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Email Deliverability Tips
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Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber
inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the
age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response
rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30%
due to incorrect spam filter classification.
- Permission
Confirming that the people who ask for your information
have actually requested to be on your list is the number
one step in the battle for deliverability. You should
be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified
opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber
when they request information. Before adding the person
to your list they must click that unique link verifying
that they are indeed the same person that owns the
email address and requested to subscribe.
- Subscriber Addresses
When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask
for their "real" or "primary" email address instead
of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free
emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically
have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.
- List Maintenance
Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses
that bounce when sending email to them. An address
that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a
30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP's
track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and
will block them if you attempt to continually deliver
messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.
- Message Format
Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting,
multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is
growing in popularity and is widely supported by most
email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted
and thus differentiating between requested email and
spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by
AWeber.com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable
1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable
2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send
a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML
multi-part mime format.
- Content
Many ISP's filter based on the content that appears
within the message text.
- Website URL: Research potential newsletter advertisers
before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter
issues. If they have used their website URL to send
spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter
could cause the entire message to be filtered.
- Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when
crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found
in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money,
and pornography. If you do need to use words that might
be filtered, don't attempt to obfuscate words with
extra characters or odd spelling, you'll just make
your messages appear more spam like.
- Images: Avoid creating messages that are entirely
images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used
open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate
opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking
to avoid being filtered based on image content.
- Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading
thru the usage of malicious email attachments many
users are wary of attached documents. It's often better
to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient
fear of attachments and reduce the overall message
size.
- CAN-SPAM Compliance
The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced
a number of rules regarding the delivery of email.
It's important you have your legal counsel review your
practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two
most important rules include having a valid postal
mail address listed in all commercial messages and
a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored
to remove the subscriber from future messages.
- Reputation
Reputation services are often used by large ISP's
as a way to vet email senders regarding their email
practices and policies. Businesses listed with these
services are then given less stringent filtering or
no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:
http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
http://www.bondedsender.com
http://www.habeas.com
- Relationships & Whitelisting
Contact with major ISP's and email providers is
essential in letting them know about your requested
subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL
and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster
website areas to ensure your email is delivered as
long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling
your opt-in list.
Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in
email is delivered to the intended recipient. While
no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email
delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long
way to reaching that goal.
Tom Kulzer is CEO and Founder of Newtown,
PA based AWeber Communications, Inc., an opt-in email
service provider. With 7 years managing opt-in follow
up and newsletters for small businesses, email deliverability
is an integral part of day to day operations. Learn
more: http://www.AWeber.com and http://www.DeliveryMonitor.com
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