Articles

Articles Index

Email Delivery - a Quick Reference

Written by Adrian Caruso, CEO/Master Business Coach of TA Fastrack

There are many factors to keep in mind when analyzing your campaign delivery rates. GOT supports and promotes best practices in email marketing, and encourages all Campaigner users to optimize their online marketing results. Here are the 3 key issues and considerations to help you cover the major areas, followed by some helpful rules of thumb for enhancing your delivery rates:

1. ISP Filters: It is critical to look at delivery success overall and for each ISP individually. Every ISP uses different email filtering and blocking protocols that will affect your ability to deliver messages. Differences in ISP filtering rules can mean your messages get through one ISP's filter but are blocked by another's.

2. Email Design: Poorly designed email campaigns with broken lines, bad HTML code, and amateurish content will make you look like a spammer or a phisher to many ISPs and recipients alike; both may filter, block, or blacklist you as a result. Email Service Providers (ESPs) like GOT do help by maintaining relationships with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to make sure that their IP addresses and sending domains are white listed. However, some power is also in your hands! A properly designed campaign can also improve your delivery rates with some ISPs.

3. List Hygiene: Always keep in mind that the first time you send to a list, or revisit an older list, you will get higher than normal hard bounce rates. This happens because a significant portion of all email addresses are retired every year - approximately 20% but most estimates. Once these have been cleaned out of the list your delivery rates will normalize. (Campaigner automatically tracks hard bounces and suppresses them from subsequent mailings).

Here are some helpful rules for thumb to keep in mind for your next email campaign:
·  Make sure your content is relevant and well written.

   > Visit the GOT resource center for helpful email marketing tips and tricks, including:
      >> "Accidental Spammer"
      >> "Top 5 Tips for e-Newsletters "

·  Ensure that your HTML code complies with W3C standards, and double check all your links.

> Visit the W3C online guide to conventions for HTML in email.
·  Test, test, test your campaigns! See how changes in content, subject lines, layout, etc., affect your delivery rates to specific ISPs.

tell us what you think

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Adrian Caruso's name and contact information is included.

email, 07 3630 1298, http://www.tafastrack.com

If you liked this article, you might also be interested in these articles.

• 6 Ways to Improve your eMail List
• Beef Up Your Opt-In Email List
• Can B2B Newsletters Survive the Preview Pane?