Does your email look suspicious?

Two weeks ago I had the terrific opportunity to meet some Informz clients at our first User Conference in Washington, DC. I enjoyed talking with so many of you and I am happy to say that I have witnessed some immediate improvements resulting from those discussions!

I was involved in a few presentations, including the “411 on Deliverability” where Dan Reade (one of our eMarketing Advisors) helped demonstrate some of the road blocks you may encounter in getting your email messages delivered.  For those of you who were not able to attend and those who did attend and want a quick recap, here are some things we emphasized:

• Can-Spam compliance is not the best practice, simply a legal CYA (Cover Your Association) practice.  You MUST have explicit permission if you want to better your delivery rates.
• Without permission, your email campaign may generate complaints from recipients.  Excessive complaints may get your mail blocked.  Even with permission, you may generate complaints if your content is not relevant to your subscribers’ interests.
• Sender Authentication, such as SenderID and DKIM, can help you build trust when sending to some domains, since they allow a receiving domain to verify where your domain’s mail is allowed to originate and that you are taking responsibility for what was sent.
• Content filters haven’t gone away.  My best advice is to check your own junk folder and look for examples of what NOT to do.
• All of your sender practices may be monitored and reflected in your Sender Reputation.  To see what they might be saying about you, check out SenderScore.org and reputationauthority.org.  Plug in your IP address and check out the results.

As part of the discussion, I mentioned how getting through the many filters between you and the subscriber’s inbox was much like going through airport security.  Well, on our way home from the User Conference, we witnessed a great example of this.  As we placed our shoes, watches and belt buckles on the conveyor just before the body scanner, another traveler hastily jumped in front of us from another line.

He called extra attention to himself, which ended up putting him on the receiving end of the full “pat down” from a not-so-gentle looking security officer.  This may have kept him from making it to his desired flight and could potentially get him extra attention on future trips, too.

Maybe he had no ill-intentions; however his actions appeared suspicious enough to bring him some unwanted resistance.  The same can happen with your email messages.  If your messages look suspicious, like they may be spam, they may meet resistance when trying to reach their final destination, too.  Learn by example and send email that doesn’t look spammy, or else your messages could be pulled aside for an unwanted pat-down, too!

Greg Robinson is the Deliverability Manager at Informz.

Filed under: Associations, Deliverability, Email Marketing Tips, Informz User Conference

As the Deliverability Manager at Informz, Greg Robinson oversees all client deliverability inquiries, maintains relationships with ISPs and anti-spam entities, and enforces anti-spam policy. Greg educates clients on best practices and strategy, working to correct existing and avoid future delivery issues to maximize deliverability rates.