The Hidden Metrics of Email DeliverabilityTom Sather, Sr. Director, Research@tom_sather@returnpath

Messages delivered to the spam folder simply don’t reach subscribers. You need to know when messages fail to reach the inbox, and how to take corrective action.

Reach the Inbox

Beyond opens and clicks, subscribers’ interactions with your messages send signals that can influence inbox placement and help you strengthen relationships. To improve engagement, you need to see and measure it.

See and Measure Engagement

See What Works for the Competition

Top brands’ engagement and response from email marketing far outpaces the average. You need to see whose messages and which tactics are capturing your subscribers’ attention and dollars.

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Why Your Emails are in the Spam Folder

Inbox Placement is Driven by 3 Things

1. Content2. Sender Reputation3. Subscriber Engagement

Content Plays a Minor Role

What Defines Sender Reputation

Complaints List Quality Infrastructure

Length of Sending History

Message Quality Subscriber Engagement

Why Engagement is Important for Mailbox Providers

Engagement is made of people!

75% of emails reported as spam are emails people signed up for.

Measuring Reputation

Your Reputation Determines Delivery

And Your Inbox Placement Rates

A High Sender Score May Not Equal High Inbox Placement

It’s All About Engagement

It’s All About Engagement

Inbox Engagement• Regularly logs-in• Reads and sends email• Files email• Complaints/This is Not Spam

Email Engagement• Opens• Clicks• Shares• Purchases

The Case of the Missing Engagement Metrics

Spam Placement Rate

Hidden in your “delivered” rate

Inbox + Spam = Delivered

Utilities Best-in-class (2%)Automotive Parts/Accessories worst (29%)

The Read Rate

Utilities best-in-class (47%)B2B worst (9%)

Deleted Without Reading Rate

“Ignore Rate”Social/Dating best-in-class (5%)Office Supplies worst (14%)

Complaint Rate

Utilities best-in-class (0%)Telecomm worst (0.98%)

This is NOT Spam RateThis disparity between complaint and “this is not spam” rates could indicate that a “one sizefits all” approach to email campaigns isn’t working, and shows a need for better segmentation and personalized content.

Forward Rate

Utilities best-in-class (.47%)B2B worst (0%)

Reply Rate

Telecomm best-in-class (1.5%)Kids/Babies & Deals/RewardsWord (0.01%)

Tips to Boost Engagement

Tip #1Understand why your subscribers mark your emails as “spam”

Subscriber Complaints Cause Major Reputation Issues

Sign up for Feedback Loops

• AOL https://postmaster.aol.com/fbl-request • Bluetie http://feedback.bluetie.com/• Comcast http://feedback.comcast.net/• Cox http://fbl.cox.net/• Open SRS http://fbl.hostedemail.com/ • Outlook.com https://postmaster.live.

com/snds/JMRP.aspx • Rackspace http://fbl.apps.rackspace.com/• RoadRunner http://feedback.postmaster.rr.com/• USA.net http://fbl.usa.net/• Yahoo! https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN3438.html

Analyze Complaints for Trends

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Tip #2Look at These Reputation Metrics Before Engagement

The Facts:• Unknown User = Email address that has been abandoned and is no longer is

use• Mailbox Providers tell you when you send to an Unknown User via a message

they return (bounce code)• Remove Unknown Users immediately• Indicator of poor data practices• Risk of being Blacklisted

#1 Unknown Users

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How Unknown Users Impact Reputation

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The Facts:• Spam Trap = Addresses created to identify poor data practices• 2 Types

– Recycled– Pristine

• Risk of being Blacklisted• Aged or Inactive data is primary source of traps

#2 Spam Traps

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Reputation Impact

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The Facts:• Active = Email recipients who regularly open, click, convert on emails received

• Inactive = Email recipients who have not taken any action on emails received for some time - often the source of complaints or spam traps

#3 Inactive Subscribers

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Best Practices:• Quarantine new data – send a Welcome Message• Make it easy for customers to update their information• Send to permission-based lists• Email your list regularly• Consider utilizing an email list hygiene vendor• Monitor the age and activity of your data – re-engage and/or remove

inactives

List Quality

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The Facts: • Your subscribers are not homogeneous • Subscribers behave differently at

different points of the lifecycle within every email program

• Segmentation helps break a large file into more manageable chunks

• Segmentation makes analyzing campaign performance, targeting specific content, and increasing customer engagement easier

Using segmentation to clean your email list

Segmentation IdeasConsumer Type Source Recent Activity

Recent Graduate Home Page Opens

Retired In Store Clicks

Married with Children Banner Ads Website visits

Married with no Children

During online purchase Site Login

Single Search Purchase

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Tip #3Engagement Strategy

A Retailer’s Case Study: Gmail Before Engagement Strategy

A Retailer’s Case Study: Gmail After Engagement Strategy

Only mailing to Gmail users 0-6 months put an item in their cart or clicked on an email

Mailing only to Gmail users who had put an item in the cart or clicked on an email in last 30 days

A Retailer’s Case Study: Gmail From 30 Days to 6 Months

Expanded Engagement filtering rules and only mailing active Gmail users of 0-6 months who put an item in their cart or clicked on an email

Reverted to only mailing Gmail users showing 30-days of activity

Tip #4Get rescued from the spam folder

“This is Not Spam” – Rarely used, But Highly Trusted

“This is Not Spam” and Deliverability

Source: Return Path “This is Not Spam” Report

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Tip #5Optimize Frequency

How Frequency Affects Inbox Placement

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Manage Frequency

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Tip #6To Reply or Not to Reply

When People Reply to Emails

Weekends see shorter and slower replies

Source: Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload

ThinkGeek: Reply to This Email

But Don’t Do This

Tip #7Email Authentication Improves Trust, Engagement and Deliverability

Gmail Announcement: Attention, Marketers!

Good vs. bad email: Gmail removes the guesswork

• February 2016: Effective immediately, Google will visually flag emails that fail Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption to its users.Gmail will display a broken lock icon in the message.

Good vs. bad email: Gmail removes the guesswork

• In addition, if a user receives a message that can’t be authenticated with either SPF (Sender Policy Framework) or DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), the sender’s profile photo or avatar will be replaced with a red question mark.

Potential Impact on Your Email Program

Impact on brand trust

Drop in user engagement

Drop in open and read rates

Impact on deliverability at Gmail

Tip #8Get Whitelisted

Get Whitelisted

Yahoo “Bulk Senders Form”https://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/bulkv2.html

AOL Whitelisthttps://postmaster.aol.com/whitelist-request

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Thank You

Follow me:@Tom_Sather@ReturnPath