feedback loops http://blog.wordtothewise.com/isp-information/ Set up dedicated accounts at major ISPs Yahoo!, AOL, Gmail, and Hotmail and add those accounts to every mailing 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 25
How to solve deliverability issues? Improve opt-in/opt-out practices Improve list hygiene Improve contact strategy Improve infrastructure / ESP Improve reputation Improve authentication Do this BEFORE you contact the ISP! 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com 26
Some great resources
Reputation Monitoring Sites Source: blog.wordtothewise.com Sender Score http://senderscore.org/. Sender Base http://senderbase.org/. AOL reputation http://postmaster.aol.com/cgi-bin/plugh/check_ip.pl Reports the reputation of IPs as determined by AOL. RoadRunner blocks http://security.rr.com/amiblockedbyrr Reports if a particular IP address is currently being blocked from sending mail to Road Runner. Spamhaus blocks http://www.spamhaus.org/ Reports if an IP is currently listed on any of the Spamhaus lists. Sendmail Reputation http://sendmail.com/sm/resources/tools/ ip_reputation/ Reports reputation of an IP address as measured by Sendmail. Trusted Source http://www.trustedsource.org/. Commtouch http://www.commtouch.com/check-ip-reputation/ Barracuda Central http://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups/ SNDS http://postmaster.live.com/snds/ Will show IP addresses that are currently blocked by Microsoft. 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
resources.mailchimp.com/ guides 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
http://blog.wordtothewise.com/ Blog by deliverability experts Laura & Steve Atkins
http://www.spamresource.com/ Blog by deliverability expert Al Iverson
http://blog.deliverability.com Some great advice and tutorials from a bunch of well-know deliverability experts
www.b2bemailmarketing.com I read so you don t have to - a selection of the best email marketing articles on the web
www.emailmarketersclub.com More than 4.000 members, lively discussion board, regular webinars, lots of resources
Learn more about deliverability If your emails don t make it to the inbox, you can test and optimize all you want, it won t matter Request a copy of this deliverability white paper: www.tamaragielen.com/deliverability-whitepaper.html 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA all rights reserved duplication is not allowed tamara@tamaragielen.com
Questions? Tamara Gielen Email Marketing Consultant, Speaker & Trainer tamara@tamaragielen.com +32 477 666 930 http://www.tamaragielen.com http://be.linkedin.com/in/tamaragielen http://twitter.com/tamaragielen