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A recent poll of e-mail marketers suggest that eight out of 10 of them consider deliverability issues to be a major concern, yet only one out of 10 classify increasing their deliverability rates as a high priority, according to the May 2007 whitepaper, Best Practices For Email Delivery, from Montreal–based Cypra Media. Of course, subpar delivery rates hurt e-mail marketers’ ROI, but there are measures that marketers can take to remain competitive.
#1 Reality Check: 80 Percent is NOT 100 Percent
Marketers tend to focus on factors they directly control, such as creative content and data managements, and often consider deliverability rates as an ISP matter that they are not involved with, said Krill Popov and Loren McDonald, who represent the Menlo Park, Calif.–based e-mail marketing automation company EmailLabs, in an April 12, 2006 article for The ClickZ Network. This “back burner” mentality, however, means that your marketing e-mails will continue to get blocked.
#2 Don’t Be Treated Like “New Spam”
ISPs and corporate domains have successfully minimized the amount of spam that their users have to deal with, and quite rightly. Unfortunately, these buffers are sometimes so robust that legitimate e-mails are not getting through. Between ISP spam filters, corporate filters, edge network filters, internal and external whitelists and blacklists, client-side filters and third-party spam filters, the hurdle for marketers’ e-mail to jump over has never been higher. Becoming “CAN-SPAM” compliant can make that leap easier, as CAN-SPAM legislation requires marketers to abide by several guidelines when sending e-mails to their mailing lists.
#3 Make Friends with ISPs
When a legitimate e-mailer encounters delivery problems, reach out to the ISPs and discuss the matter. As with all correspondence with ISPs, it’s key to be open and be willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid being blocked or blacklisted. Typically, ISPs have entire departments dedicated to monitoring and interacting with e-mailers and are often very responsive.
#1 Reality Check: 80 Percent is NOT 100 Percent
Marketers tend to focus on factors they directly control, such as creative content and data managements, and often consider deliverability rates as an ISP matter that they are not involved with, said Krill Popov and Loren McDonald, who represent the Menlo Park, Calif.–based e-mail marketing automation company EmailLabs, in an April 12, 2006 article for The ClickZ Network. This “back burner” mentality, however, means that your marketing e-mails will continue to get blocked.
#2 Don’t Be Treated Like “New Spam”
ISPs and corporate domains have successfully minimized the amount of spam that their users have to deal with, and quite rightly. Unfortunately, these buffers are sometimes so robust that legitimate e-mails are not getting through. Between ISP spam filters, corporate filters, edge network filters, internal and external whitelists and blacklists, client-side filters and third-party spam filters, the hurdle for marketers’ e-mail to jump over has never been higher. Becoming “CAN-SPAM” compliant can make that leap easier, as CAN-SPAM legislation requires marketers to abide by several guidelines when sending e-mails to their mailing lists.
#3 Make Friends with ISPs
When a legitimate e-mailer encounters delivery problems, reach out to the ISPs and discuss the matter. As with all correspondence with ISPs, it’s key to be open and be willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid being blocked or blacklisted. Typically, ISPs have entire departments dedicated to monitoring and interacting with e-mailers and are often very responsive.
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Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)