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Learn about the latest strategies for boosting your email deliverability and avoiding common pitfalls. Understand how to identify and remove bad email addresses from your list to enhance engagement and avoid blacklisting.
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The New Rules of Email Deliverability #Bridge19
Mikaela King, National Geographic Society • Eric Rardin, Care2.com #Bridge19
Two New Realities Your Exec Team Needs To Understand #1 #2 #Bridge19
First things first, clean your list, and prevent new, bad emails from coming on. #Bridge19
“A spam trap is an email address used to expose illegitimate senders who add email addresses to their lists without permission.”Specific term: “Pristine” spamtrap. What is a “spamtrap”? #Bridge19
TyposObfuscationMalicious actsAddress recycling How do spamtrap addresses get on your list? #Bridge19
Stop The Bad Addresses! Address obfuscation creates bad domains. Dead/decommissioned domains are a sign of a stale list. Sending mail to typo domains can lead to instant blacklisting. Temporary email domains are a sign the user does not plan to engage with your brand. Role accounts invite high complaint rates.Bad, undeliverable domains.Likely bad (or fake) addresses at real domains. CEO of SpamHaus. (Note: not his real address, so far as I know.) sterno@REMOVETHISgmail.com rsmith5@mediaone.net skipatrol73@hotmial.com jradley@oneoffemail.com support@3dayblinds.com bethdaly@gmail.com.com aeidgpbembigaeg.@yahoo.com steve.linford@spamhaus.org #Bridge19
How can bad addresses kill your list? Getting blacklisted by Spamhaus can cause an overnight drop in inbox rate of 50-80%. #Bridge19
More potential removals Disposable addresses Role accounts @opayq.com @mypacks.net @sharklasers.com @mailtothis.com @10minutemail.com @disposeamail.com @trashmail.com @mailinator.com … (thousands more) Webmaster@ Sales@ Support@ Office@ Team@ Contact@ Enquiries@ Info@ … (dozens more) #Bridge19
This is harder than it looks #Bridge19
Formerly good address… Abandoned… Converted. “Recycled” Spamtraps
Now that you’ve got a clean list, what should you do with it? Engage!
An engaged subscriber registers frequent: Opens Reads Clicks Saves Forwards Shares Here, we are concerned primarily with the sorts of engagement that the mail provider (Google, Microsoft, Verizon/Yahoo/AOL) can see. What is “Engagement?”
These 17 domains account for 83% of subscribers to a typical list: gmail.com yahoo.com hotmail.com aol.com hotmail.co.uk icloud.com comcast.net outlook.com yahoo.co.uk Top Delivery Domains msn.com live.com hotmail.fr ymail.com live.co.uk me.com verizon.net googlemail.com
hotmail.com, hotmail.co.uk outlook.com, msn.com, live.comhotmail.fr, live.co.uk icloud.com me.com yahoo.com aol.com yahoo.co.uk ymail.com verizon.net gmail.com googlemail.com These 17 domains account for 83% of subscribers to a typical list. comcast.net Top Delivery Domains
accenture.com adobe.com bestbuy.com gettyimages.com homedepot.com honeywell.com nike.com berkeley.edu costco.com fossil.com hbo.com lexmark.com motorola.com (... thousands more) Private Domains Hosted By Major Providers (examples) redfin.com salesforce.com sealedair.com soundcloud.com theguardian.com uber.com
Even if you’re not watching your engagement metrics, these companies are. Who cares if your subscribers are engaged?
See the warning in the yellow bar! One risk of bad engagement rates - they perpetuate
Improve what you send: Send only relevant, compelling content: constituent-centricity Set appropriate expectations on signup, and then meet them Regularly test to improve engagement sender, subject line, UX, content, calls to action, design, forms Capture constituent interest and deliver more of the content they like How do you improve engagement?
Improve when you send it: Optimize message delivery times: deliver messages at the time of day (or week) the subscriber is most likely to respond Provide relevant, timely feedback (“We’re putting your gift to work right away..”, “Your gift helped achieve xyz!”) Improve how you send it: “Onboard” new subscribers Make sure all email templates are mobile friendly How do you improve engagement?
Consider purging lapsed and inactive subscribers. Before: Sent: 1,000,000 messages Clicks: 200,000 CTR: 20% After: Sent: 800,000 messages Clicks: 200,000 CTR: 25% How do you improve engagement? • … 25% improvement in CTR by unsubbing200,000 inactives.
Con Conversion rate for lapsed/inactives is probably nonzero. Requires trustworthy analysis of subscriber engagement. Pro Tip: send a “win-back” message prior to unsubbinginactives. Pro Immediate improvement to CTR and engagement metrics Possible increase in inbox placement Probable loss of complainers Probable loss of spamtraps Lower risk of catastrophic blacklisting Purging Inactives
Bad addresses on your list can lead to diminished inbox rates and blacklisting. Therefore: Purge typos, obfuscated addresses, dead domains Look closely at role account addresses and temporary addresses Five or six companies receive most of the mail you send (likely 80+%), and are well aware of your engagement metrics. Therefore: Top consideration: constituent centricity Set and meet appropriate expectations at email join Test regularly to improve engagement Purge lapsed and inactive subscribers Recap
Add only valid addresses Get subscriber consent Focus on engagement Critical Ingredients for List Growth
Never add a subscriber without permission Be wary of incentives Be wary of co-registration What is “Consent?”
Fast unsubscribes Spam complaints “The yellow warning” or de-prioritized message placement to valid recipients Possible blacklisting Possible privacy law violations (GDPR, and similar laws coming to the U.S.) What happens without consent?
Set up Feedback Loops See https://sendgrid.com/blog/email-feedback-loops-101/ Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication headers on outbound mail. Monitor the reputation of your outbound mail IPs See https://www.senderscore.org/ Monitor blacklist entries for outbound mail IPs See http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx Preview your message templates in all major webmail systems, including mobile. Implement third-party checks for subscriber address quality See FreshAddress.com, BriteVerify.com, Webbula.com Analyse your content and mail infrastructure with a spam score tester See http://isnotspam.com/ Further steps
Mikaela King, National Geographic Society - miking@ngs.org Eric Rardin, Care2 - ericr@care2team.com Ask us!
Thank You! Don’t forget to visit the Solutions Showcase for more ideas! #Bridge19