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Tuesday, October 21 2008 23:55 |
 In a perfect world, every email sender would reach 100% email deliverability with completely relevant content and high opens and clicks. In reality, that’s just not the case. Approximately only 80% of all emails sent will actually make it to the inbox. The other 20% are likely to be filtered out or reported as SPAM.
Some of the main contributing factors to this problem include:
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Spam Complaints
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SPAM Traps
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Email Frequency
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Blacklists
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Bounces
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Company Firewalls
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Email Content
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Email Subject Lines
Let’s explore a few of the more important contributing factors in detail:
Spam Complaints
Obviously, if someone considers your message to be “SPAM” that person will hit the SPAM button which automatically reports you to the ISP and puts you on their radar. Oftentimes people forget that they even opted in, and as a result they consider your messages to be SPAM. They might also report you if they don’t recognize your sending address or if they grow tired of your campaigns. When you send too frequently it can irritate people and turn the relationship sour, so instead of unsubscribing like we all wish they would, they send it to the easily accessible junk folder.
SPAM Traps
SPAM traps are another pocket you don’t want to mess with. A SPAM trap is basically an abandoned email address that eventually gets closed and is reopened some time later by the ISP. The ISP will then keep it active for a while to catch spammers who phished for the address or they will catch those who didn’t clean that email address from their list. Why would they do this? Simple, they do this to see who has been sending to recipients who have been non-responsive or inactive for a long period of time. This denotes bad sending behavior and irresponsibility on the sender’s part, and as a result the ISPs will filter them a little more stringently.
Company Firewalls
Obviously you want to keep your content and subject lines as professional as possible. For some email marketers this will be a challenge because their messages may contain adult content, for instance. Company firewalls will have the greatest affect on these senders. Every company has a unique firewall that is specifically designed to suit their needs and handle their incoming emails. The best thing to do in this situation is to clean your list of any addresses that appear to be associated with companies (i.e. contain a company domain name).
Tips to Improve Your Email Deliverability:
1. NEVER buy a list. This will just lead to a downward spiral of problems such as poor open and click rates and high SPAM complaints.
2. Ensure that your bounces are being received properly. A good rule of thumb is “3 bounces and out”. Multiple bounces usually mean that the recipient has a full inbox, in which case it could be abandoned and later turned into a SPAM trap.
3. Emailing too frequently can cause people to become annoyed; on the other hand, sporadic sending can result in them not recognizing who you are. Try to maintain a steady and predictable sending pattern.
4. Keep your content clean, legible, and balanced. Don't overuse color and calls-to-action because this may be confusing and busy to those who are reading it. Try to keep a nice balance of color and headlines, with clear and obvious calls-to-action.
5. Lose the dead weight by cleaning out your list every 3 months. Inactive behavior is only bringing down your campaign effectiveness, deliverability and reputation. Don’t take this risk. If people miss receiving your email, they’ll re-subscribe.
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