Get Your Email Delivered – Demystifying Email Deliverability

Last week Eloqua presented a webinar focused on email deliverability – specifically helping to explain deliverability to the email marketing community.

The “Demystify Email Deliverability” webinar provided a deliverability overview and gave a few examples of how marketers can manage it (with the support of the right platform and reporting). I gave a definition of reputation and what drives reputation such as complaints, bounces, spamtraps, volumes, list management, and content. I also presented tips and tricks for marketers to address what goes into a reputation.

If you didn’t get a chance to attend, here are a few additional thoughts on how to improve email marketing deliverability and conversion:

1. Quality vs. Quantity

Many marketers still believe, more equals better. But in terms of email marketing, this is simply not true. For example, if you are sending emails to unknown or unqualified contacts, many will mark you as spam or your emails will be blocked and perceived as junk.  Why send email to those who are NOT clicking through your emails and websites? Segment non-active targets off your email list and try to reengage them again in a few months. Give targets a reason to make a choice to either opt-in or opt-out. If after some time, they do nothing, remove them. You can save yourself a lot of hassle as they are most likely marking your emails as spam. Be willing to cut your list down to the bare essentials. This is sort of like spring cleaning – remove the clutter from the house in order to see things more clearly. Check and see if your service provider offers an activity/non-activity filter to assist with this.

2. Stay on message and do what you promised!

Marketers often get overzealous with their programs and start sending information to an irrelevant subscriber. The result is they find themselves blocked. There might be something going on in a particular industry and a marketer thinks “hey I can turn this into an opportunity for an email campaign.” Stop! Only send what you promised. If the subscriber asked for a certain email topic from your company, you need to stick to that topic. If you feel like you should be sending additional content, you may be able to potentially add some details to their existing stream of emails. If you do it right, your target may log in to their preference center and add the new content to their subscribed stream. Be cautious, in certain countries and in some cases, this may get you in trouble with data protection authorities if there is an explicit opt-in requirement. Never assume subscribers will want new information so never think for them. Subscribers should have control over their own information and they will be stay loyal if you remember this.

3. Read between the lines to get emails delivered

In order for marketers to improve email marketing deliverability, they must ensure they are delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.  Marketers can accomplish this goal by reading a prospect’s “digital body language” and using this knowledge to guide the buying process. What web pages did prospects visit? Which emails captured their interest? What “breadcrumbs” are they leaving that show their path through the buying process? The industry needs to continue to take a closer look at the way preferences are analyzed and segmented. Marketers should assess a prospect’s wants and needs and also look back at previous purchasing habits to make informed decisions on how best to target. This will undoubtedly protect an email marketer’s vital asset: his or her Sender Score. If this works, no recipient will receive the same email twice and each incidence of communication will reflect that prospect’s propensity to purchase.

When marketers communicate with prospects on relevant topics at the appropriate moments in time, reading the prospect’s digital body language, the marketer’s email capabilities will advance to a level we describe as “Deliverability Plus.” A marketer who operates at a “Deliverability Plus” level will not look like a spammer, but instead will show the credentials of someone communicating on a targeted, segmented basis. The company will define itself as a reputable sender and messages will be welcomed into the inbox.

Find out how Eloqua can help with your email deliverability and overall marketing effectiveness.  Contact us today.