How to Deliver eMails in a SPAM Filtered World

Peter Martin

President

Cactus Sky Communications, Inc.

peter@cactusskyeMail.com

941-907-4132

954-205-7716 cell

Power of eMail

• eMail earns the Highest ROI

• Last year, the average return from every dollar spent on:– eMail Marketing was $45.06– Newspaper advertising $16.86– Direct mail of $15.55

The Value of eMail

Per eMarketer:• Internet users in the US check their personal eMail throughout the day,

including at work.

• Over 70% of employed respondents also said they checked their personal eMail at work—and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day.

• On average, business users spend over an hour per day managing their eMail account.

• -Garner Report as reported in Digitrends Magazine

“It’s always easier and cheaper to keep old customers than find new ones.”

Dan Lawlor, senior analyst with J.D.Power,

Blocked eMail

20 percent of permission-based eMail messages are being blocked.

The steps presented today will help you improve your eMail deliverability.

eMail Deliverability Challenges

• Crowded inboxes• Creating compelling content• Testing and continuous improvement• Implementing personalized and

segmented campaigns• Monitoring and analyzing program

performance• Increasing revenue and return on

investment

Poor Deliverability

Poor deliverability costs your company significant revenue from:

• Lost potential sales

• Money wasted to create content

• Building databases or lists

• Sending messages that never reach their intended audiences

Reputation

is the key to

deliverability.

Minimize spam complaints

America Online, for example, currently recommends keeping spam complaints below one per 1,000 messages.

Managing ComplaintsComplaints are the #1 factor for deliverability

• You need to set up and manage Feedback loops

• Complaints are forwarded to sender’s abuse address for processing

• Remove/suppress complaining addresses immediately

• Analyze complaints for patterns

• Frequency issue?

• Relevancy issue?

Abuse Report

Spam Complaints

• Complaints are the cause of ISP blacklisting.

• Someone can complain or register your eMail as spam with the click of a mouse button.

• When enough people do the same thing with your eMail, you will be blacklisted.

Your Sender Reputation

Your sender reputation has become the primary check that ISP’s use when determining how to treat your eMail.

• Use recognizable sender names and explicit subject lines.

• Send only relevant, wanted content.

• Message frequency: not too much, not too little

Opt in PermissionDefine

• Who the message will be from

• Content you’ll be sending

• Provide value & state the benefits

• May want to show an example

• The frequency of delivery

• Display or link to privacy policy

• Establish relevancy

• Obtain segmentation information through preference center

ISP Monitoring

– Prospects• Leads from various lead

providers• eMail address collected at the dealership

– Customers• Sales/service/interaction• Ongoing communications• Service recalls

Database Development

Maintain & Clean

• Analyze your data and remove invalid addresses:– No spaces or special characters (i.e., commas)– Make sure eMails have a valid domain structure – Add data validation to your web sign up form

• Remove:– Distribution addresses (i.e., sales@)– System addresses (i.e., postmaster@)– Any address with the word ‘spam’ in it– Complainers and inactives

Your customers

The average dealership has less than 2%of its customers’ eMail addresses.

 

Increase your dealershipseMail house list count by up to 30%.

Average Match Rates

A welcome eMail is sent to your customers introducing online communications to them, and giving them an opportunity to decline receiving any further online communications.

Matching Process

Your existing customer database is sent to eMail Matching for processing.

eMail Matching solution

At the completion of the eMail matching Process, the enhanced file is sent back to you.

eMail Enhancement

Your file is matched against our permission-based eMail append database. When a match is found, the eMail address is added to your file.

Enhanced Consumer Database for Marketing

eMail Sign Up

Confirm Registrations

Address Book

• Encourage new subscribers to add your eMail address to their address book.

• These personal white lists are your fastest route to the inbox.

How to Improve Deliverability

To achieve high deliverability rates requires involvement and cooperation from:

• IT Department• Web designer/programmer• Copywriter• Marketing company• Database and list managers• Your staff on the front lines collecting eMail

addresses• Executive management

Avoid Spammy Content

• Avoid overaggressive language and spammy-looking content such as– Very large fonts– Using all caps– Big red letters– Anything that looks unprofessional and could

be confused with a true spam eMail

“Catchy” vs “Spammy”

• Run your copy through a content checker to identify any spam-like words, phrases or construction.

• The content checker will tell you which phrases to avoid.

• Two tricks that could trip a spam filter:– Subject lines in all capital letters– Using more exclamation points than necessary.

• In fact, we recommend against using exclamation points at all if you can avoid it.

Service Coupons

You can have an unlimited number of online coupons.

Relevancy

Relevant eMails equal:• Better opens, reads, clicks & conversion rates

• Increased retention

• Increased ROI

• Enhanced deliverability

• Easier to spot deliverability issues

• Lower spam complaints

Online buying

•One-third (33%) of users in a DoubleClick study had purchased something from a web site by clicking on a link in an eMail.

•Another 42% clicked on an eMail link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time.

eMail Adoption Process

Attention

Recall

Acceptance

Comprehension

Action

Builds Awareness Builds Intentions Builds Sales

ROI

Online Coupons

73% of consumers have a coupon for an online purchase.

59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.

HTML eMails

• Optimize design and HTML coding for delivery and rendering.

• Many self service programs create spammy code.

• eMails that are improperly coded or designed will render poorly (particularly when images are blocked) and make your messages look untrustworthy and spam-like, increasing the chance of a spam complaint or unsubscribing.

HTML eMails

Sample eMail:Peter,

I received your request for information regarding a Hummer.  Please let me know what you are interested in and I will assist you.

Best regards,

Mark "the bow tie guy"Cadillac and Hummer727-822-20

Benefits of HTML

• If your message is promotional or informative, but not one you would typically send via post on letterhead, we recommend designing it in HTML.

• HTML offers greater control over formatting, layout, color, fonts, graphics and branding.

• A visually pleasing design can affect your reader’s ability to process and enjoy the information.

• HTML design also opens up a wealth of possibilities and interactive functionality within each eMail.

• It gives you the ability to embed forms, links and surveys to truly participate with your reader.

Frequency

Reach your audience at the right time.

Frequency is determined by relevancy• No longer defined by calendar

• Once per quarter, twice per month, once per week, once per day

• As long as the message is relevant to the recipient, the audience will open, read, and respond to the message.

eNewsletters

One of the most welcomed eMails.

Don’t over eMail

• Stick to a frequency that you promised during the opt-in process.– Opt-in is the process of someone filling out

a form on your web site.

• We recommend twice a month.– Beginning of the month for service– Middle of the month for sales

Common Mistake

Because eMail has such high potential ROI, many marketers and their internal stakeholders fall victim to the approach of, “If it works, let’s send more eMails.”

What happens when you hit send?

Best case, it is delivered into the inbox.

While ISPs and corporate filters all handle suspected spam messages differently, they generally are handled one of four ways:– Block it and return to sender with a message

explaining the block– Block it without returning or notifying the sender– Route to the junk folder, often adding [SPAM] or

similar notice to the subject line– Return it to you with a request to remove the

subscriber if he or she clicked the spam button via a feedback loop

Worst Case

AuthenticationVerifies sender’s identity

Accreditation Third-party verification of sender’s good habits

CertificationTokenized proof of sender’s good reputation

Message Header

The message header is the first thing that is seen by an eMail receiver (i.e. ISP) There are four major areas within an eMail header that should be checked prior to sending the message. These areas include:

• Sender IP address• Host name of sender IP address• Envelope header From or Return Path address• Reply-To and From addresses

Authentication

Sender ID

• The Sender ID Framework seeks to verify that every eMail message originates from the internet domain from which it claims to have been sent.

• Sender ID validates the origin of eMail messages by verifying the address of the sender against the alleged owner of the sending domain.

• Sender ID uses SPF records for part of this validation process.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

• Most domains send outbound mail through relatively small number of servers.

• Domains should describe that set of servers in an SPF record in their DNS.

• Internet eMail receivers can then reject forged messages.

• A typical SPF record looks like: fromaddressdomain.com IN TXT "spf2.0/pra include:sid.acme.com -all"

Domain Key Identified Mail (DKIM)

• DKIM is a method for eMail authentication developed by YAHOO and now also used by other providers such as Gmail.

• DKIM uses public-key cryptography to allow the signer to electronically sign legitimate eMails in a way that can be verified by recipients.

• A typical DKIM DNS record has two parts that look like: key1._domainkey.acme12.com IN TXT “k=rsa\;p=key” AND _domainkey.acme.com IN TXT “t=y;o=~;”

Dedicated IP Address

• Belongs to you exclusively

• When you share an IP address with other senders and they deploy a bad practice- your messages will be filtered or blocked along with theirs.

• Dedicated IPs cost more, but will ensure that you are in control of your sender reputation.

Importance of “From Name”

• Choose your sender/from name carefully.

• Use your most recognizable and expected brand.

• Be consistent with it.

Unsubscribe Link

• Make it extremely easy to unsubscribe.• If someone calls in and requests to be removed

you must have a policy to accomplish that quickly.

• If your spam complaint rates are very high, include an unsubscribe link at the top of your message.

• Consult your Legal advisor about compliance with CAN-SPAM and other requirements.

Subject Line

• Spend time on your subject line – first impressions mean the world to your recipient.

• Personalize the subject line. Import the recipients frist name into the subject line when possible.

• Example subject line: Peter we have some specials for you.

Subject Line Best Practices

• See which subject lines delivered the action you wanted: – The most conversions– The highest average sale per order– The highest click-through rate, etc.

• Review your web analytics reports to see:– Which newsletter article topics draw the most clicks or forwards– Which whitepapers get downloaded most often– Which brands or departments get the most traffic

• This analysis should:– Drive content and product selection strategies, – And it can also show you what information is most relevant or

useful.

Subject Line Best Practice

• Make sure the subject line is relevant. Tie it directly to your message.

• Tell the reader up front how they will benefit.

Personalize Subject Lines

• Personalize subject lines based on users’ product or content preferences, interests, past purchases, web visits, or links clicked.

Subject Line Length

Some eMail clients allow more characters in a subject line than others, but most give you at least 50, including spaces.– Load your key information in that first 50.– Also, make sure the cut-off doesn’t occur in a crucial

word, such as a price or date.

One way to really see how your subject line will work in your recipients’ inboxes is to send yourself an eMail with your proposed subject line.

List Hygiene

• The process of cleaning your list of undesirable eMail addresses

• Why is list hygiene important?

• Reputation

• The #1 driver of deliverability today

• Proper list hygiene will help establish a good reputation resulting in better deliverability.

• Bad list hygiene will lead to poor reputation and poor deliverability.

List Hygiene

A “dirty eMail” list is guaranteed to cause delivery problems. Elements of a dirty list may include addresses that:

• Have previously hard bounced• Generated a spam complaint• Unsubscribe but are still in the active database• Are likely spam-trap addresses• Are outdated domains• Have not opened or clicked in a few years

Message Delivery Report

Bounce Reasons• Attachment Detected

• Auto Reply

• Challenge-Response

• DNS Failure

• General Bounce

• General Hard Bounce

• General Mail Block

• General Soft Bounce

• Invalid eMail Address

• Mailbox Full

• Message Too Large

• Relay Denied

• Spam Detected

• Transient Failure

• Unsubscribe Request

Unsubscribe Report

Check List

Testing Variable Examples

Contact Frequency Last time you contacted the recipient

Copy / Message Length, versions of wording, tone/style

Creative HTML versus text, different layouts

eMail Type Newsletters, product information, sales promotions, new information

Landing Pages Driving visitors to different pages, different versions of a landing page

List Source eMail registrations, customers (current and lapsed), prospects, third-party

Offer % versus dollar value reduction, sweepstakes, white paper versus webinar

Personalization Use of name in subject line or message, offers based on demographics

Subject Header Tone, style, and personalization of subject

Target Segments Demographics, psychographics, behavior, geography

eMail Pre-Flight Checklist

• One critical process that is overlooked is the pre-flight checklist for eMail marketing. Spending a few minutes reviewing a pre-flight checklist prior to sending out eMail campaigns, will ensure that your messages will be opened, read, and well received.

• Checklist: Have Goals been Clearly Defined? Are Logistics in Place so the Campaign may Succeed? Has the Correct Day and Time been Chosen to Send the

Campaign? Are Tracking Tools Available? Has the List been Segmented and Reviewed for Errors? Has the Campaign Content been Reviewed? Does the Message have a Great Subject Line?

Checklist Continued Has the eMail been Properly Designed? Has the Campaign Content been Reviewed? Has the Message been Tested through Spam Score? Has the Message been Tested in Different eMail Clients? Does the Message Comply with the CAN-SPAM Act? eMail must have a functioning opt-out feature to be “ A

compliant opt-out mechanism” A valid subject line and header (routing) information The physical address of the mailer

Reputation is Key Today

Complaints

• Permission

• Relevancy

• Frequency

• Authentication

Invalid Addresses

• Big issue with manual subscriptions

• Remove invalid addresses

Questions

Contact Information

Peter Martin

www.cactussky.com

peter@cactussky.com

941-907-4132

954-205-7716 cell