DMA performance benchmarks are falling whilst the volume of e-mails people are receiving increases, even with ever more robust security and spam management by the ISPs. This creates and environment where improving performance means improving the quality of your communications both technically and emotively. To this end we’ve created a number of email basics for all our e-mail campaigns.
1. Improving deliverability
A brand/company’s e-mail reputation today drives their ability to get e-mail delivered tomorrow. And it’s an on-going cycle. The reputation of the brand’s/company’s IP address is the most important factor in an ISP either delivering the email to a consumer’s inbox, delivering it to their junk folder or simply rejecting it altogether. So how can brands improve deliverability? There are a couple of simple “dos”:
- Do build your reputation slowly and avoid irregular send patterns
- Do build volume to each ISP gradually or manage send volume over a period of time to build reputation – no sudden surprises
- Do Manage new campaign volumes extra carefully for Hotmail/MSN and AOL accounts
- Do Build familiarity with your IP address and be prepared to hold volume on troublesome ISPs
- Do Change sending patterns slowly
In addition to building reputation, there are a number of companies with relationships with ISPs who guarantee (or certify) delivery of an email to a user’s inbox - for a fee (eg Goodmail). This is where the most debate in email marketing is most hotly debated – that certified email is in danger of creating a two-tier email system: the equivalent of first and second class post.
2. Minimise Spam complaint rates
ISPs monitor the number of customers who mark the mail using ‘Spam’ or ‘Junk’ buttons. Complaint rates are the number 1 reason why ISPs block or filter e-mails. Again there are some simple “dos”:
- Do track complaint rates for each ISP for each campaign
- Do remove inactive e-mail addresses after 6 months
- Do use clear and specific subject lines
- Do use clear ‘from’ labelling to identify your brand
- Do test e-mail send frequency and it’s impact on rates
- Do drip feed send to suspect ISPs so you can manage the situation
- Do make unsubscribing easier for those that want to unsubscribe – if a consumer wants to unsubscribe – then don’t make it difficult otherwise they will just mark your email as spam.
3. Manage and reduce bounce rates
ISPs monitor the number of e-mails they reject and return (called ‘bounced’) – usually unknown or bad e-mail addresses. It’s a virtuous circle, fewer bounces today increases deliverability tomorrow, so:
- Remove all hard bounces straight away
- Remove all addresses that are soft bounced regularly, a typical rule is three soft bounces in a defined time period
- Change the rule if bounce rates persist
- Batch delivery to reduce risk of blocking due to high bounce rates
4. Understand how content filters work
ISPs use content filters to screen and detect spam by scanning the contents of all incoming e-mails. These filters are generally 3rd party tools employed by ISPs and use and email’s “subject line” extensively as a key contributor to spam scores. E-mails that fail content filters get bounced without even entering the recipient’s mailboxes. At best they may be delivered to a junk folder. Core to improving response here is:
- Understand the tools, how they operate and test your e-mails against them before they are sent
- Construct subject lines that are not seen as spam
- Use mailbox delivery testing to ensure that e-mails get into inboxes rather than junk folders
- Check that html is clean –
- Content filters will send e-mails with missing tags or empty title tags to the spam filter
- Avoid coloured backgrounds and links without http://’ prefix
5. Audit e-mail collection
The better the data you collect the fewer bad e-mail addresses. The better you keep the data up to date the less chance there is of bouncing
- Cleanse existing database to remove duplicate addresses
- Validate e-mail addresses on collection for correct
- Adopt a double opt in to confirm that the e-mail address is valid and that the e-mail address exists, confirmed as willing to receive e-mails from you
- Inform recipients why they are receiving the confirmation message and confirm what they can expect to get from you
6. “Sender From” Authentication
Sub domain authentication will re-assure ISPs that the e-mail comes from a genuine source so:
- Your email should contain a white Listing Statement advising the recipient to add you to their ‘safe
- Consider ‘CertifiedEmail’ status
- A scheme that allows regular e-mail senders to get pre-authorised ‘white listing’ certification
7. Consider the timing of your e-mail
Your audience will be considering different things at different times of the week or the day so
- Try sending your e-mail on different days: Does your message lend itself to the weekend? - Try sending on Friday morning.
- Travel bookings tend to be made on Monday or Tuesdays – Try sending your mail on Monday morning
- Try sending your e-mails at different times of day: Lunch time is a time when people open personal e-mails or for when they get home from work
- Maximise impact by considering how time of day or week can improve relevancy for your audience
8. Include a prominent ‘permission reminder’
Give context for the message to reduce potential for the message to be marked as spam
- Have a prominent unsubscribe link - if someone wants out, let them go and make it as easy as possible.
- Set maximum width to 600 pixels
- Avoid reverse text
- Avoid vertically aligned content regions where height is determined by text –e-mail clients will display fonts with different leading
- Include key non-graphical calls to action above the fold
- Add alt tags to your images
- Avoid padding and margin – Some e-mail clients do not display them
- E-mail size should be under 20k
9. Have something relevant to say
- What is the reason to communicate - Be newsworthy, informative or entertaining
- Strength of message / offer – Be as relevant with the offer as you can to the target audience.
- Segment your list and target your offer or information to the segment
- Have a clear objective for your e-mail - What’s the one thing you want your audience to do as a result of reading your e-mail?
- Ensure that you have a clear call to action above the fold
10. Continue the dialogue
If you are able to attract the user to click or interact take them to relevant content
- Build specific landing pages for your campaign or take the user through to relevant on-site content
- Meet the users expectation of the content contained there
- Use similar wording and images
- Re-assure them they are in the same place
- Don’t just take people to your home page
- Don’t present consumers with content that is not specific to the advert they have responded to
But most importantly, test, measure and test again. Each e-mail list will be different, fine tune your e-mail campaigns based on the timing of delivery and the relevancy for your audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment