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Email Marketing Best
Practices
As an email marketer you may face email
deliverability issues every day. Whether you’re sending a
personal email or bulk customer communication, electronic
messages are frequently intercepted, filtered, erroneously
labeled as spam, bounced or returned to the sender as
undeliverable.
For routine non-business correspondence,
this is simply a minor annoyance and inconvenience. But when
your message broadcasts a crisis or emergency, or if it
includes time-sensitive account, billing or service
information, you could face serious consequences. If you’re
a marketer, every undelivered message translates into lost
revenue. Luckily, there are ways to improve the odds of
delivery and decrease the chance of running into problems in
the first place.
The key to email deliverability lies in
earning the trust of Internet Service Providers, or ISPs.
Because these companies need to provide quality service to
their subscribers, they devise standard protocols and
policies regarding unsolicited bulk email. To communicate
with your subscribers and customers, without interference,
focus on four key criteria proven to optimize deliverability
rates.
1. Mind Your Lists. How
relevant is your list? You should only add recipients
via responsible opt-in practices, removing bounced
accounts and unsubscribe requests immediately. Never use
distribution lists that are severely outdated or
purchased. Many purchased lists include spam trap or
HoneyPot addresses, intended to lure and catch spammers.
2. Maintain Low Complaint Levels. Do recipients
want your messages? Every time a subscriber reports you
to their ISP, deliverability plummets. Several popular
ISPs, including AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail, make this
extremely easy with one-click spam reporting features.
It’s important to know how many complaints are coming
in. Complaint processing can be automated, with email
marketing service providers removing complainers from
your distribution lists and integrating this data into
real-time reports. However, you should strive to avoid
complaints altogether. To minimize complaints, let
recipients' know who you are by identifying your company
in the ‘from’ field, use a clear and relevant subject
line and distribute messages on a routine and
predictable schedule.
3. Be Professional. What does your message say
about your company? Advance your brand and professional
reputation by sending well-designed, organized and
relevant email communications. Segment distribution
lists and customize messages whenever possible. You
should also make sure that domain names for landing
pages have a public Whois record and a clearly linked
Privacy Policy.
4. Use Email Authentication. Take advantage of
email authentication technologies. One such solution is
Sender Policy Framework (SPF), providing an
open-standard, technical method for preventing address
forgery.
5. Understand Reputation. What do your past
actions say about you? ISPs filter spam based on your
company, domain name and private IP address reputation.
Building a solid reputation in these areas takes time,
and the only way to build it is by sending legitimate
emails and following practices. Send legitimate emails,
clean your lists and avoid complaints. Make sure that
your email service provider or email servers are setup
with private IP addresses so that you reputation is only
impacted by your email marketing practices.
Once you’ve taken all proactive email
delivery strategies, use the reporting tools in your email
marketing software to measure overall delivery. If you find
specific ISPs are blocking your blast communications even
though you’ve followed best practices, contact them right
away to resolve the matter and apply for whitelist status.
Email marketing benefits are undeniable.
With diligent efforts, marketers can dramatically increase
business-critical email communication deliverability and
improve their bottom line.
About the author: Dan Forootan is the
President of EZ Publishing, Inc., the creator of the
StreamSend Email Marketing Service
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