Overcoming the Barriers to DeliverabilityMohammed AhmedSenior Manager, Deliverability Services, BlueHornet

Chuck DavisPresident of Sales, BriteVerify

Craig SwerdloffCEO, LeadSpend

Thursday October 10th, 2:45 – 3:35 p.m.

What is Deliverability …

• Authentication• Gmail Tabs• Yahoo Retiring Addresses

& Reactivation• Invalid Reduction

• Bounce Reduction• Double Opt-In • Email Address Verification

Services• Winback Campaigns

(Strategy Blueprint)

at its core, it is about reaching the inbox, navigating a challenging landscape of traps, filters and obstacles.

TODAY’S AGENDA

Authentication

Because of the way email was originally built, it's tough to prove if an email is actually coming from the person who claims to be sending it. That is why ISP’s set higher thresholds for IPs that are authenticating.

Types of Authentication

• Used by major ISPs: Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and others.

• Can be set up on your sending domain name.

• ISP have higher thresholds for volume, complaints if it has DKIM signature on the sending domain.

• DKIM is an upgraded version of Domain Keys started by Yahoo.

DKIMSPFDMARC

Types of Authentication

• SPF is another way of authenticating your domain. It is widely used by AOL but other ISPs are also filtering mail based on SPF record.

• SPF is used to stop “From Domain” spoofing.

• Sender ID was initially used by Microsoft but later on they moved to SPF also.

DKIMSPFDMARC

Types of Authentication• Standardizes how email receivers perform email

authentication • Based on rule set, receiver’s email server filters your mail• Allows a sender to indicate that their emails are

protected by SPF and/or DKIM, and tells a receiver what to do if neither of those authentication methods passes - such as junk or reject the message

• Provides a way for the email receiver to report back to the sender about messages that pass and/or fail DMARC evaluation. This will help if someone else spoofing your domain name

• You have to create an entry in DNS zone file of how receiving server should handle any issues below

• Determine the domain owner's preference (report, quarantine or reject) for messages that do not pass authentication checks

DKIMSPFDMARC

Gmail Tabs

• No major decline in open and clicks• Motivating a customer to move an email from

Promotion to Primary tab is good for reputation• A better “reputation” will land your mail in the

Primary Tab

Yahoo Retiring Addresses

• Any email address that has no activity and no logins from past 12 months will be retired

• Stop mailing Yahoo! users that have no activity within the past 12 months

• Any ISP can convert a non-active email address to a spam trap.

Yahoo Reactivated Addresses

• Without activity within the past 12 months, emails will be released and reassigned

• All Yahoo domains are going to be affected with the retirement and reactivation. Exceptions: yahoo hosted domains like att.net, rogers.com, etc.

Yahoo Reactivated Addresses

We recommend:• Suppress inactive addresses before Yahoo!

begins the recycling process• Remove users that have no activity in the last

12 months

Reducing Bounce Rates

Invalid email address are one of the many causes of blocks at most major ISPs. • Double opt-in• Engaged user targeting• Email address verification services

Double opt-in

Double opt-in (or confirmed opt-in) • Ensure invalid addresses are not being added

to your list• Helps to ensure an engaged and loyal

audience

Double opt-in Benefits

• Higher open rates• Higher click through rates• Lower bounces and

invalids• Lower unsubscribe rate

Email Address Verification Services

• Clean up invalid addresses• Uncover known typo domain names like

gmai.com or yah00.com etc• Verify addresses are valid

Questions?