The document discusses email deliverability best practices. It introduces Tamara Gielen as an expert in this area and lists some brands she has worked with. It then discusses factors that influence deliverability, including content, list hygiene, and technical implementation. Common issues that impact deliverability are user complaints, unknown users, spam traps, and inconsistent sending practices. The document provides tips on identifying and solving deliverability issues, and recommends resources for monitoring reputation and learning more about deliverability.

1. Deliverability Best Practices
by Tamara Gielen

2. Hello, my name is Tamara
Gielen
• Blogger
• Community manager
• Speaker
• Independent consultant
• Trainer
• Based in Belgium
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

3. Some of the brands
I’ve worked with:
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

4. Some facts

5. 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. Over 90% of all email traffic
is spam
• ISPs are focused on keeping
their users happy by
blocking messages their
users don’t want
• They can’t do this manually!
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com
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9. Factors that influence
deliverability

10. Typical ISP process
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

11. Behavioral factors in
deliverability
• Content • Poor database
– Words hygiene
– Bad html code
– Low text-to-image ratio – Hard bounces &
– Not sending in MIME unsubscribes are not
blog.wordtothewise.com/ removed
2010/09/content-based- – Old lists
filtering/
• Too many spam • Bad sender/domain
complaints reputation
– Bad opt-in practices
– Irrelevant messages
– Too high frequency
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com 11

12. Technical factors in
deliverability
• IP address or • No SPF & Sender ID
domain is record
blacklisted
• DKIM &
• Bad server DomainKeys are
configuration not implemented
– Sending speed,
throttling, mx
connections…
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com 12

14. What’s new?

15. Gmail introduces Priority
Inbox
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

16. Hotmail sorts your inbox as
well
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

17. Hotmail helps you get rid of
unwanted email in bulk
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

18. Microsoft will determine
inbox delivery based on
• According to Return Path, Microsoft will soon
start using engagement metrics to determine
whether it delivers a message into your inbox or
junk folder – on an individual basis:
– Message read, then deleted
– Message deleted without reading
– Message answered
– Frequency of receiving and reading messages from a
certain sender
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

19. Common myths about
deliverability

20. v

22. Identifying deliverability issues

23. Delivery Rate ≠ Inbox Delivery Rate

24. Source of most deliverability
issues
• User complaints
• Unknown users
• Spam trap addresses
• Sending infrastructure
• Sending consistency (volume & frequency)
• Content and e-mail headers
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com
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25. How to identify a
deliverability issue?
• Signs of trouble
– Falling open & click rates (overall + per ISP)
– Spikes in bounce rates (overall + per ISP)
– Monitor delivery logs
• Sign up to feedback loops
http://blog.wordtothewise.com/isp-information/
• Set up dedicated accounts at major ISPs—Yahoo!,
AOL, Gmail, and Hotmail—and add those accounts
to every mailing
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com
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26. How to solve deliverability
issues?
• Improve opt-in/opt-out practices
• Improve list hygiene
• Improve contact strategy
• Improve infrastructure / ESP
• Improve reputation
• Improve authentication
Do this BEFORE you contact the ISP!
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com
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27. Some great resources

28. Reputation Monitoring Sites
Source: blog.wordtothewise.com
• Sender Score – http://senderscore.org/.
• Sender Base – http://senderbase.org/.
• AOL reputation – http://postmaster.aol.com/cgi-bin/plugh/check_ip.pl
Reports the reputation of IPs as determined by AOL.
• RoadRunner blocks – http://security.rr.com/amIBlockedByRR
Reports if a particular IP address is currently being blocked from sending
mail to Road Runner.
• Spamhaus blocks – http://www.spamhaus.org/
Reports if an IP is currently listed on any of the Spamhaus lists.
• Sendmail Reputation – http://sendmail.com/sm/resources/tools/
ip_reputation/
Reports reputation of an IP address as measured by Sendmail.
• Trusted Source – http://www.trustedsource.org/.
• Commtouch – http://www.commtouch.com/check-ip-reputation/
• Barracuda Central – http://www.barracudacentral.org/lookups/
• SNDS – http://postmaster.live.com/snds/
Will show IP addresses that are currently blocked by Microsoft.
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

29. resources.mailchimp.com/
guides
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

30. http://blog.wordtothewise.com/
Blog by deliverability experts Laura & Steve
Atkins

31. http://www.spamresource.com/
Blog by deliverability expert Al Iverson

32. http://blog.deliverability.com
Some great advice and tutorials from a bunch of
well-know deliverability experts

33. www.b2bemailmarketing.com
“I read so you don’t have to…” - a selection of the
best email marketing articles on the web

34. www.emailmarketersclub.com
More than 4.000 members, lively discussion
board, regular webinars, lots of resources…

35. Learn more about
deliverability
• If your emails don’t make
it to the inbox, you can
test and optimize all you
want, it won’t matter
• Request a copy of this
deliverability white paper:
www.tamaragielen.com/deliverability-white-
paper.html
© 2010 Tamara Gielen BVBA – all rights reserved – duplication is not allowed – tamara@tamaragielen.com

36. Questions?
Tamara Gielen
Email Marketing Consultant, Speaker & Trainer
tamara@tamaragielen.com
+32 477 666 930
http://www.tamaragielen.com
http://be.linkedin.com/in/tamaragielen
http://twitter.com/tamaragielen