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2012, Li strak
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Seven Reasons Your Messages are
Missing the Inbox
By Andrew Wingle, Deliverability Analyst, Listrak
Return Paths latest Global Email Deliverability Benchmark Report found
that its becoming more challenging to reach the inbox than ever before,
with worldwide inbox placement rates (IPR) declining from 81% in the rst
half of 2011 to 76% in the second half of the year.
The email delivery landscape is changing every day. What may have
worked a few months ago no longer works today.
Consider the following seven reasons that could be causing your
marketing email to be deprioritized, bulked, or even blocked altogether.
Problem 1: Youre Sending to Unengaged Subscribers
Inactive subscribers are a problem for all email marketers. They damage
your deliverability, which drops your response rates, and in the end,
your email program doesnt generate the desired revenue. Some email
marketers instinctively understand that eliminating inactives will make an
impact, but your executive team may try to solve the problem by sending
to a larger list, which may contain the same percentage of inactive
contacts. We know that this is not the correct path.
ISPs determine engagement using several methods, including last log
in date, time spent logged in to their email, and whether the behaviors
resemble that of a human being (such as reading, ling/labeling, and
deleting email).
This engagement, as determined by the ISP, greatly helps to determine
whether your marketing email is inboxed, deprioritized, or even bulked. If
only a few of your recipients engage with your messages for long periods
of time, you can expect to see fewer messages in the inbox.
While most ISPs have primarily moved to an engagement based system
for determining inbox placement, Gmail leads the pack. Across the board,
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inbox placement within Gmail accounts has signicantly declined for email marketers. By observing
Gmail closely, we have observed the following behavior, which may be applied to many other ISPs as well:
Gmail gives you positive points for subscribers who:
Open your message
Click your links
Reply to your messages
Gmail gives you negative points for subscribers who:
Complain or Report Spam
Delete emails without opening them
Gmail gives you negative points for sending emails:
To invalid Gmail accounts
To inactive Gmail accounts
With adult or questionable content
How to Fix It
If you are having trouble with a specic mail provider, your rst step is to stop doing the things that are
hurting you:
1. For recipient domains where you are feeling the most pain (Gmail comes up frequently) remove all
bounces immediately, regardless of type
2. Within the problematic domain(s), immediately stop sending to any address that hasnt opened in
the past six months
Next, begin practices that will positively affect you:
1. Target your best customers [within problematic domain(s)] and ask them to help you rebuild your
reputation
Entice them to click links
Ask them to click the Not Spam button with an emotional call-to-action. Try subject lines such
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as Were in trouble and need your help! or Attention Gmail User: Please Help!
2. Engage in a Trickle/Drip Campaign
Use Listraks Marketing Automation tool to offset the days and hours on which you are sending
Vary the format of your content (HTML vs. Plain text)
Vary the content itself across days and times
3. Keep your list in great shape
Use Listraks Marketing Automation tool to set up an automated re-engagement campaign to
non-openers
Perhaps the rst email includes your very best offer and uses a subject line such as, We
miss you & want you back
Your second email might ask, Would you like to continue receiving promotional emails from
us? and includes the option to say Yes or No, as well as the option to change the frequency
of messages
A third email tells non-openers that its their Last chance to save or We hate to see you
go. Ask them to verify their subscriptions, and tell them that if you dont receive a response
to this email, they will be permanently unsubscribed from the list. Position a verify your
subscription now button centrally within the message body
The last message is your Breakup and Goodbye. Tell them that youre sorry to see them
go and that their accounts have been suspended, all while providing a way to re-subscribe.
4. Purge everyone from your list who hasnt opened within one yearbigger isnt always better!
Additional Resources
Listrak hosted a Gmail Deliverability webinar in the Spring of 2012great stuff here!
The Executive Director of CAUCE wonders aloud whether Engagement is a buzzword or a rule to
live by
Return Path reminds us how subscriber complaints affect Inbox placement
How Inactive Addresses Hurt Deliverability from the Director of Professional Services at Return Path
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Problem 2: Youre Not Sending a Welcome Series
Every email marketer should use a welcome email (or better yet, a welcome email series) that sends one
to three emails to new subscribers early, engages customers, and builds a positive reputation. This is
when customers are most likely to open your email, and right from the start they are opening and engaging
with you, which sets the stage for all of the remaining emails to follow.
How does a Welcome Message help delivery?
Lets say that you are simply bulk-loading new email subscribers to your list every day and there is no
email validation on your sign up form. Therefore, whenever you send out a marketing email, the email
is sent to all of the new invalid addresses at once. When an ISP sees a signicant portion of mail being
sent to invalid addresses almost every day, this is a sure sign that best practices are not in place; and,
therefore, your mail is sent to the spam folder.
Implementing a welcome series can help. A triggered welcome message is automatically sent to a new
subscriber on sign-up; if the new address is invalid, it is automatically removed from the list. This prevents
you from sending email to a large number of invalid addresses at one time. ISPs are now only seeing one-
off messages throughout the day to potentially invalid email addresses instead of thousands at one time
(which is similar to what spammers do).
Another reason that a Welcome message is so helpful is that your subscribers will be the most engaged
with your brand when they rst sign up for email. A Welcome message has the highest open and click-
through rates across the board. This increases your engagement score with the ISPs immediately. When
you send a promotional email to the entire list, you now have positive engagement working in your favor
with the new subscribers that have opened and clicked on the welcome email.
How to Fix It
Listrak Conductor has a built-in Welcome Series template that makes an excellent beginning. If you need
help getting started, contact your Listrak Account Manager today or contact Listrak Support for assistance.
Additional Resources
Listraks Karen Nuss asks Whatever Happened to Hello?
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Problem 3: You Arent Sending Triggered Email
Implementing triggered email solutions (such as Shopping Cart Abandonment Remarketing, Post-
Purchase Campaigns, and Replenishment Campaigns, to name a few) can also remedy some of the
deliverability trouble you might experience. Why?
Again, when subscribers open and click on a triggered email solution your engagement score with the
ISPs increases immediately. Later, when you send a promotional email to the entire list, you now have
positive engagement working in your favor with the subscribers that are opening and clicking on your
triggered email campaigns.
Triggered messages with dynamic, relevant content outperform any promotional email in terms of open and
click through rates, by far! Having these triggered email campaigns constantly running in the background
will drastically improve your inbox placement because you are increasing subscriber engagement.
How to Fix It
If you havent discussed Shopping Cart Abandonment, Buyertrak, or Post-Purchase Campaigns with your
Listrak Account Manager, reach out today or contact Listrak Support for assistance.
Additional Resources
Shopping Cart Abandonment is just one example of a triggered email solution by Listrak
Problem 4: Your List is Dirty
Remember that spammers dont care about the quality of their lists. Because you are playing by the rules,
you want to pay close attention to the quality of your lists.
We all make mistakes. Perhaps you acquired a list of subscribers that did not explicitly provide opt-
in permission to receive your mail. Maybe you are still automatically subscribing email addresses you
obtained through trade show giveaways or other gimmicks. Now youre hitting spam traps, your invalid
addresses exceed 20% of your list, and your Abuse Rate is over 0.1%. Youre in trouble, and you need
to x the problem before youre blacklisted by a major Inbox defender like Spamhaus, which is a really
difcult hole to dig out of.
How to Fix It
Its time to admit mistakes and take swift steps to correct them. Otherwise, the reputation of your domain,
your content, and your sending IP addresses will suffer, along with you delivery rates to all your subscribers.
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You must have the afrmative consent of recipients prior to sending messages to their email addresses
and prior to adding the recipient to any ongoing and repeated communications. If you have anyone on
your list that doesnt pass this test, immediately remove them from your list.
Additional Resources
Laura Atkins expounds on the cost of purchasing a list and links to 4 similar articles from industry
heavyweights
Problem 5: Your Reputation is Trashed
At Listrak, you send your email messages from one or more static IP addresses that are dedicated solely to
you. This means that you share your reputation with no one, and that your sending reputation is all yours.
Although content can play a part in email delivery, the majority of delivery issues occur because of the
senders email reputation. When looking at email inbox delivery failures, it is important to think beyond
quick content xes.
Email delivery problems most likely stem from systemic problems within a given email program that shape
the sender reputation. Email receivers have become sophisticated enough to look at reputation indicators
such as subscriber engagement, email volume, email infrastructure (including authentication), list quality
(unknown user rates), complaint rates, spam trap hits and listings on public blacklists and whitelists when
framing their opinions about particular senders. Focusing on improving those areas of an email program
will have lasting positive impacts on email delivery rates.
In addition to an IP Address, we have seen evidence of reputation becoming tied to your Domain Alias,
From Address, Content, or even Telephone Number. This means that changing your IP Address is, in
itself, not an effective method of shedding your reputation as a sender.
How to Fix It
There is a saying in the Email Deliverability industry that There is no bat-phone to the ISPs. Likewise,
there is no magic bullet that xes email sender reputation. Sending email to the people who want to hear
from you is the best way to gain (and keep) a positive sender reputation.
Engage your subscribers, then use Listraks powerful segmentation tools to send to those who engage.
Keep your list quality high. Send a Welcome Series and send triggered messaging. All of the above will
increase your reputation as a sender.
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Additional Resources
Return Paths 2006 Resender Study is a bit dated, but it continues to be accurate and relevant
George Bilbrey expands upon Why Best-Practice Marketers Get To The Inbox
Problem 6: Youre Not Return Path Certified
Accreditation and certication is a third-party verication that conrms the origin of the message and
validates that you follow email best practices. ISPs have proof that you are a safe sender and your
messages bypass lters and are delivered to the inbox, many times with images enabled.
If you are following reputation best practices in your email creation and design, take it a step further
and become a certied sender. Services, such as Return Path Certifcation, offer certication based on
stringent requirements regarding your email marketing practices and policies. You cant buy your way into
a certication program; you must meet the strict requirements including:
Following a permission-based list acquisition strategy
Having published authentication records
Proving your complaint levels are below industry standards
Following best practices for list maintenance and bounce management
Complying with CAN-SPAM rules, including an unsubscribe link on all email communications
Already having an established, high-standing reputation
How to Fix It
Click here if youd like to apply for Return Path Certication.
Additional Resources
Check Out Listraks Six Steps to Maintain a Positive Reputation
Al Iverson discusses the value of Return Path Certifcation
Problem 7: Your ESP Isnt Dedicating Resources to Deliverability
Your email service provider is likely spending tremendous resources on hardware infrastructure, DNS
conguration, throttling/throughput settings, and deliverability analytics personnel. At Listrak, we are
active members of MAAWG and ESPC, and are active participants and thought leaders in the email
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deliverability community. We have high standards for recipient engagement and network abuse, and we
hold our clients to those standards.
Your ESP should have strong relationships in the community of ISPs and Inbox defenders, and should
participate in Feedback Loops for abuse reporting. They should provide you with a dedicated IP address,
and should offer personalized consulting with an experienced Deliverability Analyst in the event of a
problem.
How to Fix It
If you have questions regarding how Listrak is actively managing your deliverability, please contact your
Listrak Account Manager or contact Listrak Support for assistance.
Additional Resources
MAAWGs Sender BCP does a great job of laying out what ESPs should be doing to optimize
deliverability
If youre not sure how to get started on one or more of the above strategies, please contact your Listrak
Account Manager or contact Listrak Support for assistance. If you are not a Listrak client, contact us for
more information on how we can help you improve your deliverability and campaign performance.