Because the retargeting email lists are not created from traditional opt-in behavior, we need to be extra careful to ensure our emails are delivered. Email Service Providers (ESP’s) are watching emails and deciding which ones are authentic and should be delivered, and which ones are scams or phishing, which they don’t want to deliver. The ESPs’ behave differently, so open rates will vary – AOL is the most delivered (least strict) and Outlook is the least delivered (most strict). There are technical issues such as DNS settings, content issues such as use of HTML, links and spam words, and CAN-SPAM compliance, but there are also behavioral issues that affect deliverability. If the emails get delivered, but no one opens them, the ESPs aren’t going to continue delivering them. So think to yourself, what is an mail that I would open? Is it personalized or generic? Is it from a person? Or from a company? Use your dual-perspective/imagination to think about what you would actually click on.
Things that hurt deliverability:
Use of Html Code
The newsletter style email that we’ve all seen before that has a layout peppered with images and different sizes and styles of fonts may tell ESP’s that this is a marketing message from a business. While it may not send your email directly to spam, it does increase their scrutiny. We have changed our format to be plain text with one image. This allows us to follow best practices while still providing a visually appealing email.
Open rate tracking
Email opens are tracked with a pixel. When the pixel image is downloaded, your email sender knows that it was opened. Including this technology in an email coverts it to html, which is not a best practice. It also alerts the ESPs that we are a marketing company tracking performance. We continue to track open rates as a default because it’s important for testing, but if we wanted to follow the very best practices, we would disable this. It’s something that can be turned off after the campaign has been running.
Link in first email
This is a major trigger for ESP spam filters. Anything other than an unsubscribe link puts an ESP on high alert. Many cold emailers consider links in the first email to be a cardinal sin, and in our own testing we found that it could reduce open rates by 50% (they weren’t opened because ESP didn’t deliver it)
Lack of Variation
One way to show ESPs that we’re not spammers is to have variation in our email content. Sending exactly the same email all day every day alerts them that this isn’t a human sender. We use something called Spintax to create variations in our email content. It will replace highlighted words with synonyms that we pre-select. This means that your email draft may end up with subtle variations once the spintax is implemented. This usually happens 2 weeks after the campaign start date after your dedicated domain has been warmed up.
Technical DNS settings
You won’t need to worry about this because we are handling all DNS settings, but you should be aware that the most important attributes of the cold campaigns are related to the domains. They need to be set up a certain way to ensure their reputation passes ESP authenticity checks. They are also warmed up for 2 weeks.
From/Reply-to email
No-reply email addresses are a trigger for ESP’s They’re also not the best user experience as it makes the email very impersonal and inauthentic. This could hurt the open rate even if it does get delivered.
CAN-SPAM Compliance
There are legal requirements for all email marketing. Not following the rules alerts ESPs that we might be spammers, or at least that we are up to no good, which brings heavy scrutiny. To be compliant, we need to include a business address and a link to opt-out. “Reply to opt-out” language is no longer tolerated by ESPs.
Here’s what we can do to make our emails effective:
- Avoid Spam words
- Do not include a link in the first email. (ok in second email if applicable)
- Use spintax to create variations in email content (we do this for you)
- Include business address in email signature. This allows ESP’s to verify your authenticity.
- *this is also a requirement for CAN-SPAM compliance
- Make the “From” be from a person. It’s more inviting.
- Include personalization
- Keep subject lines short
- Follow best practices for setting up your sender domains (we take care of this for you)
Further Reading:
