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Jenny Lassi

By: Jenny Lassi on March 5th, 2013

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Deliverability Basics: Part II

Email Marketing

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article

One of the more frustrating aspects of eMail marketing is understanding why one of your eMails may not reach your recipient inbox. There are many hoops eMail marketers must jump through in order to reach inboxes and no organization is exempt from this. Even if you are deploying eMails to members who have opted into your eNewsetters, you will still need to get through all filtering levels before your eMail reaches the member inbox.

filter-info-graphic

ISP Level Filtering

Configuration Hoops:
Right out of the gate, you absolutely must implement DKIM (Domain Keys) and Sender ID (SPF Record). This will need to be done by someone with access to your domain's DNS.

Engagement Hoops:
Big changes in ISP level filtering have taken place in the last year that may prevent you from reaching inboxes and unfortunately it's nothing you can control 100%. ISPs are looking at metrics like messages deleted without being read, percentage of email opens from any 1 specific sender, etc.

This is all an attempt for ISPs to only inbox "wanted" mail and the rest are routed to spam folders. Increasing engagement with your members can be tricky. You need to first know what type of content they value, how often they want/expect it and crafting your eMail to get the best Open/Click Through Rate. Try the A/B testing features to get your finger on the pulse of what your members want.

eMail Server Level Filtering

If your members are a part of a business/organization, then most likely they are using an eMail address from their organization and have someone on staff administer their eMail server. More than likely, there is some type of SPAM filtering software service helping keep unwanted or SPAM mail to a minimum. These filtering softwares like Postini or Message Labs use a complex mixture of engagement, keywords, IP blocks, and DNSBL/RBL (Real-time Blackhole Lists) that may route your email to SPAM or Junk folders.

If the eMail server doesn't bounce the message where you could access bounce code/reasons from the stats of your sent message, you have no way of knowing if your eMail was inboxed or routed elsewhere. One way to overcome eMail server filtering obstacles would be to always have your members add you to their eMail safelist and have their IT department add your domain and IP address to their whitelist to allow any/all email traffic to reach member inboxes. This takes time/effort by someone inside your organization.

eMail Client Level Filtering

Locally Installed
eMail clients like OutlookMAC mailMozilla Thunderbird, etc. all have junk folders that the user needs to "train" over time to inbox what is considered a "wanted" eMail. You can visit the links above to learn more about how each eMail client is trained.

Again the best way to overcome eMail client level filtering is to ask the recipient to add you to their eMail safelist for each eMail you deploy especially transactional eMails.

Web-Based
Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail all use their own algorithm for inbox delivery and it is continually getting updated/changed. They put a heavy weight on configuration set-up (Domain Key and Sender ID) and then look at eMail engagement to see if eMails from the sender are getting opened or deleted without being read.

Increasing engagement (see Engagement Hoops above) is one of the only things you can do as an organization, beyond DNS configuration, to reach these inboxes.