David Kirkpatrick says, “Deliverability should be a concern for any email marketer. If you can’t get into the inbox, your email send might as well not have even happened. Deliverability can be a challenge. A bad reputation score can significantly impact your ability to reach the inbox. An ESP (email service provider) with other clients behaving poorly on a shared IP also hurts you. Getting off of a spam or junk mail blacklist can be a Kafka-esque experience of not really being sure who or what will get you off that list. To help you with deliverability issues, I reached out to three industry... [...]

Neil Patel says, “I rave about email marketing all the time. But I need to shoot straight with you about email marketing lest you think it’s some holy grail of marketing. Your emails are useless unless they actually make it to the user’s inbox. Let me state that another way so you don’t miss it. If your emails aren’t getting delivered, then email marketing is a massive waste of time and money. You’ve probably read all the tips about subject lines, open rates, engaging content, powerful CTAs, and strategic email landing pages. But let’s take a big step back and look at the picture... [...]

Pamella Neely says, “Most of us have had at least one experience of losing something in the postal mail. Hopefully yours was something small, like a postcard, not something like a mortgage payment or a rent check. But despite how much we all complain about the post office, its delivery rates positively sparkle compared to email messages. Just last week, Return Path, the email certification service, reported that one in six emails never makes it to the inbox. One in six is a lot. What if one in six of your customer-service emails went missing, or one in six order confirmations? Even with... [...]

Jeff Dellapina says, “So, what’s your excuse? OK, I guess I should have explained the importance of DMARC before asking you about excuses. I’m quirky that way. Before everyone offers explanations about being too busy with work, kids and school, let’s cover the DMARC basics. DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. It’s a DNS (Domain Name System) text record that uses SPF and DKIM DNS records to authenticate email and reject email that doesn’t pass that same authentication. When the DMARC, SPF and DKIM records are in place, mail not coming from... [...]

Jill Bastian says, “When you send an email for your business, you expect it to simply appear in your subscribers’ inboxes, right? Well, there’s a lot more to getting email delivered than you may expect. Email Service Providers (ESP), like VerticalResponse, do a lot to ensure your email makes it to the inbox, but you play a part in delivery, too. This infographic outlines dos and don’ts you should follow to help your emails make it into the inbox, rather than the dreaded Spam folder“. The Dos and Don’ts of Email Delivery VerticalResponse Blog  [...]

Kevin Huxham says, “Email marketing has the highest return on investment of any marketing medium. It’s a powerful tool that’s not going away any time soon. High success rates come when you put forth the effort to ensure your lists are clean and current, your content is sound and simple, and your ability to track results helps you fine-tune future campaigns to increase engagement. Most small businesses operate on a very tight marketing budget. They usually have one person dedicated to handling email marketing; often, that person is also wearing other hats. Being able to efficiently... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Three-quarters of marketers who run global email campaigns say they do not maintain a list of regional preferences and instead manage localization on an ongoing basis, according to a recent report from Lionbridge. Most marketers surveyed (57%) say they do customize/translate email copy for specific countries or regions, and a majority (53%) also create multiple versions of their Web links. Less than half of respondents customize images (47%), brand messaging (45%), calls-to-action (43%), and colors (19%) for specific locations”. How Marketers Handle Global Email... [...]

Carol Stott says, “HTML… I have a confession: I don’t even know what it stands for. But do marketers need to speak geek? Do you know your DKIM from your Kim Dotcom? Does thinking about SPF give you ADD? Surely email marketing is like driving a car: You don’t need to know how it all works, you just use it. It’s simple: Choose your list, craft your message, send it into the world, and track the results. Except when it breaks down and then you wish you knew a bit more than the basics! And email marketing can break down, including at delivery, when your beloved newsletter... [...]

Tom Sather says, “As email deliverability continues to evolve, the myths surrounding it continue to persist: confusing “delivered” with “inbox placement,” insisting that the best time to send is at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and avoiding the word “free” in all caps are oldies, but still goodies. Here are some other myths I hear more and more today. Myth #1: I Don’t Need To Worry About Placement If I Have A High Sender Score Sender Score indicates how trustworthy an email sender’s IP address to an email provider, ISP or filtering company. It answers the question of how likely... [...]

Bridgette Darling says, “Email remains the most important communication channel for marketers as they look to engage with consumers and drive revenue. Not only is email a preferred channel by consumers, it allows marketers to communicate at a fraction of the cost. However, there are challenges related to email that marketers must face to maximize impact from the channel. A major challenge for email is that it is not cost prohibitive. While this is a positive, it also means that mistakes don’t seem to have a hard cost, making them easy to ignore. In addition, many marketers still abide... [...]