Email Deliverability 101
Posted by karenses on March 5, 2009
For those of you interested in learning about email deliverability, check out this quick tutorial >> http://www.constantcontact.com/display_media.jsp?id=19t
A few highlights include:
Return Path Deliverability Statistics:
- Average 20% blocking rate for those not using an Email Service Provider (ESP)
- Average < 3% blocking rate for those using an ESP* (like Constant Contact, which is what I’m using now; also used Eloqua in past)
*At leading ESP’s, there is usually a team dedicated to working with major ISPs to maintain low / no blocking rates
Note: Constant Contact provides consistently a 97% deliverability
TO AVOID SPAM FILTERS
WORDS TO AVOID: Sale, Free, No Charge, Click Here, Offer, Register Today, Must be 18…
DESIGN ELEMENTS TO AVOID: All Caps, Red Text, Excessive punctuation, Excessive use of symbols, Low ratio > text to images, white versus colored backgrounds
80% email recipients hit > Report Spam button > without even opening the message
Your audience will look at the “From Name” & “Subject Line” and decide to open the email, delete or report as SPAM
Use whatever is most recognizable to your audience (company name, acronym of company, or your name etc…)
Also use a clear subject line that’s to the point for improved open rates
Visual elements within (HTML emails) appeal to readers
Make sure you stay consistent with both your logo/branding and color palette/look & feel – people respond better to what they recognize
Bare minimum > communicate with email list on a quarterly basis
Regularly remove emails with hard bounces (non-existent, undeliverable) as well as consistent soft bounces (mailbox full, vacation, auto-reply)
ISPs DO notice this activity and flag you if persistent attempts are made
Hard bounces recommendations:
1. export emails to find out why bad (i.e. typos, etc…)
2. remove if non-valid emails (will hurt your deliverability)
Stick with a consistent “from” email address – so if added to safe sender list you are a recognized sender
Hope this information provides some value. If you have other ideas, please share.
