We've been discussing the issues pertaining to subscriber engagement and deliverability. Lately, Internet service providers (ISPs) have been considering offering more "user defined classification of email" services so people can control their own inbox experience. In fact, Gmail and Hotmail recently announced enhancements to their email programs to adopt user classification of email for placement--

Gmail:

Gmail recently announced their user defined solution called "Priority Inbox". This will be rolled out to their entire user base over the next several weeks. The highlight of the new features is the abilility for users to sort their email messages into three categories: Important, Interesting and Other. In other words, your subscribers will be able to “tag” certain email messages as important or not important (reputation building) to assist Gmail in learning your references.

To determine what’s important to email recipients Gmail will also consider "subscriber engagement" - how much your subscribers are interacting with your email based on metrics such as the number of opens and clicks.

More information on the Gmail Priority Inbox

Hotmail:

Hotmail surveyed their user community and used their own information to make changes to enhance their user experience. They announced user behavior triggered filtering which means they will be measuring subscriber engagement to determine engagement.

Hotmail will be looking at numerous metrics to decide what is “inbox-worthy”, including:

• Messages read, then deleted by the subscriber
• Messages deleted without being read
• Messages replied to – a tough one in the email marketing space
• Frequency of receiving and reading a message from a particular "From" address

You can learn more about the New Hotmail here.

Currently Hotmail, in contrast to Gmail, is not considering click-through data to determine engagement, but I believe that this will happen eventually.

What’s the call to action for email marketers?

Simply put: EMAIL SUBSCRIBER ENGAGEMENT

The days are numbered for non-engaged email communication; email marketers now have to embrace the concepts of permission based email marketing.

Here's what you can implement now to engage your email subscribers and ensure delivery to the inbox:

• Double opt-in from the inception of your relationship - This is the highest form of permission and will engage your email subscribers with your brand from the beginning.
  
  
• Implement a welcome program - You can establish preferences and frequency, and communicate with your email subscribers on their terms which will build engagement.
  
  
• Ask subscribers to add your From address to their address books - Your subscribers' commitment to receiving your email will demonstrate engagement to the ISPs.
  
  
• Define your “reply to” address based on your mail stream, commercial email marketing vs. transactional email messages - These streams should remain separate to ensure email deliverability for each category.
  
  
• Consistently monitor your subscribers' responses - Any change in your subscribers' engagement could affect email deliverability and indicate problems with relevance, frequency or other issues.
  
  
• Email segmentation based on engagement and activity - Remember in the new Gmail world you want your messages to be marked as "Important" to ensure engagement continuity.

The writing is on the wall - non-engaged consumers will lead to non-delivery of your email messages. Let us know how we can help you with these changes. Our client services teams are standing by to ensure your email marketing success.

Cheers

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About the Author

David Fowler is the director of email strategy, deliverability and privacy compliance for Lyris. He consults with email marketers to help them get better results from their email programs.

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