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BtoB E-mail Marketing
E-mail Deliverability Q&A Part 1: Regulation and Blacklists Q&A from An Expert Roundtable on E-mail Deliverability for Lead Generation, hosted by Bulldog Solutions On August 14, 2007, Bulldog Solutions hosted An Expert Roundtable on E-mail Deliverability for Lead Generation. This hour-long panel featured Stephanie Miller, vice chair for member initiatives for the Email Experience Council and vice president of strategy for Return Path; Michelle Eichner, COO and vice president of client development for Pivotal Veracity; and Ryan L. Rutan, programmer analyst III for National Instruments. Over the next several months the panelists will answer several dozen questions not addressed during the live Webinar. This installment covers questions related to regulation and blacklisting. Future Q&As will cover metrics, messaging, list rentals and more.
Q: With the FTC cracking down on the "free" and "spammish" types of offers, and as these get phased out, do you see deliverability getting better for the more "legitimate" type of e-mail offers? A: Michelle Eichner: Whatever changes the government makes, there will always be a group of spammers who will determine ways to beat the system. With this said, ISPs will continue to be forced to advance their technology to combat the ever-growing spam problem. As long as you adhere to best practices, achieving high rates of delivery to the inbox is not that difficult. Q: How do you combat being categorized as spam (i.e., IP and domain rotation)? A: Michelle Eichner: If you intend to rotate your IP or domains, this will appear more spammy. ISPs such as Hotmail have additional rules in place to identify new IPs , for example. The goal is to build up your reputation, not start a new one each time you mail. Q: Will authentication become a requirement in the near term? A: Michelle Eichner: More and more ISPs are adopting some form of authentication. In many cases, this gives the ISP one more data point to determine false positives. In the future, there will come a point at which most of the major U.S. ISPs will be checking and taking slight action upon the results. Setting up an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) does not require much effort or high technical skills. It's our recommendation to at least have an SPF setup at this time, if not SPF and Sender ID. Q: How important is double opt-in (DOI)? A: Stephanie Miller: It's the highest standard of permission and, with the right practices, will boost response rates. However, along with more active subscribers, you will also have a smaller file. Many DOI programs convert only 25%-35% of the total. So there is a trade-off and a business decision to be made. Except for third-party mailers, many e-mail marketers do not need to double opt-in if they are disciplined about using a confirmed single opt-in. That means that there is an active step to join the file (no pre-checked boxes) and a very clear confirmation/welcome message. Plus, you need to make it really easy to get off the file (which seems counter-intuitive until you consider that unsubscribe requests are better than driving complaints or annoying your good customers.) Other best practices that strengthen permission are using a complete engagement series for new subscribers, using a preference center, and offering choices about content, frequency and format. Blacklists/Whitelists/Safe Senders Q: What about asking consumers to "safelist"? A: Stephanie Miller: This is a best practice, and the most effective time to do this as the point of signup. So put instructions on your confirmation page, in your welcome message, at the top of the message for the first 30 days, and in the footer always. Make it a benefit to the subscriber. Instead of just, "Add us to your address book" tell them why it's helping them, e.g.: "Never miss an e-mail. Add ADDRESS to your safe senders list: here's how." Q: How can you find out where you are blacklisted? A: Stephanie Miller: Your e-mail broadcast vendor or deliverability service provider should be telling you. Also, check out www.dnsstuff.com or www.senderscore.org to see if you are listed on any major blacklists. Check regularly, and particularly if you see a dramatic drop in response on a particular campaign. Q: Does Yahoo's whitelist really increase deliverability? A: Stephanie Miller: Qualifying for and joining any of the receiver whitelists will improve your deliverability at that receiver, as long as you continue to follow best practices. A: Michelle Eichner: The benefit of being whitelisted directly with the ISP is your e-mails will bypass some of their filters. For instance, AOL has a 100/msg/day limit for those mailers who are not whitelisted. Being on their whitelist will allow your e-mails to bypass this filter all together. Know colleagues who would be interested in this topic? Send them this newsletter, and if they subscribe, you'll be entered into a drawing to win an iPod nano. Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, senior manager of Field Marketing. |
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