Email Best Practices: Seven Keys To Improving Deliverability Metrics

Email Best Practices: Seven Keys To Improving Deliverability Metrics
By John Gaffney, Senior Analyst

The best email integration and lead generation strategy will come up
empty if messages go undelivered. The deliverability issue is as
complex now as it was in the heyday of spam. The reasons range from
better spam filter technology to aggressive ISP spam police to simply overloaded inboxes. Effective lead generation initiatives will account for and overcome deliverability obstacles. Here are seven keys from companies who have mastered deliverability:

1. Be aggressive: Privacy and deliverability standards do not
   mean that companies should be intimidated from email campaigns for lead
   gen purposes. To the contrary, our experts say that the rules are in
   place to make sure that “good” lead generation campaigns get through
   and “bad” ones are blocked. “Email is the future for us and our
   customers,” says Dennis Dayman, chief privacy and deliverability
   officer for Eloqua.
2. Exercise good judgment: Email campaigns can provide key
   indicators about things that a company may not want to face. Maybe a
   group of once highly-scored leads has stopped responding. Maybe once
   hopeful leads have not responded to an initial outreach. “If that is
   the case, accept it for what it is,” says Chip House, VP industry and
   relationship marketing for Exact Target.
   “Put it in the cold file. Use a method other than email to get that
   prospect started. Don’t force it. Understand that deliverability is
   about reputation, and part of your reputation is knowing how to make
   progress with a client. Continually emailing a cold lead is not
   progress.”
3. Personalize: Blocked emails are usually sent in bulk. It is
   almost impossible to send bulk emails if the message within, and the
   subject line, are personalized. “You don’t hear about social networks
   having spam problems because everything is automatically personalized,”
   says Marketbright
   co-founder Erik Bower. “Our research states that it takes three touches
   for a prospect to remember a brand. So personalize those initial
   touches and not only will they be delivered, but you stand a better
   chance of getting into a personalized relationship.”
4. Consider your rating: Just as consumers have credit ratings,
   email intermediaries and ISPs keep email ratings. If a company’s email
   is delivered, opened, interacted with and maintains a minimal complaint
   level, the rating is high. If it lacks impact, opt-ins and spikes the
   unsubscribe level, the rating is low. You’re inviting the spam police.
   “You know who you’re sending to and you know the metrics involved,”
   says Dayman. “If your rating is dropping, optimize the campaigns to get
   the rating back up.”
5. Timing and Frequency: In the B2C world companies take pains
   to match their email communications with the product purchase lifecycle
   and the customer engagement lifecycle. Customer engagement is defined
   as the extent to which a customer will provide a company with
   information and respond to information. In the B2B world, customer
   engagement is intensified by the smaller customer base and the depth of
   necessary information. “When you reach out and how often you reach out
   must be an automated and customized process,” says Vernon Tirey, CEO of
   Customer Development Solutions.
   “Welcoming email packages must go out automatically to good leads, but
   the message within needs to be customized in order to be delivered and
   then engaged.”
6. Make it granular: In the B2B world, potential clients will
   take the time to consider the detail of a company’s product and service
   offering. So give them a lot of options regarding information content
   and frequency. “Clients understand the lead nurturing process and they
   want to see how they are going to engage with your email process,” says
   Will Schnabel, Vice President and General Manager International Markets
   for Silverpop. “Be as specific as possible and you will be able to automate the content and then be delivered consistently.”
7. Engage the ISPs: “Deliverability algorithms are still something of a black art and they don’t need to be,” says Marketo
   CEO Phil Fernandez. He recommends knowing as much as possible about how
   ISPs put companies on white lists and the behaviors that will land them
   in deliverability limbo.

It's important to remember that deliverability is best achieved by
continually optimizing the targeted customer, subject line, content,
and offer. It is never a destination that a company really completes. A
company is never "delivered," it is continually trying to achieve the
highest rate of deliverability. The higher the deliverability rate, the
better the opportunity for truly integrated lead generation.

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Last 5 posts by Dennis Dayman

• Delivery and deliverability debunked - May 7th, 2012
• European Regulator Warns Silicon Valley About Privacy - April 28th, 2012
• Canada’s anti-spam law won’t take effect until 2013 - April 28th, 2012
• Mr. Dayman Goes to Washington - April 2nd, 2012
• EU proposes a reform of the data protection rules - March 28th, 2012