email deliverability cheat sheet — what you need to know
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Redi-Data Email Deliverability Cheat Sheet | 1
What You Need to Know Email remains one of the most cost effective ways to reach and engage customers as well as finding new ones. However, did you know that 1 in 5 opt-in email messages in North America never reach their intended recipient? That means fewer webinar registrations, downloads, click throughs and, ultimately, less revenue. How can email marketers avoid this trap?
What is Email Deliverability and its Challenges?Email deliverability is the process whereby an email message is delivered to an intended recipient’s inbox. Among the biggest challenges of permission email marketers today are email bounces, spam filters and blacklists – all of which negatively affect email deliverability.
Publishers want their messages to be delivered reliably and to be read, while recipients want their email to arrive in manageable quantities and to be relevant and free of fluff, filler and hype.
Improving Deliverability: Top Tips for a Successful StrategyDespite the many obstacles that can prevent emails from being delivered successfully, there are several strategies to improve deliverability and ensure messages reach the targeted audience.
Today, email publishers and recipients are working to strike a delicate balance.
Maintain a clean file by removing bounces and opt-outs. Lists with a high bounce rate will affect deliverability.
Provide subscribers with a preference center allowing them to manage content delivery.
Describe the topic, format and frequency of the mailings you send.
Provide clear instructions on adding your email to their address book.
Deliver what you say you will – not much more, and not much less.
Include valid unsubscribe instructions in every message.
Reassure prospects about their privacy.
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Many of the elements that impede deliverability can be eliminated by improving your behavior as a sender.
TIP #1 – Become a Trusted Sender
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Authentication lets the ISPs know that the sender is who they say they are. ISPs like Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, and others utilize various domain authentication mechanisms to validate and verify that messages are allowed to be sent on behalf of a company. With the help of your IT department or a trusted email service provider (ESP) like Redi-Data, take these steps to protect your brand:
Create good – complete and consistent – headers
The headers of your email messages are critical components for successful delivery. Some of the most important headers are the From, To and Subject fields, all of which are scrutinized by automated anti-spam filters that protect ISPs and individual mailboxes.
Write content that doesn’t look like spam
Using spam-like words, such as “free,” “guarantee” and “credit card” in subject lines are so commonly used by spammers that your mail may be undifferentiated if you use them. Avoid using red text, all capital letters or excessive punctuation that may trip an email filter. Other big no-no’s include:
• DON’T send incomplete information – your physical address is required by law. Always include your reply email address and web site URL.
• DON’T excessively use “click here” and avoid the use of $$ or other symbols.
• DON’T forget the “From” address – it will appear to be spam without it.
• DON’T use a misleading subject line. Always ensure that the subject line is consistent with the email content. Avoid spam tactics, such as leaving the subject line blank or using Re: so that recipient thinks it’s a reply to a previous email.
Every time your message triggers a rule, it’s assigned points. Messages that accumulate more than a certain threshold of points are tagged as spam. The Content Analyzer tool will provide just such a check.
TIP #2 – Follow Authentication Best Practices
TIP #3 – Avoid Being Filtered
Research and adopt the best authentication scheme that best suits your organization’s needs (Reverse DNS, DKIM, SenderID or SPF).
Indentify machines that deploy email for your organization and record the IP addresses and sending domains for each.
Regularly monitor your IP address.
Create and publish authentication records.
Test your authentication records by first publishing records in “test” mode.
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5 Test your messages against spam filters. Use an online “content checker” that processes your draft message to measure how it did
against anti-spam rules.
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There is no need to go it alone. There are many reputable and respected email deployers. However, often an effective marketing solution requires sourcing both quality email data and effective deployment.
Redi-Data is an industry-leading provider of both quality data and advanced deployment. We offer the experience, service and solutions that get your message through to the desktops of your target customers.
The more messages that are sent to invalid email accounts, the more likely it is that the IP address sending those emails will be blocked. Spammers deploy large quantities of email. If your company has large volumes of email, be sure your hard bounce and spam trap hit rates are low.
Soft bounces, occurring from full mailboxes or out-of-office replies should be monitored, and if too many soft bounces occur, these addresses should also be removed.
Hard bounces resulting from bad mailboxes should be flagged immediately and removed from future mailings.
TIP #4 – Manage Bouncebacks TIP #5 – Clean Up Your Lists
TIP #6 – Partner with a Reputable Email Service Provider
Learn how to maximize your sales opportunities by contacting [email protected] today! Be Empowered, Get Redi!
Regularly clear out role accounts, non-used addresses and addresses with errors.
Quarantine new data until you send a welcome message to avoid adding a bad address to your campaigns.
Keep your lists fresh. Lists that aren’t emailed frequently are more likely to increase bounce rates and have old addresses. Establish a time for housekeeping where you remove inactive records.
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Redi-Data Email Deliverability Cheat Sheet | 4
Redi-Data, Inc.
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About Redi-Data
Redi-Data, Inc. provides healthcare professional, consumer and business data, mail and email lists. The company offers a diverse selection of information and data points including demographic, geographic, financial and lifestyle. Redi-Data also offers lead verification, as well as comprehensive data processing and turnkey direct marketing services.
For more information, visit www.redidata.com or read our blog at http://blogs.redidata.com