I’m a lover of magic.  When illusions appear creative, bold, and clever, they seem worthy of being shared with everyone.  On the other hand, if it’s a trick that everyone knows—one that has been around for decades—the “magic” becomes cheap and hollow, unlikely to fool anyone. When it comes to the standardization of email metrics, the question arises: is this truly noteworthy, or simply another case of “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?”  Smoke and mirrors won’t work in this case; complete transparency is necessary to address this issue.  It’s time to put all of our cards on the table and examine various aspects of the argument surrounding standardization.

 

Independent email consultants Luke Glaser and John Caldwell, as co-chairs of the DMA/Email Experience Council’s Measurement Accuracy Roundtable, have marshaled a group of industry players to launch an email standardization project.  For what it’s worth, that project is gaining momentum and earning some serious ink within the industry.  This is not the same old dog and pony show we’ve seen in the past; these guys really have their act together.  Think of them as Siegfried and Roy of the email industry.  Their “S.A.M.E” project (Support Adoptions of Metrics for Email) has bent the ears of industry pundits, and their formula for encouraging ESPs to adopt the standards seems to be fooling everyone.  And in this context, deception is a good thing. Learn more about the S.A.M.E project here. 

 

Sleeveless in Seattle 

 

As with any new industry related project, many challenges surface, but without early adopters, we’d be left sleeveless, a nightmare for any magician.  Two ESPs, MassTransmit/EmailTransmit and AllWebMail have already committed to adopting the industry standard for metrics which was released by the DMA/eec in March 2010.  Since then, a dozen other high profile ESPs claim that they will allegedly adopt the standards in the next six months or so, including, but not limited to, BlueHornet, Silverpop, Blue Sky Factory, Bronto, SubscriberMail, and YesMail.  When you think about early adopters, companies like these help pave the road for the rest of the industry to benefit.  As interested ESPs begin to track the progress and milestones achieved by the S.A.M.E project, momentum will build and the benefits will galvanize the industry.

 

“Adoption is not just a semantics game,” says Stephanie Miller, Vice Chair of the DMA/eec and an active member of the Roundtable (her day job is at inbox deliverability solution provider Return Path).  “Marketers usually find out that there are no standards when they go to benchmark their performance, or when they change vendors and realize that all those numbers they’ve been betting their bonus on – they don’t mean what they thought they meant!

“It’s about time our industry stepped up and supported standard metrics just like any other direct marketing discipline,” she says.

 

Deliverability Will No Longer be a Selling Point for ESPs

 

Once the implementation of email standards leads to congruency across the industry, ESPs and marketers will find themselves on a level playing field.  This means marketers will spend more time searching for the right ESP, but once a match is made, marketers will be less likely to move from one ESP to another due to inconsistency in metrics.  This means attrition rates for switching ESPs will fall, which will direct ESPs to focus on supplementary services that will help customers achieve a higher ROI. Examples of such services include compelling creative copy and perhaps a monthly or quarterly SWOT analysis provided by the ESP to each marketer.  Higher performance of the channel benefits all of us.

 

S.A.M.E Project Goals

 

Once a magician takes his oath, he must never reveal his secrets.  However, if aspiring participants are willing to learn magic, they, too, can join the “magic club.”  ESPs face a similar choice.  They can remain on the outside looking in, simply observing the progression of the S.A.M.E project, or they can choose to be an active part of the club.  John and Luke’s first goal is 10-15% of the ESP market adopt the standards.

 

Nowadays, when an ESP reports on the “state of the industry,” they analyze metrics only of their own campaigns, like a magician who looks in the mirror and declares himself successful.  Industry standardization will introduce accountability to the industry, providing the digital marketing community with sterilized benchmarking and consistent reporting.  The spotlight now shines bright on Luke and John, along with other industry veterans and aspiring ESPs involved with the S.A.M.E project. It is their mission to deliver what the email industry yearns for: a final levitation act that will wow the crowd and inspire mass adoption.  They hope to prove that they are master magicians—if they perform their act well enough, even the skeptics will believe. 

 

Here’s How to Get Involved:

 

Marketers:  Send this article to your ESP and encourage them to adopt the standards.

ESPs:  Study the new standard definitions and set a goal for yourself to adopt them.  Be part of the program here:

 

Now, where did all the Rabbits go? J

 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

REPOSTED from E-Mail Precisley

You are in complete control of how long customers should and will maintain their online relationship with you.

 

Some marketers stack the deck by pre-checking fields that sign a customer up to receive e-mail, such as during the purchase process. Some prefer to make customers check a box to opt-in.  Others acquire names and just add them to their mailing list with without any advance notice or consent from the consumer.  So what's the right thing to do?

 

The first thing to consider is legal compliance.  Remember though, just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it's right.  Think about this for a moment, would you stand in the middle of Times Square and yell insults at people?  Expressing your opinion in that way is legal, but it won't garner you any friends.  In the US opt-in is not required.  It is legal to make people opt out, but is it the right thing to do? 

 

The answer to that question is philosophically steeped in the definition of the relationship the marketer wants to have with their customers.  The relationship needs to be about mutual respect and a reciprocal value proposition. For example:

• IF, the marker clearly and conspicuously discloses that by entering an e-mail address the customer will begin to get relevant and targeted information about their respective services, opt-out might be fair.
• IF, the marketer does a good job explaining what the benefits are of the e-mail and then honors them, opt-out might be fair.
• IF, the registration form clearly states that the customer needs to uncheck a box, opt-out might be fair. 
• IF, there is a link to the privacy policy that explains what happens to their PII and how they can change that information or limit who it is shared with is next to the registration form, opt-out might be fair.

On the other hand, in the EU and many other countries, opt-out is not legal.  Permission is required to send commercial e-mail.  But, if the marketer doesn’t adhere to the principles above, their customers will probably opt-out or stop responding anyway.

  

Whether names are acquired via opt-out, opt-in, or double opt-in really don’t matter (assuming you are legally compliant).  Regardless of what type of permission you have the responsibility to maintain the trust and respect of your customers ultimately falls on your shoulders.  It is critical to be:

• Transparent about your data collection/use
• Respectful of your customers’ preferences
• Timely and relevant with the content you send them

The fallacy of the opt-out strategy is that it will yield a larger customer database.  The myth of an opt-in policy is that the customer is willingly expecting your next e-mail.  The reality is that the customer gets the final say.  They will flourish, become dormant, complain or just leave if you don’t live up to your end of the bargain.

 

Rick Buck

VP privacy and ISP relations, CIPP

e-Dialog

One of the biggest topics in organizations today is the need and desire to grow their subscriber list.  Most companies believe that the bigger the list they have, the greater chance they have to sell more stuff.  More stuff sold + more revenue = happy companies.

Some organizations take the hard road and build their list organically and spend money and resources on properly activating and creating brand advocates in their subscriber base.  They recognize that the size of their list is not as important as the overall lifetime value of their subscriber.  These organizations often have pressure internally to grow faster by out of touch executives with unrealistic expectations on subscriber growth.  In most cases though, these companies follow the good path to growth and are prosperous in the long run.

Then, every once in awhile there are organizations that take the easy road.  They use so many different channels, spend a ton of money on third parties that promise the world who often are using the same 50 Million Opt In, Can-Spam compliant list to try and bring in as many subscribers as they can.  These organizations say they are interested in quality, but often mask that with a “yea butt” statement of “we still need to get to X million subscribers by X date”.  Activation, welcome and engagement strategies are thrown out the window and the focus becomes on getting their X subscribers to buy stuff so their investment is not wasted. 

Sit back for a minute and think of acquiring a single or 5 million new subscribers as a party that you are hosting.  You certainly would not invite anyone over to your party unless you had cleaned up your house, got the hors d'oeuvres, the drinks, music etc.   When your guests arrive, do you open the door and let them stand there or do you give the tour of where everything is so that they can enjoy themselves.  As more and more people hear about how great your party is, folks will want a piece of the action and convince you to invite their friends.  Eventually it will lead to a bunch of riff raffs wanting in which will eventually ruin it for everyone.

Before you put some super aggressive acquisition plan together, ensure that your house is in order and you are ready to greet your guests. One of my colleagues and fellow bloggers here, Matt Vernhount says is beautifully: “It’s not the size of your list, its what you do with it”

Invest time and money to the more important part of acquisition.  You and your subscribers will be glad you did.

The recession has made citizens more attentive to scams, especially those that promise easy money or frighten people about the banking system.  This accelerates the already large regulatory agenda of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose role as a “civil prosecutor” includes regulating and enforcing protections from online offers, advertising and email marketing.  Congress is also stepping up, and two major initiatives around privacy protection and the role of the FTC are in active play.

Partnering with all of us in the email industry, and watching to make sure we self-regulate well, remains a key component of the FTC’s plans, says Lois Greisman, Director, Division of Marketing Practices for the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, who joined the second annual DMA/Email Experience Council legislative update webinar on May 19th.  “Our goal is to stop fraud and scams as quickly as possible, to shut down offenders, and, where appropriate, seize assets and reimburse consumers,” she said in the webinar.

The recording of the full event isfree for DMA/eec members: 

The US CAN SPAM Act of 2003, which regulates permission practices for email marketing, continues to be a key anti-fraud tool for the FTC.  Greisman noted several successes in prosecuting spammers and other deceptive practices and said enforcement continues to be a major priority.  “CAN SPAM has worked well to level the playing field among legitimate online marketers,” she said.  She also added that she was not aware of any active proposal by the FTC or Congress to expand or change the law.

However, there are two active proposals of new legislation that could have significant impact on email marketing and the email industry as a whole.

1. Online Privacy Protection Bill: 

A “Discussion Draft” of a bill to require notice and consent to any individual PRIOR to collecting or using personal information was released in early May in the US House of Representatives from Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA)and Cliff Stearns (R-FL).  Industry and consumer groups alike are not happy with the draft, including the DMA.  Although it may seem at first that the so-called Boucher Bill was just about online behavioral advertising conducted by large marketers; it turns out that it’s very broad and far-reaching on privacy and data security.   In the webinar, Jerry Cerasale, VP, Government Relations for the DMA, gave a very good overview of coverage, exceptions and terms of notice.  Basically, it impacts nearly all kinds of “first party” senders as well as any other company that has access to that data as a “third party.”  It proposes coverage of an extensive list of “unique and persistent” personal data on consumers.

“One potentially bad impact this could have on the email industry concerns the scope of covered data, including email address, IP address, and other unique, persistent identifiers,” says Tom Bartel, CIPP, vice president,  Receiver Services at Return Path, a panelist in the webinar.  “If the exceptions for transactional and operational purposes and for service providers are not effective and clear, this bill could interfere with many industry collaborations.  This includes IP-based reputation systems – data that determines if email messages reach the inbox or not.  It may also impact the operation of Feedback Loops provided to email senders by mailbox providers like Yahoo! and Hotmail.  These feedback loops are a key component in how the industry keeps bad actors out of the email ecosystem.”  

Both Representatives Boucher and Stearns have indicated a willingness to work with industry and have requested comments on the bill,  The DMA has already commented, Cerasale said.

2. Expansion of FTC Powers: 

Congress is also considering significantly expanding the powers of the FTC as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173).    There is not a corresponding bill in the Senate, although Cerasale said in the webinar that one may be introduced later this year.   

Part of the proposed regulation would give the FTC “unbridled authority” to create rules around “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” for many industry sectors.  Cerasale expressed concern about this, and said that more checks and balances are needed.  It is also unclear how this expansion will impact emerging technologies like social or mobile, he said.  

Another part of the proposed bill increases the FTC’s enforcement powers to seek civil penalties. “That may be helpful in catching spammers and other abusers of email marketing,” said Rick Buck, CIPP and VP, ISP Relations and Privacy at e-Dialog in the webinar.   “Marketers who feel they are exempt from prosecution because they are legal under CAN SPAM may be following the letter of the law, but not the spirit.  I encourage everyone to go beyond the legal requirements and aim to provide email experiences that are welcome and engaging to subscribers.”

The FTC’s Greisman said only that, “We welcome any support from Congress that helps the agency be more effective and efficient.”  There are some “tools that we lack which Congress may grant us the power to use,” she said.

A third element to this proposed legislation is on responsibility/liability of the delivery provider (broadcast vendor, ESP, MTA Vendor) if their clients do not follow CAN SPAM or other regulations.  “This aiding and abetting aspect is very concerning,” said Dennis Dayman, VP, Privacy & Online Security at Eloqua,another panelist in the webinar.   “Blurring the lines between purveyor and sender may place an undue penalty on others in the ‘chain of responsibility’ for all brands involved in online advertising or other online acquisition efforts, like third party email senders and publishers,” Dayman said.

Greisman also reported in the webinar that there is no significant update on the behavioral targeting protection guidelines that the FTC has had out for comment for over a year. “Nothing will happen without input from industry,” she said.  Since the mandate from the FTC has been, “self regulate or else,” the webinar panelists gave a number of suggestions for marketers to follow best practices, including:

1. Ensure transparency in disclosure and notice of permission and use of data
2. Be very clear about opt out vs. opt in.  CAN SPAM requires only an opt-out, but that is the “bare minimum,” Buck advises.
3. Update your Privacy policy and provide prominent links
4. Audit your data usage practices
5. Be clear on use of data in all web forms and at the point of collection/sign up.

Marketers and everyone in the email industry can support the FTC, Greisman said.  She suggests:

1. File a complaint. When those complaints are also referred by the DMA, they are particularly helpful, Greisman said.
2. Make sure your opt out mechanisms are working.  (E-dialog’s Buck recommends checking this at least annually, and preferably monthly.)
3. Be clear about the sender and the advertiser relationships.  (Return Path’s Bartel recommends first party senders consider “framing” the content from third parties or advertisers and clearly distinguish between editorial (original content) and advertising.)
4. Keep data clean, particularly around new sources.  (Eloqua’s Dayman also recommends care around affiliates’ use of data.)

The legislative update webinar was sponsored by Eloqua, E-Dialog and Return Path, with technology sponsor GoToMeeting. The recording of the full event is free for DMA/eec members.  More details on these and other legislative issues important to digital and direct marketers is in the DMA’s quarterly government affairs newsletter, Politically Direct.

There is a growing subculture emerging in the Email Industry.   This narrow subculture is built around the role of the Email Deliverability consultant.  These email folk heroes often hold “silver bullets” that dramatically alleviate problems caused by poor email deliverability.  Whether it’s resolving sender reputation issues, aligning sectors of your email program to meet legal compliance, or ensuring that all technical considerations are met, these masked magicians with assistants named Tonto can help.

There seems to be a critical knowledge gap that needs to be addressed.  Often the requests to hire an industry “folk hero” (consultant) originate from a marketer who wants to fully optimize the organization’s email program.  Factors that optimize programs include, but are not limited to, list quality and data collection, increased open rates, better ROI tracking, and achieving optimal inbox placement rates.  As much as marketers might want an optimized program, they often do not fully recognize the technology challenges of getting email delivered to achieve these desired results.   When that happens, for certain organizations, it’s time for The Email Deliverability Consultant: Email’s Lone Ranger.

A Marksman who gets his hands Dirty

Depending on the scope of the project, these consultants offer a wide range of deliverability services, including, but not limited to a deep understanding of list quality and data collection, email authentication best practices, setting up FBLs, bounce handling and infrastructure.  Consultants also commonly help with sourcing, installing and configuring optimal specs for both commercial and open source MTAs.  Frequently, the scope of the project grows into in-depth consulting on email engagement, response or retention campaigns or designing strategies that integrate complimentary marketing channels such as mobile platforms and social media.

Masters of Disguise

As we know, consulting by nature is a feast or famine type career.  And often, email deliverability consultants are positioned in precarious situations and exploited by bad actors.  Suspect senders often pump consultants for information on where to find responsive email lists or, even worse, ask about revealing key contacts at Yahoo, or other ISPs.  Deliverability consultants’ clients largely come from referrals and word-of-mouth.  That said, they live by a strict moral code of conduct, because they sometimes face important ethical decisions; at times, they must choose between a paycheck and literally firing a client. 

The Audit Process

The Audit Process is a “state of play” snapshot of the deliverability climate within the organization.

Usually, deliverability consultants will require answers to a set of detailed questions  and an analysis of overall infrastructure (technical setup) before any type of contract is in place.  During the audit, clients may seed consultants on different types of emails (marketing, transactional, etc) where they could begin reporting on items such as blacklist status, reputation, authentication tests, content, and inbox placement rates, etc. Consultants will then try to identify trends within the email list, such as attrition rates, opens, clicks, and sign up rates.   Some feedback is then given to the client, but deliverability consultants generally need to access additional data, such as bounce handling, FBL monitoring, send rates, and identifying email streams.

Contracts

A typical contract is somewhere between 30-90 days, with ongoing support in place.  However, most organizations are likely to add to the scope of services and have other goals in mind beyond deliverability.  These days, organizations that have prevalent stakeholders will go to great lengths to gain an edge over their competitors.  So, in many cases, an ongoing contract can grow out of the original short-term agreement.

The behemoths in our industry are companies like ReturnPath , Pivotal Veracity (Unica) and Goodmail which is widely known for certified inbox placement.  These companies collaborate extensively with established ESPs and large enterprises.  However, below I’ve listed a few other respected industry resources, the majority of which have over a decade of email deliverability experience.   Each has experience with organizations that range in size from ESP startups to F500 corporations.

In their work as Email’s Lone Rangers, these consultants can most often revive a company’s deliverability afflictions, so that key members of the organization can hop back in the saddle without too much damage done to its sender reputation. 

This article was inspired by:

· Jaren Angerbauer, DeliveryVision

· Andrew Bonar,Emailexpert

· Micky Chandler, Whizardries

· Greg Kraios, Den of Deliverability

· Laura and Steve Atkins, Word to the Wise

 

"Hi-yo, Silver, away!"

 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

Whether there are dozens or hundreds, the email messages that arrive daily in your inbox vie for a share of your time and attention.  Because of persistent issues with spam, messages face continued scrutiny.  In order to appeal to subscribers, messages must be authentic, carefully crafted with a specific purpose in mind.  The question is, what kinds of messages will catch subscribers’ attention and resonate with them?

 

One type of authentic email messaging is laced with charitable goals and good intentions. Subscribers find the idea of charity emotionally appealing, and they will gain satisfaction when they know that proceeds from purchases of your product or service will ultimately benefit other human beings in need.  The wisdom of partnering with a charity and creating inspirational messaging cannot be overstated.  Charity-related messaging has a proven positive effect on overall brand awareness which transcends generic “sales event” campaigns.

 

The Higher Purpose

 

Buried deep within every organization is a sense of purpose.  That sense of purpose is a voice that reverberates through the minds of conscientious employees.  The voice should be a constant reminder to an organization which perpetually asks, “What is the higher sense of purpose for our company?

 

Created by Dr. Abraham Maslow more than 50 years ago, a sense of purpose is the highest form of self-actualization. Creating email messaging with a higher sense of purpose and aligning your emails with a charitable organization will allow you to develop intimacy with your subscribers.  Advancing, the focus is no longer on a conversation with your subscriber, but instead, there is a deeper connection because both brand and subscriber are working together to reach a common goal associated with a relevant charitable organization.

 

Respected Subscribers = Fewer spam complaints

 

By respecting your messaging, you respect your subscribers.  Rather than bombarding them with mundane “30% off Campaigns,” inform them about noble endeavors, events and/or goals your organization has genuinely organized with your charitable partner. With consistent focus on your charity, the spotlight moves away from your subscribers and gravitates toward your organization’s higher purpose.  In turn, your subscribers will naturally have a higher sense of loyalty and respect toward your brand. Cultivating this type of relationship between your subscribers and your brand will undoubtedly reduce spam complaints and have a positive effect on deliverability.

 

Case studies show that when companies link a purchase to a charitable contribution, awareness increases dramatically.  As subscribers become aware of your charitable intentions, the fewer spam complaints you will receive.  In turn by activating Social Media as an extended channel, brands will dramatically enhance the overall awareness of your efforts by offering greater exposure and endorsement. Charitable efforts yield emotional stories which ignite passion for brands.

 

Play Host and Connect Emotionally

 

Let’s recall that abundance comes from good feelings that result when each encounter in the universe is based on good intentions.  When an organization plays host to a charity, your brand is developing a higher esteem for itself. By extending appreciation toward the charity, your brand becomes a conduit between your subscribers and the charitable organization.  The intention of giving allows your brand to communicate via email on a higher frequency than competitors who are not linked to a charitable cause. Imagine when a few of your subscribers donate directly to your charitable partner through a direct link from your email.  What ensues is a mutually beneficial negotiation with your charitable organization which will actively pursue recipriocation because your subscribers made direct donations, attributable to your brand.

 

The Impact of Charitable Marketing

 

Besides the increased brand awareness, and impact on credibility and consumer perceptions, charitable marketing has also proven to help the bottom line. There are numerous case studies on charitable marketing, but one stat that stands out above the rest is this:  In a recent study by Cone and Duke University found that 87% of consumers said they would switch from one brand to another comparable brand based on its association with a charitable cause.  Also, when consumers were aware of a given company’s charitable efforts, they consistently rated the company more highly in terms of trust, endorsements, bonding, and innovation.

 

So, what’s the best way to align your brand with a charitable organization? Ask your subscribers!

 

The opportunity exists further to develop greater intimacy with your subscribers simply by surveying them? Whittle your list to four and ask your subscribers, which charity they would like your brand to be associated with?  Again, by allowing your subscribers to choose the charity, you are empowering them to make significant decisions about the future of your organization; which is the highest form of respect.  

 

This article was inspired by Melinda Krueger of Ogilvy One.

 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usually, before a couple marries, they engage in hundreds of intimate, layered conversations, in an effort to establish realistic expectations and build a foundation for a successful marriage.  The same principle can and should apply in the context of a business partnership.  As with any partner, in business or otherwise, at the outset of each relationship is a set of clearly defined goals.  Also, and very often unexpectedly, misunderstandings occur and can lead to a painful breakdown in communication, which often leads to resentment and, at times, permanent separation.

At the Email Insider Summit last week, it became evident that, after four exciting holes of Golf on Sanibel Island, it was time to abort because of heavy rain. What followed was a conversation that was far more engaging than golf: it was a conversation that transpired between Jeremy Swift of BlueHornet, Dave Baker of Razorfish and myself about why marketers leave ESPs.

Reason 1: Unrealistic Expectations

According to Dave, the relationship between a marketer and an ESP usually begins to deteriorate after about 18-24 months.  The “marriage” between ESP and marketer goes through a honeymoon phase, during which everything is promised by the ESP to the marketer, including, but not limited to, increased deliverability to the inbox, cannibalistic pricing, dedicated professional services teams and streamlined integration.  Because of the mission-critical nature of email marketing, if these expectations are not satisfactorily met, a breakdown in communication occurs. As a result, resentment ensues, leading to separation and, ultimately, divorce. This course of events has negative effects for both parties; communication breakdowns leave the marketer feeling bewildered and the ESP scrambling to find another client.

What to Do:

Set proper expectations.  Account Managers and professional services teams at competent ESPs must set clear, realistic guidelines outlining what the client should expect over the course of the relationship, including a well defined timetable.  Milestones should be clearly defined at the beginning, and once they are met, they should be celebrated.  Sometimes ESPs can get into a mischief where if the client is hooked, they can capitulate and ultimately flip on pricing since the cost of switching would be prohibitive.  But, as with more casual relationships these days, it’s easy to switch.  Clients don’t have to sign on until death do they part.

Reason 2: Lack of Dedicated Account Management

Let’s face it. The growth trajectory of the email industry is such that providing an adequate support infrastructure is challenging for ESPs.  According to Jeremy Swift of Blue Hornet, marketers are frustrated with the overall lack of highly skilled customer service representatives and attention to detail from ESPs.  This is a direct result of the prolific growth of the industry.  Additionally, the lack of ability to scale efficiently is a direct result of the organizational challenges ESPs encounter.  The inability to allocate enough competent account managers to proactively service client accounts leads to bitter disappointment. ESPs are forced to confront several questions, such as “Should we offer platform training? Are there costs involved? Is there an active support community that clients can instantly engage with?”

What to Do:

The industry will face continued realignment/consolidation, and ESPs must be prepared to deal with this natural turbulence.  To counteract these effects, if you are an ESP that vows 24/7 customer service, you must ensure that someone is available at all times to provide feedback. This is necessary because marketers will test and track the level of service they are receiving, including the response time of support queries. With 150+ ESPs to consider, it’s a definite buyer’s market, and clients will seek timely resolutions, robust platform features, and more importantly personal references.  Outstanding customer service will ensure that your ESP stands out positively to clients in the midst of an increasingly crowded field.  Just as in marriage, prompt, clear communication is the cornerstone of a successful client/ESP relationship.

Reason 3: Insufficient Complementary Services

At the Email Insider Summit last week, we learned that venture capitalists and angel investors will partner with competent ESPs and offer highly relevant complementary services that are congruent to the ESPs core group of offerings, such as social, mobile, database management and the ability to scale globally.  Proficient ESPs may have dedicated in-house design teams, professional services teams, technicians, and deliverability consultants that work harmoniously on behalf of clients.  On the other hand, if an ESP has disparate and/or contrasting services, the relationship will be erratic and communication will suffer due to additional points of failure. This again leads to added frustration and more aggravated clients.  Finally, as a point of reference, if an ESP’s platform does not offer social media integration and/or the user interface is too rigid or complex, marketers will likely withdraw, resulting in “divorce.”     

What to Do:

When shopping for a new ESP, carefully weigh these aforementioned factors and identify if they align with your marketing objectives.  It’s important to understand explicitly what these services mean by asking the right questions. Before entering this type of relationship, it’s crucial to understand how the ESP’s services will be executed in the grand scope your email initiatives.  For example, a good technical services team should help define your requirements and might offer a customized roadmap as you accumulate advanced data points from your subscribers.  For instance, they might ask you to tag each link in your creative with an acronym, to locate a micro segment that is highly profitable on your list. It’s important to know who you are as an ESP and as a client.  Clone your bright spots, and play to your strengths.

Arranged Marriages will likely Fail

Finally, remember that collaborating effectively with your ESP should alleviate some pain points. Through effective collaboration, you should be able to determine which complementary services you currently need, and which of those you will require in the future. Finally, arranged marriages don’t work well in the Email Industry.:) You’ll want to take your ESP out for a test drive and evaluate the product in your own environment. Test driving different platforms will lead to a more confident option in a long term partner.  It’s important that you know what you are getting into before you make a commitment to “marry” a particular ESP. But as with marriage, if you take proper precautions before committing, you will pave the way to a long and successful relationship.        

Special Thanks to Dave Baker of Razorfish, Jeremy Swift of BlueHornet and Christy Barret Weymouth of ExactTarget for their contributions.

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

Our good friend, Ken Pfeiffer Director of Deliverability for Blue Sky Factory, asked us this year if he could do a guest blog post here and of course we jumped on that great opportunity to have a well respected and trusted person in the industry post for us. Thanks to Ken and the Blue Sky Factory team for sharing this!

___________________________ 

As the Director of Deliverability for Blue Sky Factory, an Email Service Provider (ESP), the question I get asked the most often is, "how fast can you send my mail?"

This is a great question with a very simply answer; one that is the same every time I respond: We can deliver as fast as the receiving mail server will accept. This can be a little difficult for some people to understand. 

Most of us are accustomed to near instantaneous delivery. Think about it. If I send a one-off email to you, it's likely that you'll receive it within minutes, if not seconds. There may be a slight delay, but for the most part after you click your send button that email shows up in quick order to the recipient. ESPs on the other hand are senders of bulk email. So rather than just sending email to one recipient at a time, ESP’s send and transmit multiple emails at one time to the receiving mail server.   When I say ‘multiple’ I mean hundreds or thousands or even millions!

Nearly all ESPs use Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs). An MTA is software that is used to transmit email from the sender server to the receiving server.  ESPs use MTAs to optimize email delivery and a good MTA will allow configuration based on the limits of the receiving mail server.  The larger Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have published settings for bulk mailers that will outline how many emails over what period of time they will accept.   Many ISP publish these settings on their postmaster FAQ pages for example (http://security.comcast.net/get-help/comcast-post-master-page.aspx  and http://postmaster.info.aol.com/faq/mailerfaq.html#msgconn).  These are the ISP’s way of saying – if you want to send bulk mail to us, this how you should do it. 

Take for example AOL – they state you can’t send email to more than 100 recipients per message and no more than 1,000 recipients per connection.  The senders MTA should be configured with these values in order to follow with AOL’s specific limits.  If you try and send 2,000 emails to AOL over one connection they will start rejecting your email.  Another scenario to mention is rate limiting.  Some ISP’s rate limit the number of messages you can send for a given time period.  Road Runner limits you to 1,000 messages per hour to non-whitelisted IP’s.  So if you have to send 10,000 emails to Road Runner subscribers you better make sure you only send to 1,000 per hour or you will see your email bounce.  If an ESP were to ignore these settings then most likely Road Runner would begin to reject connections and the emails would bounce.   A bounced email is not what a sender is paying an ESP for. Part of our job is to help clients give their emails every opportunity - for a technology perspective - to be delivered. Whether their emails get blocked or bulked due to content is another story. 

Another factor that can influence delivery time is simply just how busy is the receiving ISP.  ISP’s receive massive amounts of email daily, they like you have limited amount of computing power at their disposal. 

They are only capable of processing so many emails.  Think of it this way: ISP’s are a lot like your local highway.  It’s usually pretty easy driving, except during rush hour where there are just not enough lanes of traffic to handle all of the cars. So a drive that normally takes 15 minutes might end up taking 45 minutes to an hour.  During heavy marketing periods (think Christmas) campaigns that normally in your subscribers’ inbox in 10 minutes might take 30 minutes. 

Keep in mind that each ISP will have different limits, so proper MTA configuration is essential.  If you have concerns or questions, ask your ESP about their connection settings.   From the sender standpoint the best advice I can give is to plan your campaigns carefully with the above factors in mind. If you have a time-sensitive email campaign, be sure to give yourself plenty of lead time to avoid any congestion around sending thresholds and seasonal volume. You may want to consider breaking up your send into a few batches.

I hope I was able to shed a little light on some of the inner workings of email and how it can affect your campaigns and provide a full answer to a question I’m asked all the time. 

___________________________

Ken Pfeiffer

Director of Deliverability

Blue Sky Factory, Inc.

 

Don’t just deliver, engage!

In Inbox Reserve parts one and two, we discovered how socially centric preference centers and subject lines will lead to dramatically higher engagement and lower spam complaints. In part III below, we'll identify challenges that are inherent with acquiring a subscribers social data points and what the benefits are to your brand once harnessed.

Challenge:  Develop a Preference Center Marketing Program

The challenge for today’s brand marketer is to find ways to seductively charm subscribers to fully or partially divulge their social media credentials through an intuitive preference center.  Some subscribers will immediately acquiesce, while others will be more sensitive and allow the brand only a partial glimpse into their social networks.  For example, B2B focused subscribers may prefer to provide only credentials of their LinkedIn network and not necessarily Facebook or Twitter.  Future preference centers will allow you to prioritize which social networks you want linked to a given brand.

For this concept to work, marketers must demonstrate to subscribers the value of this initiative. Those subscribers who opt-in will glean more value and insight through their network associated with a given brand, because knowing what transactions are taking place with their social networks is in most cases desired.  Once brands amass these nuggets of data; designers, engineers and email marketing specialists will collaborate to produce instinctive methods of engagement while furthering your brands credibility.

Brands must take a proactive approach with subscribers to induce them to release this essential data.  A strategic marketing program targeted towards this master preference center with strong calls-to-action should be integrated into your marketing mix.  This marketing program should primarily focus on the features, benefits and value of updating socially centric preferences.

 

Emphasize Value and Benefits

One way to galvanize a brands subscriber base is to highlight reasons “why” updating your preference center is so valuable.  In your email marketing program, dedicate sends that emphasize the real value of managing and sharing social media credentials.  Market your preference center through other channels as well. Read Stephanie Miller's stellar post on why earning permission is divine.

Future marketing programs for updating preference centers should illustrate value–based notifications of activity within a subscribers given network: For example, in the email message itself give subscribers the option to choose from a host of alert notifications such as:

• Alert me when a member of my network makes a purchase from this brand
• Alert me when a member of my network signs up to receive newsletters from this brand
• Alert me when a member of my network reviews a product from this brand

This type of socially centric messaging will echo well with subscribers and will develop an affinity not only your brand but just as importantly your preference center.  These notifications will go "prime-time" and will replace the current generic “marketing messages” we currently receive.  Messages of this nature could be an excellent resource for winning back dormant subscribers.  

Furthermore, your subscribers might want to be immediately notified if a person from their network reviewed a nearby restaurant?  By giving your subscribers “night-vision” into their social networks, brands will have a simpler time summoning subscribers to release this coveted information.   Benefits to brands include far fewer defections from list segments, increased engagement, an awakening to dormant subscribers and significantly fewer “spam complaints.”

Immediate Benefits to the Brand

Credibility- As discussed throughout this series, socialized messaging of this nature provides a more intimate user experience.  It permits a subscriber to feel that the message is about their social ecosystem first and about the brand second.  It authorizes subscribers and their network to indirectly promote your brand, through a more relaxed conversation. 

Reduced Costs- Socialized messaging, will significantly reduce a brands’ overall operating expenses, because of a higher engagement index, fewer spam complains and better inbox placements rates.  Socialized messaging will increase sender reputation which reduces message handling costs including more relaxed human filtering steps with a given brand.  

Validation through Engagement- The ability to quickly connect with your peers before clicking the purchase button will soon be the “de facto” model for how to validate a purchase through a given brand. Acquiring validation from your trusted network means that an emotional and financial investment has been made on behalf of your friends and colleagues.  With a swift chat session with members of their network, your subscribers will discern information about a featured product/service, which accelerates immediate gratification for the purchaser.  Building a subscriber centric brand will add considerable value to your existing customer base and through crosshairs will magnify brand integrity.  Your feedback on this series is valued.

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

My friend Morgan Stewart has said it all publicly that either a few of us have thought to ourselves at one time or another or have said out-loud in a secret behind closed door email coalition session. "Why do Email feedback mechanisms ONLY focus on the negative and not ever the positive"?

I couldn't agree more with what Morgan put into his article. Why aren't the email client makers and web email providers interested in improving email to its fullest extent. Yes, Yes, Yes, I know that marketers are only <1% of abuse desk issues while they fight the real battles of spam, bots, phishing, etc, but really how hard can it be to create a button to remove a negative from the reputation score or filter count when some does something right?

I constantly hear at these secret behind closed door email coalition sessions where ISP's or filtering companies give a good ole' pat on the back to those senders who participate in email best practice discussions and ensure their customers are doing the right things, but to me that should also come in the form of something more measurable. It's odd that all I ever hear from the email client makers, web email providers, and email filtering companies is reputation rules when it comes to getting your email delivered properly and that if they see negative measurable compliant's via a spam button you'll surely will be in the dog house, but no one to date seems to support the notation of sending good email will get you back into the bigger house via a not-spam button. Why is it that ISP's, web email providers, and email filtering companies make senders plea their way out of false positive spam issues via a phone call, web forms, or a secret email list on behalf of their customers when the end-users, whom they already listen to about spam issues, should be the ones voting positively about their good experiences in email?

 

Most here know metrics are a good thing for senders to see so they can identify what the issues really are and can correct things on their own without a call or web form. I can also safely say from experience that most senders RARELY call someone/something on the receiver side these days if they have a clear overview in thanks partly to data we can see via negative feedback loops. So why not give a FULLER or more complete picture of how end-users see email? To me and what I read from Morgan here is that we are only seeing half the picture when it comes to metrics. So I agree with Morgan! How can we turn email for the better in 2010?

Good article Morgan!

 -Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

As outlined in Part I of Inbox Reserve, “Why Email must Reverse Engineer Social Now,” future engagement metrics and delivery patterns will be based on how subscribers’ social networks interact with a given brand.   Disclaimer: The strategies outlined below are congruent and/or complementary with advanced “opt-in” best practices.  It is safe to say that behavioral targeted messaging may not achieve the same level of granular social activity that a contemporary preference center would.

Inbox Reserve II: Socialized Subject Lines

Using fresh social data points gathered from an advanced preference center, future marketing based messaging will place your friends’ names or actions in the subject lines of emails associated with a given brand.  These personalized subject lines are a key tool for increasing your brand’s ability to engage subscribers, dramatically increase open rates and manufacture a better delivery reputation.  When you have targeted promotions that build value around this concept, connoisseurs of your brand will flock to this preference center.  Once there, they can opt-in to receive real-time notifications (or weekly digests, if they prefer) that tell them when members of their social ecosystem have taken “definitive” action involving a given brand.  Moreover, once permission is granted, subscribers will also see their friends’ images dynamically inserted into a well-designed email creative. They’ll be able to click on the images and ask their friends’ opinions of a product before making a purchase.  Here are two “plain” examples of future subject lines based on social activity within your network:

·         Real-Time-Notification:   Mark from your network just purchased     Sees Candies at 30% off…

·         Weekly Digest:              14 members of your network purchased                                      Sees Candies? Find out who!

Inbound, highly transparent subject lines of this nature are inherently credible. Their success further supports the theory that curious subscribers are also the most engaged.  Informed subscribers who choose to receive these types of messages are far more likely to engage because these notification are about your network first and the brand second.  Therefore, these subject lines seem more valuable and relevant to the subscribers.

Ever get a notification from Facebook that a certain friend of yours commented on your status?  You are much more likely to react positively to that message as opposed to a “brand first” subject line offering you a product at 30% off.   Moreover, you are less likely to click the “report spam” button because you are more loyal to the people in your network.

Reduced Spam Complaints

The most compelling reasons for brands to earn network permission from subscribers is that it dramatically reduces spam complaints.  Socialized email notifications are important because they prioritize a subscriber’s network first and the brand second. First, it’s far more palatable for a subscriber to open an email message with a friend’s name in the subject line and a friends’ picture in the creative because it creates a perception of relevance and allows for a far more customized experience. For example, if I were a subscriber and received such a message, I would probably refrain from clicking the “report spam” button because my main focus is on my network.  Secondly, personalized subject lines will cause your open rates and engagement index to skyrocket, enhancing your brand’s deliverability reputation.  ISPs will take notice of reduced spam complaints and brands will begin to see a higher inbox placement rate, resulting from more positive actions taken with this type of email. 

Notifications and creatives of this nature are packed with relevancy.  Testimonials from members of a social network will influence subscribers’ purchasing decisions, which will drastically diminish the chances of a user clicking the “report spam” button.  The benefit is increased engagement, as network buddies chat about potential purchases. This leads to more delivered mail to the inbox.  Second Disclaimer:  It’s important that we try not to associate this concept with Facebook page suggestions, simply because there is a monetary investment element in place here.  Members of your social network invested quality time in making a determination about a product or service and gave explicit permission to opt-in and receive exclusive messaging of this type.  So, it’s unfair to be skeptical because of earlier social media spam-related growing pains. 

In Part III of Inbox Reserve, we'll discuss the challenges brands will have in leveraging an advanced preference center and share some of the immediate benefits to any given brand; which include added credibility, reduced costs and subscriber validation. 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.    

@tabsharani

 

   

I suspect that some email broadcast vendors (ESPs and MTA providers) struggle with how much inbox placement data to make transparent to their clients (marketers).  On one hand, the data is extremely valuable, and it can help marketers and senders understand subscriber satisfaction and optimize inbox placement. After all, if you don't reach the inbox, you don't earn a response. 

On the other hand, perhaps sometimes having more data just raises more questions - and questions are a cost center for vendors.

One ESP that serves the small to mid-market is making inbox deliverability data available - with very good results.  I spoke with Natalie Nagele at Newsberry about how using this data gives her more ammunition to help marketers follow best practices.

"For one of our clients, we saw a wide variance in open rates across message types. When we exposed the inbox placement data, we realized that some of the marketing messages were simply not reaching the inbox at all," she says.

On the same day a targeted email tips newsletter would achieve 100% inbox rates to domestic ISPs, while a generic even promotion would deliver only 60-80%, she says.  The IP reputation was the same based on Sender Score, but clearly there is a difference.  "After a month of data review, we concluded that the event promotions were less welcome due to content and low user engagement - as measured by higher complaints," she says.

Nagele worked with the client to improve targeting and relevancy. They asked subscribers to update their email preferences and reconfirmed those in the marketing segment. "The list size for that segment shrank dramatically," she reports, "But open rates went up, as did inbox placement rates. Today, they are delivering between 96-100% across all of their campaigns for domestic ISPs. Those event marketing emails directly represent revenues based on attendance, which went up when people started receiving emails."

Newsberry makes this data available to all clients with a dedicated IP address.  "We've found that senders who use and appreciate this data are also willing and interested in taking responsibility for their email delivery," she says.  The inbox deliverability tools are included in our monthly plan price, available to small and medium businesses. "They don't need to spend enterprise-level funds to view important delivery data," Nagele says.

Newsberry doesn't offer the inbox delivery monitoring tools (or a dedicated IP address) for those with files smaller than 10,000 subscribers. "Based on conversations with Return Path and our own experience, we've identified 10,000 as a good point where you start building a reputation significant to ISPs," she says.

Of course, if the file is 10K strong, but the mailing frequency is low, that also can harm a sender's ability to build a reputation.  "The ideal candidates for a dedicated IP are those with 10,000 or more subscribers who send multiple times a month. We even recommend they split their list and send multiple times per week instead of one campaign (when possible)," she says.

"Those with smaller lists can still depend on Newberry’s overall reputation to maintain high inbox rates," she adds.  Most marketers understand that they don't have the volume (or budget) for a dedicated IP, but it still makes them nervous to be on a shared IP. There is a loss of control over their destiny.  Certainly, some ESPs have a better reputation with the ISPs, and some vet their clients better than others (and fire them when they exhibit poor sending practices).  Until we have widespread domain reputation and authentication, senders must be vigilant to understand who is in their Shared IP neighborhood and thus affecting their reputation and inbox placement.

Many senders (large and small) consider the bounce rate "good enough" for tracking delivery.  Of course, bounce rate is not the same as inbox placement, and the two numbers are not necessarily indicative of each other, although they tend to track together.  "The way we see it, it's all about your return on investment and time for email marketing," Nagele says.

"If you have inbox rates of 60%, consider yourself throwing 40% of your money and time out the window. Bounces will only show you if you are blocked, at which point your list is already in bad shape. Inbox placement helps you identify much deeper issues where marketers can take direct action," she advises.

For example, she says, a customer learned through tracking inbox results that their single-image emails were getting blocked by Yahoo! and Hotmail (among others). When they changed the text to image ratio, the inbox rates went up, which in turn increased open rates and subscriber response.  "How would they have known that if they were only tracking bounces?" she asks.

All senders must take responsibility for their own sender reputation. A good ESP will provide technical support, solid infrastructure and guidance on best practices. But no ESP can make up for poor list hygiene, weak sourcing, high frequency or low relevancy.  Sender reputation is a partnership between the email broadcast vendor and the marketer. 

"While we think overall IP reputation is really important too," Nagele says, "A good reputation does not guarantee delivery. Getting as much information as possible is the best way to ensure your money is well spent."

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!

Bounces in email marketing are inevitable, but I often wonder how many marketers in email truly watch their bounces on a regular and consistent basis.

Enter UBER email marketing geek like me. 

At Groupon where I work, our frequency is high and we send a tremendous amount of segmented email.  Some may think that managing and reacting to bounces in this type of environment seems like a daunting task.  One of the requirements that I have as professional is that I am fed a constant stream of information on all areas relating to running an email program.  I hate being caught off guard and want to know if there is a problem before anyone tells me that we have a problem.

I spoke to my ESP and told them of my requirement to be notified when we are having a bounce problem.  I specifically wanted to know if we were having any block bounce issues with my top domains so that I can be proactive in solving them.

They responded quickly and are now generating a bounce report every 3 hours (7 days a week) indicating all of my bounce rates across domains.  I scan almost every report as they come in looking for patterns or trends in the percentages and notify my ESP peeps if I see issues.

My point in all of this is that if you are the manager or director of an email program, this means you own the  whole shebang....bounces and all.  Don't rely on anyone but yourselves to manage the tough stuff like this.  Take control of your bounces, specifically those block bounces which can wreak havoc on your program if an early warning system is not in place.  Is every 3 hours overkill?  Perhaps, but in some programs it might be necessary especially if your program relies on email as its main source of revenue.

A fellow colleague and outstanding contributor of this great blog Dennis Dayman has had some posts centered around bounces and if you haven't read them, I encourage you to do so.

Long live email marketing.

Many of you will have heard the news already - AOL plans to layoff approximately 1,400 staff members in the next day or so, the process has already started in some locations... Grim news indeed.

But this could happen to any ISP, and in times like these it makes the importance of following the escalation and support process all that more important... Less bodies does not mean less work for people - in fact quite the opposite. The individuals that do end up making it past the latest round of layoffs and buyouts will now have a major increase in work load.

Here is what you can do to help the people that help you:

1. Review your mailing metrics before opening a ticket (bounces, low opens/clicks, etc...) and read the error codes being returned in your mail logs - generally the error codes will tell you what your issues are - see sample errors codes from AOL and Comcast. High bounces, low opens, poor coding can all easily be fixed on your own.
2. If your not able to resolve this alone and need help - Consider hiring an email delivery consultant to help you (I know several that are always looking for new clients). They have seen it all and can possibly identify and help resolve an issue you didn't even know you had.
3. Consultant not in the cards and your going to try it alone... Follow the escalation process detailed on the Postmaster pages for many ISPs, no postmaster page - then try sending an email to Postmaster@ISP. Word to the Wise has a great list to reference and bookmark. Be sure to include all the information you have when asking for help from an ISP - IPs, error codes, email samples (with headers), full contact information, trace routes, manual mail server connection tests. Confused yet? See #2
4. Possibly the most important part of this is Be patient and Understanding - The postmaster/abuse desk receiving your email is already working on a dozen other items ranging from; internal network abuse mitigation to bot nets to helping resolve false positive issues to name just a few of the things they are doing on a daily basis.
5. Give Respect, Get Respect - Give attitude, and you can wait at the bottom of the support queue. Don't flood the support queues with dozens of messages, most support systems work on a first in first out process - they will get to you when it's your turn.
   
   
6. Monitor your mail logs... as abuse desks get busier their ability to reply may decline, but you may see the issue suddenly resolve without receiving a confirmation message or without an explanation of the cause of the issue (this is frequently experienced now with some ISPs).

These are a few simple things that you can consider when looking at issue, and asking for help resolving these problems. Sound daunting and confusing... See #2 - it might just be the best thing you do this year to get your program back on track, even if your not currently experiencing any delivery issues.

Original Post on EmailKarma.net

(The Deliverability Forum is a series of interviews I hosted with industry leaders and luminaries over the past few months.  It came to closure last week and I have shared the final post with takeaways and highlights from the Bronto blog.)

It is with a bit of ennui that I must close this series.  Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the blog posts over the last few months and gave their uncensored opinions around what they find valuable, in need of change or what interesting developments are in the pipeline.  As we began, so we will end - you may not have direct access to these industry leaders but I hope the conversations I've shared have given you insight into the minds of those who have direct influence over the email industry from a sender's and receiver's perspective.  And thank you for the comments and readership thus far.

If you missed any of the blog posts, they are laid out below in chronological order with a high level summary of the post and my takeaways for you as a reader to glean from the interview.  Also, I've included a "definition" section at the bottom of this post if there are any acronyms that you might be uncertain about.  Please scroll down to access it.

The Players:

The FTC (post) describes in the US government's own voice how spam is regulated and counteracted.  Ethan Arenson, the FTC Spam Coordinator, spells out the very serious consequences of not being CAN-SPAM compliant and where to go for their exacting interpretation of what exactly is required of all commercial mailers.  It also shows the government's willingness to help curb the problem of unwanted email by enforcing industry standards such as authentication in a non-legal but best standard way.

My take: While most commercial emailers are compliant with the law (especially if using an ESP such as Bronto), it remains in your best interest to stay cognizant of the law and have someone you trust and can defer to when you're not sure if what you're doing is legal.  Also, the FTC regularly updates the Act's provisions so make sure to stay abreast of the latest rules that are voted in by the FTC commissioners.  We are talking about law here with real civil and criminal consequences if broken.  You don't want to find yourself being accused of a federal crime wherein ignorance of the law won't hold much water!

Pivotal Veracity's (post) President and CEO, Deidre Baird, explains the importance of both authentication and user engagement.  Pivotal Veracity is neither an ISP nor an ESP, but rather a deliverability intermediary services company with deep expertise around content and email disposition.  Also, Pivotal Veracity is a partner of Bronto.  As the interview mentions, without a conscious eye towards the emerging shift in ISP deliverability patterns, specifically around user engagement and authentication, you'll find your program in trouble.

My take: As AOL puts it, "send relevant email to people that want to receive it!"  Are you doing everything you can from an infrastructure standpoint to ensure your email doesn't attract negative hits when being scanned and determined for acceptance by the ISPs?  And, once delivered, is the email being received well by your recipients?  If you can't categorically answer in the affirmative to both of those questions, you have some major homework to do or else risk your mail being deemed irrelevant and sent off to the bulk folder or bounced back.  Both cost money.

Razorfish (post) chimed in from a email content and strategy perspective.  Whitney Hutchinson, Group Director, Strategy and Account Services, sums it up nicely by hitting on these key points: engage your recipients with appropriate creatives, have a holistic marketing approach for the relationship management and take into account the "stacking effect" which is a result of the newly emergent communication technologies available to market to recipients through.  Email is now one of many.

My take: While email is now just one piece in a wide breadth of technologies (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Wave, SMS, etc.), it is still the most important and most trusted conduit of content that recipients most engage with consistently over time.  It has proven itself as a reliable protocol, even older than the internet itself (history)!  But, recipients have become increasingly savvy with its adoption so making your content stand out amongst the sea of email users get is at the vanguard of a successful marketing program.

ReturnPath's (post) President, George Bilbrey, still believes email is the "killer" app.  ReturnPath, while not an email sender or receiver, hosts a suite of services ranging from ESP to ISP products and plays a significant role with its liaison relationship between both senders and receivers.  He poignantly breaks down the exacting metrics ISPs use to measure user engagement (i.e., open rates, click rates, spam complaints, panel votes, etc.) along with the idea of domain reputation.  ReturnPath is a partner of Bronto.

My take: Authenticate, watch your complaints and make sure your domain reputation is healthy.  Yahoo! and AOL have already moved over to using domain reputation as a determining factor for deliverability - so to even ignore those two at this point with their combined estimated 142.4 million unique inboxes is perilous.  ISPs are fighting off spam and user interpreted unwanted email; don't let your mail take on these smarmy characteristics.

Cloudmark (post) occupies a very distinct space in the email industry as being a provider of anti-phishing, spamming, virus and other threat vector services to ISPs only.  Jamie Tomasello, Abuse Operations Manager, posits that authentication doesn't actually imply good mail but rather mail that is verified as coming from the declared source.  Interestingly, she adds that user engagement is not a net positive measurement - you can have negative user engagement as well depending on what the user does with your mail that is perceived by the ISPs and companies such as hers when it's not wanted.  Permission is tantamount.

My take: Bronto and many other responsible ESPs require permission based marketing as the only source of email addresses senders can email to.  Why?  Because it shows the true intent of the recipient to actually want your email; they've taken an action that is clear and deliberate to let the sender know they want the email.  By assuming recipient desire and emailing recipients who haven't given permission is casting a large net that will cause deliverability issues.  Think about it.  When was the last time you marked an email as spam or deleted it when you didn't knowingly sign up for it?  That's what I thought.

LashBack (post) rounded up the series as the final contributor with James O’Brien, Director of Marketing.  LashBack is dedicated to monitoring unsubscribe requests, suppression list abuse and whether an unsubscribe mechanism exists.  This directly ties into CAN-SPAM compliancy as well as being inline with email marketing best practices - when a recipient communicates to you they don't want your email anymore, you should honor this request without question or judgment.  Also, LashBack is putting together the first Email Compliance Summit which should be highly anticipated by senders and ESPs who want to stay on the cutting edge of unsubscribe policy.

My take: With the unsubscribe mechanism being one of several ways a recipient can directly and easily communicate intent with the email sender (others being complaints lodged with the respective ISP or direct email to the sender's role accounts), it is a very useful metric to measure the impact your mail is having on recipients.  Are you sending too much?  Too frequently?  Not targeted enough?  It's the job of the marketer to find that sweet spot where relevancy, recency and frequency are met with the recipients to not drive them to unsubscribe from your mail.

Definitions:

• CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 is the law the federal US government enacted to combat spam and other unwanted and malicious email.

• FTC: Federal Trade Commission is the arm of the federal government in charge of enforcing and maintaining the CAN-SPAM Act.

• ISP: Internet Service Provider of which the largest B2C ISPs are Yahoo!, Hotmail/Live, Gmail and AOL.  Email provider or receiver.

• ESP:  Email Service Provider such as Bronto.  Email senders.

• SPF: Sender Policy Framework is a type of email authentication that is path based and validates the sending entity.

• DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail is a type of email authentication that is encryption based, validates the content of a message hasn't been tampered with while in transit and can be tied back to a sending domain.

I hope that the Deliverability Forum and this wrap up have helped you with your deliverability programs.  Still have questions?  Comment below and let's keep the conversation going.

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability at Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler

Originally posted on Word to the Wise here following a discussion themed around ISP and ESP interactions and communication gaps.

My take...

After reading Laura’s and Steve’s posts on the gap between the “senders” and “receivers” (both excellent reads I recommend if you haven’t already done so), it really made me think about why I do what I do and why I think (hopefully not being too narcissistic here) that I’m reasonably good at it.

I was formally educated and then broken in after school with the technology world but have never considered myself a technology purist (I will never author a C# book or program my own killer app). However, I also enjoy people and working with (almost) all of them. Traditionally, these two skillsets have not meshed well in the technology industry to a nontrivial level. So, when I went into deliverability, I was intrigued by the fact that it is as much of a technology, business, marketing and people facing genre as any. And, one of the things I am highly grateful for was that I worked for a sender who really seemed to get it. Of course there were marketing jerks and revenue driven bullies there as well, but my management supported me in really trying to do the right thing by the end email recipient (and in this case, customer).

This helped me shape my view of my role in deliverability and decide which type I wanted to be. Mind you, I have never worked at an ISP. So, my bias is towards the senders. If you have a management team that understands that deliverability is not just a flashy word to throw around, push in prospects’ faces or otherwise excuse away as another service to potentially charge for when not necessarily needed, you’re in a good place. But, you also have to decide what you value as important and ethical for yourself. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks who are in the deliverability space not because they like the work and are truly looking out for recipients, but rather (and as Steve’s post touches) out there to make money doing anything they can to drive revenue from their perspective without much respect or empathy for the person on the other end of the mailbox. ESPs have been given a bad name in the industry as the aggressors, those who are willing to use and abuse the email ecosystem to get money with no respect to the common rules of “best practices” or recipient perspective. Unfortunately, a lot of folks in the email receiving world have adopted this as their stereotype and dismiss anyone trying to triage a deliverability problem as one who is just wanting to get more emails in an inbox..to generate more opens…to garner more clicks…and ultimately put more cash in their pocket.

This is simply untrue. But, there are a lot of senders who do fit into this category, unfortunately.

The same can be said of ISPs, who seem to be on the defensive all the time and take every piece of incoming mail as having a negative relevancy score attached to the intended recipient and make the sender pay (literally in terms of some accreditation methods) to move towards what they perceive as a positive and user wanted email. The sloppy ISPs rely heavily on using highly automated systems to either do binary blocking outright on certain arbitrary indicators in mail or simply throw their hands up and call anyone not sending a one to one message from someone’s relative or friend spam. Again, though, this is an unfair stereotype that doesn’t apply across the board. I work with many ISPs that do take the time, effort and examination to help recipients get mail they want instead of just outright declaring jihad on mass senders altogether. If you pay close attention, these are also usually those who are very technically savvy (and thus breed a desire to keep the internet a free and open exchange for ideas to be messaged, including those that are marketing related and wanted). I enjoy reading the information they post. Our conversations. Listening to what they have to say. And in turn, I believe they do the same of me since they know I’m more about letting numbers and actions speak for themselves as opposed to trying to circumvent any process or “game” them. Numbers and actions, for me, are about spam complaints being driven down, email engagement being up, and benefit being gleaned from the messages sent via whatever method is most appropriate. CNN, for example, sends me transactional breaking news alerts. I may not read every one. And I certainly am not driven to purchase or pay into a service as a result. But, I do enjoy getting these and would be upset if that stream of information stopped. A lot of ISPs get this – the implied and real value I have as a result of knowing what’s going on in any facet of email communication when I don’t have a chance to proactively find out myself.

The rub is that ESPs are paid money to send email (with their hue changing based on types of email they send, the clients they onboard, adherence to their own rules, etc.). But, we are paid to send email (notice “quantity” is intentionally excluded from this sentence). It’s the core product of our systems…deliver communication via electronic mail. ISPs are not paid to receive email. Some ISPs are paid for the images or impressions they drop in which are driven by the mail a user gets being the catalyst for the times they check their mail. Or, some ISPs charge money for email (so in a sense, they are paid to deliver within their own confines of what is spam or not to the customer). Other ISPs just have email as an extension of their existing services (think cable providers or cellular companies) which ultimately can be ear marked for revenue.

So, not all senders are bad; neither are all ISPs good (and vice versa). But, at the end of the day, I can honestly say I don’t have that many problems when dealing with receivers since I tend to only really have a relationship with those I believe are trying to do the right thing, like me, in ensuring recipients get mail they want, need, or otherwise are just glad to have around. I don’t need to be yelled at as an abuser of the internet because I’ve found a living in sending email, as much as a mechanic does for contributing to global warming for putting gasoline burning cars back on the road. Nor, do the ISPs deserve to have fingers waved in their face either when, usually, they’re trying to keep their recipients happy and not melt under the deluge of true spam that technology has brought with it. I’m sure this will inspire some nasty comments, or at the least, a nonplussed double take, but ISPs are businesses as well. They are not run on cookies and rainbows. Same with ESPs. Finding a balance between the two with corporate management pushing down and reinforcing an intermediary relationship that doesn’t engage in an antagonistic or adversarial role is what will win every time.

It’s about the people, the personalities, and a new industry that’s evolved in the aftermath of the advent of spam and marketing mail. But, if your culture is one which doesn’t fit what makes you feel you’re successful or back your mores you’ve developed or adopted over the years, you must realize you’re empowered to make yourself respected and happy. No one else, though. And, at the end of the day, I think the issues between ISPs and ESPs not communicating effectively is more about what the company culture is and how well (or not) they respect and encourage their employees to drive for whatever measurement of success you both share (be it money, recipient satisfaction, client satisfaction, just putting in an honest day’s work, or the fact you get to work from Punxsutawney).

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability at Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler

 

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

Fellow Deliverability.com blogger Andrew Kordek started a provocative conversation among a group of email marketers when he asked "If you had one wish in email marketing, what would it be?"

Andrew's wish (education for marketers, ESPs and clients alike), which echoed Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, inspired me to take a page from John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural exhortation: "Ask not what email marketing can do for you. Ask what you can do for email marketing."

Many of the comments to Andrew's "Dream" post wished for things like getting Microsoft to dump Word as the HTML engine in Outlook 2007, or better video rendering, or standardized bounce codes and email metrics. Rather than throwing a penny into the proverbial wishing well, however, what are you going to do in 2010 to actually make a positive impact on the industry?

Here are three places to start:

1. What you can do to help yourself: Take your career seriously, and educate yourself on all the aspects of email marketing that make it different from other marketing channels. Learn the best practices that have worked for leaders in the industry, and try to do the right thing instead of the easiest or the quickest.

Attend conferences and Webinars, read blogs like this one and take advantage of all of the free resources on the Web that provide the knowledge and tools to guide you toward delivering a world-class email marketing program.

2. What you can do for your employer: Educate your managers and C-Suite on the role, value and ROI of email marketing. Show them what proportion of your budget email actually consumes and present facts and figures to back up your requests for more resources.

Also, show how email can be much more than a sales channel. It can build brand awareness and affinity, customer loyalty and retention, reduce costs and help other departments solve problems and achieve its business goals.

3. What you can do to benefit the industry: Email continues to suffer an image problem not just from spammers but also because legitimate marketers do stupid things, like buying mailing lists instead of building their own house lists and pounding them to death with indiscriminate volume and irrelevant messages.

Get involved in industry associations (the eec, ESPC, MAAWG for example) that strive to raise the bar for effective and ethical email practices.

Practice what you preach. Be willing to brainstorm solutions to problems instead of just complaining about ISPs blocking your emails and being overworked.
 
Join in the conversation about email on social networks like Twitter, Email Roundtable, Email Marketers Club or LinkedIn (where this discussion originated).

To revise yet another famous adage: "Be the change you want to see in email marketing" (Mahatma Gandhi).

What are you going to do for email marketing in 2010? Please share your thoughts.

I'm a bit of an email geek.

I evaluate nearly every email in my inbox and many in my spam folder. I read and contribute to many of the industry blogs and publications. I peek over my wife's shoulder as she's scanning her inbox to better understand how she "consumes" email marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, I'm often disappointed at the number of email communications that fail; those that miss the boat, forget to treat consumers like humans, and don't set proper expectations.

That's why when I see something like this from Chase (see landing page below), I get jazzed. I want to celebrate the good. They did it! Yay! Yay!

Brief Backstory

I recently made the switch to the Southwest Credit Card, mostly because I love Southwest Airlines. I signed up my Southwest/Chase credit card online and promptly forgot my username and password. Awesome, right? Thankfully, like most sites, they have a step-by step process to retrieve my information. You've likely stepped through this before. You answer a series of challenge questions. Then, your username and/or password is either displayed or some type of code/link are sent to you via email. Standard procedure.

Setting Proper Expectations

The Chase Online process was quite similar to the typical one described above, with a twist. When it came to the deliverability of the Identification Code, there was a nice alert informing me of what could happen with the recently sent email. Take a minute to read what's inside the red box. You may have to click the image to enlarge. (Note: I added the red box.)

They set clear expectations. Not only that, but they used language that was aligned with the average consumer - internet traffic, software settings, etc. They didn't barrage me with technical-speak. They told me what to expect and when.

Nice job Chase Online! You win today's gold star.

Are you setting proper expectations? Do people know what to expect, when, and how often?

DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow

Repost from Pivotal IQ Blog

It's the time of the year when you start thinking about how many pounds your turkey will have to be to feed all of your relatives and what kind of shenanigans will ensue when Uncle Bob has one too many highballs. However pre-occupied you may be with family and the impending feasts, there's a little voice—a scared little voice—wondering what you could possibly do to improve your overall deliverability and marketing performance.

Let's face it, times are tough, economics being what they are, we all must deliver a command performance to ensure our continued success. Your email is more important than ever in establishing a necessary dialogue with your customers that will compell them to read, click and convert.

The first thing to understand about the holiday season is that everyone under the sun is trying to deliver a command performance and will be sending their mission critical mail. According to experts (and first hand experience of just looking in my own inbox) volumes are increasing as marketers mail their holiday specials in hopes of creating the necessary hype to make Black Friday as lucrative as possible.

Does less equal more during the holidays?

That's an important question. We here at Pivotal Veracity have a unique perspective on how the market is performing. Since we work with some of the largest brands and mailers in the world, we are privvy to performance vectors that give a clear indication of what's happening in the market. The following chart chronicles the trend that the first 11 days of this holiday season, starting on November 1st, 2009, has had on industry-wide deliverability:

 

The chart clearly demonstrates that  overall inbox placement has exerpienced a downward trend from a high of 89% across all industries and mailers starting on November 1st to just 77% by today. As the overall inbox rate has dropped, both spam and undelivered mail (bounces/smtp rejections) have increased accordingly. If we are all in agreement that the volume of mail has increased in anticipation of the holidays, then we must assume from the numbers above that less is not more inbox and that your customers and their ISPs are reacting to the increased traffic they are experiencing.

Regroup, evaluate and adjust your strategy

It's very important to know what's really going on with your email. If you see that your delivery rates are dropping then you may be getting lost in the inbox. Set up time to check your delivery every single day and adjust accordingly. Don't blanket every single user every single day or two with an email; instead, select and target your users appropriately, If you don't email the oldest 1% of your list, you you will potentially cut down on the complaints and bounces that drag down the performance of your overall list.

Try sending on different days: We know that Tuesdays are high traffic days, but during this time of year Tuesday is the 405 Freeway with a jack-knifed big rig in either direction at 5:00pm on a Friday. The idea is that you stand out from the crowd and sometimes you may have to stand out from what you've done up to this point in order to be noticed.

Remember, the name of the game is engagement and it takes many forms. Don't try to engage every single one of your customers in the exact same way, they are all individuals and social media has made us all want a personalized conversation.

Take to heart the basic concepts of deliverability as touted by such global entities like AOL: "Send mail that users want to receive." This is the very core of engagement and the most critical principle by which you can operate to ensure success as we move into December when volumes will go up even more and the battle for your customer's dollars heats up.  Cheers!

-Len Shneyder
Director of Partner Relations
& Industry Communications
www.pivotalveracity.com

Reposted from the Bronto Blog.

By now, most email marketers have probably come to understand that sending email is not without risk.  As with any marketing, knowing your audience and serving up something that will entice them to convert is key.  Two methods email recipients have to let you, as a marketer, know they don't like what you've sent them is by either unsubscribing or lodging a complaint with their ISP (largest still is Yahoo! with 106MM unique US inboxes according to the latest report).

Note, these are not representative of recipients (your potential or existing customers) telling you they don't care or are indifferent to what you've sent them.  But, rather, they've gone out of their way to deliberately tell someone they don't appreciate the email (either you, directly via the unsubscribe or the ISP via a complaint).

Let's dive into the complaints a bit more, though.  These little bits of data a recipient fires off to their ISP or 3rd party service (like SpamCop) have two effects:

1. It signifies to the ISP that a subscriber of theirs has identified what she considers to be spam.  When these are added up over time and the recipient base, that ISP domain can begin blocking the sender.
2. It is compiled in the email platform you're using and usually, like with Bronto's Sender Rating, can impact your ability to send email out.  Also, that recipient is unsubscribed from future mailings until they re-optin.

At its core, a spam complaint is a person raising their hand and saying "Yuck."

How do you measure complaints? Based on the above effects, there's real money being left on the table after every complaint is lodged.  It not only affects the LTV (define) but also shows the value of your program as determined by the aggregate of the recipients' reactions.

Start Simple. If you don't yet have a way to assign a monetary value to a complaint, take it slow.  Look at your marketing spreadsheets or your data warehouse (or wherever you keep the incremental value listed per customer/prospect, even if it's on a legal pad somewhere) and ask yourself "How much will it cost me when one person tells me they don't want any more email?"  Is it $10?  $5?  If you have really high incremental revenue per item, it may be more.  If you're about providing a more informational email, it will be much lower.  But at some point, you need to define how many net dollars will come out of your budget each time a new recipient tells you "No!"

Stay consistent. Once you've got the value down, be sure to apply it to all recipients across the board fairly.  You can break down the values per mailing segment, but in my experience, it's more effective to have the opportunity cost assigned multilaterally.  Makes it much easier to compare one campaign to the next within your campaign.

Be true to yourself. The whole point of email marketing in the first place is to spread the word about your company, service or product, right?  Pay attention to complaints coming in (of which any good email platform should expose) and act on this information.  Turning a blind eye or accepting the complaints as collateral damage for emailing will result in potentially alienating your recipients.  And, with that individual, you'll lose their willingness in the future to even get your email.

Don't be afraid of complaints; embrace them.  The spam complaint isn't going anywhere soon.  Many ISPs still use it at as the glue tying senders to email performance, recipients are being trained more and more to just "spam it" from their own web or thick clients, and successful marketers know exactly how much a complaint drives out of their potential success in dollars.  Take action when receiving them and use your marketing savvy to avoid more in the future.

I'll leave you with this thought...

39% of all respondents said they used the "report spam" button often or very often. - MarketingSherpa "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008"

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability at Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler

A feature of many mailing programs is the ability to auto-detect the recipient’s email client and then send email that meets the recipient’s capacity to render HTML. In some respects the auto-detect feature is a legacy hangover from the days of text-only email clients. We didn’t all wake up one morning to an email client that was fully capable of displaying complicated CSS driven layouts and pretty graphics. The update was a gradual process and as people adopted more robust email clients marketers began to send more robust emails with increasingly complicated code.

Today we ooh and aah at the beautiful emails our design and production departments generate in hopes of garnering clicks and conversions, but a brief look under the hood reveals a glaring hole caused by some auto-detect systems: sending only one part of a Multi-Part MIME message may cause your email to be filtered as spam.

MIME (Multi Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) extends email by supporting message bodies with multiple sections and varied encodings among other features. This means that you can send both an HTML portion and a TEXT portion in the same message. The recipient’s email client will render the one it is a) capable of rendering and, b) the portion the recipient prefers to see. Contrary to popular belief, not every single person in the world wants to see HTML in their email.

So what’s the problem you ask? The problem is simple: marketers are sending Multi-Part MIME messages but omitting the TEXT part of the MIME. When you send a Multi-Part MIME you are declaring that you are sending more than 1 MIME part—leaving out the TEXT part, or in the rare case that you only send the TEXT part minus the HTML you are in essence breaking the standard.

By not sending both parts of the MIME you run the danger of having your messages flagged by a heuristic filter that specifically checks valid MIME headers that include TEXT & HTML. SpamAssassin score increases, due to triggering this rule, could be as high as 1.672! When you consider that your total heuristic spam score must be under a 5 to deliver to certain ISPs this single rule alone could put you over the top, leaving your carefully crafted email in the spam folder!

Following best practices and technical specs will ultimately help you achieve higher ROI by helping more of your email reach the inbox. Taking short cuts like omitting necessary MIME portions in the hopes of minimally shrinking your message size will probably hurt you more than anything else. Yes, it takes a bit more time to craft the text portion, but look at it this way—you are casting a wider net in hopes of reaching more of your fans and customers that really do want to read your message, even if they’re still using Pine or some other antique mail client.

With mobile email readership exploding, marketers are increasingly looking for advice on how to optimize their communications for the small screen.  Unfortunately, it can be difficult to sort fact from fiction with the gluttony of information out there. Here are the top 5 myths—and realities—of mobile email marketing.

Myth 1 – Include a TEXT part, that’s what your readers will see!

Yes, absolutely include a text part if you’re sending a true multi-part mime, but your mobile readers will not see a text part—they will see the HTML part rendered in a variety of ways. If you were to examine the rendering capabilities of the top mobile devices over the last 2 years or so, you’d see vast differences. For those devices that seem to render text-only guess again, that’s not text you’re looking at—it’s the HTML part of a message but with the HTML tags stripped out. Your links will be rendered in most cases, but certain platforms won’t render a link unless it’s a full URL as opposed to hyperlinked text.

Myth 2 – Include a pre-header.

Pre-headers today seem to run the gamut from add to address book, to tertiary offers, to links to mobile versions. What started as the “add to address book” line became ubiquitous when ISPs began to turn images off; being in someone’s address book effectively turns those images back on. But a downside to a pre-header is that it pushes the primary call to action down the page, along with the branding, which in a graphic enabled mobile email client is precious space at the top of the message on a screen no bigger than 320x240 at most. Additionally if your mobile phone’s email client strips HTML and you’ve hyperlinked words in a preheader such as: Can’t see this on your mobile phone, click here, the “here” in your pre-header is worthless text and will not accomplish the task you intended.

Myth 3 – Link to a mobile version of the email

So you thought that since mobile email clients aren’t perfect, a mobile web browser is? Think again. Mobile web browsing is as fraught with peril as mobile email. The industry leading handset, with arguably the best user experience, the iPhone, lacks support for Flash. Mobile web browsers can take long times to download an entire web page and how they will render that page is anyone’s guess as they are essentially stripped down versions of the full browser and may not support complicated CSS layouts.

Myth 4 – Mail a mobile version!

Oh yeah, that’s right, there’s a one size fits all mobile version of email that will span the radically different native email programs of the iPhone, Blackberry(s), Palm(s), Symbian(s) and other leading handset makers. In addition to the rendering differences among the aforementioned let’s face the facts: You don’t get to choose where your customer reads their email—they do. Just because you sent joe@yahoo.com an email doesn’t mean he’s going to read it on his mobile phone or using his Yahoo webmail—he may pop it into his Outlook Express. The point is, it’s his choice where he reads it! The possibilities are limitless and marketers should optimize for cross channel efficiency by keeping communications light (as close to 20kb as possible), confined to a single column layout and omitting as many complex layout variables as possible.

Myth 5 – Just press send!

That’s right, now that you chopped the first four heads off the hydra you’re good to go and you simply hit the send button and hope for the best. Wrong! In an increasingly complex, multi-platform, “3.0” digital communication environment, quality assurance testing has never been so important. Leverage tools which allow you to see what your email will look like before sending it to ensure that you achieved optimal rendering across the numerous mobile, web and desktop email clients. Remember, your clients are using all of them. The question for you is this: are you designing your emails to succeed with today’s realities in mind, or are you going to let your missives linger in a web of mythology?

Are your email subscribers clicking through to your websites, ordering your products, or registering for your events as expected? No? Instead are they simply unresponsive, unsubscribing, or worse, complaining? If so, perhaps you're not clearly establishing mutual expectations.

So how do you manage the high expectations of your subscriber's and then compel them to act?

1. Tell your subscriber exactly what you expect of them.
2. Tell your subscriber exactly what they can expect of you.
3. Do exactly what you said you were going to do.

Telling someone what you're going to do or getting them to do something, just by asking them, is easy and completely obvious, right? Yet most email and online communications don't do it. Which is why many email marketers, despite otherwise well crafted campaigns, end up with less than stellar results and waning subscriber bases.

The term 'tell them' may sound a bit callous to most marketers. After all, your subscribers are smart people and they understand your product and what you're trying to accomplish. But once you've gained your subscriber’s attention and trust, and then presented all the benefits of your offerings, the hand-holding has only just begun. Here's why.

It's not that your subscribers are dumb. They're you, your mom, and your brother. But like you they're busy. There are a lot of near-term tasks competing for their attention. The fact is that your hurried subscribers may not know what they should do next, what to expect, or even who you are or what you want, unless you spell it out with painful clarity. You truly must tell the subscriber exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Here's how.

When you want your subscriber to take action, be it adding your sending address to their safe list or buying your service, use highly specific language with concrete details in every communication. Don't leave any question about what you want to happen. Don't be afraid to be too obvious. As with any healthy relationship open, two-way communication is the key to success. But it's a two-way street. So, in exchange you must tell the subscriber what you'll be doing (or not doing) to nurture or progress said relationship.

There are many ways to set mutual expectations, let your corporate culture be your guide. But here's an example of a confirmation email that might have been crafted by the late, great copywriter Gary Halbert.

Subject Line:

"You're in! Now what?"

Body Content:

"Hi Sue. The custom demo that you requested is now ready and waiting for you here. Once you visit (exampleurl.com/sue) we'll ask if you want to test the silver, gold, or platinum plan. Select the platinum; it's really the best value. The demo will take only a half hour but you'll be able to clearly make a purchasing decision at that point.

If for some reason you're unable to take your customized demo today, we will attempt to reschedule every two weeks, unless you tell us otherwise. So, what do you say? There's no time like the present...click here."

For most marketers this approach seems a bit over the top (perhaps because they know the product and process too well) but for your busy subscriber (because you're asking them to spend their money or time), this level of detail creates a comfortable understanding and a clear call to action.

In other words, if you want to create more a successful email marketing program you must set the expectations for both parties, upfront and on an ongoing basis. First decide what actions you’re going to take; perform only those actions. Then decide what action you want subscriber's to take; ask them to take that action. State it clearly, succinctly and unmistakably.

- Scott Hardigree, CEO at Indiemark, a full-service email marketing agency based in Orlando, FL.