When Your Reputation Is On The Line

I’m often asked for advice about managing email reputation and deliverability. It’s an important topic, which has both technical and non-technical considerations, and it’s the non-technical aspects that I thought I’d focus on today. These fall into four main categories: copy, layout or design, permission and engagement.

1. Copy
With copy the most important consideration is ensuring that you have a relevant subject line. Spam filters can be triggered by the subject line so take the time to ensure the copy is relevant and clearly tells the recipient what to expect.

There’s always debate about particular words to avoid, and one well known example is the word “free”. Trying to find an alternative that resonates as much with customers isn’t easy. However, that said, it is worth noting that spam filters have become more sophisticated and they now look at a wide range of different aspects of the email. The filter allocates “points” to each potential issue – with a certain number of points being required to push the email into spam territory. So if you are well behaved in all other respects, the occasional use of the word “free” in the body of your email may be acceptable. It certainly pays to test your email and not simply assume that a word can’t be used. It doesn’t take much to do a test run and it is worth it if you can increase the effectiveness of your messaging.

2. Layout/Design
Spam filters are also triggered by design elements within your email. I am frequently surprised to get spam emails from Kiwi retailers that consist solely of graphics with no HTML text. This is a problem on two levels. Firstly, if recipients have chosen to turn off images by default they can’t identify the content unless they download the images. And secondly, spam filters also recognise that many spammers use images as a way of trying to bypass filters searching for specific words so may flag your content as spam. Therefore try to ensure that you balance copy and images within your communications.

It is also worth being aware that poorly written HTML code in your emails can raise the email’s spam rating. Properly coded HTML email templates will not only display consistently across different email programmes, but also reduce the chance of spam filtering.

3. Permission
If a recipient doesn’t recall opting-in to receive your emails they may view this as spam and report this to your ISP. You should therefore always ensure that you clearly identify who you are, particularly in the FROM address. And of course the NZ Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 states that we cannot send unsolicited commercial electronic messages so you must ensure that you have received clear permission to email the recipient in the first place. This means ensuring your opt-in options are very visible and memorable, perhaps as a check box that the recipient must select, and be sure that you detail what they should expect to receive as part of that opt-in, such as a newsletter, or information about new products, and so on.

Another aspect to consider is bounce handling. You should ensure that your email marketing software automatically manages bounced emails as this can impact on your relationship with ISPs. If they see a large number of bounced mails from you each month it is possible they may flag your mails as SPAM.

And finally, one of the best ways to improve deliverability is to encourage your recipient to ‘whitelist’ you. This means adding your email details to their mail address book. It’s a great idea to mention this in your initial welcome mail and remind your customer to add your email address to that “allowed” list, greatly reducing the likelihood that future communications will end up flagged as SPAM.

4. Engagement
Put simply, the more engaged your customers are, the higher the deliverability rate will be. This is becoming more important with the introduction of new email features such as Google’s Priority Inbox that moves emails that are perceived as important to the top of the inbox. Ensuring your content is personalised and optimised for their particular needs at that time will mean that the customer will recognise the value of the mutual relationship and take the time to engage with you. Automated programs, such as welcome or onboarding programs can also set up expectations for level of engagement and value to the recipient and increase the likelihood of further interactions.

Focusing on these four areas will improve deliverability and ensure much better cut-through with your communications.

if you’re interested in finding out about some of the technical ways in which marketing software, such as Ubiquity’s Engage platform, can assist in increasing deliverability rates you might like to take a look at our email delivery checklist.