Email Deliverability Tips

AWeber Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider

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[by: Tom Kulzer]

 

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber
inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of
spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be
dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect
spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have
actually requested to be on your list is the number one step
in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a
process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a
unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request
information. Before adding the person to your list they must
click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the
same person that owns the email address and requested to
subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their
"real" or "primary" email address instead of a free email
address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw
away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a
primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce
when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a
permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be
removed from the list. ISP's track what percentage of your
newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to
continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting,
multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing
in popularity and is widely supported by most email client
software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus
differentiating between requested email and spam HTML
messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows
that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time
and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending
HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative
message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP's filter based on the content that appears within
the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before
allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If
they have used their website URL to send spam, just having
their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire
message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages.
Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as
medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you
do need to use words that might be filtered, don't attempt
to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling,
you'll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use
images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate
tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may
choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered
based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the
usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of
attached documents. It's often better to link to files via a
website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and
reduce the overall message size.


CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of
rules regarding the delivery of email. It's important you
have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you
are in compliance. The two most important rules include
having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial
messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly
honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP's as a way
to vet email senders regarding their email practices and
policies. Businesses listed with these services are then
given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all.
Several reputation services are:

* http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
* http://www.bondedsender.com
* http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP's and email providers is essential in
letting them know about your requested subscriber email.
Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific
whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure
your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies
and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in
email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no
single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email
delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to
reaching that goal.

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Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder of Newtown, PA based AWeber
Communications, Inc. an opt-in email service provider. With
7 years managing opt-in follow up and newsletters for small
businesses, email deliverability is an integral part of day
to day operations. Learn more about AWeber email marketing
and email deliverability tracking at DeliveryMonitor.com

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