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Ensure Your Email Is Being Delivered

Learn how to improve email deliverability, increase inbox placement, and engage your audience effectively. Join Gwynne Dixon at the Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019.

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Ensure Your Email Is Being Delivered

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  1. Ensure Your Email Is Being DeliveredGwynne Dixon, Engaging Networks 19/20 June 2019 • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  2. Hi, I’m Gwynne! • I joined Engaging Networks in 2017 and work there today as a Dev Ops Engineer • I specialise in email delivery and help to monitor all email traffic for our clients • Previously I’ve worked as an email engagement specialist in the charity sector • I’ve worked with a diverse range of email audiences globally Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  3. Engaging Networks operates as an email service provider (or ESP) • I monitor and manage email delivery across our servers for all of our email service clients • We provide tools for you to deliver effective email campaigns • 5.1 billion emails were sent by our clients in 2018 • On Giving Tuesday alone, 45 million emails were sent through Engaging Networks servers (up from 35.7 million in 2017) • A further 47 million emails were sent to supporters by our clients at year-end 2018 (up from 36.6 million in 2017) What I do… • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  4. What is deliverability? • Email deliverability is the demonstrable rate at which your emails land in inboxes • It can be effected by anything from the content in your email to the email address you’ve sent from, or the people to which you’re sending • Improving your email deliverability is the most effective way to improve engagement with your email campaigns • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  5. 2018 saw the enforcement of GDPR, changing the email deliverability landscape and effectively setting as law what were already good email delivery practices • 2019 has picked-up where GDPR left off, as the large webmail providers continue to clamp down on senders that deliver to inactive subscribers (more on that later) • There are strong indications that the US government could pursue its own GDPR, following recent state legislation such as the California Consumer Privacy Act Why is it key for 2019? • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  6. Inbox placement • Using welcome emails • Email templates/testing • Segmentation • Email seed lists • Bounces & suppressions • Types of spam traps • Data hygiene • Further reading • Getting technical What we’ll cover • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  7. Using a seed list to monitor inbox placement (more on this later) • Different types of inbox placement (spam folder, inbox, secondary folders etc.) • Gmail and Outlook.com (the ‘Primary’ or ‘Promotional’, and ‘Focused’ or ‘Other’ folders) • Improving your inbox placement: avoiding complaints and getting added to ‘trusted’ lists Inbox placement • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  8. Using welcome emails • Highest point of engagement, as much as 81% open rates and 56% click-through for some charity sector emails (source: Adestra) • Sets the tone for future communications – compels your subscribers to keep opening • A good welcome series can reduce your attrition or ‘churn’ rate over time • The perfect place for an ‘Add to Contacts’ ask due to such high engagement Source: Experian • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  9. Using welcome emails • A 2017 study found that only 50% of charities use welcome emails, and only 2% send more than one email (source: Just Giving blog) • You can use the marketing automation tool in Engaging Networks to drive dynamic welcome series • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  10. Responsive templates • Source: Return Path ‘The Email Client Experience’ (2017) • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  11. Mobile responsive design at your fingertips • Build and edit new template components with ease • Use editable regions to customise your content • The confidence of having a rigorously tested product shaping your email templates • Ensure that your templates are up to spec with current industry standards and requirements Engaging Networks Email Builder • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  12. Testing your emails • Use the Email Preview tool to check your email on a range of different devices and platforms • Check how the email layout renders in iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones, tablets, and desktop computers • Send test emails to a range of different webmail, desktop clients, and devices before your supporters receive it • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  13. Segmentation • Email blasts to your full subscriber list can harm more than they help your campaigns • Does your email about a local event need to be sent to supporters nationally? • Mailbox providers will notice if you repeatedly send to the same large list of inactive supporters (and penalise you for it) • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  14. A set of mailboxes managed by your organisation that’s added to your subscriber list and set to receive all mail from your campaigns. • Each mailbox should represent a different provider, which can be selected according to the distribution of your audience • The most prolific providers should feature on your seed list (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo etc.) What’s a seed list? • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  15. Seeds of the future • Industry leader in email deliverability analytics, Return Path has recently developed SmartSeed technology • SmartSeeds use machine learning and artificial intelligence to interact with emails like real subscribers would • These AI personas then allow e-mail marketeers to drive deeper and more realistic insights into mailbox behaviour • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  16. Bounces & suppressions spam-related=99999virus-related=99999content-related=99999quota-issues=1routing-errors=4inactive-mailbox=1bad-mailbox=1relaying-issues=4bad-domain=1policy-related=99999protocol-errors=99999bad-configuration=99999no-answer-from-host=3bad-connection=99999message-expired=99999other=99999invalid-sender=99999 • The difference between a soft and hard bounce • Different types of hard bounce (spam or policy related, bad mailboxes or domains etc.) • Suppression criteria and the suppression list • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  17. The March 2019 Yahoo bounce 554 delivery error: dd Sorry, your message to xxxx@yahoo.com cannot be delivered. This mailbox is disabled (554.30). • March of 2019 saw a vast increase in a specific type of Yahoo hard bounce • We attributed 97% of all Yahoo bounces to this error code over a 10 day period • Bounce rates to Yahoo mailboxes increased twelvefold between February and March • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  18. The March 2019 Yahoo bounce • Yahoo was sending this email to users of its webmail service • Any account that hadn’t been logged-in to for 12+ months was being closed • If the mailbox had been closed, we received the hard bounce response • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  19. Pure spam traps (honey pot email addresses designed to dupe spammers) • Recycled email addresses (old accounts no longer used by customers) • Invalid email addresses (typos, fake addresses) Types of spam traps • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  20. Data hygiene • Attrition and re-engagement • Using double opt ins • Opt-in management from external CRMs • Acquisition of data (paid for lists, typos from submission) • Third-party data cleaning services • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  21. M+R compared end-of-year giving patterns in 23 US organisations for December 2017 and December 2018 • They found that overall revenue was down 9% year-on-year, and revenue from email was down 18% • However, they also saw subscriber list sizes dropping by 13% year-on-year (as orgs changed tack by removing inactives) • The group with the largest list size decreases saw a 26% improvement in response rate from 2017, which then translated to a 2% improvement in email revenue Shrinking list sizes • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  22. Further reading • 2018 Deliverability Benchmark, Return Path (Aug 2018) • Reliable stats from an industry standard in email deliverability • Rates by country, region, industry etc. • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  23. Getting technical • SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication • Email testing services such as Email on Acid, Litmus and 250ok • Knowing your sending IPs (dedicated versus shared use) • Consider your sender address and domain reputation • Return Path Senderscore and third-party DNS blacklist checks • Feedback loops and Gmail Postmaster Tools • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

  24. Thank You. Enjoy the rest of the conference! gwynne@engagingnetworks.net • Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

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