DELIVERABILITY: GETTING TO YOUR CUSTOMER S INBOX DIGITAL MARKETING SERIES
EMAIL RULE #1 If it doesn't make it to the inbox, it's a wasted effort. How do you avoid the digital black hole? With tested best practices that deliver messages. And results. "More than 20% of opt-in messages didn t make it to the inbox; most of those didn t even make it into spam folders."* *Return Path, Email Intelligence Report Placement Benchmarks, 1H 2013
GETTING PAST THE ISP GATEKEEPERS Today, email is a critical component of data-driven marketing initiatives so it is imperative that your messages get to your subscribers. Especially in the initial phases of a new customer relationship, you can t afford to miss the mark. So, what can you do to optimize your efforts and help convert readers? BUILD A PROPER FOUNDATION Select an IP address appropriate for your brand and expected volume. Choose a sending domain ( from ) that won t confuse customers and is easily managed. Use the most current and recognized email authentication protocols. The first objective is to get customers onboarded getting you past the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and properly setting up your email foundation to position you as a valid sender, not a spammer.
YOU RE GETTING WARMER You would never go to a party without looking your best and having a few charming icebreakers ready to start conversations. Well, the same goes for your IP address. You have to warm it up so that ISP filters validate you and establish you as a credible source. So, let s break a little ice. During the first few days of IP warm-up, send small volumes of emails to recipients at quantities recommended by each ISP. Be sure to send only to engaged recipients to help make sure messages will be opened. Minimize hard bounce and complaint rates by suppressing any bounced addresses, complaints, and unsubscribes from your former platform. Gradually increase the email volume over the warm-up period, lasting from four to six weeks.
NO SPOOFING. NO PHISHING. NO KIDDING. Are you who you say you are? And do you mean us any harm? That s what ISPs want to know. And that s why they will take measures to authenticate you as an email sender. Authentication can include protocols to help email receivers separate legitimate messages from spam and malware and minimize false-positive filtering. The most common email authentication protocols are DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), SPF (Sender Protection Framework), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance). Authentication is an important part of building a positive and long term reputation. More than 80% of all delivery issues arise because of a problem with your sending reputation. George Bilbrey, President, Return Path
PROTECT YOUR REP Sender reputation is a score assigned to every mailing IP address based on three factors: 1 2 3 Complaints (clicks on the Report Spam button) Infrastructure (authentication, reverse DNS and mail exchanger record, volume/throttling, and bounce handling) List hygiene (source, quality, maintenance, and engagement) KNOW YOUR SENDER SCORE Whether or not your email will get through depends a lot on your sender score. Measure yours for free at www.senderscore.org. KEEP AN EYE ON COMPLAINTS Monitor complaint trending and stay off blacklists. Monitor www.dnsstuff.com for your IP addresses or use the free lookup tool at www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx. AUTHENTICATE YOUR EMAIL IP ADDRESS Publish SPF and DKIM solutions and create separate records for various types of emails you send. ALWAYS GET PERMISSION Send email only to those people who have given you express permission through confirmed opt-in, and send only what they have agreed to receive. The signup data is your best defense in blacklisting cases and could be the one thing that secures your removal from the list. Conduct periodic opt-ins to try to secure inactive addresses.
BUILD THE BEST LIST YOU CAN You ve come so far in making sure that your emails will get to the inbox. Now to the part that may make the most sense building a responsible list. In order for your emails to make it to the inbox, recipients have to trust you. No one wants to have low open, click, and conversion rates or worse be labeled as SPAM. Do the important work when building a list. Basically, emails are conversations you want to have with your recipients apply the same courtesies as you would sitting face-to-face. You would never force your opinions on anyone at inopportune times because it s rude. Same goes for email. And it all starts with the opt-in process. THREE TYPES OF OPT-IN Single opt-in requires little effort; a subscriber submits his or her information and is added to the mailing list. Single opt-in with a welcome email provides more opportunity to begin a customer relationship and set boundaries. Double opt-in requires a subscriber to enter his or her information and then click on a link in a postsubscribe email to confirm the sign-up.
DON T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT OPT-INS Just because you have someone s contact information does not give you the liberty to add him or her to your list. It is acceptable to send an email asking if he or she wants to be added and let him or her make the choice. Your courtesy will go a long way and just might get you another subscriber. Set expectations on your opt-in page. Let subscribers know what type of content you re likely to send and how often they can expect to see something from you. The frequency of your email sends should be appropriate for the nature of your business daily coupons have a different relevance for subscribers than tech product newsletters, for example. The conversation continues say thank you when someone subscribes. It is courteous to acknowledge their interest in your business, and a thank you email lets them know there are warm bodies behind your brand. The thank you is also a great way to maintain list hygiene by confirming the person is who they say they are and reminding them what they signed up for. If the person misspelled their email or offered a bogus address, the bounced email will alert you.
GROW YOUR LIST An unpleasant fact about email lists is that you ll lose 30 percent each year due to email attrition. People change email addresses, change companies, and just change interests. You need to cultivate other options of bringing in new subscribers. SOURCES TO HARVEST NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS Website registration page 77% Social media sharing buttons in email 48% Offline events 47% Registration during purchase 41% Online events 39% Facebook registration page 34% Email to a friend 31% Paid search 29% Blog registration page 28% Co-registration programs Other 12% 6% Source: 2013 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey
THE LIST IS ALWAYS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS Your email subscriber list is not a set it and forget it situation. We just talked about the 30 percent annual churn rate to consider. Plus, you need to take data hygiene seriously, making periodic clean-ups a good idea. Schedule regular scrubbings or consider an email validation company to perform this service. The following issues are critical to staying off of ISP blacklists: Formatting problems Duplicates Typos Dead domains Syntax errors Do Not Email records FCC-mandated wireless blocks
KEEP THE CONVERSATION FLOWING Congratulations. You ve built your list and you re getting mail delivered at the ISPs. Now it s critical that your messages continue to get delivered to the inbox with no bounces, SPAM complaints, or low sender scores. As an organization s email marketing program matures, routinely and methodically scrubbing its subscriber list becomes a greater priority. MarketingSherpa s Special Report: CMO Perspectives on Email Deliverability. Scrubbing means pretty much what it sounds like it s a process of removing email addresses that bounce after each campaign. When you scrub your email list every four to six months, you can eliminate inactive subscribers that haven t opened or clicked in long periods of time and spam traps, both of which are negative signals to ISPs. If they aren t interested in your email, they are a liability.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT BOUNCING For such a happy-sounding word, bouncing can be the source of a lot of aggravation when it comes to operating clean email campaigns. High bounce rates can give you reputation issues, plus they slow down delivery to legitimate email addresses. In general, you can expect about 1 percent of your emails to be reported as bounces if you are applying proper data hygiene. If your bounce rate is higher, here are a few things to look at to resolve the issue: 1. Was the content identified as spam by filters and rejected? 2. Have your IPs been blacklisted due to suspected spammy behavior? 3. Is the domain you are sending to temporarily down? 4. Does the domain you are sending to exist or accept mail anymore? 5. Does the mailbox you are sending to exist? Is it full? Bounces are categorized as being hard or soft. A hard bounce is a mailing that was returned by a recipient mail server possibly because the address is either invalid or the domain name doesn t exist or is not recognized. A soft bounce means that there is a temporary problem having to do with the email address or the recipient s email server. For example, even if the email address you are sending to is valid, the message could still bounce if the recipient s mailbox is full. Hard bounces are permanent, and it is pointless to try to mail to them again, but soft bounces are considered temporary and can be re-mailed. You can reduce the number of bounces in your lists by including unsubscribe links in your mailings, adding an update profile link to your mailing, or setting up a bounce management system.
INACTIVITY IS NOT AS PASSIVE AS IT SOUNDS Scrubbing your email lists will also give you visibility to inactive addresses those that have never opened an email, let alone clicked through one. Some major ISPs have been known to filter ALL the incoming email, even email going to engaged subscribers. Less engagement (opens and clicks) increases the likelihood of ending up in the spam folder and worse. For example, if you have 10 engaged users in a list of 10,000, you increase the likelihood of all your emails being directed to the spam folder and never opened. If you send 10 emails to the 10 engaged users, they all go to the inbox and get opened. Each ISP has its own tolerance for inactive email addresses falling between 1.5 to 2 years but it s best to scrub before this time elapses, especially if a significant percentage of an email list is inactive.
KEY METRICS IN EMAIL DELIVERABILITY EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 1: LIST SIZE Understanding the size of your email list is the first step in understanding the success of a campaign. If your list is small, there is a greater probability that the names belong to people who are committed to your business in some way. As your list expands, however, the chances of customer intimacy with your brand diminish, leading to lower open rates, click-throughs, and conversions. Size is a relative thing, and it will vary for each company, but if you see less positive activity as your list grows, you will have an idea of what may be happening. EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 2: DELIVERABILITY DELIVERED RATE Delivered rate does not tell you how many of your emails made it to the inbox or landed in a junk folder, but it does help you understand the number of bounced addresses on your list. So, while this may not provide pinpoint accuracy, it will help you keep an eye on bounced addresses and ultimately, keep your sender reputation intact. If you utilize an internal list with a low deliverability rate, better error checking procedures should be implemented. It is possible that someone outside your company has entered inaccurate email addresses in an attempt to thwart your sender reputation.
KEY METRICS IN EMAIL DELIVERABILITY EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 3: OPEN RATE One of the most important email success metrics for an optimized campaign is the email open rate. Open rate is simply the number of people (usually shown as a percentage) who opened your email. Your open rate is a critical email success metric to both monitor and constantly improve, and it is largely dependent on the subject line. It needs to be relevant and compelling, but not deceptive. For instance, based on the recent item you just bought, you are going to love this offer. Carefully watch your cadence to optimize opens. Over mailing users can cause rates to go down while under mailing can cause fear and spam complaints because users don t recognize you or forget they opted in. EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 4: CLICK-THROUGH RATE Now we get to the meat of email success click-through rate. This number shows the amount of people who not only read your email, but also clicked through to get to your landing page or website. This is usually the goal of any email campaign because it means people are interested enough in your message to learn more, and if they get to your site or landing page, you have the opportunity to make a sale. The click-through rate can be shown as the total number of clicks from your email to pages on your website, or as the number of people who clicked through your email to a landing page.
KEY METRICS IN EMAIL DELIVERABILITY EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 5: CONVERSION RATE Conversion rate is the number that everyone wants to see because it indicates how many people that you emailed made a revenue-generating transaction or signed up at your website. EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 6: UNSUBSCRIBE AND SPAM COMPLAINTS A high number of unsubscribe or spam complaints in an email campaign could mean that the health of your email marketing list and sender reputation may be in jeopardy. It could also mean that your content or offers aren t relevant or compelling. Your goal should always be to grow your email list, but if you start to see high numbers of unsubscribe requests or spam complaints, it s time to take a close look at the quality of the email marketing that you re sending or the frequency with which you re sending it. Most of the major ISPs will provide email marketers with a feedback loop (FBL) of complaints. Typically, you ll want to see a combined unsubscribe and spam complaint rate of 0.1 percent of your total list or less. In the event that your unsubscribe requests or spam complaints exceed 0.1 percent, it s time to do some serious investigation into the timing, content, and frequency of your email sends.
KEY METRICS IN EMAIL DELIVERABILITY EMAIL SUCCESS METRIC 7: HISTORICAL COMPARISONS It s important to track metrics in year-over-year, month-over-month, and send-to-send metrics to track email engagement activity. Through these observations, simple best practices that can make your email program more effective will emerge. Whether you ve just begun developing an email marketing campaign or you ve been emailing users for years, comparing past and current email engagement using the key metrics can help you monitor for positive and negative trends like hard bounce, FBL rates, and open rates. Email Open, Click-Through, Unsubscribe, and Bounce Rates Email performance varies from industry to industry and across a range of variables. Here are some average baselines that, done well, you should expect to be considered above average. Average Email Open Rate: 19.7% Average Email Click-Through Rate: 3.6% Average Unsubscribe Rate: 0.25% Average Bounce Rate: 2.2%
QUICK TIPS TO IMPROVE EMAIL PERFORMANCE The subject line is more important than you may think. It s essential to get this right as it might be the only thing the customer looks at before they decide to open your email. Make it short, relevant, and attractive to the customer. Some marketers recommend that you keep the subject line to six words or less. Developing an enticing call-to-action will draw customers in so they can see the benefits of what you re offering. Don t make readers look for it be bold in tone and look of the call-to-action. Segment your email list to make sure the content you send them is relevant to their needs. If they haven t been active, i.e. not opening your emails or clicking on links, then initiate a re-engagement campaign to either bring them back into the fold or remove them from your lists completely. You should reach out more often to the active subscribers, keeping them interested and engaged. Use A/B Split Testing to learn what drives your customer to action. In A/B Split Testing, you create two different versions of an email, an A-version (typically the control or an existing version), and B-version where you change a component of the email. Common variables to test include subject lines, layouts, design, calls-to-action, and even timing. This enables you to get a much better understanding of what motivates your audience.
TERADATA EMAIL DELIVERABILITY SERVICES Navigating email deliverability can be an overwhelming and confusing process. Teradata has the solutions and expertise you need to get to your customer s inbox time and time again. Teradata Interactive offers: Deliverability improvement tools Global deliverability expertise Proactive monitoring Consulting services Reporting and auditing services Deliverability training
Glossary of Email Deliverability Terms A/B Split Testing A method of testing emails by creating and sending two similar versions of an email but varying a component in one version to learn if it affects the performance. Common components to test include subject lines, layouts, design, calls-to-action, timing, personalization, and headlines. Acceptance Rate The percentage of email messages that are accepted by the mail server. Note that an email being accepted by the mail server does not necessarily mean it will get to an inbox. Black List A list that denotes a sender as a spammer, making it difficult for the sender to get future emails into an inbox. CAN SPAM Act Short for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003, this is a law that outlines rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, provides email recipients with the right to stop people from emailing them, and lays out consequences for violations of the act. Complaints Complaints can happen for many reasons: if the perceived email frequency is too much, the content is irrelevant, or the recipient cannot determine who sent the email. Complaints are the first thing to affect sender score and are considered a more important metric than many others since they are based on recipient perceptions. Deliverability The ability to get an email into the intended recipient s inbox. DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) Also known as digital signature, this gives recipients a reason to believe the email message was created by a known sender and was not altered in transit. Double Opt-In A double opt-in lets a user be added to an email list first by opting-in to the list and again when he or she clicks on a confirmation link in an email. Feedback Loop (FBL) A service provided by most major ISPs to their clients that gives the client information regarding complaints against their sends so that they can take the action required to rectify the situation. Ham Email that is generally desired and isn t considered spam. Hard Bounce A permanent failure to deliver an email usually due to a non-existent, invalid, or blocked email address Honeypot A planted email address designed to catch fraudulent spammers.
Open Rate The overall percentage of recipients who open an email message. Read Length The length of time that passes after a person opens an email until he or she closes it. Security Collected data should be kept secure from any potential abuses. Sender Policy Framework An email validation system designed to detect fraudulent emails. A list of authorized sending hosts for a domain is recorded in the Domain Name Server (DNS) records. Mail exchangers can check the DNS records to ensure that incoming mail from a domain is authorized to send email from that domain. Sender Reputation Sender reputations are based on email sender behavior and are based on complaints, hard-bounce rates, blacklistings, inactivity, volume consistency, and unsubscribe capabilities to name a few. Sender Score A free reputation rating service from Return Path that rates your email campaigns on email servers. Soft Bounce Temporary problems with email delivery such as a full inbox or unavailable server. Spam Unsolicited commercial email. Spam Report When someone receives your email and labels it as spam. Spamtrap There are two types of spam traps. 1. Recycled Formerly legitimate addresses that went inactive and were deactivated by the ISP. Reactivated later, they serve as a trap to catch spammers. 2. Pristine Trap Never have been a legitimate address. They are created and seeded on web pages and forums solely to catch spammers that scrape unsolicited addresses from the Internet. Warming Up an IP The process by which you send an ever increasing number of emails out of an IP address in order to build up the IP s reputation to successfully deliver email into an inbox. Single Opt-In When an email marketer uses a single email opt-in which usually involves taking a user s form entry and then adding that person to a live email list.
DISCOVER BEST PRACTICES FOR DELIVERING EMAIL MESSAGES Visit Us: marketing.teradata.com Follow on Twitter: @Teradata_Apps Teradata is a global leader in analytic data platforms, marketing and analytic applications, and consulting services. Teradata helps organizations collect, integrate, and analyze all of their data so they can know more about their customers and business and do more of what s really important. Visit Teradata.com for details. 10000 Innovation Drive, Dayton, OH 45342 U.S. and Canada 1-866-548-8348, For International Callers: (937) 242-4030 Teradata and the Teradata logo are registered trademarks of Teradata Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and worldwide. Teradata continually improves products as new technologies and components become available. Teradata, therefore, reserves the right to change specifications without prior notice. All features, functions, and operations described herein may not be marketed in all parts of the world. Consult your Teradata representative or Teradata.com for more information. EB-8626> 0115 Copyright 2015 by Teradata Corporation. All rights reserved. Produced in USA.