RE-POSTED from Fresh Business Thinking

Email Health Checking

By Dennis Dayman, Chief Privacy and Deliverability Officer at Eloqua

The rapid pace at which email has developed means that criminals and spammers are constantly looking for new ways to make money and bypass the law. Consequently, email technology and regulators are being forced to keep up. In the past, the threats posed by spam were prevented using fairly basic measures that would block untargeted emails. Content filters were set up to protect inboxes from messages that contained certain keywords. 

For a while this worked, but despite the initial success, filters of this kind caused two main problems. First there are false positives, where legitimate companies, marketing a valid product, were limited in their outreach if one of their key terms was blocked by the spam filter. For example, Pfizer was unable to communicate material around the product Viagra, despite having a legitimate right to market its content. The other was around interfering with personal emails and the result of excessive filters placing emails from family and friends into spam folders....

--MORE--? Click here!

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

REPOSTED from mad.co.uk

When email was first developed, it was primarily used as a channel to exchange research between universities, the government and to share military information with targeted parties. Today the landscape is quite different, and  email is now a fully-fledged method of communication. As is typical however, as its popularity has grown, so has its appeal to criminals. This has created both a challenge in terms of how to prevent this criminal activity, as well as an opportunity, particularly for marketing services companies who strive to support organisations that dispatch targeted emails as part of their marketing communications activities...

MORE? Click here: http://technologyweekly.mad.co.uk

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

The email industry's latest buyout happened a few days ago and we witnessed a highly reputable email monitoring and deliverability reputation company Pivotal Veracity agree to buyout terms from Unica, an Email Service Provider with  gunpowder. Unica is attempting to be a "one-stop shop" for marketers that utilize their suite of services and with the acquisition of Pivotal Veracity, Unica may have completed it’s mission of also providing email reputation and deliverability services to its core clients.

What amazes me about this transaction is that Pivotal Veracity was really making strides in becoming a thought-leader in this small field,  and was competing closely with archrival ReturnPath.  I believe the buyout could potentially alienate a number ESP's from eventually partnering with Pivotal Veracity.  As a result of the buyout, ESPs will be very cautious in their approach to working with Pivotal Veracity. However, this by no means diminishes Pivotal Veracity's tremendous accomplishment and a huge congratulations is in order to everyone associated with Pivotal Veracity including but not limited to Deirdre Baird, Michelle Eichner, Jordan Cohen and Len Schnyder.  It certainly looks like Pivotal Veracity accomplished their goal and executed on their exit strategy perfectly.  For many successful companies, "stage five" constitutes an exit strategy of some kind. This process usually happens after key executives and members of the board vote on such an initiative.  I just think that stage five might have come a bit early for Pivotal Veracity.

All evidence seems to show that the real winner in this transaction is ReturnPath.  ReturnPath no doubt also has an exit strategy, but they appear unwilling to divulge a strategy or partner with an ESP at this point, given their unique leadership position and respected voice in the industry.  Although Pivotal Veracity has many well spoken and thought provoking leaders on their staff, I think ReturnPath and their consummate staff are the real superheroes here.  From  Stephanie Miller, the passionate and relentless email advocate to the outspoken J.D. Falk, whose innate knowledge of email technology and deliverability illuminates us all.  Then, of course, there is the self-proclaimed spamfighter himself, Neil Schwartzman. Without a doubt, ReturnPath’s luminaries saturate the industry with reliable and balanced messaging every time.

Furthermore, with leading services in place that are more robust than ever (such as the latest from Sender Score outlined here by Spencer Kollas), and definitive plans in place for maximizing and monitoring domain reputation for senders, the future looks promising.  When you take emails bright future into account, it appears that  ReturnPath is poised for many quarters of strong growth.  I don’t want to sound like an analyst here, but I really think ReturnPath has what it takes to raise the bar for the entire email community and further develop its existing reputation services.

With these developments, ESPs will now will look to ReturnPath as the consummate leader in the email reputation monitoring space and see one fewer rival, one fewer choice to make.  Senders and ESPs will find that ReturnPath is the only high level and sovereign conduit for stellar email deliverability monitoring and reputation.  The allure of ReturnPath is its stout independent position in our space (a positon that only those in our space truly appreciate.) Certainly Matt Blumberg, George Bilbrey and their hardworking crew can now navigate the email reputation landscape exclusively.

At some point in the future, I’m sure ReturnPath also has an exit strategy in mind and that strategy is not for us to surmise. I would venture to guess that as the industry continues to mature and consolidate, ReturnPath may consider filing for an IPO, especially as we see continued consolidation in this space.   I think what matters most is to enjoy the exciting journey that ReturnPath is paving for our industry.  We now have two choices: we can either watch or we can help them build a company of which we can all be proud of. 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

The preference center is a highly intriguing, untapped resource for Email Marketers and could be used in a variety of ways.  It has the potential to establish critical ground rules with both newfound and dormant subscribers.  When subscribers are awarded mission control to continuously manage their preferences, the amount of information that marketers can glean is truly unlimited.  During last week’s Email Insider Summit, Greg Cangialosi spoke about a “master preference center” which, in essence, puts the subscriber in complete control of different online messaging streams.  Additionally, subscribers would be able to divulge their social media and mobile credentials within the preference center.   By adding social media and mobile to the preference center, users garner an added benefit: they can proactively engage with your subscribers within the “online” marketing channel they prefer.  As Jeannie Mullen points out in her recent Web 3.0 column, subscribers now receive emails through a plethora of online channels. Optimizing the preference center will make for a more satisfying subscriber experience.

Balanced Online Messaging

When it comes to email, we understand the basics. How often do you, the user, wish to receive emails?  What email format do you prefer? However, to get to the next level of online messaging, we need to move beyond basic queries and product of interest questions.  The key to reaching the next level lies in adhering to your subscribers’ wishes and preserving a “balance of online messaging.”  To achieve the goal of balanced messaging, give subscribers social media and mobile preferences as well.  For example, subscribers may prefer to utilize Twitter for customer service inquiries, while other subscribers may choose to receive more “entertaining” messaging via Facebook.  I envision a preference center design, where subscribers can populate a matrix of radio buttons or checkboxes and choose the type of messaging and preferred online channel.  Tweetdeck's latest version is a good example, where the "notifications" tab allows clients to choose the level of detail on each type of message stream.  Perhaps in the future, we'll see more formal messaging dispatched through email instead, which underscores why the vision of a master preference center is so significant.    We’ve learned that subscribers engage with brands through various different online and mobile channels.  Engaging them through their preferred method will pique their interest and ultimately entice them to orbit your brand successfully.

Mini Surveys in the Preference Center

If we continue to explore the potential of a well-structured preference center, we will discover a way that marketers can induce a higher level of participation, intimacy and engagement.  To do this, marketers can devise a “mini survey” (just one or two questions) that updates regularly with relevant and timely questions.  The survey would be integrated into preference center itself.  By adding a mini survey to poll your subscribers, you’ll increase the attributes for a given record in a database, and thereby allow future messaging that is more detailed relevant to your subscribers’ needs and interests.  We learned last week that FedEx has 144 attributes associated with each subscriber.  FedEx utilizes this wealth of information to tailor their marketing to the needs of individual subscribers, which will increase intimacy and engagement.

When your subscribers develop their profiles via the "mini survey," they become "active" subscribers.  In doing so, they give you permission to ameliorate their experience with you even more.  By asking leading questions that will result in a more profound relationship, you will allow your subscribers to modify their behavior and attain a greater degree of engagement with your brand.  Leading questions can invoke a higher level of brand awareness, and the use of time sensitive questions will enable you to increase that level of engagement with your brand sooner rather than later.  For instance, pose questions such as, "How likely are you to purchase from us the holiday season?"  Or, something along the lines of "Do you anticipate making a purchase from use within the next 90 days?"  (Make sure to phrase questions in a sensitive manner, so that they will not alienate your subscribers!)  Questions like these effectively create a sense of urgency and may give you greater insight as to what types of promotions you can successfully "initiate" with each active subscriber.  

Detailed Information: A Prerequisite for Customized, Detailed Messaging

Now, if a newly active subscriber has been dormant since immediately after answering your leading questions, you should take steps to re-engage that subscriber.  When this situation arises, you have a valid excuse to send a re-engaging or “reminder” email with a single survey question that will lead the subscriber to a preference center landing page, without necessarily prompting a smattering of complaints.  A strategy you might consider is utilizing  the preference center as the landing page of choice when formulating re-engagement campaigns. In that case, installing follow up questions there can help you in your mission to engage subscribers.  Using these methods should significantly reduce your spam complaints in the event that the subscriber chooses to end your relationship.

Inevitably, preference centers will get more sophisticated over time, and as Morgan Stewart of ExactTarget quoted Amazon’s chief scientist, who opined, “The future of marketing is based on how we enhance the digital experience of a subscriber and provide more detailed messaging by asking the subscriber for more detailed information.”  You may wonder, “How can I ask my subscribers for more detailed information without seeming intrusive and drawing spam complaints?”  If that is your question, preference centers hold the key to a successful mission with your subscribers. 

 Fred Tabsharani

 Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

Popular opinion states that an unopened email means your subscriber is disengaged and uninterested in making a purchase - we disagree. Unopened email communications have a tangible impact on brand awareness and can lead to purchase activity across all channels.

How? That's the subject of an article in published the latest edition of Email-Worx our weekly newsletter, on the phenomenon known as the Nudge Effect.  At Alchemy Worx we have spent the last 12 months or so looking at what we as email marketers can learn from behavioural economic theory in general and more specifically how behavioural architectural techniques – the Nudge Effect can be utilized to drive sales both on and offline.  

What is the Nudge Effect?

Essentially it's a way of influencing people's behaviour without telling them specifically what to do. You may be frustrated with unopened emails and low click-through rates, but be reassured that even if your subscribers don't open your email, its presence in their inbox leads to a tangible impact on brand awareness and sales via online and other channels.

The complete article which includes a short video clip is definitely worth a read and covers the following:

• Why the Nudge Effect works for email marketers
• How to make an unopened email sell
• How to optimize your emails for the Nudge effect
• How to tell if your unopened emails are impacting sales or conversions in other channels

Find out how to create emails that sell - whether they are opened or not.

Additional research

For an amusing and thought provoking insight into how the Nudge Effect works in daily life, watch this video from the entertainer and master of suggestion, Derren Brown.

You can also learn more about the Nudge Effect from the book that explored it in detail - Nudge: Improving Decisions About, Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein. Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

So, I need to apologize for the lateness of this post in the series, but with the kids on summer break and us taking a holiday it made it difficult to concentrate a bit it seems.

A few week ago my wife walked into my home office and said "Hook, line, and sinker" to which I responded "what?!" She again said, "they got me Hook, line, and sinker".

When asked further, she began to expound what she meant by describing a marketing email she received from Provo Craft that did not have a video within in the email, but a link to a set of video's over time, sort of a series that we had to wait for and boy did we wait for each and every one when it was released. The funny thing about this marketing campaign is that in only two (2) emails over a single month they have captured our attention without flooding us.

Of course, I asked her to write up her feelings about this one and what caused her to stay engaged for you to see.

------

Hey, hon -

I forwarded an email to you, and I'm sure you're wondering why.  It's not some sort of ploy to get you to add a little goodie to my Christmas list.  (Not yet, at least.)  I wanted to show you a marketing email that impressed me!

http://www.roguegypsies.com/

Okay, so you love to tell me that I would buy anything that is one-to-a-customer.  While I stand by the fact that that's not entirely true (I know I love a good clearance rack!), I will admit that this email pulled me in the other day.  The level of creativity and the relevance to my interests was enough to break down my "anti-marketing email" walls.  Get this - not only did I read through the email in it's entirety, but then I clicked over to their website, and then (the icing on the cake!), I WATCHED A MARKETING VIDEO.  It was a quick YouTube video, and it was witty.   They had an entire website set up to go along with this marketing idea, complete with a blog and twitter updates.  They certainly made the most of social media, while keeping it light-hearted and fun. 

An aside:  Kudos to you, Provo Craft.  It's been a long time since I've been entertained by a marketing pitch, but your "Gypsy" updates have been so catchy.  You've done exactly what I would guess you intended to do - peak my interest in a new product that has yet to be released.  I'll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "Gypsy" in my local scrapbook store so I can see all that it's capable of!

Sorry I got off-track, babe.  Just thought you'd like to see an email that I was impressed with, given it seems I'm usually dumping on marketing emails.  I like to give credit and praise where it's due, and in this case, from my mom-perspective, it was well-deserved.  Glad to have the opportunity...

Love you - wife

PS - An after-thought:  I like that Provo Craft made use of all of the new social medias available, but didn't overwhelm me with emails.  Thus far, over the course of a month, I've only received two emails in my inbox - one when they first got started, and one update.  A nice balance - they let me keep up-to-date with their "progress" if I chose to, but didn't decide for me that I would want to see every bit of the process.  Again, so impressed!

------

My wife was right, after she sent me this I went to review their site and was impressed that Provo Craft DID really use a great set and balance of social media avenue's to allow customers to monitor the progress of these video's and other announcements of their new product release vs. just all email, all the time.

You want a good laugh as well, check out their "Dog the Bounty Hunter" style video's at http://www.roguegypsies.com/ I'm not a scrap-booker, but they kept me engaged.

Kudo's to Provo Craft for winning over my wife and breaking my bank again ;). This is award winning marketing in my book (checkbook that is)

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

If you haven't seen these and also need one, you should check out the Email Experience Council (EEC) Email Checklist Series. These are a neat set of shared and time tested resources from the Email Design Roundtable. The roundtable is chaired by eec members Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon and Megan Walsh of Williams-Sonoma.

The latest in the series is Email Checklist Series: Anatomy of an Email Newsletter or Email Checklist Series: Email Design. You can compare each of your email/template designs against these checklists before approval and coding. This way you won't find yourself wasting valuable deployment time.

The most recent checklist in the series "Anatomy of an Email Newsletter" gives GREAT email image examples and also a checklist that covers Overall Design & Style when it comes to formatting, fonts, and images and also Elements of an Email Newsletter like Preheader Text, Header & Navigation, and Tables of Contents. These are just a few to name, but there is MUCH more within the checklist itself.

Well worth the download if you haven't already seen them and also when you find yourself scrambling every time for a review of your creation by the industry experts. That's not typically cheap on its own :)

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

So not sure how many of you here have been following this, but Microsoft has made an announcement saying that the rendering engine will CONTINUE to be WORD in the next version of Outlook. This of course will continue to heavily impact how your emails will render or not render for several years (did I mention I use a MAC).

I make the assumption here that many already understand the issues with Outlook 2007:

• no support for background images (HTML or CSS)
• no support for forms
• no support for Flash, or other plugins (not that this is a big thing and I don't advocate it)
• no support for CSS floats
• no support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
• no support for CSS positioning
• no support for animated GIFs

This information obviously prompted an interesting grassroots use of social media (twitter) Fixoutlook.org where you can file a petition against this.

People like email-standards.org have been advocating a list of recommendation the Outlook team should consider and also posted some GREAT examples of what this will do to your email rendering.

The Outlook team themselves have even posted a response to all this titled "The Power of Word in Outlook"

Now, I know this might be a bit early in the development process and say specifically that this will hopefully NOT continue to happen, but my past experiences with a large company like Microsoft is that they will do what they want no matter how much of a cry is put out there. I for one am still not happy about their community involvment even over the past 10-15 years in email. Please visit http://www.fixoutlook.org and let the Microsoft Office development team know your thoughts.

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

So first, I'm not trying to take over my good friend Dylan Boyd's posts on The Email Wars where he regularly compares and comments on good and bad emails that he personally sees in his email box.

I think for this one, I just got excited to see one of my own customers succeeding with some simple, but yet effective tools (activty filters) and processes in managing their lists with the idea of quality over quantity. This typically is a difficult decision for many companies to decide to let go of their non-active customers, but as the year moves on I am seeing more and more companies seeing the benefit of doing such in controlled manner like this one.

What it was:

A reactivation email was sent to subscribers who have neither opened nor clicked Kings/Monarchs gameday alert emails after 2-3 weeks into the season. About 5 gameday alerts have been sent to subscribers when they executed the reactivation program.

In a nutshell, they wanted to make sure that they were delivering relevant communications to fans (= subscribers = recipients).

Why did like this so much you ask?

1. It was short and sweet. Not to much wording. Captures the attention (5 secs).Little images
2. Less than a page.
3. Not a lot of BIG images swung wherever it would hang. 
4. Gave the recipient a CHOICE (would make it blink if I could). Yes? or No?, O? or X?, Blue? or Red?
5. Has an option for mobile devices within the email

----------

----------

In the midst of my excitement, I called the person in charge of this and asked them to throw together their thoughts behind this campaign. I wanted them to have the ability to share the why's! Did it work for them? Why did they do it? What could they teach others who read this blog?

Here's what Ken Niwa their Relationship Marketing Manager at ARCO Arena had to say:

Reasons:

1. 82 emails in six months is way too many communications for even me, someone who works for the team
2. With Eloqua, (sorry about the pitch), we were able to automate the reactivation process

Success:

1. Inactive subscribers that we thought are dead aren't dead!. They clicked keep my active.
2. Felt comfortable sending 82 emails throughout the Kings season (34 for the Monarchs) since recipients are actively engaged (opening and/or clicking) or have asked to continue to receive gameday alerts
3. Minimized unsubscribe and complaint rates
4. Created a win-win situation --- we felt good about the high response rate (= 35.2% Email Group Open Rate) and fans were happy to receive emails from us.

I say kudo's to Ken and the Sacramento Kings/Monarchs for their diligent work and good choices.

We would love to see comments if you have them.

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

So this past week there was some internal discussion at Eloqua and on some of the industry lists asking the question, "Does having the company's brand name sending the email or the first name of recipient of the email in the subject line hurt or help opens". The discussions and "evidence" were ramped from all sides where some people showed improvement in email opens and other debated that doing such is a sign of spammers.

This of course had me wondering how the average user of email would view these ideas. So, time to ask the wife who is always right.

Here is her response (BTW, I am in the EU for a few weeks)

-----

I'm sensing a trend.  You travel, then I get an assignment.  (Better get me a good souvenir!) 

Here's my response to today's question:  How do you feel about personalized email?  Stick with me for a minute...

When I first meet someone, I call them ma'am or sir.  I use phrases like "excuse me," and if I can't get their attention, I might venture as far as a gentle tap on the arm.  Calling someone by their first name is something that seems inherently personal to me, and I think it should be reserved for the building of a relationship, not just a passing encounter.  For example, I don't like when I go to a restaurant with someone and they call the waiter/waitress by their first name.  They're virtually strangers to one another, and it's only the name tag that gives their first name away.  It seems assuming and insincere, if a quick interaction during lunch at Chili's can be looked at like that.  (I know, I know.  You're totally shaking your head at me right now.  You know you do that, right?)  Well, I'd say that's how I look at personalized emails.  My name was picked from a list. The sender of the email doesn't know me.  They don't know my preferences, my family, my habits.  It feels like the sender is trying to fake a personal connection with me. It's not until we've established a relationship, either as a friend or colleague or customer, that I'd actually feel genuinely comfortable with someone calling me by my first name.  Now, I'm certain that I could come up with worse offenses than this, but you gave me a specific topic.  In keeping with that, here's the short answer.  I don't care for personalized emails, but it wouldn't top my "complaints about email" list.

That's it for now.

xoxo - wife

PS - My friends and family don't ever write my name in the subject line.  Marketers know that an email that contains my own name in the subject line is a red flag (junk mail alert!) to me, right? 

------

Now I haven't had much time to chat with my wife this week on this subject, but what I would like to point out to her is that many email lists or companies she's deals with probably do have preferences on her. Now the question is are they using them? Probably not as well as they should be or is it possible that she doesn't fill out the entire form or preferences?

As she pointed out, I do call people by the first name in restaurants or stores, I'm guilty, but if they are wearing that name tag then obviously they want me to say hey Dave vs. sir (which I hate when kids call me that these days). I also believe this is a difference in the person's wants as well. I, as many of you know me, am by NO means shy... My wife is a little more reserved. So maybe that alone is a determiner in whether it's a good thing or not to be personal RIGHT out of the gate.

My opinion? Using personalization in the subject line when properly done can't hurt you in delivery, but if your already using the FROM with branding maybe you don't need it in the SUBJECT line if your company brand is strong and known. If your a small brand or need some strength, then try out the subject line.

You should also consider the amount of subject line real-estate you have to give to this if you want to do it and DO NOT EVER use the email address in the subject line as a personalization if your DO NOT have the recipients first name. Spammers do that...

If your looking at answer the same question, try some A-B split testing. Try some emails with personalization in the SUBJECT and some without. See where your brand and customers stand when it comes to that. Then give them what they want.

I should go through my wife's Inbox when I get home just to see how many emails contain a personalization in the subject line.

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

My good, trusted, and long term friend David Romerstein (Romer) did an excellent piece discussing why your email was blocked and what to do about it on the Cloudmark blog. You should check them out...

BLOCKED EMAIL PART 1: “WHY ME?”

Everyone’s had it happen. You forward a joke to a friend or coworker, email a possible new vendor requesting a quote, or send out your daily/weekly/monthly newsletter and, a short time later, you get back that dreaded notification: “Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender”. Your first reaction is probably indignation. “I’m not a spammer,” you think to yourself, “so how dare they block my email!” Believe it or not, the receiving ISP probably doesn’t think that you’re a spammer.

BLOCKED EMAIL PART 2: “NOW WHAT DO I DO?”

In Part I, we talked about a few of the possible reasons that your email might be blocked. Today, we’ll talk about things that an individual end-user can do when they receive one of those dreaded bounce messages. Several of the tips here will also be relevant for small businesses.

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Remember the t-shirt from this blog post? Well, the fact of the matter is my wife does rock...

I've bugged her to do a blog post for me for a few months now and recently must have come across something that finally peaked her interest. While at my last conference the most popular question seemed to be about the uses of social media and video in email marketing. I decided to pose the question to the wife, stay-at-home mom extraordinaire.

Here's her email reply to me:

------

So, you asked for a blog post from me, but I'm hoping you'll settle for this email, because, well, I don't have a blog.  I'm too busy reading all of them to actually keep up with one of my own.

Tonight you asked me if a marketing email that contained a video would be appealing to me.  Sorry, my forward-thinking husband, but I've got to say no.  Quite honestly, most marketing emails that I receive are deleted before I really even look through them.  I find that most of them either:

1. Are not targeting the types of things I would be interested in, or
   
2. Are slamming me with so much email it becomes bothersome.  (You know, like the neighbor kids that ring your doorbell incessantly even though you've told them time after time you're not coming out to play?  Yeah, bothersome like that.)
   

It's unfortunate for them, really, since as the mom and wife (a.k.a. buyer of the household) I've got some good spending power behind me.  Anyway, when a marketing email does manage to catch my attention (usually with a good subject line that peaks my interest), I scan it for the item I might be interested in, similar to how I'd scan a book or an article.  I'm looking for specific content, and I don't often take the time to read through the email from start to finish.  A video wouldn't allow me that option.  Since you don't know what a video will contain next, you're forced to watch it in its entirety. Either that, or you could choose not to watch it at all, and realistically, that's the route I would go.  I mean, really, who chooses to watch a commercial?  (Isn't that what a marketing video really would be? A commercial?  An infomercial at best, I suppose.)  Isn't that why they invented TiVo?  To skip over the commercials?  Marketers, in my humble opinion, would be better served by taking the time to truly listen to what their customer wants and then trying to give them a good deal on the product they're interested in.  If you can do those two things, and catch me with a good email subject line, then I'm far more likely to actually purchase the product.

*An hour later.*

Okay.  I'm back after a little more thought on the subject.  I stand by what I said earlier - chances are, I wouldn't watch a generic video sent to me in an email by, umm, let's say American Airlines.  (Only choosing them since they send me TONS of email.  Snooze. Give me some good prices, American Airlines.  Then we'll talk.)  That is, unless they specifically targeted a location that I was truly interested in traveling to in the video.  I probably wouldn't watch a video from Oh My Crafts (which, by the way, sends me INSANE amounts of email with "BIG SALES!" for just about every occasion under the sun. Hello?  Oh My Crafts?  You can't extend every sale and expect us to be pleasantly surprised.), unless it was a "how-to" video on my latest crafting project.  If a video is something that marketers are considering, from my point of view, I'd rather an email (again, with a punchy subject line) letting me know that a selection of videos are available for viewing at my leisure on their website.  Then, I could choose to watch only the videos that interest me - I wouldn't have to watch the pre-selected email video about maybe, Costa Rica, if I would indeed rather travel to Paris again.  (Hypothetically speaking, of course.)  Now, I know nothing about all of the email/website technology available, but wouldn't allowing people to click into a website garner more information for the marketers?  Is there a way for the marketers to track the video I choose to watch so that they can then market more specifically to my interests?  I don't know.  That seems to make more sense to me. But, I'm not a marketer - I'm a shopper.

*Another afterthought.*

If you were going to post a video to a website (again, if that’s as effective as I think it could be), maybe it needs to be for a limited time.  Or, at least “featured” for a limited time before it’s sent to a less accessible archive, or something of the sort.  If I knew that I only had a week or so to watch a video of interest, I’d be more likely to immediately click over to view it.  If I knew that it would be available indefinitely, I’d probably choose to procrastinate (again, hypothetically!), and then it would move to the bottom of my priority list, and then, POOF!  Somehow your catchy little video falls off my radar.

I guess what I’m saying is this:  if a marketer isn’t careful, he’s going to get an introduction to my delete key far more often than he’s going to get my attention, or in this particular case, get me to push the play button.

So, it seems that if I did have a blog of my own, I'd need to learn how to edit my asides in a more effective way than by using parentheses.  They're a little overwhelming at times.  But, now you know what I'm thinking.  Hope I gave you the information that you wanted, babe.

Love you.

xoxo - wife

---------

To be honest and without any direction from me, this is the sort of thinking I was expecting from an average day user/mom of email. Not to many have time in their day to watch that many video emails. We already complicate marketing emails with to much information and frequency to the point where they become useless to many like my wife.

We all know what will happen if marketers get a whiff of the potential here. A good chunk of them will try this technology and cram even more information into an already overloaded email and not take the time even understanding its impact on the user. Are we REALLY ready for video in email? Most of us haven't figured out marketing best practices on what we have already in our hands.

1. Keep your emails short and sweet. Don't make them a full page.
2. Be clear on what the email means to the reader by using clear subject and from lines 
3. Run your points clearly and in the beginning of your email.
4. Don't lead the email with a large image. They are blocked default. 
5. Send the prospect to a website for the multimedia experience and full message. Also allows for better activity tracking v.s opens and clicks off an email which as most here know is hard to measure (Digital Body Language)

What sorts of questions do you have for my wife? Post your questions in the comments or Q&A section. We will see if she's interested...

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Many e-commerce and multichannel retailers need to go to greater lengths to prevent deceptive e-mail and phishing scams, according to industry group the Online Trust Alliance (OTA).

The organization released a report last week claiming that 56% of .gov Web sites and 45% of leading e-commerce sites are not taking appropriate e-mail and domain security measures....

--MORE--

http://www.dmnews.com/Companies-must-take-e-mail-authentication-seriously-to-protect-brands-and-domains/article/130754/

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Image only emails – Smart or Stupid?

Most email clients block email images from unknown senders by default. So best practice advice for the use of images on email (particularly large ones that appear in the preview pane) is to avoid using them if at all possible.

If you do have to use images the general recommendation is that you use them sparingly, making sure you use carefully thought Alt Tags AND text descriptors for the images. Other design techniques used to compensate for the image being blocked include, putting text behind them and using collapsible boxes.

So why so many companies persist in sending image only emails with no ALT Tags?

The short answer is that for some brands and markets - Fashion for example, images are integral to the sell, so they have to be used. However it is much less easy to understand why such great brands, with significant email budgets and very smart people working on their campaigns completely ignore best practice advice when it comes to ALT Tags etc. Surely their results must be adversely affected!

It would appear not. Analysis conducted by my company into the impact of images on client campaigns reveals a very interesting phenomenon.

Emails such as Email-Worx our own newsletter that is optimised for image blocking generate clicks from people who did not “open” the email. We typically find that around 3% of the clicks do not have a corresponding open (false negatives).

By comparison emails that use lots of or consist entirely of images generate fewer clicks without opens. In fact the harder it is to decipher the content of an email with images blocked the lower the incidence of false negatives!
 
It would appear that by withholding any information about what is in the email until images are downloaded, brands are able to get more of their subscribers to download their images. A very important tactic for brands that rely on creative to sell! Clearly this is only likely to work if the email is about a product their subscribers desire or are highly engaged with the senders brand.

So does this mean that you can ignore best practice and start to use images with impunity?

There's no right or wrong answer to that question, in our experience an approach that is highly effective in one market may not work for another. However we believe that marketers have 3 options and in the most recent issue of the Alchemy Worx newsletter we provide examples of how brands use images and discuss how images can be used in greater detail.

Here is a quick summary of the article.

Fully optimised for image blocking

Email designed in such a way that the content of the email is easily decipherable and downloading the images makes very little difference.

More suited to:
• Products and services that are not reliant on visuals
• Emails where content is the value proposition
• Transactional or update emails
• Newsletters
• B2B

Optimising for creative driven or image only emails

Emails designed to have little or no value until images are downloaded.

More suited to:
• Products and services that are highly visual
• Brand building
• B2C
• Building Desire
• Price indifference

Optimising for both

Emails designed “sell” with images blocked, but look more appealing with images downloaded.

More suited to:
• Products and services that are quite visual
• Retailers with many product lines to promote
• Groceries
• Price sensitive products and discounting

There you have it! If you are more likely to sell to a person who has seen your product or creative than a person who hasn't you may be able to maximise the number of people who download your creative and generate more sales by completely ignoring best practice.

Don't miss the eec's webinar on April 29th, New FTC Chair, New Rules? Update Your Email & Digital Strategy. This great event will feature speakers from the FTC, DMA, Return Path, e-Dialog and Eloqua. We'll provide more information in the coming weeks. 

Jerry Cerasale, DMA

TBD, FTC

Rick Buck, e-Dialog

Dennis Dayman, Eloqua

Stephanie Miller, Return Path

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

buy my own what? is that a new car model with the latest gas savings technology from Volkswagen? or is it the latest email coalition trying to get me to give them money for membership or attend another overdone and repeated panel on email best practices? or is it the ability to make my own mark on this thing wonderful thing we call the Internet?

Well, the latter is a better answer.

One piece of advice for readers, if your a marketer or non-techie... please read this post till the end. I know it contains some icky technical stuff, but you should be aware of it. In fact, after this I suggest you go find your technical group and hug a geek and discuss. I know that techies and marketers tend not to mingle in this space, but as things like what you are about to learn keep popping up, both sides should be more involved in each others work.

Ok, now follow me on this because this Internet thing isn't as easy as making a content piece, hitting that old send button, eyes closed, and hoping for ROI.

A "generic top-level domain" (gTLD) consists of well-known extensions like .com, .info, .net, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .org domains. 

With me so far?

Overall, these are designated as generic-restricted, and registrations within them are supposed to require proof of eligibility within the guidelines set for each. These are maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use on the Internet. IANA is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management for the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet protocol assignments. Basically, they are the people who maintain IP address and domain names structure we use today. It is operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN. ICANN (pronounced - eye-can) is a non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. government by other organizations, notably IANA.

Confused yet? don't be... ICANN bascially is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers like IP address and domains.

So why am I tell all this to you? Well, ICANN is working on a new procedure (Warning Science Content) that will allow any company or persons to register their own gTLD like .com for their own purposes. ICANN's new plan would expand the number of potential gTLDs by several orders of magnitude, and would allow for extensions 3-63 characters long. Pretty much whatever you or any companies may want. Somewhere between 200-800 new domain name extensions could be purchased/created.

So instead of being limited to gTLDs which describe the purpose of traffic on the domain, such as .gov, .edu, end users or companies could apply for their own top level domains. The city of Dallas could be .Dallas; the Texas Rangers could claim .TexasRangers, Coke might by .coke, Calloway might swipe .golf or.calloway, and GM (if still around) might try for .cars or .gm.

Basically for 25,000 or even more (180,000+) depending on the number of applications or value for a particular gTLD you can buy .eloqua. So in essence my company could buy .eloqua and then create on our web-servers and email systems the structure marketing.eloqua, sales.eloqua, delivery.eloqua, support.eloqua, etc. Would be just like today how we might put up marketing.eloqua.com or sales.eloqua.com, except we own the "space" or gTLD and control all contents within it.

Just as with intellectual property applications, there will be a public opposition period. There are four (4) stated reasons for opposition:

• String Confusion
• Existing Legal Rights
• Morality and Public Order
• Community Objection

Another few concerns from my point of view and some discussion with others in DC last week at the IAPP Summit.

• How do you apply tracking cookies to gTLD since it's only applied to the domain like eloqua.com.
• How does a browser function like in Google's Chrome with a single fully intergrated address/search bar tell you if this is a search term for att with google results or you want att.att or mobile.att or att.com as a website?
• How can we effectively teach end users what is really Bank of America email? does Bank of America now work under .bank? bankofamerica.bank? do all banks work under that?
• Where does email authentication then fit into all this? Does email from Bank of America come from bankofamerica.com, bankofamerica.bank? accounts.bankofamerica? 
• Will things like .bank be effectively managed in terms of accountability and security with what banks might be able to be listed under that gTLD?

To be perfectly honest, I don't see the benefit in doing this. This is NO small change. This just opens the flood gates to fraud and continuous erosion of the email accountability and security that we already are treading water with.

Why is ICANN doing this? MONEY! 

Applying for a new domain will cost an estimated $185,000, with an additional $75,000 a year fee to keep the domain registered. You do the math... 800 possible gTLD's? $148 million in applicant fees and $60 million a year "rent." 

Is the money really worth the problems? the continuous erosion of certain aspect of the Internet like email? Would love your thoughts on this.

 

ICANN’s plans to start accepting applications in the second quarter of 2009 and role all of this out in one year. So your companies may want to consider depending on needs and money if you want to buy your own mark on the Internet.

Wonder which one of us will buy .email first?

Anyone want .spammer?

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

I hope that you had a great holiday season as my family did; however, it wasn’t a long enough vacation though…

As you might recall, the plan to tackle the broad topic of “How Email Works” was to break it down into the following sections:

• How MTAs (Mail/Message Transfer Agents) Communicate
• What is a “Bounce?”
• How MTAs Handle Bounces
• How Bounces Can Affect a Subscriber’s Status

We left off in the series discussing “How MTAs Handle Bounces”. Today, I wanted to close this series by discussing how bounces can affect a subscriber’s status within your database.

As you should know by now, bounces are a way for a recipient mail server to tell you how you should treat that message (often including information specific to an email address). Some tell you the address is no longer valid and that you should never try it again, some say that the email inbox for that recipient is full and to try again later, some tell you that the recipient mail server is broken and to come back later, and some tell you that the ISP’s suspects that your email might be spam.

In most cases, there is an action to be taken in how you can email that person in the future, if at all.

Let’s take a look at this from an ISP perspective instead today and use the example of a bounce telling you an email address is no longer valid (550 User Unknown).

If you look at AOL’s standards, which are mostly identical to other ISP’s standards, a high number of invalid recipients (bad email addresses) will harm your reputation. Also, it is important to note that many ISP networks and anti-spam systems usually have auto-blocking mechanisms in place to prevent against mailing too many invalid recipients as it looks like a “Directory Harvest Attack”. The ISP has no clue that you are not intentionally malicious as the data patterns have extremely similar characteristics. They are only trying to protect their network and subscribers from abuse.

You will always have some invalids due to people changing email addresses, but the lower the number, the better your reputation. A majority of spammers (if not all) don’t care about bounces and tend to use the “spray and pray” method. Spray and pray is when a spammer fires out tons of email (usually in long bursts) without aiming, hoping that someone will buy from them when they hit a valid account out of the millions they harvest off the Internet. They never stick around to collect bounces to clean their lists and usually move on to the next rock they can hind under to spray and pray again. So every time they send, they are sending to the same valid AND invalid addresses. This is why removing dead addresses is vitally important the first time an ISP tells you the address your trying to deliver to is NO longer valid.

Another key reputation metric some ISPs use is to count the number of times a particular sending IP address attempts to mail the same inactive/non-existent/dead accounts. This data point can be used as a way to determine if that sender should be blocked. You may have had all the permission in the world for mailing these addresses, but use a system that did not effectively manage bounces with relation to a subscriber’s status. Regardless, the data from the ISPs point of view is extremely similar to that of a spammer and usually triggers a block (rightfully so).

Now let’s take a look at temporary (often referred to as “soft”) bounces such as mailbox full (again from an ISP’s perspective).

While I am currently unaware of any ISPs that will block based solely on mailing to accounts that are over quota (mailbox full), over time it‘s likely those addresses are abandoned and will eventually turn into a non-existent email account. In the B2C world of delivery, many ISPs have provided PLENTY of storage space to their subscribers; however, this is often not the case with corporate domains. Therefore, some subscriber management systems are advanced enough to “suppress” mailbox full bounces from various ISPs on the first notification; however, they may not do the same for the same bounces from a non-ISP domain.

Finally, let’s look at one more example such as blocking (you guessed it, from an ISP’s perspective). Again, I don’t know of any ISPs that will block you “more” if your trying to send to a system that your blocked from, but again it makes NO sense to continue to try if you can’t get through.

In terms of seeing a block in your bounce reporting, you should suspend delivery of email to that particular domain until you can resolve the root cause of the issue. ISPs would greatly appreciate the gesture of sender’s not hammering away at their networks while knowing their mail will not be accepted (Do you see any similarities between this behavior and the “spray and pray” behavior we discussed earlier?); however, this will not be enough for you to get the block removed.

Most bounces indicating a block are typically classified in the 5xx (“hard”) category; however, some ISPs will actually issue a 4xx (“soft”) bounce based on reputation (or other parameters). Often times a subscriber status should not be affected based on these codes and verbiage; however, you should:

1. Suspend future mailings to that ISP/network/domain.
2. Carefully examine your data to determine the root cause of the issue.
3. Attempt to resolve the issue with the ISP/network/domain via their proper/preferred channel's.

One of the basic principles to ensure good delivery has always been quality over quantity. Address “churn” is always increasing and mailers should expect to see list degradation; however, ensuring that your mailing platform is built to effectively manage a subscriber’s status can be instrumental to your success!

Again, I want to thank one of my good friends and colleagues in this industry Greg Kraios for helping me originally with this idea. He helped with the first post and had hoped to participate more during the series, but do to some pressing issues could not help as much as we wanted; however today he was able to add his two smart cents to this final posting in the series and in record time I might add. Great work my friend...

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

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!

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090108/FREE/901089995/1084/FREE

The challenges to deliverability depend on the size of the company, its marketing activities and its target markets. Unfortunately, there’s not a simple checklist companies can go through, but by examining a few areas, such as data quality and depth, marketers can determine if deliverability is a problem they need to address.

A common mistake marketers make is focusing on how to circumvent content filters. Instead, they should examine their marketing behaviors, policies and procedures, paying attention to their company’s reputation, list quality, content relevance and accreditation.

The e-mail deliverability process is similar to the credit approval system. Once the service provider authenticates or identifies the company sending the e-mail, they look at the reputation associated with that identity. Have people filed complaints against the company? Are e-mail offers in line with what recipients expect? Do they have spam traps or too many bad e-mail accounts?

List quality and content relevance are also critical. Companies must look at their prospect lists on a regular basis to ensure e-mail addresses are current and relevant, and should segment their lists so targets receive only the type and frequency of e-mails they specified. A simple quarterly reminder of what they requested with offers for additional types of e-mails is fine. But by not adhering to prospects’ requests, companies jeopardize their reputation and may end up in the junk mail folder because of complaints.

Companies can also seek e-mail accreditation—a third party assessment that determines if a marketer is following laws and best practices guidelines when it comes to e-mailing and privacy.

Finally, marketers should pay close attention to prospects’ “digital body language,” or the way they interact with the company. By looking at signals such as whether a person has visited the Web site, requested a phone call or information, downloaded materials or attended a webinar, marketers can make better decisions about how best to market to these individuals and what e-mail offers to make.

Dennis Dayman is chief privacy and deliverability officer at Eloqua (www.eloqua.com), a provider of demand generation, marketing automation and lead generation solutions. He writes a blog on e-mail deliverability at www.deliverability.com.

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Chris Wheeler from Datran Media (formerly of Amazon) wrote a great summary of email deliverability basics in DM News. Chris focuses on the following five concepts:

• Get Permission
  
• Maintain Your Lists
  
• Authentication Matters
  
• Follow the Rules and Regulations
  
• Develop the Right Creative

  Read the article for the full scoop.

If you have been just sitting around waiting for the next part of this series, apologies are in order – the industry has been hopping during the month of October.  On the other hand, if you had overlooked the delay, perfect!  Glad to catch up with you!

Hoping that you have had the opportunity to take part in some industry-related event in this past month.  Personally, I have been privileged to speak at numerous events in several states.  I was also proud to take part in Eloqua’s first annual customer event in Las Vegas.  It was hugely successful, and a good time, too!
As you might recall, the plan to tackle the broad topic of “How Email Works” was to break it down into the following sections:

• How MTAs (Mail/Message Transfer Agents) Communicate
• What is a “Bounce?”
• How MTAs Handle Bounces
• How Bounces Can Affect a Subscriber’s Status

We left off in the series discussing “What is a Bounce?” Today, I wanted to talk briefly (yeah, right!) about how bounces are handled in the underbelly of the Internet.

Let’s break it down this way.

When you send a postal letter through the United States Postal Service (USPS) there are five (5) specific locations that will be crucial to the exchange.

1. Your mailbox
2. Your local post office
3. The road with the postal trucks on it
4. Your recipient’s local post office
5. Your recipient’s mailbox

Similarly, when you send an email in the simplest form, there are five (5) specific locations that will be crucial to the exchange.

1. Your inbox/outbox
2. Your mail server or ISP
3. The Internet
4. Your recipient’s mail server or ISP
5. Your recipient’s inbox/outbox

If we stick with our snail mail analogy, a bounce could easily compared to a letter marked “return to sender.” When you send a letter to an intended recipient at a home or business, but your friendly local postman finds that person is no longer at the requested address, the post office sends the letter back to you explaining that the letter, for one reason or another, is undeliverable. The letter will probably now bear a red stamp on it that describes why they couldn’t deliver it. It usually says something like “Return to Sender – no person at this address.”

Thankfully, when you sent the letter, you also included a return name and address block in the top left hand corner of your letter so that:

1. Your recipient knows who sent the letter before opening it.
2. If something were to go wrong and the postal service couldn’t deliver it, they know how to return it to you.

When you send an email, the same concept is applied.

1. You include a FROM or Return-Path address block so the recipient knows who sent the email.
2. If something goes wrong and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) is not able to deliver the email because the person is no longer on that service, they know how to return and notify you.
3. The “bounce,” or your “return to sender” notification includes a bit of information describing why the email could not be delivered. The most common bounces are 4xx (i.e., 421 Mailbox Full) and 5xx (i.e., 550 Recipient Not Found) errors. These can widely vary depending on both the ISP that is sending the email back and the sender’s systems.

Without getting into all the nuts and bolts of the specs, according to the RFC (Internet Standards) specification, all 4xx class errors are considered to be temporary failures and should be retried later. Again, by RFC specs, all 5xx class errors are permanent failures and should not be retried.

Okay, let's take a look at a couple of bounce messages. Buried in the myriad of letters and numbers, are a few important things:

Let’s say you attempted to send an email to a friend at example.com.  If your MTA (Mail Transfer Agent or your mail server) receives a bounce from this email, it should look something like this.

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<somewhere@example.com>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to smtp.example.net.:
>>>> DATA
<<< 550 5.1.1 <somewhere@example.com>... User unknown
<<< 503 RCPT first (#5.5.1)

Here's a bounce from another mail server, which attempts to be friendlier:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at example.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<somewhere@example.com>:
10.10.10.10. does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
Giving up on 10.10.10.10.

The part of the messages that read "MAILBOX NOT FOUND" or "User unknown" are key. Depending on the reason for the failure, these might actually be one of several different messages.

Again, just like your local postal office, when the letter is returned to them by the recipient’s post office (because they couldn’t deliver the letter), they:

1. Look at the return name and address block to see who originally sent the letter.
2. Look at the red stamp that was put on the letter by your recipient’s local postal office.

Your local postal office can then make a determination on what to do with your letter. In this case, the protocol is to return the original letter to your postal box at home, so you can take an action on it. Maybe it’s time to update your address book, or double-check your penmanship.  Once you have cleared up the mistake, you can then resend the letter.  (Or you could convince your friend that email would be much better than postal mail anyway.)

In the email world, when the email is returned to your mail server (or ISP) by your intended recipient’s mail server (or ISP), they:

1. Look at the Return-Path or bounce address it was sent from when it bounced to see who to send a notice to.
2. Look at the codes stamped in the bounce by the recipient’s mail server (or ISP) to determine the reason for the bounce or failure to deliver the message.

Your mail server (or ISP) will then send you the original email with a set of stamps (550 User Unknown) as shown above telling you what happened so you can take an action it. Maybe that action is to remove that person from your address book or double check the email address you had typed.  (Thankfully, this time your poor penmanship is not to blame.)

One of the most common solutions for a bounced email, (aside from checking to be sure that you are sending to the right address, of course), is to "wait a while and try again". The email system, while somewhat random, is also somewhat self-healing. If there's an email server with a problem, chances are it will get fixed or eventually bypassed, especially if it belongs to a larger ISP. For temporary problems, email servers will typically keep trying for up to four (4) days before giving up and will let you know if they have indeed given up with a bounce.

Now let’s talk about how this effects you on a day-to-day basis. How does my ESP or in-house solution handle my bounces for my campaigns on such a large level? Most companies today offer a “best in class” bounce handling system that goes beyond simple 3 digit (550 or 421) error processing. They want to ensure the best possible deliverability to each of your recipients. Most should be attempting to read not only the error codes, but also the description of the error, like “User Unknown” or “Mailbox Full.” So, their system should go the extra mile and continue to retry temporary failures automatically for you, or should stop trying to deliver email to bad email accounts. They should also be very THOROUGH in their reporting of email failures to you so you can understand the problems or trends in your email marketing programs (hard, soft, blocks, technical, etc failures). This also means they should retry failures intelligently, making sure they do not overload the receiving system in the process.

So, that’s it for today.  That is how email servers handle bounces in a nutshell. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email us to get further clarification on this subject, submit a topic idea, or plain just post a comment to us.  Looking forward to How Email Works, The Final Chapter.  (Coming soon to a blog post near you.)

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don’t Just Send, Deliver!

A big thanks to my wonderful wife for editing this document for me.  She rocks.  and I have the t-shirt to prove it. (she wrote that part, but it’s true)

Today at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Return Path is presenting IN: The Email Reputation Conference.

Many smart marketers have gathered to find out what it takes to get delivered to the inbox and ultimately increase ROI in their email programs. The industry's foremost experts, marketers and ISPs are talking about their experiences, giving advice on best practices and presenting strategies on how to build a raving fan base.

You should take a look at the live blog postings going on.

My opinion? I went into this knowing the content being presented was a major repeat to me, but I will say I was COMPLETELY surprised at some of the questions from some of the attendees when it came to Q&A after the panels. I don't say this to be rude, but was floored to hear that what's normal or clear to me in terms of email terms, best practices in email marketing, etc wasn't to clear to a few still. I won't post any examples here as I want to protect the confidentiality of the attendees and also not embarrass others, but hearing some of this was unexpected and a HUGE eye opener to me... I guess we need to still keep on preaching and teaching. The message(s)/practices still haven't filtered down. I'm now guessing that the Sender Training in MAAWG is now more important than ever...

GREAT event Return Path! Venue was classy, nice break times to allow for networking, fun games played, and clear information about the future of email. I heard great comments throughout the day from attendees.

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

So one of the documents we received in the email tracks at the Marketing Prof's Digital Mixer last week in AZ was one called "On the Shoulders of Giants: Leaping Pitfalls and Harnessing Best Practices When Managing an Email Program". I thought it was cleanly put together document that I needed to scan and share. I hope no one minds.

MODERATOR:
Karen Talavera, President, Synchronicity Marketing

PANELISTS:
Doug Williams, Director of Marketing, Lane Bryant Catalog
Daryl Nielson, Commercial eMail Marketing Manager, Hewlett-Packard
Lori Keller, VP, Marketing, Pacifica Hotels

Just like every other marketing program, your email campaigns sometimes get driven by the needs of the organization rather than the interests of your customers. What does that do to the chances for an open, click or response? Not much. They talked how both B2B and B2C companies could optimize their email marketing results by creating relevancy, optimizing cadence, reaching the inbox and conducting effective tests and data analysis.

Download pitfalls_and_harnessing_best_practices_when_managing_an_email_program.pdf

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

On Thursday the 16th at 9am, Dennis Dayman and I will be giving a presentation on email deliverability at the Innotech conference in Austin. Come pick our brains about whitelisting, authentication, reputation and the infamous spam folder! We're also a great resource to ask about the various third party email providers and services.

• How can I get in touch with someone who can really help me at Hotmail or Yahoo?
  
• What can I do to reduce the number of people who click "this is spam" or unsubscribe from my emails?
  
• I've been told that I'm hitting a "spamtrap". Now what?
  
• How do I get off a blacklist?
  
• Do I need a dedicated IP address?
  
• Can I buy email addresses to add to my list? What about list rental?
  
• Any other questions that you want to ask!

We'll be giving a 20 minute overview of email deliverability and then we'll open it up to the audience to talk about real problems you are facing and suggestions for tackling them. We need your help! Please come prepared with questions about your email marketing programs.

So, I know I never did get to the second post of this series as soon as I wanted, but I also hadn't expected so much travel to pop up between the time of the first post and now.

As you hopefully recall from 30 days ago... we wanted to break into sections how email works

• How MTAs (Mail/Message Transfer Agents) Communicate
• What is a “Bounce?”
• How MTAs Handle Bounces
• How Bounces Can Affect a Subscriber’s Status

Today we are taking on the second part of this series What is a "Bounce"

So what is a bounce? One aspect of good Email Marketing practice is being able to interpret and respond to the machine responses (referred to as “bounces”) when email fails to be delivered to its intended recipient. Bounces occur because the recipient's mailbox is full, the mail server is temporarily unavailable, or the recipient no longer has an e-mail account at that address. Bounce usually appears as a new note in your inbox when you send a personal or work related email.
 
Typically, a bounce message will contain several pieces of information to help the original sender in understanding the reason their message was not delivered:

• The date and time the message was bounced
• The identity of the mail server that bounced it
• The reason that it was bounced (e.g. user unknown or mailbox full)
• The headers of the bounced message
• Some or all of the content of the bounced message

AOL has a good example of one here.

For most ESP's and large bulk senders, the bounces that are sent back include a codified message in the form of a  numeric series (550 or 421) and an expanded description sometimes called a DSN (Delivery Status Notification, such as “User Unknown” or “You’re blocked”). In order to comply with the established ISP Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and to further distinguish your emails from spam, many sending systems like Eloqua and MTA providers like StrongMail have established efficient and updatable capture and reporting mechanisms for reading and accurately interpreting these bounce messages and then report on them in a categorical way that might normalize the data and organize it into logical categories, such as hard (permanent) bounce, soft (transient) bounce, block, and technical failure. As my industry colleague and friend Dave Lewis said in an article, "a good system will then map these delivery failures into subcategories, such as “unknown user” under hard bounce or "URL block" under block". By interpreting or categorizing these bounces, actions can be taken in regard to the bounces and will range from unsubscription of invalid addresses on the first hard bounce to limiting mailing to a domain where a block or some other form of service denial has been detected to removing bad or unknown user addresses.

So what does the number mean? what does the words means?

Well the numbers basically are a way to tell a mail server to re-try or NOT re-try an email if it fails.

Anything that is 4xx like 421 is a temporary failure and can be re-tried immediately. Could be for a quick server outage, greylisting, etc.

Anything that is 5xx like 550 is a permanent failure and SHOULD NOT be re-tried immediately. Usually for a long term block or unknown user or bad email account and should be looked at later for reasoning and whether or not the email should be re-tried again based on the DSN.

The DSN or wording is just a bounce to help humans read the bounce when it comes back to your email client vs. an ESP bounce system. Tells you more as to why it bounced.

So some examples:

• 550 User Unknown = Don't re-try now and don't send again
• 421 Greylisting = Re-try now and send again
• 550 Your blocked = Don't re-try now and send later after addressing why block occurred
• 451 no reverse DNS = Re-try now and send again later after you fix your DNS
• 552 message to big = Don't re-try now, but send again later after reducing size

and the list of examples go on.

One thing to consider here; capture all data streams. Make sure that your system collects all bounce data streams – both synchronous (sync) and asynchronous (async) bounces. Synchronous bounces happen immediately during the email transmission. For example, if your sending system connects to an ISP and tries to send an email to nouser@domain.com and if the ISP's mail server is configured for synchronous bouncing, it will immediately pause the transmission, and tell you that the address is bad and not allow for anymore data to be sent.

Asynchronous bounces work in the opposite way. Using the example above, domain.com would accept your email and try to deliver it to its internal address records. Once it realizes that the email address is bad, the ISP's mail server will then send your mail server an email letting you know. You asking yourself why do it this way?  Spammers often use a form of dictionary attack, sometimes known as a Directory Harvest Attack, for e-mail address harvesting. For example, a spammer may try sending messages to adam@example.com, barbara@example.com, carl@example.com, etc. Any addresses to which messages are delivered, as opposed to being bounced back during the first half of the send, can be added to the spammer's list of known-valid addresses if it doesn't bounce in the sync process. So many ISP's move that bounce processor till later as an async so they can monitor those who have spammer looking activities. Statistically we see more ISP's bouncing email synchronously.

Now another thing that you need to consider here is that when the standards for how bounces should be sent and used was created to ONLY address technical failures such as server outages, full mailbox's, bad email address, etc. It was never intended to handle policy based bounce such as spam or phishing blocking. This wasn't something intentional, we just never though this far ahead nor could we. In MAAWG we are looking at this now to understand how we can build to fix issue like this on the existing infrastructure. Come to San Francisco MAWAG to see!

TIPS:

Make sure when creating or buying into an ESP or in-house solution that the bounce management system can

1. Capture all data streams such as syns and async
2. Correctly interrupt the data that can be confusing in itself in the above bullet examples
3. Organize and normalize the data to handle the upon 1,000's, upon 1,000 of bounces you might get
4. Make the data and reporting actionable to the user. Remove the email address? re-try the email?
5. Be updateable since bounces can change over time and ISP's are always changing.

Again, Dave Lewis said "With a bounce management system that meets these requirements, you’ll be in a position to properly evaluate your performance, manage your list and improve your practices – all of which translate into better bottom-line results. And you’ll be well on your way toward mastering e-mail deliverability"

MORE information can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_message

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!