e-mail marketing: beating the deliverability crisis brian s. klais vp ebusiness netconcepts sunday,...

E-mail Marketing:

Beating The Deliverability Crisis

Brian S. Klais

VP eBusiness

Netconcepts

Sunday, October 17, 2004

6400 Gisholt Drive, Suite 203 Madison WI 53713 608-285-6600 brian@netconcepts.com

State of the Inbox

Agenda

• State of the Industry– Spam thresholds

• Optimizing Deliverability– Network reputation

– Filter-friendly design

– Deployment timing

• Name that SPAM game

• The Road Ahead– Sender authentication

– RSS

Email Marketing Benefits

• Critical mass– Reaches 93% of internet users

• Response rates– 10x greater than direct mail

• Lower costs– 1/10 the cost per communication

• Still effective and targeted retention vehicle

The Resulting Deluge

• 76% of global email is spam (MessageLabs, 2004)

• 90% of all US email is spam• 12 billion per day 2005 (IDC)• Average consumer received 3,920 unwanted

emails in 2003 (Jupiter)• Spam has made 52% of consumers less

trusting of email (Pew)• Most marketers plan to increase in 2005!

Legislating & Regulating

• CANSPAM took effect January 1, 2004– Places burden on recipients to opt out

– Allows you to send unsolicited emails if you:• Provide valid postal address• Clearly indicate advertisement in subject line • Provide functional opt out mechanism

– Fines $200 per email, up to $2MM per incident

– Remove un-subscribers immediately from master list

• EU opt-in legislation

CAN-ning SPAM?

• 56% of spam originates in US (Commtouch)

• Forecast >95% of all email is spam in 2006

Filtered But Not Pure

• 20% of legitimate emails are being blocked as spam (Return Path, 2004)

• 38% of consumers report wanted emails being blocked by filters (RoperASW, 2003)

The New Face of Email Marketing

• The consumer is deluged and jaded– Reach and attention is made more difficult

– Relevancy and trustworthiness more important

• The medium is much more complex – Deliverability is uncertain

– Format control is lost

– Regulation increases filtration risks

• How to optimize reach and effectiveness?

The Email Funnel

Deliverability Blacklists, Whitelists, Filters

Open-abilitySubject, From, Frequency

Readability Design, Content,

Organization

Network Blacklisting• Either your vendor or your own network • Major symptoms

– Bounce rates > 10%– Open rates < 30%

• Blacklist monitoring– SpamCop, SpamHaus, MAPS, etc.– Check multiple blacklists simultaneously: SenderBase.org

• Halls of Shame– NANAS (news.admin.net-abuse.sightings Usenet newsgroup)

• http://groups.google.com/groups?q=yourname+group:news.admin.net-abuse.sightings

• Clean network gets more emails through– May cost more, but likely worth it

• Guilt by association

spamcop

spamhaus

senderbase

White listing

• Ask customers to add you to their white list:– AOL 9.0, Yahoo and Hotmail filter unknown emails to

junk folders, but let known senders in.– On your site and in emails (for forwards)– Email address or domain name - choose carefully!

• Earn white-list status with ISPs– Manage directly if deploying email in-house– Only outsource to a vendors white listed with AOL,

Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail

Request white-listing

BEFORE sending the

Achieving AOL Whitelist Status

• AOL Criteria– Submit IP for monitoring– Setup feedback looks to monitor spam complaints – Dynamically blocks if 10% bounce

• Remove repeat bounces immediately and automatically

– Or if 1/10 of 1% complain• Can suspend white list status

• You receive the complaint but NOT the complainer

– Embed tracking codes to simplify auto removal

• http://postmaster.info.aol.com– AOL policies, guidelines and bounce thresholds

Yahoo Whitelist Status

• Yahoo Process– Thresholds not as clearly defined as AOL

– Must complete application process• Describe list source/ownership• Describe permission verification• Bounce/unsubscribe handling policies

– IP activity is monitored for 3-5 weeks

• Contact: mail-abuse-bulk@yahoo-inc.com

Other Forms of Whitelisting

• 3rd party white listing services– Bonded Sender: Post a financial bond. Every spam

complaint costs you $$

• Throttle your sending– Hashcash: CPU-intensive to calculate a single-use,

recipient-specific “postage stamp”. 2 emails per second

Spam Filters

• Lots of spam filters & email firewalls– SpamAssassin

– MailWasher

– Yahoo! SpamGuard

– BrightMail

SpamAssassin

• One of the most popular spam filters for ISPs

• Open source

• Predicts whether a message is spam using:– Scoring content based filters (rules-based)

– Bayesian filtering (adaptive message content analysis)

– Sender Policy Framework (for sender authentication)

– Hashcash (for proof of message intent)

Bayesian Filtering

• Analyzes your legit email and your spam (e.g. that you’ve already separated) to calculate the probability of various characteristics appearing in spam vs. in legit email

• Learns to differentiate spam from legit email

• Gets better over time

• Best rates OUCH! “Negotiate The Best Rates on

Local Advertising Media”

Got High Bounce Rates?

Test Deliverability

• Seed list with 100 – 200 hotmail & yahoo addresses. Check for delivery on each of those accounts.

• Check your ‘spam score’ before sending– Free version available at:

www.gravitymail.com/spamscore.php

– Aim for < 5 SpamAssassin points

– Note: This tool is only indicative. Not everyone’s using SpamAssassin to filter spam. Other filters will interpret your campaign differently.

Name that SPAM!

• The Prize:– A Crunchie bar… from New Zealand!

• The Rules:– Point out things in the email campaign that caused it to

be unceremoniously junked by SpamAssassin

– Must be something that’s displayed on the slide

– The thing must be worth at least 0.4 points

– Be the first one to find it, then raise your hand (no yelling out before I call on you!)

– One bar per person

7.3 / 5.0

4 things

7.3 / 5.0

2 things

6.2 / 5.0

2 things

6400 Gisholt Drive, Suite 203 Madison WI 53713 608-285-6600 brian@netconcepts.com2 things

Work from Home

6.2 / 5.0

4 things

Link: mailto:newsletter-remove@developershed.com?subject=REMOVE

7.4 / 5.0

6400 Gisholt Drive, Suite 203 Madison WI 53713 608-285-6600 brian@netconcepts.com2 things

5.8 / 5.0

5.2 / 5.0

1 thing

5.2 / 5.0

1 thing

MS Internet Explorer adds this tag when

you “Save As”

(Peeking under the hood at the HTML of this campaign…)

9.9 / 5.0

3 things

2 things

13.2 / 5.0

3 things

13.2 / 5.0

5.0 / 5.0

2 things

A thick HTML table

border

http://66.38.189.161/maestro/link/1497084910/2/17517/13123909/2/167362/1/1377/1382/lnk.htm?lc2

3 things

5.2 / 5.0

9.0 / 5.02 things

5.0 / 5.0

1 thing

5.9 / 5.0

3 things

6.4 / 5.0

1 thing

6.4 / 5.0

1 thing

base-64 encoding

7.9 / 5.0

3 things

5.5 / 5.0

2 things

Best Practices

• Custom content

• Timing matters

• From line

• To line

• Subject line

• Other headers

• Body copy

• HTML code

• Words to avoid

Customizing Content

• Generic = greater blockage

• Custom = greater penetration

• Integrate email and website into one channel– Website should personalize around email click history

– Email offers personalized around purchase/click history• HP email offers enhancements to desktop you

purchased• Click-through increased 32%; email sales increased 30%

– Abandoned-cart reminder emails• Petco reminder emails with cross sell promotions• 850% click-thru rate; Conversion 171%

Early Birds Get Through

• Early week (Mon – Tues) and early morning (2 am – 6 am) yield better deliverability

Optimizing Your Envelope• In the “from” line:

– Include a real name, not just an e-mail address– Include lower-case characters– Don't end it with a number

• In the “to” line:– Make sure the recipient's e-mail address is listed– Never use “CC” or “BCC”

• In the “subject” line, do not:– include the recipient's e-mail user name– include “Now Only” or “Hello” or “Free” or “Buy” – use all caps. (Retailers are notorious for this) – pad it with extra “gappy” white space — anywhere– include a unique ID or exclamation marks

• If it's a regularly scheduled newsletter, include the date or month of the issue (e.g. Oct 2004) and “newsletter,” “news,” or frequency (“daily,” “monthly”)

The Envelope (cont’d)

• Regarding attachments:– no attachments!

• The spam filter or firewall may consider your e-mail personal communication with:– An “In Reply To” line in the e-mail header– A long signature in the message body– An attribution in the message body (e.g. “On Tues Jan 1,

2003 John Smith wrote:”)– “Quoted” e-mail text (e.g. with a “>” in front of certain lines)

Copy Practices to Avoid

• Greeting recipient with a “Dear” salutation • Claiming that:

– the recipient was on a list– the recipient registered at your site – your message is not spam– you obtained the recipient's address legitimately – the recipient gave you permission or opted in– the recipient was registered with one of your marketing partners– you respect all removal requests– you comply with various regulations/House bills/Senate bills

• Explaining why the recipient is receiving your offer • Suggesting the recipient might have received the e-mail by mistake. • Using “click here” links• Linking “remove me” to an e-mail address• Linking your opt-out to a page that contains the word “remove” in the URL• Including “spammy” words and phrases

Spammy Words to Avoid

100% * amazing * best rates * big savings * breakthrough * call now * checks * completely free * consolidate (bills) * coupons * credit card * discounts * for free * forward to a

friend * free consultation / free access * freedom * full refund * great offer * guarantee / guaranteed * income * increase * incredible * Investment * limited-time only * marketing solutions * mobile phones * money back * money order * no cost * now only * one-time mailing *

opportunity * opt in * please forward * quote (no obligation) * refund * remove / removed / removal * risk free

satisfaction * save up to * special promotion * this is not spam * urgent * win * your own * etc etc etc

HTML Best Practices• Don't use Frontpage to create the message HTML• Make sure the title tag doesn't contain the word “Untitled”• Don't use thick table borders• Don't include a form that sends an e-mail (a “mailto form”) • Don't define the content type as “TEXT/HTML” in all caps• Don't have a low ratio of text to image area. Especially don't have image-only

e-mails – the #1 tactic spammers use to bypass filters• Pay careful attention to the percentage of HTML contained in the message.

The assumption is that HTML = spam• Never use scripts of any kind (Javascripts etc.)• Don't include any Javascript statements that open new windows• Avoid incorporating tracking ID numbers as much as possible• Do specify a character set• Use a white background, not a colored background• Do not use “invisible” text• Avoid red or blue textual colors — spammers' colors of choice• Don’t disguise key words, like spacing out the letters or placing punctuation in

odd places in the words

Designed Filter Friendly

• Case study makeovers– Redesigned the look-and-feel, layout

– Lowered file size

– Lowered spam score

• A Wisconsin industry association

• A New Zealand bank

Case Study:Wisconsin Manuf. Association

• Poor usability

• Broken hyperlinks or image links

• Graphic/design appears amateur

• Poor font selections

• Difficult to read

• Horizontal scrolling

• HTML breaks in Lotus notes

• Text vs HTML

Clicker increase:

Size decrease:

Case Study:New Zealand Bank

• Poor use of screen real estate– Too much white space

– Too much administrivia above the main content

– Main content “below the fold”

• Horizontal scrolling

Size decrease:

Unique opens

increase: 200%

Spam score: 0

New Vendor RequirementsWEIGHT CRITERION SCORE

0-10 Few complaints in news.admin.net-abuse.sightings

0-10 Not on any blacklists according to SenderBase.org

0-10 Customization and personalization abilities

0-15 Whitelisted by ISPs – eg Yahoo AOL MSN

0-15 On MarketingSherpa's top 50 email vendors list

0-20 Bounce handling & master suppression compliance

0-20 Bounce and open rates beat the average

0-25 Ability to design filter-friendly layouts and content

0-25 Built-in predictive spam analyzer

Looking Ahead

• Other forms of filters• Closing the spam loop• Writing for machines• RSS feeds

Other Forms of Filters• Disposable emails

– Mailinator• Make up email address on the spot. Retrieve via web. No password required.

Deleted after 3 hrs.• The first message will probably get to the intended recipient, but probably not

subsequent ones.

– Yahoo! AddressGuard• 500 free disposable addresses per yahoo.com email account• Used to obfuscate your real yahoo.com email address and to see if you are

sharing addresses w/ 3rd parties

• Challenge-response– Major barrier to bulk permission emailers– Unrecognized senders have to answer an autoresponder

before mail gets delivered• MailBlocks (just bought by AOL)• SpamArrest

Closing the Spam Loop

• Verification solutions provide missing link– DomainKeys and Sender Policy Framework– Addresses SMTP “spoofing” vulnerability – Mail server can authenticate domain– Eliminate spammer anonymity– Enable law enforcement– Being submitted to Internet standards committees

and backed by AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc– AOL is near requiring SPF to remain whitelisted

Writing for “Machines”

• When email copy will be published on the web (e.g. archive of e-newsletters), write it for search engines too

• When web page copy will be repurposed for email campaigns (e.g. online catalog copy for promotional emails), write for spam filters too

• Google factor: desktop/inbox search – new campaign life• Writing for Search Engines encompasses:

– Keyword research– Making pages “sing” for particular keyword themes– Keyword-rich title tags, H1 tags, hyperlink text– Keywords placed high up in the HTML– Penalties for search engine spamming

RSS Feeds

• Really Simple Syndication– Syndicate to someone’s PC or to someone’s website– Late-breaking news/articles/blog posts in an XML file at a

web URL

• May turn email marketing on its head• Spammers can’t infiltrate peoples’ RSS readers• RSS readers

– Standalone software (e.g. FeedReader)– Web-based ASP (e.g. My.Yahoo.com)– Integrated into your web browser (e.g. Sage plug-in for

Firefox)– Integrated into your email client (e.g. NewsGator for

Outlook)

An RSS feed - Looks a lot like HTML, doesn’t it?

• Are you ready for RSS? Start today!

• Make RSS feeds out of your…– E-newsletter

– New arrivals

– Best sellers

– Close-outs

– Sale items

– Special offers, discounts, coupons

Beating the Game

• Spam and blacklist/filter reliance is increasing

• Opportunities still exist for email marketing – More relationship development then selling

• Optimize your deliverability:– Properly time deployment

– Test and adapt to filter algorithms

– Secure network reputation (blacklist/whitelist)

• Prepare for change– Experiment with RSS as a hedge

– Apply SEO to email campaigns

Questions?

For a copy of this presentation

request on back of your card

or email brian@netconcepts.com

or call (608) 285-6600

netconcepts: integrated web design and e-marketing

specialists in natural search engine optimization &

e-mail marketing for 400 clients around the globe

e-mail marketing: beating the deliverability crisis brian s. klais vp ebusiness netconcepts sunday,...

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