3 Essential Answers for Higher Email Marketing ROI

OMMA Global - September 27, 2010

Intro

Email marketing is simple to do –but hard to do well…

Improve Email Performancewith the only global sender reputation data network

We help people get just what they want in their inboxes by scoring and certifying senders from around the world.

Reach the inbox.

Take advantage of your good sender reputation.

Earn a response.

Grow an active file.

Celebrate subscribers.

5

What?!This is you.

You are busy. You are stressed. You depend on your vendors to serve you and to do what they promise: Get your email to your subscribers.

You’ve heard about inbox deliverability failure, but figure that only happens to the other guy - to the spammers. After all, you’ve got a file of permission-based subscribers, but…

For most marketers, 20% of opt-in email never

reaches the inbox.

Our latest Global Deliverability Benchmark Report shows

If an email doesn’t land in the inbox, can

it get a click?

Why should that worry you?

It’s simple: Email that doesn’t get to the inbox doesn’t get a response.

The Email Marketing Data Continuum

Sent Bounce Inbox Open Click Convert

20%

The Email Marketing Data Continuum

Sent Bounce Inbox Open Click Convert

20%

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There are still a lot of rumors and mythsaround inbox placement and senderreputation. Your ESP account manager or ITdirector may not be an expert in emailmarketing or inbox placement, so you needto be sharp about the questions you ask andthe answers you receive. Here are threethings to try.

3 Essentials of Inbox Placement

1. Content is a SMALL contributor.

Content is actually a verysmall contributor to filteringdecisions, and only plays a bigrole when it’s egregious – ie. asubject line that is misleading,has excessive punctuation, orif the message is just one bigimage.

Most legitimate marketersdon’t use these tactics.Sender reputation reflects thecombination of factors –including content – thatresults in blocking or reachingthe inbox.

2. “Delivered” Does NOT Equal Inbox.

This is such an unfortunate language barrier. “Delivered” for mostreports is simply a measure of the bounce rate. Inbox placementis a different number and reflects what percentage actuallyreaches the inbox. In addition, don’t rely solely on average inboxplacement across clients of your broadcast vendor. Be sure youknow this number for your own campaigns.

3. Permission Is NOT Enough

You need to earn permission every time you knock on the door of the

inbox.

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So how does inbox deliverability

really work?

Remember! You have a Sender Reputation… even if you don’t know

what it is or how to manage it.

Key Factors in your Sender

Reputation

1. Keep complaints to a minimum

Complaints are tracked every time someone clicks the Report Spam button. They are the single biggest factor in sender reputation.

So how do you reduce complaints? Become more relevant.

AND to track complaints, sign up for feedback loopsfrom the various ISPs.

Factors to review when you see high complaints:

• Frequency • Permission • Segmentation/Messaging • Relevancy • Brand recognition • Sign up process

• Sources of data • Working unsubscribe • Shared IP address (if other mailers share the pipe with you, your sender reputation is affected by them.)

2. Have a solid infrastructure

Most ESPs and all MTA vendors have a good infrastructure. YourIT team may also be highly qualified. Either way, you want to besure that you have someone who is technically apt working onemail. It’s a specialty!

Things to watch out for:

• Reverse DNS record• Valid MX record (give and receive)• MTA settings according to ISP guidelines• Complaint processing• Bounce processing• Message ID and Header

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3. Keep the file clean.

4. Get engaged

Engagement has alwaysbeen important.

It’s more important now,as the top three mailboxproviders have releasedinbox management toolsthat make it easy forsubscribers to movemarketing messages awayfrom the inbox.

5. Don’t email the dead

This is even more important than ever because of the engagement factors we just discussed. It’s not like postal mail

or catalogs, where you keep your file large in order to stay top-of-mind. Email subscribers have low tolerance for that.

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When or if to win-back “lost subscribers” is a question of great debate.

Generally, the best practice is to:1. Remove subscribers who are not

active after a period of reasonable time - probably 12 months for most businesses, sometimes sooner.

2. Before you remove, give them an update and provide some incentive (e.g.: download, coupon, survey) to catch their attention.

3. Don’t let it get to 12 months in the first place. Review your data and look for areas of fall out – if a lot of subscribers go dormant after 3 months, that is when you need a specific messaging strategy to reach them THEN, rather than waiting.

But how do I know

what my sender

reputation is?

So the good news is, sender reputation is based on factors under your control. Good marketing and high inbox placement are based on the same things: Great subscriber experiences, relevancy, permission, list hygiene and smart segmentation.

You can look up your Sender Score – a measure of your sender reputation that correlates to inbox deliverability – at www.senderscore.org.

Manage Your Inbox Deliverability

1. Monitor placement by campaign & ISP

2. Process bounces & complaints

3. Use data to make better decisions

4. Get third party certification (if you qualify)

1. What is my inbox placement rate, and how are you calculating that number? (NOTE: This is not the same number as your bounce or “delivered” rate)

2. Are my IP Addresses signed up for all the appropriate Feedback Loops? Are we processing complaints? What can we learn by looking at the profile of complainers?

3. Do I qualify for third party certification?

3 Questions To Ask Your ESP

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For more info,

Visit www.returnpath.net

Or email - rpinfo@returnpath.net

For more info

Feedback Loops: http://feedbackloop.yahoo.net

http://fbl.usa.net/

http://feedback.comcast.net/

http://postmaster.info.aol.com/fbl/fblinfo.html

http://postmaster.msn.com/Services.aspx#JMRPP

Great Email Deliverability Blogs www.returnpath.net

www.deliverability.oom

http://www.gettingemaildelivered.com/

http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog.php/al-iverson

Great Email Marketing Blogs http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog.php

http://www.subscribersrule.com

http://smith-harmon.com/blog

http://www.outperformance-marketing.com

http://www.retailemailblog.com

http://theemailwars.com

http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com

http://www.newsweaver.co.uk/emailnewsletters

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