Autoresponder Software Deliver-ability Tips
Filed under E-mail Marketing
As an owner of an online marketing company one of the questions I get a lot about email campaign software is how do you maximize deliver-ability to clients and customers. There are several things to consider. The number one step is to confirm that the people who ask for your information have actually asked to be on your list. When marketing by email you should be using a process called confirmed opt-in to send a link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link and confirm that they are the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.
When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their real or primary email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or aol. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.
Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. Our email campaign software automatically does this for you but some systems require you do it manually. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.
When using email campaign software make sure to set HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be challenging. A 2004 study shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.
Many ISP’s filters base conditions on the content that appears within the message text.
Website Links: Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their link appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be removed.
Words/phrases: Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, dont attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, youll just make your messages appear more spam like.
No Attachments: With viruses running rampant and spreading through the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It is better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size. The service I use as well as some others provide this as part of the email marketing system.
Relationships & White listing: Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific white listing programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.
Remeber when using email campaign software deliver-ability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.
