Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Peter IngelbrechtMarketing Manager Citobi
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Agenda
Citobi in a nutshell
The Deliverability challenge
The path to the Inbox
Building a reputation with the ISP
Relevance at the customer
Q&A
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Citobi in a nutshell
Belgian company founded in 2000
Combining 3 activities– CRM & Relational Marketing Consulting– Interactive Projects: conception, creation & execution – Actito : Marketing Automation & Campaign Management software
€ 4,3 million sales in 2007
Multi-disciplinary team of 50 professionals
50+ clients: Toyota, Wolters Kluwer, Pfizer, Kinepolis, Touring, Kia, Brico, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, MSN, Sony, Rossel, Scarlet, Spandex, Basell, RTBF, Deutsche Bank…
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
The Deliverability challenge
% of sent emails that make it to the Inbox
Source: Email Advisor Report Card Q1 2007 - Europe
Only 82.5% of permission based
email !!
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
It is not just an issue of spammers…
Notspam
7.6% of permission based mail end in Spam folder !!
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
How do you know whether YOU have a problem?
Set & track benchmarks for your campaigns– Bounce, open, click, conversion rates
Surveys
Setup test accounts at key ISPs– Quid corporate accounts (BtB)?
Inbox monitoring service– Pivotal Veracity, Return Path,…
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Understanding the Path to the Inbox
ISPs User Mail CustomersMailer
Corporate
Web based mail
Mail service
SilentDeletes
Bounces
Feedback Loop
Spam reporting
Safe Sender List
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Successful Delivery
Building a Reputation– At ISPs– Amongst Users
Characteristics– No Silver bullet– Positive / Negative « deposits »– Negative reputations follow
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Reputation Building at ISPs (1)
Correct mail / DNS server configuration– Reverse DNS lookup– Abuse protection
Rigourous bounce processing– Global suppression file (across lists)
Get authenticatedUser Spam reporting
– Feedback loop– Complaint handling & monitoring – Black list monitoring & issue solving
Whitelisting
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Reputation Building at ISPs (2)
Consistent & prudent mailing patterns– Volume ramp-up & frequency– Limited connection pooling
SPAM reduction tools– Integrated SPAM validator in campaign tool– Inbox delivery monitoring features
Sender score certification
Paid Delivery– Goodmail, Habeas
Outsource or ensure dedicated resource !!
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Authentication
« Is the sender really who he says he is? »
2 protocols:– IP address based
• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) + Microsoft SenderID
• Verifies whether the sending domain has authorised the IP address as valid source
– Cryptographic signature based• Domainkeys, DKIM (Domain keys Identified Mail)
In the mail header:
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Reputation Building at the User
SPAM IS NOT:
« I didn’t give my permission »
SPAM IS:
« This mail does not interest me and I don’t know who it is from »
Be rigourous about RELEVANCE:
• Profiling & Preference Management
• Move beyond Mass-eMailing: segmentation, life-cycle and event based campaigns
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Building User reputation – Checklist (1)
Recognisable « FROM » address– Consistent– Leverage your Brand
« Subject » line– Avoid spam words (free, win, …)
Pictureless rendering should already convince
Remind users why they receive the email
Stimulate whitelisting/Safe Sender List
Timing: spammers send late at night
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Stimulating Safe Sender List / Whitelist inclusion
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Pictureless emails already communicating key elements
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
Building User reputation – Checklist (2)
Make unsubscribing easy– Opt-out is better than hitting the spam button– Put at the top of email– Unsubscribe procedure should be easy (e.g. no password)
Follow best practices for the body– Correct HTML– Image / text ratio– …
Pre-test for SPAM filters– > 50% of users have a spam filter
Test and refine
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
SPAM Validation needed prior to sending
Deliverability Making it to the inbox
For more info…
Peter IngelbrechtMarketing Manager
Citobi
