Email deliverability tips

Getting your emails to hit your clients inbox has become a royal pain in the butt! If you have had any exposure to email marketing you know what I am talking about. Here are 17 tips I found that will hopefully help you hit the mark with your email campaigns.

1. Join Feedback Loops: Feedback loops allow you to see who is marking your email as spam (so you can remove them). Some ISPs, like AOL, provide an easy way to join the feedback loop. For other ISPs, you may need to contact your email service provider to see if they can provide you with this information.
2. Remove Inactive Subscribers: Inactive subscribers are most likely to mark your email as junk. Sure, nobody wants to willfully shrink the size of their opt in list, but you have to think long term.
3. Consistent Timing: ISPs love it when you consistently send email on the same day at near the same time. Since spammers don’t care, consistency is the mark of a responsible email marketer.
4. Use Consistent From Information: Be sure to always use the same from name and address. Changing the from email will require your subscribers to add each address to their address book in order to ensure deliverability. In addition, a consistent from name helps readers recognize your brand.
5. Use Double Opt In: Double opt in is a best practice required by many ISPs in order to be considered for
   white listing. In addition, it protects your database from misspelled email addresses.
6. Unsubscribe Link at Top: Why at the top? Because if unhappy subscribers can’t find it within a few seconds, they may hit the junk button instead, which damages your rep. Better to lose a subscriber than get a spam complaint.
7. Static IP Address: If you send marketing emails from your own server, always send from the same IP address. If you use an email service provider, find out if they offer a dedicated IP for an additional charge. If they do, it’s worth it. Like shared webhosts, many ESP’s group many clients under one IP address. In other words, what another company does with their email marketing can affect your deliverability. It’s much easier to manage the reputation of one IP address rather than many.
8. Reverse DNS: Many ISPs perform a reverse DNS lookup, which checks to make sure the IP you are sending from is authorized to send from your domain.
9. White List Reminder: Encourage subscribers to add your email address to their address book or white list. Some ISPs look at the number of times you are added to an address book as a sign of trust.
10. Get Authenticated: Email authentication is confusing as heck. There are a few standards out there that are not necessary competing. The Sender ID Framework uses a simple SPF record with your DNS Zone. Microsoft has a handy Sender ID wizard to help you create this text record for your DNS. In addition to Sender ID, DomainKeys is another popular authentication method. Both methods help to both ensure deliverability and prevent spammers from spoofing with your domain.
11. Don’t Worry about SPAM Words: Don’t stress about using the word “free” or occasionally putting all caps in the subject. I find these tactics to be successful and have no affect on delivery.
12. Remove Bounces: Be sure to remove all hard bounces that come back as undeliverable. Repeatedly sending to an invalid email will send off red flags with most internet service providers.
13. Reply to Challenge Responses: Occasionally, SPAM filtering software will send back a reply to your email asking you to confirm that you are a real person. Invest the 30 seconds or so it takes to do this for each challenge response you receive. Not only will it ensure that this particular recipient receives your message, but it can improve your sender reputation as well.
14. Be Relevant: Nothing encourages spam complaints more than sending people stuff they didn’t sign up for. If they signed up for a ezine newsletter, and you send them nothing but sales pitches, you’re likely to get complaints.
15. Send In Spurts: Some ISPs have limits as to how many emails you can send to in a given period of time. If you’re having trouble sending email to a particular ISP such as Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail, see if your email service provider gives you the ability to stage the email over a longer period of time.
16. Get Off Black Lists: MxToolBox offers a great tool to check if your email server is blacklisted. If it is, begin the process of contacting each of the the black list service and find out the process for getting your IP removed.
17. Get On White Lists: Achieving white list status with the major ISPs is no small feat. If you’re not up for the challenge, consider uses an email deliverability consulting firm such as Return Path that specializes in this area.

Canada’s Anti-SPAM Laws

A new anti-spam bill in Canada has that nation poised to establish rules for commercial email communications — and penalties for violations. Marketers need to prepare themselves for any changes in their practices should this bill become law.

This article highlights five key differences between the Canadian bill and the CAN SPAM act. It also offers tips on how to check your database for Canadian addresses, and to check whether your existing procedures meet the more stringent rules of the proposed regulation.
On April 29, the Canadian government introduced a bill that would serve as that country’s counterpart to the CAN SPAM Act. Like CAN SPAM, Canada’s Electronic Commerce Protection Act would establish new legislation around commercial email communications, including rules for opt-in and opt-out procedures, sender identification, and consumer privacy. But the bill also features important differences from CAN SPAM, which will impact email marketers if the bill becomes law.

In many cases, the rules proposed in the ECPA are stricter than those contained in CAN SPAM. In other cases, the exact meaning of the legislation is still vague. That means email marketers will have to study the bill carefully and prepare to make appropriate changes to their messages to Canadian customers. (See Useful Links section, below, to download a copy of the bill.)

To give you a head start, we spoke with several email marketing experts who’ve examined the bill to highlight five key elements that make the ECPA different from the CAN SPAM rules you’re used to. We aren’t lawyers (and this isn’t even a law yet), so be sure to check with your own legal team for the final word on compliance if the Canadian government passes the bill.

“If it does become law, the length of time to implement it will be fairly short,” says Ted Roberts, Director, Deliverability and ISP Relations, Silverpop. “It’s better to be prepared and have it not go into effect, than to have it pass and be caught.”

Difference #1. Advanced permission is required

Unlike CAN SPAM, the Canadian ECPA expressly forbids sending commercial email without prior permission from the recipient. This shouldn’t be a significant challenge for most email marketers, since obtaining opt-in permission is a best practice.

(If you do have non opt-in names in your database, or you aren’t sure about the source of some addresses, you’ll either have to purge those names from your list, or embark on a re-permissioning campaign.)

However, the ECPA also allows for messages to be sent under implied consent, provided there is an existing business or non-business relationship (i.e., club membership, volunteer status, donation to a charitable organization) between the sender and the recipient during the 18 months prior to the message send.

What counts as consent within those relationships is likely to be debated and tested should the bill become law, so it’s safest to follow the practice of getting consent from all your subscribers, says Justin B. Weiss, Associate Counsel, Email Sender and Provider Coalition.

“It’s a pretty challenging analysis to undertake to figure out what kind of consent you need.”

Now is also a good time to determine whether you are emailing to Canadian addresses. Here are three ways find them in your database:

- Email extension

Canadian-based domains end in .ca, so you can create a segment of your database for addresses with that extension.

- Geographic location field

If you collect geographic location during opt-in, or have shipping addresses on file for existing customers, you can isolate subscribers who have indicated a Canadian address.

- IP address

If you collect an IP address as part of an opt-in or site visit, you can use it to find the subscribers’ geographic location. Sites such as www.ip2location.com will provide a subscriber’s exact geographic location, including city, state, zip and area code, as well as
the ISP used to access the Internet.

Difference #2. Permission is required for SMS messages

The scope of ECPA isn’t limited to email messages. It also covers unauthorized software downloads (malware), and — most important to marketers — defines “electronic message” broadly to include SMS and other text messages.

If you’re engaging in SMS marketing, now is a good time to double check how you’re obtaining your subscription lists. Are you using a clear opt-in procedure for SMS messaging when collecting phone numbers?

Difference #3. Unsubscribe links must stay active for 60 days

The ECPA calls for messages to contain an email address or hyperlink to allow recipients to unsubscribe. It also specifies that those links must stay active for 60 days after the email is sent. By contrast, CAN SPAM requires unsubscribe links to stay active for 30 days.

Maintaining unsubscribe links for 60 days shouldn’t be a problem for large organizations, or marketers who work with an ESP. But you should check with your ESP or your in-house technical team to make sure those links stay active for at least that long.

If you are a smaller organization that handles unsubscribes in-house, make sure you have the resources to maintain those links for the required 60 days.

Difference #4. Unsubscribe requests must be honored within 10 days

Senders who receive an opt-out request must comply within 10 days, according to the bill.

That’s similar to the timeframe outlined in CAN SPAM, but with a nuance: CAN SPAM specifies 10 business days, while the ECPA does not. That may give you less time to comply with requests than you’re used to.

Make sure your current unsubscribe management process is fast enough to process unsubscribe requests in less than 10 days. Again, that shouldn’t be a problem for larger organizations or anyone working with an ESP, but check on it and make sure you’re not playing the CAN SPAM deadline to the limit.

Smaller organizations that handle unsubscribes in-house, or manually, should develop new procedures to meet the potential shortened deadline.

Difference #5. Individuals have the right to sue spammers

The ECPA contains a private right of action provision that allows individuals to sue spammers. CAN SPAM also contains a private right of action provision, but only for ISPs, but not for individuals.

That means individuals in Canada may be able to sue alleged spammers. However, the legislation limits compensation to $200 per item — a number low enough to prevent individuals from hauling senders to court one-by-one, says Weiss. However, there would be a risk for class-action suits in Canada.

Likewise, the bill also gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission the authority to impose fines on senders who violate the regulations — up to $10 million for organizations. That’s even more incentive to adhere to best practices for subscriber management.

Useful links related to this article:

The Electronic Commerce Protection Act http://www2.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/Bills/402/Government/C-2
/C-27_1/C-27_1.PDF

Warm up your new IP Address

It’s inevitable: at some point, you’ll switch to a new e-mail service provider (ESP) or add a new IP address. These changes often have a major impact on your deliverability. Once upon a time, switching was easy and painless, but in today’s delivery environment it can be quite challenging to get off to a good start.

Today, you must bring your new IP address up to speed slowly, rather than sending full throttle right away. If you switch providers, your new ESP likely will warn you about this, but it applies even if you are adding a new IP to your mail stream, such as for sending transactional messages, new Web sites, or e-mail programs.

Spammers usually leap to a new IP address when they get blocked from an old one, then blast out e-mail right away. ISPs get suspicious when they see e-mail volumes spike from unknown IP addresses, so they block first based on sudden volume spikes and ask questions later. This procedure is called throttling.

If you add an IP address to your mail stream, say, for increasing segmentation or volume, your good reputation on your existing IP address won’t automatically transfer to your new one. On the other hand, if you start over after polluting a previous IP address, your bad rep can follow you. That’s why you need to take care with your new one.

Today’s approach is to begin slowly, sending a limited number of messages to small subsets of the best addresses on your mailing list. As you begin to build your reputation, you can start building your volume, but always while keeping an eye on your deliverability reports and spam-complaint rates.

You should be able to warm up your good reputation in about seven days. Depending on your total message volume, it could take a little longer to reach full capacity.

Organizing Your IP Warm-Up Plan

• Get feedback loops established and whitelist requests approved before you start e-mailing, even on a reduced schedule. Also make sure you have updated your authentication records.
• Create a sublist of active e-mail addresses from your mailing list with your most important domains represented. These are addresses with no negatives associated with them. Generally, they’re established but not old addresses, usually 60 days to nine months old and with at least three clicks on campaigns. These usually are your most active and engaged subscribers, who generate the positive metrics ISPs like, such as opens and clicks, adding your sending address to their address books and generating few spam complaints.Avoid both brand-new and older addresses because they can generate more spam complaints. You need addresses that are clearly neither inactive nor a potential spam trap.Use this transition to prune your list of inactive names, too. Simply don’t move the old names into your clean new system. Also, IP warm-up campaigns aren’t the time to reactivate old lists or import poor legacy data. This is your chance to start over, so do it with clean data.
• Send a message that isn’t time-sensitive. Your goal is delivery more than conversion. So your message could be a customer-service or relationship-building message, in which you thank the subscriber for signing up, list other publications you offer, invite subscribers to fill out a survey or complete their profiles, or remind them to add your sending address to their address books, even if you haven’t changed the actual e-mail address. Remember to spell out subscriber benefits and to include a “valued member” reward to reward them for being prized subscribers.
• Monitor your delivery metrics. Your goal with this mailing is to deliver 95 percent to 100 percent of these messages to the inbox:
• Watch your delivery reports for hard and soft bounces.
• Monitor feedback loops for spam complaints.
• Watch all mailboxes associated with your e-mail program, even those that aren’t official e-mail reply mailboxes for comments or complaints.

Your Post-Warm-Up Game Plan

Don’t let your new IP address go cold again. Once you complete the warm-up campaign, begin transitioning older, less-active recipients and begin mailing from your regular calendar. Continue to move these addresses over slowly and to build your sending volume over time.

How long can this transition take? That depends on your list size and the delivery metrics you generate. Watch bounce logs, looking particularly at the big three domains — AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo — and watch for temporary blocking errors due to throttling.

You should be able to maintain consistent high inbox delivery for all messages as you increase volume. If delivery numbers start to slide, slow down the volume again or hold steady for a campaign or two until the numbers begin to improve, then increase volume again.

The warm-up process requires hard work, careful segmentation, good list quality, and, above all, patience. But the reward is clear: high inbox delivery and a great sender reputation, which will ensure future inbox delivery for a long time.

SOURCE: ClickZ – By Stefan Pollard

CAN-SPAM Requirements

What the CAN-SPAM Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
  
  
• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.