by Morgan Witt

1.  Ensure you have received permission

For all email acquisitions it is essential that you receive online verifiable consent of opt-in.  This is easily accomplished through using a closed-loop or double opt-in process.  This will drastically reduce the level of spam complaints against your email marketing campaigns.  Spam complaint levels are the top metric that the ISP’s look at when making the business decision as to where your mail should be delivered (inbox vs. spam folder).

2.  Allow subscribers to easily update their profile information

More than ever, people are managing multiple inboxes.  Subscribers are jumping from email client to email client based on ease of use, features, and functionality.  Its highly unlikely that subscribers will take the time to provide you their updated email address when they make a switch if the process to do so is a hassle.  Make it easy for subscribers to provide updated profile information and customize their subscriptions by providing an email preference center.  Link to this preference center in the footer of every email you send.

3.  Optimize bounce handling

Whenever an email address bounces a very specific bounce error code is passed back from the domain or ISP it belongs to.  This bounce code states the reason for the bounce (ie. spam block, discontinued address, connection issue, etc.) as well as an email address, phone number, or link to a web form that provides additional information.  Make sure that your email service provider is processing bounces appropriately based on the error codes that are passed back to them.  For example, an address that bounces with an error code that states it is a dead or discontinued account should be flagged as invalid on the first bounce.  Sending to a high percentage of dead email addresses can lead to deliverability issues as the ISP’s view this as lack of proper list management. 

4.  Friendly “from” address and subject lines

The “from” address and subject line of your email campaign are the first things that the subscriber looks at when they are scanning through their inbox.  With ever increasing volume of email that your subscribers recieve on a daily basis its essential that the “from” address be consistent and recognizable to mitigate the risk that the email is passed over, deleted, or even worse, marked as spam.  The same mentality should be applied to your subject lines.  You want to ensure that your brand is referenced along with an attractive offer that will empower your subscribers to open and click through.

5.  Get in the address book

A large number of email clients are defaulting images to “off” when an email gets to the inbox.  So when your subscriber looks at the email in the preview plane it may have a number of empty boxes in where the images should be.  In order to ensure images are turned on when the mail gets to the inbox, it is essential to get your subscribers to add your “from” email address to their address book or “safe senders” list.  This will also improve the probability that future emails are delivered directly to the inbox.

Ex. To ensure delivery of future emails please add newsletters@xyz.com to your email address book.

6.  Authentication

The “phishing” problem that has plagued the financial services industry spawned authentication technologies to fight online fruad.  These technologies are now being leveraged as anti-spam tools.  There are two flavors of email authentication: Microsoft’s Sender ID and Yahoo’s Domain Keys.  Authentication will allow you to differentiate your email from that of spammers.  Email authentication tells the domains that you are sending to that “I am who I say I am” and “I give (enter ESP here) permission to mail on my behalf.”  In addition to Microsoft and Yahoo, a handful of the other major ISP’s will be leveraging authentication in the next year including AOL, Gmail, and Comcast.