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with Greg Kraios & Chris Arrendale
THINGS EVERYMARKETER MUST KNOW
Inbox Pros
ABOUT EMAIL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
CHAPTERS
250ok.com | InboxPros.com
123456789
Deliverability Branding
Shared IP vs. Dedicated IP
Feedback Loops
No-Reply's
Setting Subscriber Expectations
Single Opt-In vs. Double Opt-In
Permission Marketing
Email Authentication
Email Throttling
3
7
13
18
21
29
37
44
50
http://www.pardot.com/blog/the-2015-email-marketing-landscape/
3
Your domain is your identity. Write that down on a Post-It
Note and stick it to your monitor. Now repeat after us,
“my domain is my identity.”
It’s the identity that your customers, the recipients of
your marketing and transactional messages, have come
to trust, or believe they can. It’s this trust that you must
guard as if your business depends on it because it often
does.
How so? In the 2015 State of Marketing Report, the
Salesforce survey of 5,000 marketers revealed 20% of
the audience reported their business primary revenue
source is directly linked to email operations. Those
people saying email is dead? Tell them to put that stat in
their pipe and smoke it (in locations where that’s legal,
of course).
So, in an e�ort to get your identity in order, we are
going to focus on the Display Name or Friendly From,
From Address, and the links used within the email.
DELIVERABILITY BRANDING: YOUR DOMAIN IS YOUR IDENTITY
EMAIL, STILL NOT DEAD
http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pdfhttp://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pf
https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-name-search/index.xhtml
4250ok.com | InboxPros.com
The Friendly From, subject line, and preview text are the
first connections your message has with a subscriber. It’s
an email’s first moment of truth. Now, consider this - the
average email user receives 215 emails per day (The
Radicati Group). It’s an email deluge out there, so clearly
identifying yourself and purpose helps you cut through
inbox noise.
THE INBOX EXPERIENCE
Example of the Gmail mobile experience
In a perfect world, an intuitive and consistent
Friendly From should:
Friendly From Subject Line Preview Text
• Reinforce recipient trust in your email
channel
• Instantly provide insight as to the
nature of the message you’re sharing
• Improve the odds of a message getting
discover by a subscriber that’s located
somewhere other than in their primary
inbox (i.e., promotions tab, junk, trash)
• Increase the odds the subscriber will
add your email address to their
address book (“whitelisting”/ ”safe
listing”)
• Help subscribers search, sort, and
archive messages
• Ultimately, improve the likelihood of an
open and a better brand experience
1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
http://kb.mailchimp.com/accounts/email-authentication/about-dmarc
https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-name-search/index.xhtml
1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING
5250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Along the same lines, a branded and appropriate From
Address can also be crucial for getting your subscriber
to open the email. Choose a From Address related to
the mail stream (e.g., support, billing, promotions) and
don’t change it. In addition to your customers, internet
service providers (ISPs) prefer to see stability in the
From Address.
If you use a free email service for the address you
provide in the From Address field, a warning may appear
that recommends registering for a domain. The DMARC
authentication policies for some free email services like
USING A FREE EMAIL SERVICE ADDRESSFOR YOUR FROM ADDRESS
Example of the From Address
For those mailing to U.S. subscribers, there is a
non-negotiable requirement that your From Address and
Reply-To Address “must be accurate and identify the
person or business who initiated the message,”
according to the CAN-SPAM legislation.
Sending to subscribers in the E.U.? Disguising or
concealing the identity of the sender on whose behalf
the communication mailed is strictly prohibited. Canada
requires that the sender must identify itself and the
persons on whose behalf a commercial electronic
message is sent. We’re not attorneys, so we recommend
you consult someone who is when setting up your email
program.
LEGAL STUFF
Gmail, Yahoo!, and AOL can a�ect the deliverability of
emails sent by various email service providers (ESPs), so
our recommendation is to use a domain you own.
Neither you or your organization have one? Learn how
to register a domain. After all, your domain is your
identity, right?
https://litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-preview-text-support
1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING
6250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Finally, branded email links are also important in making
your customers feel comfortable clicking on links. When
your subscribers hover over a link in the content, ensure
that the link is branded with your domain, or a
subdomain, and not a shared domain provided by a third
party. Most ESPs have the ability to apply custom
domains for link tracking. This type of link not only helps
with any shared link reputation factors, but it reinforces
trust.
BRANDED EMAIL LINKS
Example of Preview Text
While we're trying to stay on topic with domain branding,
we had to mention preview text - the text that
immediately follows the subject line. Again, this is your
email's first moment of truth in the inbox, so you need to
optimize the preview text when possible.
Our friends at Litmus did a nice job explaining
preview text in detail and created a list of email clients
that display preview text.
PREVIEW TEXT
LET’S GET THE COST CONVERSATION OUTOF THE WAY
If messaging and communication is important enough to
the success of your business, and you step back and
look at the overall budget of your marketing programs,
you’ll see that the extra $20/month or so you'll spend on
a single dedicated IP address at places like SendGrid or
SparkPost is a drop in the bucket compared to the piles
of cash you burn on PPC on a daily basis.
And let’s not forget your transactional mail – password
resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications – that
you depend on to minimize customer support inquiries
and optimize the brand experience. If email is your
primary driver of communication and critical to revenue,
this is not the place to be penny-wise. For most
businesses, cost should not be the driving factor in the
decision-making process.
7
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical
number assigned to any device connected to the
Internet. When it comes to sending mail, your IP address
allows ISPs to identify you and your mail server.
When you hit send, your email is transmitted from your
IP address to the ISP’s receiving mail server, who then
decides whether or not to accept your message based
your IP’s reputation, sending practices, etc. These
factors directly impact whether you land in the inbox,
spam, or get blocked altogether. A clean IP doesn’t
guarantee inbox placement, as the journey an email
takes is complicated, but you get the picture.
As you consider your IP options, know you’ll use a
shared IP, a dedicated IP, or a pool of dedicated IPs.
DELIVERABILITY DECISIONS: SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
8250ok.com | InboxPros.com
INTRO TO SHARED IP
Source: Direct Marketing News 2015
If messaging and communication is important enough to
the success of your business, and you step back and
look at the overall budget of your marketing programs,
you’ll see that the extra $20/month or so you'll spend on
a single dedicated IP address at places like SendGrid or
SparkPost is a drop in the bucket compared to the piles
of cash you burn on PPC on a daily basis.
And let’s not forget your transactional mail – password
resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications – that
you depend on to minimize customer support inquiries
and optimize the brand experience. If email is your
primary driver of communication and critical to revenue,
this is not the place to be penny-wise. For most
businesses, cost should not be the driving factor in the
decision-making process.
The shared IP environment involves a series of IP
addresses used to send mail from a single organization
or a group of unrelated organizations. This group of IPs
is also known as the “shared IP pool.” The shared IP is
the entry-level environment o�er by most ESPs.
Shared IPs are often used to group the outbound mail
delivery of multiple, low-volume senders or smaller
senders with inconsistent sending behaviors (e.g.,
seasonal senders). The downside of the shared IP is that
pooling together with other senders leaves you with
limited power to influence the sender reputation and it
exposes you to greater risk based on the sending
behaviors of your IP neighbors.
Life on a shared IP tends to weaken performance for the
best senders and improve performance for lower quality
senders. That being said, the ESPs of today are
extremely skilled at uncovering and shutting down
abusive senders, and getting even better at predicting
bad behaviors before they happen.
Bottom-line: If you are a small, irregular or infrequent
sender, the standard shared IP environment at most
top-level ESPs is a great option. Also, if you have higher
than average hard bounce rate (3%+), the shared IP
environment is a safer place for you.
$44 ROION EVERY
$1SPENT ON
2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
9250ok.com | InboxPros.com
INTRO TO DEDICATED IP
Dedicated IPs are the gold-standard approach to today’s
email landscape and investment in the success of your
The shared IP environment involves a series of IP
addresses used to send mail from a single organization
or a group of unrelated organizations. This group of IPs
is also known as the “shared IP pool.” The shared IP is
the entry-level environment o�er by most ESPs.
Shared IPs are often used to group the outbound mail
delivery of multiple, low-volume senders or smaller
senders with inconsistent sending behaviors (e.g.,
seasonal senders). The downside of the shared IP is that
pooling together with other senders leaves you with
limited power to influence the sender reputation and it
exposes you to greater risk based on the sending
behaviors of your IP neighbors.
Life on a shared IP tends to weaken performance for the
best senders and improve performance for lower quality
senders. That being said, the ESPs of today are
extremely skilled at uncovering and shutting down
abusive senders, and getting even better at predicting
bad behaviors before they happen.
Bottom-line: If you are a small, irregular or infrequent
sender, the standard shared IP environment at most
top-level ESPs is a great option. Also, if you have higher
than average hard bounce rate (3%+), the shared IP
environment is a safer place for you.
Is my email volume high enough for a dedicated IP?
program. It’s exactly how it sounds: an IP exclusively
dedicated to your business. Because you define the
characteristics of the mail sent over that dedicated IP,
receivers build the most accurate picture of your
behavior. In other words, you gain total control over
shaping your reputation.
Beyond control, dedicated IPs allow senders to avoid
having a sender appendix like mybrand.myesp.com
associated with their emails. This appendix occurs in the
shared IP environment but not with dedicated IPs.
There is no hard and fast number available. SendGrid
recommends that you send 100k emails per year before
considering a dedicated IP, and they caveat that by
saying you can send less if your sending consistency is
strong. Others, like Mailgun, recommend you send 50k
email per week before jumping to dedicated. Marketo?
50k emails per month. See what we mean?
Does being on a dedicated IP mean no other sender can impact your reputation?
No. That’s just sender mythology. The truth is that if your
ESP has senders of marginal and/or poor reputation all
with dedicated IPs, even fairly small subnets of just a few
hundred IPs, then it's possible the ISP will see enough
bad behavior in that IP range that they'll just flag to the
whole block. You could have the best intentions but, in
this case, you're hosed and need to seek mitigation. The
meta-point here is to purchase a dedicated IP with an
ESP that has a sterling reputation and ask hard questions
about the other senders "near" you and their sending
history.
You can always operate a single IP. Of course, we don’t
recommend it, but you certainly can. At a bare minimum,
split your transactional and bulk mail on two separate
IPs. If you don't have a very sophisticated messaging
program, start with one. If you have many di�erent kinds
of programs, some riskier than others, get several
dedicated IPs.
For high-volume senders, consider the max volume you
send hourly and walk through the hourly throttling limits
2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
10250ok.com | InboxPros.com
per IP with your ESP. This type of constraint will factor
into the number of IPs required.
How many dedicated IPs do you need?
2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
11250ok.com | InboxPros.com
ESP
YOUR COMPUTER
DEDICATED IP ADDRESS
111.222.33.4444
YOUR COMPUTER ANOTHER COMPUTER
SHARED IP ADDRESS
111.222.33.4445
S H A R E D V S . D E D I C A T E D I P
“New or unknown IPs are treated as innocent until
proven guilty, but the bar for guilt is incredibly low,”
according to 250ok VP of Engineering and former
Inbound Delivery & Anti-Spam Senior Engineer at
Hotmail, Paul Midgen.
Below is the recommended IP warming plan from
Marketo for your first five days on the new dedicated IP…
WARMING THE DEDICATED IP
2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP
12250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Bottom-line: If you’re consistently sending…
• Less than 50k messages per month,
a shared IP will work just fine.
• 50k+ messages per month, a
dedicated IP test might be
worthwhile.
• 200k+ messages per month, we
recommend dedicated IPs. Your
reputation lift may not be as strong as
those high-volume senders on
dedicated IPs, but, at this stage,
you’re doing the right thing for the
future of your program.
When purchasing dedicated IPs, go with an ESP that
has a sterling reputation and ask hard questions about
other senders "near" you and their sending history.
Remember, your ESP is likely supporting other
dedicated IP senders in your block.
Stay beneath these limits:
Hotmail & MSN.com:
10,000 messages/day
Yahoo & Rocketmail & YMail: 4,000
messages/day
AOL & AIM: 10,000 messages/day
Total (all domains): 50,000
messages/day
After the first five days, you can slowly
ramp up the volume.
13
For you rookies out there, FBL stands for feedback loop,
the mechanism ISPs like Hotmail and Yahoo! use to
report spam complaints to senders. Spam complaints
(a.k.a., abuse complaints) are generated when a
subscriber clicks on the “report as spam” button.
When someone on your list hits the spam button, the ISP
(a.k.a., the mailbox provider) forwards the o�ending
message back to a designated email address that has
been set up by you or your ESP with the expectation
that you will suppress this user in your database.
The key component of thinking about how you respond
to complaints is time. Most feedback loops operate in
near real-time, meaning while there can be a delay of
days or weeks between the time you send the message
and when it is reported as spam, the FBL notification
arrives very soon after the recipient files the report.
The only safe way to interpret a spam complaint is to
take it as an indication that the recipient wants to
opt-out of that mail stream. Therefore, your
responsibility is to do so, immediately. You should note
FEEDBACK LOOPS: SUPPRESSING COMPLAINTS
How do feedback loops work?
that there is a direct correlation between deliverability
and a timely response to complaints. Why?
Repeatedly sending messages to recipients who have
opted-out of those messages is the fastest way to tank
your reputation. You can wind up in the spam folder, or
worse, be fired by your ESP.
3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS
14250ok.com | InboxPros.com
ISP’S & YOUR FBL EMAIL ADDRESS
Not all ISPs maintain an FBL, but it is important to get
signed up with all that are available. The one major ISP
that does not have a traditional FBL is Gmail, but they do
o�er your ESP the ability to receive alerts based on
complaints. New feedback loops come out frequently
and it is always a good idea to check and see if you are
signed up for any new ones. Recommended: bookmark
F E E D B A C K L O O P
ISP Notification Sends Report
Sender SuppressesAddress
Email Sent
ReceiverReports Spam
https://250ok.com/email-deliverability/list-available-isp-feedback-loops/
3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS
15250ok.com | InboxPros.com
GETTING STARTED
Your ESP will typically sign you up and process these
complaints so they will be automatically suppressed
from further email campaigns. Make sure to confirm that
feature exists when you’re shopping for an ESP. Each
ISP has an application process to enable their FBL which
can usually be found on their postmaster site. The most
common information requested includes contact
information, IP address, and the designated FBL email
address for receiving reports.
While most FBLs are IP based, Yahoo! o�ers a
domain-based FBL and requires senders to authenticate
with DKIM to enable the feedback loop process. Also, as
part of Yahoo!’s application, you will be asked for the d=
and s= values from your DKIM signature. Be prepared to
spend a little extra time setting up Yahoo!.
this page at 250ok.com that includes an up-to-date list
of ISP feedback loops. Perform a periodic check to
ensure you are covering all the FBL bases.
As the sender, you should set up a dedicated email
account to receive the reports back from the ISP. You’re
going to need it as you register for FBLs. You can
consider adding a parsing script to the email account
that combs through the arriving messages to extract
critical information.
Once you begin receiving complaint reports from the ISP
that is sent to your FBL email address, it will contain a
copy of the email that triggered the spam complaint.
These messages coming from ISPs are typically in the
Abuse Reporting Format (ARF), and you are allowed to
collect the information contained in these reports which
include the message header and body. This is also
where you collect the complainant’s email address so
you can quickly suppress it.
For the sake of user privacy, some ISPs redact the
complainant’s email address from the message, which
can complicate the suppression process. Best-in-class
sender programs will include tracking links in the email
body or subscriber identifiers in the x-header that
provide signals to help identify the complainant.
https://250ok.com/tour/reputation-informant/
Example of FBL monitoring via 250ok's Reputation Informant
3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS
16250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Don’t be a hero and try to manually manage the FBL
process. Technology is your friend. We recommend
using an email reputation monitoring tool like 250ok’s
Reputation Informant™ to manage the FBL process.
USE FBL MONITORING SOFTWARE
Using the right tool allows you to:
• Understand which campaigns are
generating the highest complaint
rates
• Identify the recipients hitting
“report as spam” most often
• Predict which of your IP addresses
are likely to be a�ected and at
which ISPs
• Easily export a list of complaints to
simplify your suppression process
3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS
17250ok.com | InboxPros.com
If someone is hitting the “report as spam” button, they
want o� that stream. Make it so. Not making it so is
going to damage your sender reputation and, ultimately,
it’s going to hurt your brand.
If you receive a spam complaint on a piece of mail you
never sent, your IPs have likely been compromised and
you need to act. FBLs serve as a safety net and as a
component of your network security. Use them as such.
If you add campaign ID or list source ID to your email
headers, you give yourself the opportunity to identify
which campaigns and/or lists are causing headaches.
That base will give you a jumping-o� point for a deeper
analysis of content, timing, frequency, personalization
(or lack thereof ), and so on. Take the intelligence you
glean and apply it to your program.
BENEFITS OF A STRONG FBL PROCESS
It’s never too early to mention that the easiest way to
reduce spam complaints is to avoid spamming
strategies. Shocker, we know. Build a list of confirmed
opt-in subscribers (a.k.a., double opt-in), live up to the
frequency and volume you promised when they signed
up, and give them a clear path to unsubscribe. But
know that no matter how much TLC you put into your
program, you’re going to receive complaints. So, be
prepared.
Oh, and by the way, is your unsubscribe link broken?
Check that link early and often.
BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND
Improving your program.
Protecting your reputation.
Watching your back.
18
We’re going to put on our devil horns for a minute and
make the argument that there are situations where a
No-Reply works.
Yes, sending a message from a No-Reply is like calling a
consumer but muting their mic. You say what you want
to say and then force them into alternative options for
responding to you. It works for you, no doubt. But is it
ideal for them?
In the U.S., where receiving mail from a No-Reply
address is legal, the Department of Motor Vehicles or
Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in some states is an
example of a business that sends emails they never
want you to reply to.
The BMV is a state government organization, so there is
no competitive pressure on the business. They simply
don’t have to provide the same level of stellar customer
service as that of Macy’s, for example. Want to speak
with them? Go to one of their o�ces and take a number,
or use the live chat on their website during business
hours. It’s their way or the highway.
SAY “HELL NO” TO THE NO-REPLY
4 | NO-REPLY
19250ok.com | InboxPros.com
What about businesses that are in heated competition
for consumers, or those aiming to please and retain
subscriber bases? For those senders, our
recommendation is to avoid the No-Reply routine.
Example of BMV email footer
BENEFITS OF SAYING NO TO ‘NO-REPLYS’
Unsubscribe flexibility. You’re including
contact information and an unsubscribe
link in the body of the No-Reply, but
some subscribers will inevitably be too
impatient to jump through your hoops
and want to reply with a request to
unsubscribe. It’s going to happen. Now
guess what those subscribers are likely
to do once they realize you are making
them work to unsubscribe?
Address book. It certainly is not
instinctive to add an address starting
with “No-Reply@” to your contact list.
With the average American being
served 362 advertisements per day
(Media Dynamics), reducing
unnecessary barriers to purchase or
engagement feels like a sound
practice. Of course, if you work at the
BMV, barriers are probably not a
concern.
This email was sent by: Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles
100 North Senate Avenue, Room N440 Indianapolis, IN 46204
Please do not reply to the email. To contact the BMV, use
myBMV.com or 888-692-6841
Unsubscribe
Deep cleanse. By sorting through
these responses, you’ll be able to see
if addresses are still valid. For example,
an auto-responder might notify you
that someone is no longer at that
company. You will also get the
automatic responses when an email
address bounces or fails. Remove
inactive subscribers, update new
contact information and domain
changeovers.
Engagement Metrics. We know that
mailbox providers generally view
recipient engagement with mail as a
positive signal. As a result, it’s our
opinion that when you have the
opportunity to o�er better engagement
with a message, you do so.
More Human Than Human. Well, not
more human, but bringing a human
approach to your marketing
communications, like allowing people
4 | NO-REPLY
20250ok.com | InboxPros.com
to directly respond to your messages,
is something we advise.
I FOUGHT THE LAW
Personal marketing and support preferences aside,
there is one non-negotiable regulation in place: If you
send direct marketing mail to subscribers in the
European Union, Article 13 requires a sender to
include a “valid address” to which the recipient can
reply with a request to unsubscribe. Learn about more
global email regulations here.
Think your consumer or subscriber base will expand to
the E.U.? Save yourself future work and ditch the
No-Reply approach now.
21
With email marketing, you have a golden opportunity to
dramatically move the business needle. A 2015
MarketingSherpa survey (graph on pg. 22) found 72%
of consumers say that email is their preferred form of
communication with companies they do business with.
61% say they like to receive promotional emails weekly
with 28% wanting them more frequently. The only
demographic exception in this survey was among
females 65 or older, where 64% preferred email to
postal mail. They are ready.
As you race to communicate with your audience,
remember that everything you do as a marketer is
influencing what consumers think about your brand. No
matter how grandiose or subtle, every action by you
that registers with a consumer creates an impression.
As you engage them, providing the experience they
expect (or better yet, over-delivering) is critical - some
studies have shown that it can take 12 positive
experiences to make up for one unresolved negative
experience (
Newell-Lengner).
Picture this: Your customer is sitting in gridlocked tra�c
when she hears a “ding” from her phone. She stops
SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
Understanding Customers,
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
22250ok.com | InboxPros.com
trying to break-up the chaos of her kids fighting in the
backseat to check her email – she’s expecting to get an
email about an o�er she’s made on a house. With one
hand on the wheel and the other on her phone, which
we do not condone even in gridlock, she discovers
you’ve sent her your third email of the day. But you
promised you would only send one message per week.
You promised! The last email doesn’t even include an
o�er, but that’s why she signed up in the first place. If
she wasn’t so busy, she would opt-out, right now. To
Bezos’ point, what she’s saying about you right now is
what your brand means to her.
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
23250ok.com | InboxPros.com
For marketers that have already gone through a brand
strategy exercise, you probably have a strong sense of
what will work with your audience. As a byproduct, you
baked up which audiences to target, what
content/o�ers will be meaningful, and how to deliver it
all via email. And for you, the email marketer, your
competitive research of successful email programs
revealed what other brands promise, what personal
SETTING THE TABLE
We cover Seth Godin in greater detail in our Let Them
Eat Ham: Permission Marketing chapter, but this is
where you define the promise of what you will deliver to
those who give you permission. This promise, and
examples of what it entails – a video example, an
infographic, a coupon – is likely where you will win or
lose your attempt to build a new connection (i.e., adding
a new subscriber).
DEFINING YOUR PROMISE (WITH EMAIL)
“In order to get permission, you make a
promise. You say, ‘I will do X, Y and Z, I hope
you will give me permission by listening.’ And
then, this is the hard part, that’s all you do.”
- SETH GODIN
data they collect and how they leverage it, content
format and quality level, mail frequency options, single
opt-in vs. double opt-in, and so on. You have a firm
grasp on your space. If you don’t, you should.
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
24250ok.com | InboxPros.com
You have multiple touchpoints available to set customer
expectations when it comes to your email program.
Never miss an opportunity to reinforce what you do,
how you do it, and why it’s meaningful for them.
COMMUNICATING THE PROMISE
•
•
Landing pages & other registration
(i.e., opt-in) screens. Make your pitch
and explain the benefit of being
subscribed. Talk about the type of
content you share and the frequency
at which a subscriber can expect to
receive messages from you.
Confirmation emails & thank you
pages. This is your chance to
reconfirm everything, so list the bullet
points you covered at the opt-in point.
For double opt-in lists, this
opportunity allows you to reconfirm
everything before you begin.
Digital Touchpoints
Welcome emails. Trigger this
message to go out immediately and,
yes, hit them with a rezcap of the
program. Show them how to update
their preferences if that’s available.
Hand them the keys to your kingdom.
Within every email. ESPs often
provide a template that includes all
the key information you are legally
obligated to include in every email
(e.g., postal address, unsubscribe
link), but consider including a simple
sentence towards the header or
footer that reminds them about your
purpose and the expected message
frequency. Also, adding your Privacy
Policy and Terms of Use/Service
within the footer is a pro move.
Unsubscribe screens. Make opt-out a
breeze, and a two-click process at the
most. If you o�er the ability to update
preferences, show that here.
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
25250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Preference center. Allowing
subscribers to update their
preferences mid-stream will help
reduce churn. If you manage multiple
email lists, we recommend that you
allow users to choose between opting
out of a single email list or opting out
of all streams you o�er. CAN-SPAM
requires that a sender o�er the ability
to unsubscribe from all future emails
from any main list or sub-list (a.k.a.,
the "universal unsubscribe").
Privacy Policy & Terms of
Use/Service. Both are important
locations where you set expectations.
CONSUMERS SHOW UP WITH THEIR OWNEXPECTATIONS
Consumers have a ton of experience with email. As a
result, they bring a set of pre-baked expectations to this
process:
Hold the spam. You would be
amazed at the number of big
companies still buying/renting lists.
Consumers don’t appreciate it.
Deliver on promise. You can do
everything else right on this list, but
fail them and nothing else will matter.
Delight them or behold the dreaded
list churn.
Let them drive. Leave the “send me
tons of email” checkbox unchecked
by default and earn the subscription.
Make it simple. At every touchpoint,
customers expect things to be made
simple.
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
26250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Be flexible. Sophisticated email
programs give subscribers flexibility in
what and how they consume. Do your
research and meet your consumer
where they want to be met. Anything
less is you failing to be the best
marketer you can be.
Be reasonable & protective. Only ask
for the minimum amount of data
required. Do not share their email
address or other data with a third
party without express permission to
do so. Provide easy access to the
Privacy Policy. Take care with their
data.
Pay attention. From monitoring
opt-ins, unsubscribes, complaints,
support feedback, surveys, and
customers flaming or loving your on
social media, always be listening
across all channels.
What about personalization as a consumer
expectation? 73% of consumers prefer to do business
with brands that use personal information to make
their shopping experiences more relevant (Digital
Trends), so don’t be afraid to ask for data that helps
you improve their experiences.
Example of personalization within email copy
5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS
27250ok.com | InboxPros.com
CONTINUALLY MEETINGEXPECTATIONS
See, that’s the thing about expectations: they never
end. When setting expectations for subscribers, it’s
exponentially easier to make a promise than to keep
one. You’re nodding your head right now. You know
it’s true, but that lazy marketing devil on your
shoulder won’t shut up.
“Tina’s on vacation. We knew it was coming, but we
failed to prepare. Oh, well. I know we promise a video
with every message, but missing it once won’t matter,”
the marketing devil recommends.
Don’t fall for it. Send what you promised to send.
Don’t send more or less frequently than the
expectation you set. If you promised this stream has a
20% o� deal or more in every message, deliver it.
Failing to do so will compromise the integrity of the
stream.
OUR 4 BIG TAKEAWAYS
We’ve shared a bunch of information in this chapter,
but here are the four high-level takeaways to
remember:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Do your research on your target
audience and existing customer base.
Learn what makes them tick. Design
your program to meet their desires.
Under-promise and over-deliver on
your content or o�ers. Wow them,
consistently. Remember, nothing else
matters if you don’t.
Use the touchpoints you have with
consumers or subscribers to
communicate expectations.
Listen to all the feedback signals
within your reach and adjust
accordingly.
28
The opt-in is the process of a subscriber enrolling in a
mail stream. There are a numerous subcategories of
opt-in according to a variety of email professionals we
respect; however, we like to narrow this down to three
main types: single opt-in, double opt-in, and
unconfirmed opt-in.
Like most marketing campaigns, we advise taking into
consideration the campaign characteristics like target
audience, the country of origin of the audience (and the
laws in place), and any previous deliverability problems
before making a decision. More about this later.
To give you a sense of the landscape,
MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Report (2013) found 39% of programs were deploying double
opt-in campaigns. However, the 250ok study How The Top 500 Internet Retailers Collect Email Sign-ups
(2016) reviewed the top 500 internet retailers which
included over 1,000 websites, revealed that only 9% of
these retailers were using double opt-in. ESPs like
MailChimp strongly recommend their customers use
double opt-in in an e�ort to reduce spam, and the
promise of better long-tail engagement.
SINGLE OPT-IN VS. DOUBLE OPT-IN
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
29250ok.com | InboxPros.com
SINGLE OPT-IN
Single opt-in (SOI), or just “opt-in,” is a process that does
not require a new subscriber to confirm their
registration. Upon initial registration by the new
subscriber, their email address is instantly added to your
email list and you can begin sending to that address.
UNCONFIRMED OPT-IN
Unconfirmed opt-in (UOI), or unverified opt-in, is when a
sender enrolls an address to their mailing list without
verifying if the address owner has provided permission
or not. Say “hello” to spam.
Example of a single opt-in program
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
30250ok.com | InboxPros.com
DOUBLE OPT-IN
Double opt-in (DOI), or closed-loop opt-in/confirmed
opt-in, is a process that requires a new subscriber to
confirm their registration. This confirmation typically
occurs through a verification email sent to the new
Example of a double opt-in program
subscriber immediately following their initial
registration that requires them to click a link. Only
after the confirmation is verified will the new
subscriber be added to the email list.
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
31250ok.com | InboxPros.com
SHOW ME THE MONEY
If ROI is your top KPI, you curious about the cash. The case for double opt-in Improving the Return on Investment (ROI) for Direct Email Campaigns authors
report an average ROI for a DOI list may vary from 33%
to 102% as compared to only –6% to 58% for an SOI list.
But other anecdotal, yet interesting, studies from
marketers like Jarom Adair of Solopreneur Marketing
make a case for SOI. In Jason’s test, he set up two email
lists, one with SOI and one with DOI. The tests ran
side-by-side until both lists had a minimum of 1,000
subscribers. The result was interesting: •
•
•
“Only requiring a single opt-in to
join your email list seems to work out better
because you get more subscribers.”
- JAROM ADAIR
Subscribers: By the time the DOI list
achieved 1000 subscribers, the SOI
list acquired 1249 subscribers.
Opens: He designed a five-part
welcome series of auto responder
emails and measured engagement.
SOI had a 63.8% open rate with a 17%
CTR, and DOI had a 57.6% open rate
with a 15.6% CTR.
Orders: The SOI list generated 14
orders while the DOI list drove 12.
ROI: Unfortunately, the order values
and ROI were not reported. Also, we
have no sense of the lifetime value
(LTV) each list drove.
Spam complaints: This was another
metric omitted which we feel is critical
for a healthy comparison.
•
•
http://www.isipp.com/documents/The-Case-for-COI.pdf
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
32250ok.com | InboxPros.com
PROS & CONS OF OPT-INS
The following points are commonly cited pros and cons
regarding both approaches.
Committed subscribers. You have a
built a list of people that actually want
to be on it. Congratulations.
Cleaner Data. By its nature, this DOI
process yields cleaner lists by
creating protection from typos, spam
bots, revenge spam, and subscribers
that had a change of heart
mid-confirmation process.
Confirmed proof of permission. If
subscribers begin hitting the spam
button, you have evidence of their
permission. You might need this in
Germany or elsewhere.
•
•
•
Pros of using double opt-in:
Extra work. It’s an extra step for
subscribers. Some people will not
mind, others will be annoyed.
Leakage. This is the group of new
subscribers that initiate but fail to
complete the DOI process. They can
leak for multiple reasons: the extra
step required, got distracted,
misunderstood the confirmation email
instructions, confirmation email hit a
di�erent tab and was missed,
confirmation email failed to deliver,
and so on. People like Smart Insights’
Tim Watson say that the leakage rate
is commonly around 20% with 40%
leakage not being unheard of.
Process failure. More than 15% of
homepage and site registration email
sign-up processes resulted in failure,
according to a study of more than 160
B2C brands by ExactTarget.
•
•
•
Cons of using double opt-in:
Revenge Spam. The act of signing
someone else up to a list to get back
at them. “I just signed my
ex-boyfriend up for Dr. Phil’s emails.
Maybe he’ll get the hint.”
•
Cons of using single opt-in:
Simplicity for subscribers. The user
that wants to receive mail from you
will find the SOI process easiest. It’s a
one-step action.
Instant satisfaction. There is no delay
or time gap in the registration process
like there is with DOI. Everybody’s
happy.
List growth speed. Because of the
simplicity advantage in the
registration process, the SOI
programs typically produce higher
numbers of registrants more quickly.
•
•
•
Pros of using single opt-in:
33250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Fake emails. Some subscribers are
willing to try entering a fake email
address to gain access to content.
Content marketers gating content
should expect to see some emails
bounce and your CRM to have some
bogus contacts.
Your haters. Everybody has some and
yours might intentionally register
address of known anti-spammers, your
competition, or known troublemakers.
Honest typos. It’s inevitable that some
percentage of new subscribers will
accidentally fat finger their email
address upon registration. Mailing to
these addresses will negatively impact
your reputation.
List hygiene overtime. You’re going to
need to put in some overtime on the
list hygiene work with these SOI lists.
•
•
•
•
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
34250ok.com | InboxPros.com
CLEANER DATA WITHOUT DOI?
You can jump through other hoops to improve the
quality of your SOI lists:
List verification. List verification
services from companies like
BriteVerify, StrikeIron, LeadSpend, and
FreshAddress are used to identify
bad addresses. We are seeing more
integrations at the ESP level which
will create better ease of use for
senders.
Double-entry confirmation. Asking a
new subscriber to enter their email
twice is a simple and immediate
quality check. But let’s face it, it’s not
uncommon to copy and paste the
initial email into the secondary field in
this scenario. We do.
Non-starters. Assuming your
deliverability to a list is strong,
•
•
•
subscribers that have failed to
engage with your emails in any way
within the first 120 days or the first 10
messages are what Chad White of
Litmus calls Never-Actives. These
subscribers present a risk to your
sender reputation and it’s in your best
interest to find a way to trigger their
engagement or cut them loose. We
agree.
REALITY CHECK
This is how we see it:
If you want to minimize your risk of
being blacklisted, use DOI.
If your top KPI is “build a huge
freaking list,” use SOI.
Will engagement metrics be stronger
on DOI? We have shown anecdotal
evidence of varying results.
•
•
•
6 | SINGLE OPT-IN VS DOUBLE OPT-IN
35250ok.com | InboxPros.com
FINAL THOUGHTS
For us? We fancy ourselves as idealists. Our top KPI is
the evolution of email. We dream of a world without
spam, where advances in sending technology allow for
extraordinarily personalized experiences, and, as a
result, a world where the consumer places even greater
value on the email channel as a whole.
But the current engagement and revenue generated by
SOI lists mean most businesses are unlikely to switch
just for the sake of creating a better email experience
for humans. We get it.
Will DOI improve the long-tail value of
a list? You’re going to need to test.
Don’t base your decision o� of a
couple email marketing blogs, test
with your audience, your promise,
your content/o�ers, and program
management team. Test, review, and
react.
•
•
Through countless conversations with marketers about
what it would take for them to move to DOI, we have
uncovered some interesting potential hooks. Look for
a future blog post on 250ok.com addressing this topic.
36
Remember Seth Godin? If you don’t, you’re probably
younger than us. Savor it while you can. The point is that
it’s impossible for us to talk about permission-based
marketing without tipping our hat to Seth Godin and his
1999 book, Permission Marketing. Here, he coined the
term permission marketing - the process of earning a
voluntary opt-in, or situational permission, from potential
customers. Little did we know at the time how important
his thinking on the topic would prove to be, and how it
would still be a conversation point today.
That being said, some businesses keep spamming for a
reason: it works. For a surprising number of companies
that will not advertise this fact, spam drives enough
revenue to justify their deliverability headaches and the
poor customer experience it creates. At least, that’s
what they think.
But regulations in the E.U. and Canada’s CASL are
beginning to change that reality. As the total number of
worldwide email accounts is expected to increase to
over 5.2 billion accounts by 2018 – a growth of more
than 26% (Radicati Group) – we are bullish that legal
pressures will continue to mount around the world and
drive regulations regarding spam.
LET THEM EAT HAM: PERMISSION MARKETING
Permission Marketing
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
37250ok.com | InboxPros.com
DEFINING SPAM
In the face of Seth’s rallying cry, the CAN-SPAM Act of
2003 was passed in the United States which made the
spamming of Americans legal with a few conditions.
In an e�ort to make sure we’re all on the same page,
let’s define spam. Here is Wikipedia’s take: “Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email (UBE) [or unsolicited commercial email (UCE)], is a subset of electronic spam involving nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email.”
The key is the combination of “unsolicited” and “bulk.”
The two of those things by themselves do not constitute
spam.
We see some blogs and media sites publishing lists of
companies “spamming” customers because they send
so much mail (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook).
For example, Unroll.me’s 2016 Spammy Awards is an
interesting read. But if a consumer asked to receive a
daily deal email, a sender is not spamming when they
send the requested mail. Also, if you, as a subscriber of
these companies, wish to turn o� notifications or change
email frequency, you typically can. And you can always
opt-out, which is one of the conditions of CAN-SPAM. We
need to be careful about what we call spam.
Hard-core spam? Spamhaus, creators of The 10 Worst
Spammers list, report that up to 80% of spam targeted at
global internet users is generated by a group of
approximately 100 known spam operations.
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the
right) of delivering anticipated, personal and
relevant messages to people who actually want
to get them.” - SETH GODIN
In the face of Seth’s rallying cry, the CAN-SPAM Act of
2003 was passed in the United States which made the
spamming of Americans legal with a few conditions.
In an e�ort to make sure we’re all on the same page,
let’s define spam. Here is Wikipedia’s take: “Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email (UBE) [or unsolicited commercial email (UCE)], is a subset of electronic spam involving nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email.”
The key is the combination of “unsolicited” and “bulk.”
The two of those things by themselves do not constitute
spam.
We see some blogs and media sites publishing lists of
companies “spamming” customers because they send
so much mail (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook).
For example, Unroll.me’s 2016 Spammy Awards is an
interesting read. But if a consumer asked to receive a
daily deal email, a sender is not spamming when they
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
38250ok.com | InboxPros.com
2 TYPES OF PERMISSION
There are two common types of permission that are
known by several di�erent names.
Implied permission, the weakest form of consent, refers
to a contact for whom it is reasonable to believe that
you have permission to send messages. Implied is
based on you having a prior relationship with the
contact. The requirements associated with this type of
send the requested mail. Also, if you, as a subscriber of
these companies, wish to turn o� notifications or change
email frequency, you typically can. And you can always
opt-out, which is one of the conditions of CAN-SPAM. We
need to be careful about what we call spam.
Hard-core spam? Spamhaus, creators of The 10 Worst
Spammers list, report that up to 80% of spam targeted at
global internet users is generated by a group of
approximately 100 known spam operations.
permission vary by country but typically limit the access
to these contacts based on the length of time since their
last business engagement (e.g., a purchase, a lease, a
consultation, etc.) with your company.
The transactional mail of today falls into this category.
Purchase receipts, shipping notifications, and changes to
a company’s privacy policy are all examples of implied
permission. Of course, implied permission can
technically include a giveaway registration at a trade
show booth, an exchange of business cards, or a simple
verbal request. Thinking about adding people to email
lists without verifying they want on them makes us
uncomfortable, and we do not recommend that practice.
Along these lines, some claim we are seeing the limit of
implicit permission being tested by businesses that use
inbound marketing tactics. Patrick Hathaway’s blog post
Is This What Seth Godin Meant By Permission
Marketing? details how downloading a single piece of
content, and not checking the opt-in box, resulted in his
inclusion on 19 di�erent mail lists. Needless to say, he
was not happy.
Implied (a.k.a., Implicit or Inferred)
Is This What Seth Godin Meant By Permission
Marketing?
https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-manage-the-3-kinds-of-inactive-email-subscribers
39250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Explicit permission is real permission. This exchange is
where the sender makes a promise about the value of
opting into a specific list and a subscriber decides if that
sounds interesting or not. The subscriber must opt-in for
the sender to possess explicit permission.
"Real permission is di�erent from presumed or
legalistic permission. Just because you
somehow get my email address doesn't mean
you have permission. Just because I don't
complain doesn't mean you have permission.
Just because it's in the fine print of your
privacy policy doesn't mean it's permission
either.” - SETH GODIN
3 MANTRAS FOR PERMISSION-BASED EMAILMARKETERS
We believe that Godin’s philosophy is just as important
today as it ever was. Remember, we are talking real
permission here, not implied.
The entire premise of permission is that you actually ask
and receive it. You shouldn’t buy lists, rent lists, or share
lists among friendlies. If you don’t have permission, don’t
mail them.
Nail your promise, show enticing examples of what they
will receive (i.e., the value), and drive awareness of your
o�er in places your audience spends time.
“In order to get permission, you make a promise. You
say, ‘I will do X, Y and Z, I hope you will give me
permission by listening.’ And then, this is the hard
part, that’s all you do.” - SETH GODIN
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
Mantra #1 – Permission is granted, not fabricated
Explicit (a.k.a., Express or Express Consent)
40250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Understand your customer’s journey and how email will
play its role in that process. Many businesses are
building relationships with di�erent types of buyers, so
leverage segmentation to address the specialized
needs of each group.
For email marketers, the beginning comes in the form of
the welcome email or campaign. This initial message is a
great opportunity for you to convert as the average
open rate is approximately 50%. Don’t miss this chance,
and don’t delay in sending. Use an auto-responder to
kick-o� the welcome program upon opt-in.
Mantra #2 – Permission is only the beginning
“The goal of the Permission Marketer is to move
consumers up the permission ladder, moving them
from strangers to friends to customers. And from
customers to loyal customers. At every step up the
ladder, trust grows, responsibility grows, and profits
grow.” - SETH GODIN
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
41250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Assuming you are keeping very close tabs on your email
deliverability with tools like 250ok, you can send with a
high degree of confidence that subscribers are receiving
your mail. Missing or blocked mail is you breaking the
promise in the eyes of the consumer.
Not even transaction mail has a right to be forced on
consumers. Target doesn’t make us leave their brick and
mortar stores with a receipt when we make a purchase,
so why should eCommerce? Updating your Privacy
Policy might be a big deal to you, but it doesn’t mean I
want to hear about it just because you captured my
Mantra #3 – Permission is fragile and impermanent
“The promise is the promise until both sides
agree to change it. You don’t assume that just
because you’re running for President or coming
to the end of the quarter or launching a new
product that you have the right to break the deal.
You don’t.” - SETH GODIN
address six months ago when I downloaded a white
paper. If customers want to opt-out of transactional
messages from you, allow them. If they don’t want those
messages, they will find a more painful way to shut you
out. Let them eat ham.
You don’t have to wait for spam complaints to
unsubscribes to figure out you might be heading
towards a break-up.
Early warning signs (assuming your mail is being
delivered):
Open rates. If this number is going
downward, you’re doing it wrong.
Click-thru rates. A decline in CTR is
an indicator that you might be missing
the mark with your content,
messaging, or o�ers.
Tab movement. If a subscriber moves
you from their Gmail inbox to the
promotions tab, you might be heading
in the wrong direction.
•
•
•
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
42250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Don’t give up too quickly. For email addresses that have
gone stale – commonly 3 to 6 months without an open
(depending on the frequency of the mailings), try
sending a reconfirmation campaign. These campaigns
are sent to existing email subscribers to reconfirm
permission to send. The email asks the subscriber if
they’d like to remain on your mailing list, or if they’d like
to be removed. A reconfirmation message should be
sent periodically to avoid high bounces, complaints, and
unsubscribes.
You’ve were given permission to feed them ham...
NOW GO DO IT!
7 | PERMISSION MARKETING
43
You didn’t think you were getting through this series on
email deliverability best practices without some
semi-technical email talk, did you? Welcome to our
chapter on email authentication.
Email authentication allows Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) to accurately identify the sender of an email and,
based on the outcome of the authentication process,
decide what will be done with that message.
Authentication has moved from being a
recommendation to a mandatory practice as spammers
have become more malicious and clever. By spoofing
your domain (i.e., your identity), spammers use a
technique called phishing to trick your customers out of
passwords, personal information, and, sometimes, cash.
(Note: The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) says it observed a record-breaking 250% surge in phishing attacks between October 2015 and March 2016.)
For most email marketers, you probably have a
dedicated email ops sta� or person that helps handle
your authentication. However, phishing attacks can have
such a serious impact on your brand, we feel that it’s
imperative for you to have a basic understanding of
authentication. Knowledge is power.
EMAIL AUTHENTICATION: SAFETY FIRST
44250ok.com | InboxPros.com
8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
AUTHENTICATION TOOL: SPF
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a path authorization
mechanism. Email spam and phishing often use a forged
from address, so publishing and checking SPF records
are recommended anti-spam techniques. SPF says that a
message claiming to be from a given domain was
allowed to be sent over a given IP. The list of authorized
sending IPs for a domain is published in the Domain
Name System (DNS) records for that domain. It’s critical
to keep those IP addresses up-to-date within your DNS
records.
SPF has a reputation of being easy to implement, but it
is also universally known as being easy to screw up.
Proceed with care.
SENDS EMAIL
RECEIVES AUTHORIZED
VERIFIESSPF
RECORDSERVER
45250ok.com | InboxPros.com
8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
AUTHENTICATION TOOL: DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a content
verification mechanism. It simply says whether a
message has been modified since it was sent. DKIM
intended to prevent forged sender addresses in emails,
a technique often used in phishing and email spam.
Upon sending an email, digests of the message body
and headers are computed then encrypted with a
private key and both values are stored in the message.
The recipient does the same in reverse and uses the
public key to decrypt the encoded digest. If the values
match, the message was not modified.
Your ESP will keep the private key on the Mail Transport
Agent (MTA), while you will update your DNS records
with the public key. It is worth noting here that DKIM is
required for getting enrolled in the Yahoo! and Gmail
feedback loops - something we feel is mandatory.
SENDING MAILSERVER (SIGNING MTA)
PRIVATE KEY SIGNED
MAIL OUT
RECEIVING MAILSERVER (VERIFYING MTA)
VERIFIED
MAIL IN
MAILBOX
RETRIEVEPUBLIC KEY
PUBLISHEDPUBLIC KEY
DNS SERVER
46250ok.com | InboxPros.com
8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
10 STEPS TO GETTING STARTED WITH DMARC
Authenticate using both SPF and
DKIM.
Create a list of all IP addresses -
internal and at your ESP - that you use
to send email.
Ensure that your domains are
correctly aligning the appropriate
identifiers.
Create your authentication record on
SPF and DKIM, then publish them.
Setup your mail server to sign
outbound email with DKIM.
Test your records. DKIM has two
testing tools: the Policy Record Tester
and Selector Record Tester. SPF has a
series of testing tools available on
their website.
Publish a DMARC record with the
“none” flag set for the policy so you
can begin receiving reports.
Analyze the data and modify your mail
streams as appropriate.
Modify your DMARC policy flags from
“none” to “quarantine” to “reject” as
you gain experience and review the
reports.
Use a software platform like 250ok to
monitor DMARC.
47250ok.com | InboxPros.com
8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
YOU RECIPIENT’S MAIL SERVER
RECEIVESMESSAGE
CHECKS REPUTATION,
BLACKLISTS, & AUTHENTICATION
PASS
QUARANTINE
REJECT
VALIDATE SPF& DKIM
DMARC POLICY
INBOX
SPAM
BLOCK
MAILBOX
APPLY DMARCPOLICY
SPAM FILTERSCONTENT SCORING
DIPOSITIONYOUR MAIL SERVER ADDS
DKIM SIGNATURE
COMPOSE &SEND EMAIL
D M A R C
LOOKING FORWARD
Most ESPs will set up your account with SPF and DKIM.
DMARC is often an added requirement, but worth
inquiring about if you do not have the internal resources
to make it a reality. After reading this chapter, check
your email headers and make sure you see SPF, DKIM,
and DMARC pass, or have your email ops sta� assist
you. If you are unable to do so, feel free to reach to us
for a consultation.
It's critical to review and perform email authentication
testing on an ongoing basis. This includes making sure
that the emails continue to pass SPF and DKIM checks.
We often find that someone may make a change to a
DNS record that may cause authentication failures.
There are a lot of moving parts with here, but buckle
down and ensure your program is always on top of
authentication and DMARC.
48250ok.com | InboxPros.com
8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
Being a spammer. If your sender
reputation is low due to spamming,
you might have issues.
Hitting rate limits. Limits might
include the number of emails sent per
minute/hour, SMTP connections per
minute/hour, and the number of
emails sent by each SMTP
connection.
Sending from an unknown IP. Until an
ISP has enough data to determine
WHAT CAN CAUSE A THROTTLE?
HTTP://WWW.TRIPWIRE.COM/STATE-OF-SECURITY/FEATURED/PHISHING-FRENZY-THE-GOOD-THE-BA
D-AND-HOW-YOU-CAN-PROTECT-YOURSELF/
49
Email throttling is the act of limiting the number of email
messages simultaneously sent to one ISP or remote
server. A deferral is what happens to a message when
you’re throttled. The message is not accepted and it is
handed back to you with a slap on the wrist and a
request to come back later.
What’s the point? Throttles limit the amount of damage a
spammer can do. When a non-spammer is hit with a
throttle, it’s because they’ve been careless.
EMAIL THROTTLING: SLOW & LOW TO DELIVERY
your IP reputation, you will be under
increased scrutiny and, likely, rate
limits. This typically occurs when an IP
has not been warmed up properly.
All ports full. When a receiving server
does not have any open ports
available to receive email.
Mailbox is full. When the recipient’s
mailbox is full and unable to receive
more mail.
50250ok.com | InboxPros.com
9 | EMAIL THROTTLING
Spam complaints. When your mail
has trigger increased spam
complaints but not enough for the
server to block you. The receiving
server shifts to a holding pattern on
receiving more mail from you until
other recipients have reacted to the
mail already delivered.
RECIPIENT’S ISPSENDER RECIPIENT'S MAILBOX
Most ESPs will attempt the delivery of your mail for up to
72 hours. If your mail remains deferred past this period,
it’s likely that there is another cause beyond throttling
and they will often convert your deferral to a hard
bounce and possibly move the address to your block
list.
51250ok.com | InboxPros.com
9 | EMAIL THROTTLING
WHAT DOES THROTTLING LOOK LIKE?
You’ve just sent an epic campaign and begin to check
the email activity.
You see a lot of “deferred” where you expected to see
“delivered.” Know that a “deferral” and “throttled” and
“soft bounces” are synonymous in the email world. A
large number of email is being deferred, but you’re not
seeing many hard bounces.
Some ISPs provide detailed bounce codes that may be
related to sending emails too quickly. Examples include
the RP-001 error from Outlook, and the TS01 and TS02
bounce codes from Yahoo!. These SMTP errors are
almost always reported as a 400 class error. It is not
uncommon for a response of “User is receiving mail at
too great a rate right now, please try again later,” “User’s
mailbox is over quota,” or “Too many connections from
your host.”
Example of a Bounce Code
52250ok.com | InboxPros.com
9 | EMAIL THROTTLING
AVOIDING TROUBLE
There are six key tactics that help avoid a throttling situation:
Work with a stellar ESP, one that has a
robust feature set to handle throttling.
Consult with an expert deliverability
agency like Inbox Pros, expert in-house
sta�, or with consultation from your ESP.
Only send from fully warmed IPs.
Schedule your emails to send over an
extended period of time.
Expand the runway leading up to your
desired completion date. Start sending
earlier.
Segment your emails by domain or split
your lists into multiple parts. Remember,
we have recommended that you split
transactional and marketing email at a
bare minimum. Ideally, your program also
isolates riskier lists on their own IPs.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Email throttling is an integral part of email deliverability.
Each ISP has their own threshold which they constantly
evolve. Follow our recommendations and you will be o�
to a great start.
53
EMAIL DELIVERABILITY WRAP-UP
We covered Deliverability Branding, Shared IP vs.
Dedicated IP, Feedback Loops, No-Reply’s, Setting
Subscriber Expectations, Single Opt-In vs. Double
Opt-In, Permission Marketing, Email Authentication, and
Email Throttling. While there are other important topics,
we felt this base was a solid starting point.
Please feel free to contact 250ok with questions,
anytime. And thanks, again, for stepping up your
deliverability game with us.
250ok contact email: [email protected]
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
54
GREG KRAIOS
250ok.com | InboxPros.com
Greg Kraios is the founder and CEO of email deliverability software company,
250ok. For over 15 years, this email entrepreneur has made his way from
ExactTarget to running his own flourishing email analyics company. Greg
consistently pushes the envelope to produce software that maximizes deliverability
across all systems.
250ok.https://250ok.comcom/
CHRIS ARRENDALEChris Arrendale is the founder and CEO of email deliverability and privacy
consulting firm, Inbox Pros. With over a decade and a half of experience, he
continues to solve a variety of clients’ deliverability and compliance challenges.
Chris works to ensure his client’s email reaches the inbox by providing
strategic guidance as well as hands-on support.
http://inboInboxpros.com/xPros.com
Inbox Pros
250ok.com | InboxPros.com© 2016, 250OK LLC.