The Whitelist

Five Signs It’s Time for a New ESP

Business relationships differ from personal ones in a very big way: Sometimes it’s just time to move on.

Case in point: Your marriage might be for life and your kids are around for good, but your ESP could be a temporary relationship. As much as you might like your ESP, as long as you’ve been doing business with them, there still might come a time when staying with the ESP you know so well could mean a lower email marketing ROI.

If you’ve been with the same email service provider for more than a year, consider these five signs that it’s time for a new ESP:

1. Your in-house email list has grown.

With over 100 ESPs to choose from, you’re going to find that capabilities differ among them. This includes scaling to meet your needs as your volume of email grows.

2. Your email deliverability has shrunk.

As strange as it sounds, the email deliverability rate you’ll get with one ESP is not the same as you’ll get with another. As an email marketing agency, we test different ESPs with the same list and we get markedly varied results. When even half a percentage point in improvement means more email ROI, having the highest possible email delivery rate is imperative. It could be your ESP isn’t keeping up with your needs, and that’s affecting your bottom line.

3. You’re ready to automate.

Triggered, event-based email marketing is the way to achieve the most targeted, relevant messages possible. If you’re ready to go that route and your ESP isn’t, it’s time to move on…not get left behind.

4. You’re ready to integrate.

Web analytics, CRM systems, social media, SMS…there are so many sources of customer insight and possible contact points that all need to be working in tandem for maximum results. Email marketing best practices alone will only get you so far. Integrating with other marketing channels is imperative. If your ESP is limited in integration capabilities, it might be time to shop for a new one.

5. You need some strategy.

In today’s economy especially, marketing budgets can be tight and staffs small. If you’re resources are enough to get the job done but not enough to add a strategic element to your email marketing program, you might need an ESP with consulting services available.

If you’re thinking maybe it’s time to move on to a new ESP, here are three ways to jumpstart your search:

• Plug your requirements into the online ESP selection tool, the ESPinator
• Download the 2011 guide to choosing a new ESP
• Head to booth #39 at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit in Las Vegas this week to visit with email marketing agency ClickMail

Whether you do one, two or all three, you’ll be well on the way to moving on to the right ESP for your newly evolved needs.

5 Holiday Best Practices for Increased Email Deliverability

‘Tis the season… for email marketing campaigns to ramp up! Which means increased promotions, increased email volume, and, unfortunately, increased subscriber fatigue. How do you ensure that your emails stay on your email subscribers’ “Nice” list, keeping your email deliverability rates high, and don’t migrate onto the “Naughty” list – resulting in unsubscribes or worse? Here are five simple but powerful holiday-themed email marketing best practices to keep in mind:

1) Fulfill email frequency wishes: This is the most important thing you can do as an email marketer to honor and respect your subscribers’ wishes. And yet it’s one of the most flagrantly abused by many email marketers, especially around the holiday season. If your subscriber requested once/weekly emails from your business, store, or organization, just because ’tis the shopping season, does not also equate to ’tis the time to flood email inboxes. At this time of year, email subscribers are already inundated with more than the normal volume of catalogs, circulars, newsletters, and donation requests in both direct mail and email. The last thing you want to do is annoy your email subscribers with too many emails, especially if they specifically requested the frequency with which they want to hear from you. Honor their wishes and your email deliverability will benefit.

2) Surprise your subscribers: Holiday shoppers are looking for great deals and special savings at this time of year: it’s your opportunity to think of fun and creative ways to offer it to them. Another boring 10% off promotion won’t cut it… this yawn of a sales email results in a “delete” without a second thought! But today I just had an interesting offer hit my inbox that taps into the joy of unwrapping presents because everyone likes a surprise: “unwrap your secret offer to save over 50%!” The code is valid only upon checkout, but I’m already guaranteed a 50% savings, making the offer highly attractive. The added surprise of an additional discount of who knows how much more off just makes it irresistible.

3) Spread holiday cheer: Take this special time of year to be fun, whimsical, and make your subscribers smile. A crowded email inbox means there’s less patience on your subscribers’ part for clicking through and reading. Are your subject lines informative while also inspiring positive feelings or a nostalgic memory? Think of ways to make your email marketing campaign stand out from the rest, and you’ll increase your email deliverability and, ultimately, your email ROI this holiday season.

4) Make a list and check it twice: Email deliverability relies upon sender reputation. Check yours now and take note of where you can improve. Can you improve your email content relevance? Have you segmented your list for increased specificity?  Are you developing targeted email campaigns for different subscriber populations?

5) Inspire with merry and bright designs: Make sure your designs are eye-catching, clean, and fun. Do your emails render well on mobile and tablet, as well as desktop clients? Are they holiday-themed but are any pictures or image files streamlined for quick loading? Keep it simple and be sure to test your designs for effective rendering. What do your emails look like in the preview pane? Always keep in mind your subscribers’ behavior path and design to lead them all the way through to conversion: Preview, Open, Scan/Read, Engage, Convert.

Keeping these five holiday-themed email marketing best practices in mind this season will ensure you’ll sail through the holidays with high email deliverability rates and increased conversions!

Keep Your Content Current

As an email marketer, you know how important relevance is to your email marketing campaign strategy. But relevance doesn’t always equal current. Content relevance can refer to anything from information of specific interest to your subscribers, to regional specificity to, of course, specific and relevant information about the product, services, or information you are providing. Current content takes your relevant content to the next level.

How?

Because current content is the difference between connecting with your subscribers’ interests in the NOW. Whether it’s the upcoming elections, or the unseasonably early cold blast freezing the whole country or even the extra hour we’ve all gained by “Falling Back” to standard time (and early darkness) this past weekend, whatever is “current” is whatever your subscribers are probably talking about or otherwise impacted by.

By focusing on whatever your subscribers are focused on right now shows that you’re connecting with them, on a very immediate level. The solution you’re offering in your email marketing campaign is right for their needs, because you understand – you’re right there with them, experiencing whatever these times hold.

A recent post on AWeber’s blog displays specific examples from actual email marketing campaigns that integrated current events successfully into their content strategies.

Some of the effective examples highlighted include:

• Using events in the news as a launching pad for a related promotion or opportunity to provide relevant and connected information.
• Hosting an event that is similar in theme to a nationally-occurring event: e.g., “Vote on your favorite product!” mini-election to coincide with Election Day.
• Weather-related promotions. There’s a reason we all fall back on talking about the weather when conversation stalls: we all experience it. We’re all affected by it. And it’s always changing. Taking a cue from water-cooler small talk, some very successful email marketing campaigns have been launched entirely around major weather events that have affected significant population centers in the U.S. And if you’ve successfully segmented your list by region or location, even better: you could set specific weather-related email marketing campaigns to target only those in affected areas.
• Holidays. Well, of course. This is the one “current event” that every email marketer falls back on. But when considering how to construct your next Holiday-themed email marketing campaign, think about what makes THIS year’s holidays special or different.

Not only can you be current with your email marketing strategy, being current by definition requires being creative. And creative content is always a good thing. Make sure to add this “Keep It Current” strategy to your email marketing best practices toolbox and let us know your results!

Reinforce Trust With These Email Deliverability Best Practices

Recently I’ve been having a very frustrating experience. My emails haven’t been getting through. As someone that constantly writes about email deliverability and the importance of adhering to email marketing best practices, the irony of this recent development hasn’t escaped me. Granted, the emails I’m referring to are personal emails, from my personal gmail account, to someone who is expecting my emails, but this whole thing got me thinking: If I’m not assured my emails are getting through to one recipient who has written back and forth with me, and who, I assume, has added me to their “safe sender” list, how can you, as an email marketer, be sure that your emails are getting delivered to all of the subscribers on your recipient list?

Email deliverability remains one of the greatest email marketing challenges for a reason. The better your email deliverability, the more trusted your email sender reputation becomes, which equals more opened emails, and increased number of click throughs and conversions. All of this results in one meaningful effect to your bottom line: your ROI will climb.

The major obstacles to email deliverability are lack of consumer trust in email, and ISP blocking.

Consumer trust in email is under fire in two ways:

1) Trustworthiness: Recipients are increasingly more wary of unknown or unrecognized senders. They are on high “spam”-alert and scan each email asking, “Can I trust that this email is coming from whom it claims to be coming from?”

2) Reliability: Is email a reliable source of communication? How do I know that what I’ve signed up for is what’s going to actually come to my inbox?

So how does an email marketer reinforce trust in the messages they send?

Content. Content is king when it comes to restoring trust in email, and increasing email deliverability. Make sure that the content of your emails and subject lines don’t contain words that tend to set off spam filters (a few high-trigger words include: millions, easy income, cash, money, and others you’re probably unwittingly aware of. Look no further than your spam folder for a laundry list!). In addition to eliminating spam triggers from your email marketing messages, it’s crucial that you keep your messages relevant and specific to your subscribers. Using advanced email marketing features such as dynamic (personalized) content and triggered messaging, which automatically sends messages based on time and/or actions or inactions that your subscribers perform, means that each message will be tailored for each subscriber’s needs.

Trust = Sender Accountability. You should ensure that your ESP has adopted authentication standards. If the top ISPs in the world block your email because it doesn’t comply with their authentication systems, then you might as well have burned your email marketing budget in a beach bonfire.

Don’t worry, though: as daunting as email deliverability can seem, you should be working with an ESP that will help you. ESPs have been addressing these problems for years and are the experts on email compliance and deliverability. You’re not alone! If you need help selecting an ESP, reach out to ClickMail today.

Growing a significant email list doesn’t just happen instantly: email marketers know better than anyone else that it takes time and energy. But all that effort goes to waste if your email marketing campaigns don’t continually engage and interest your hard-won subscribers. Ensuring that you maintain your focus on creating interesting and relevant copy not only keeps subscribers interested in what you have to say, it also helps your email deliverability rates.

To keep your subscribers opening, reading, clicking through, and converting make sure you listen to their preferences as they stated them in the preference center they used to sign up. You use a preference center, right? Okay, just making sure. We’ve talked time and again about the importance of email preference centers to your email deliverability rate and overall reputation, and how using an email preference center should be one of your email deliverability tools!

But once they’ve signed up and told you what they’d like to hear from you, make sure that you honor your end of the bargain by doing the following:

Tell them what to expect. By using an email preference center and confirmation messages to provide an overview of your program, subscribers will understand when to expect your emails, and what to expect from them (discounts, newsletters, or helpful tips).

Fulfill their expectations. If they signed up for bi-weekly messages, make sure that you have that system in place and stick to it. No more, no less! Your subscribers will feel respected when their expectations are met, and they won’t, if they aren’t.

Send relevant content. We’ve also talked a good amount about the email deliverability benefits to segmenting your lists. Once you have relevant data, you can send increasingly targeted and relevant content to your subscribers. And the more targeted your content, the more engaged your subscribers.

Test Those Subject Lines!

In our last post, we talked about the importance of testing your email schedule for deliverability to mobile devices, given the prevalence of mobile devices on bedside tables and the increase in email engagement in the “wee hours” of the morning and weekends. This is a new trend that is only happening due to the surge in popularity of smartphone and email-enabled mobile devices. And once we get started talking about testing for email deliverability, it’s hard for us to stop!

After all, we encourage testing all the time. As a smart email marketer, you should choose something to test every time you create and send an email. It could be anything from your From name to when you send out your emails, to subject line variations. Constant testing falls into the category of email deliverability best practices for several reasons. First, anything you can do to improve your email deliverability rate is a good thing. And testing is the surest way to know how to increase your deliverability rate!  Second, once you’ve gotten into the inbox, anything you can do to improve interaction with your recipient is going to improve your email marketing ROI. And what is your number one way to guarantee increased email open rate? A successful subject line. Your email subject line is equivalent to the headline of a news article. A subject line is a teaser that either provokes interest or removes any possibility of it.

But how do you know if your subject lines are working? Why, testing them of course! And now that we’re focused on testing as an email deliverability best practice, the recent Email Marketing Reports article on subject line testing is very timely!

Three main lessons?

1) In subject lines, there are no absolutes. Even industry standards like “All subject lines should be short” have some caveats.

2) Find out what works best FOR YOU (really: your customers) by a simple A/B test.

3) Make sure you’re measuring what’s important to you. Is it open rate or click-through rate?

For five more lessons with additional detail on how to avoid problems in testing and interpreting, make sure to make it one of your email deliverability best practices to read the full article…today!

Experiment with Mobile Testing for Increased Email Deliverability

Revisiting a Marketing Profs article from this past summer reminded me that as an email marketer, you have a wealth of email deliverability data at your fingertips. But are you looking at it?

As mobile usage increases, your email marketing best practices should include knowing the demographic makeup of your customer, how your customers interact with your brand, and what devices they use to browse your website.  Are your emails “mobilized” for optimized for mobile viewing? For more on making your emails mobilized, see our recent blog post.

Another data point to examine is email-deliverability patterns on mobile devices. By viewing deliverability through the “mobile lens,” email marketers can start to target ideal dates to launch campaigns, and deliver emails during the time of day with the highest level of mobile usage. Examining this data and using it effectively can ensure high mobile email engagement and high deliverability.

The Marketing Profs article compares delivery data by day with mobile usage over the span of three months and found that Sunday had the highest consistent mobile usage. Their findings also show potentially surprisingly strong mobile engagement starting at 3:00 AM (from the insomniacs?) with an increase and ultimate peak at 8:00 AM.

Though mobile usage remains relatively high from the 8:00 AM peak throughout the day, the overall volume of email campaigns declines, so this daytime period could be ripe for email marketing and email deliverability. When considering factors that contribute to email deliverability, consider experimenting with different times and days (particularly Sundays). Let us know your results!

Clean up Your Email List for Improved Email Deliverability

Summer’s officially over, and with the waning warmth we’ve traded our swimsuits and outdoor grills for briefcases, renewed time with our computers, and fresh new notebooks. Yes, there’s just something about fall that means it’s time to say goodbye to vacation memories and get back to work. And what better time to jump into work than with a good hard look at your in-house email list? Just as fall and spring are excellent times to clean house (literally), it’s also an ideal time to clean out your email list. It might not sound fun, but it is smart. Every list, no matter how good the processes behind building it, will need a scrubbing every once in a while to keep deliverability high and spam complaints low.

It might seem like a big undertaking to scrub your list but it doesn’t have to be. In the latest issue of the ClickMail Marketer we list the steps you should take clean up your list, including removing duplicate email addresses, fake or spam addresses, and inactive accounts, among other things. Ensuring your list is clean and up to date ensures your subscribers are real and interested in your emails, which means a better sender reputation for you! And having a good sender reputation leads to increased email deliverability, more email opens, higher click-through rates, enhanced customer loyalty, decreased unsubscribes, and increased sales. In other words, everything you want out of your email marketing campaigns.

And remember, the more you’re adhering to email marketing best practices in your signups, the less house cleaning your list should need. So next on your list might be taking another look at your signup processes!

But if you’re not sure how to get started with your list cleanup strategy or implementation, check out the October issue of the ClickMail Marketer. And if it still sounds difficult (or if you’d rather not take it on yourself), let ClickMail help. List scrubbing is an investment now that will definitely pay off later. Find out how to get started in the October ClickMail Marketer.

For Email Deliverability, Sometimes Less (on your Lists) Means More

So, you’ve crossed all your email marketing t’s and dotted all your email marketing best practices i’s with a targeted, relevant offer sent only to subscribers who opted in to your campaigns.

Then you learn a major ISP has blocked your IP address due to spam complaints. Before you know it, your email deliverability is plummeting and you can’t get an accurate sense for how effective your email marketing campaign was.

How could this be? Your subscribers opted-in, after all!

Well, the reasons are multiple-fold. Sometimes, an email subscriber will forget opting in and rather than clicking “Unsubscribe,” they may just opt to hit that pesky “report spam” button, without an awareness that your beautifully crafted email marketing message is indeed a message they chose to receive. The reasons behind this have a lot to do with failing to obey email marketing best practices (and listening to your subscribers’ preferences) in the first place. (But that’s another blog post). In the meantime, your email deliverability starts to suffer.

The best thing to do now is to take a good hard look at your email list, take a deep breath, and start cutting. It’s hard. You don’t want to voluntarily trim the increasingly large (and growing) subscriber list you’ve worked so hard to cultivate with all of your email marketing genius. Oftentimes, making a cut can yield higher email deliverability rates. In the case of email deliverability, it’s not always quantity that matters. Consider focusing certain ad campaigns only on subscribers who have made a purchase. In other similar case studies, this strategy has consistently yielded close to 100% inbox delivery. If you need help with list segmentation, you’re in luck! We covered it in detail in our September issue of the ClickMail Marketer!

Emailing to fewer, but more engaged, subscribers can be the difference between $0 and generating a return on investment from the subscribers who really are interested in your email marketing messages. Because the other alternative is that your valuable customers may never see your email due to failed email deliverability.

In navigating today’s world of email marketing and email deliverability, be prepared to face the choice between reaching some valuable customers, or reaching no customers at all.

Email Preview Panes Mean Less Must be More

These days, the majority of email users (around 70%) view their email messages via preview panes, making it even more critical that your email subject lines and first couple lines of body text make a statement. Preview panes make checking email more efficient for users, ensuring they can get a snapshot of each message immediately, without having to open each message first. More and more, users are feeling inundated with emails overwhelming their inboxes, so they are more likely to scan each new group of incoming emails at once, and batch delete without opening. So as an email marketer, this means meeting an additional challenge in order to get your emails opened to achieve maximum ROI from your email marketing campaign. It’s essential that your email messages get straight to the point AND create intrigue and interest, which will lead to higher email open and click-through rates!

How, you ask, can I make my emails pop, to ensure maximum email deliverability?

1) Compelling subject lines: Short and snappy subject lines stand out and are easily readable in preview panes. Well-written and relevant subject lines also illustrate the main point of your email message. For even more on headline words that ensure an opened email, see our blog post on subject lines.

2) Keep the content simple: Because people spend, on average, less than 10 seconds scanning their email inbox before batch-deleting those emails that don’t appeal, simplicity (along with compelling) must reign. Shorter headlines can be strong, and the body of the email can contain white space. Scanning emails is a lot of text to process, so helping yours stand out from the crowd with a few well-designed but bold elements will definitely ensure your email “pops” out from the text-heavy rest.  And that means more email opens and increased email deliverability.

3) Clean, uncluttered email: People approach their email with a short attention span. Where people used to read email, now they are scanning, skimming and deleting. Users are becoming more discriminating about whether to open and act on their email messages or just delete after scanning the preview pane. So be sure to be clean in design and to-the-point in your content. Write to the preview pane, and think about what your users will be able to learn from the first three lines they’ll see. For more on clean and simple design, see our recent blog post on how typography can help your email marketing campaign.