When it comes to achieving high rates of delivery, we need to all understand that Email Service Providers (ESPs) cannot be held solely responsible for delivery issues. The majority of delivery issues are caused by the ESP users and email marketers themselves, knowingly as well as unknowingly. Matt Blumberg, CEO & Chairman of ReturnPath, refers to Ken Magill when stating that it is a myth that deliverability is controlled by the ESP – it is controlled by the marketer. Ken Magill further comments that the client can impact on deliverability with the right “data collection, data hygiene, frequency and relevance. The main factors that affect deliverability are all within the list owner’s control”.

Delivery issues

We think that the majority of delivery issues come from bad list acquisition and bad list management.  Delivery issues such as “mailbox unknown”, “domain unknown” and “complaints” can be directly attributed to the users’ actions. Sometimes, a simple misspelling can lead to email being returned (domain or mailbox unknown); much more often, however, the mail is returned because the subscriber didn’t feel they had given their permission to be on the list.

Clean lists

Some email marketers become too greedy when acquiring lists and buy lists or scrape the net for any random email address that fits their marketing segment. This has created an army of elite spammers – users who buy lists are usually much more likely to get blocked and thrown off a sending server as they are not hard to spot.

Having a good opt in list saves time and money and improves delivery in the long run.  Also, remember that subscribers change their preferences from time to time – we recommend you send occasional emails asking subscribers to update their profile. This way, if someone is not interested in receiving your newsletter anymore, they will unsubscribe from it immediately.  It will also give you the opportunity to shift them to a more targeted list which will communicate directly to them thereby deepening your relationship with the subscriber.

Clean content

Remember the content of subject lines and the email itself are very important in reminding subscribers that they have given their permission.  Content should be clean and not contain any words that are regarded as spam. Do a spam check before sending your next email newsletter.  But also, send content that is in line with what your subscriber has asked for.

The quality of your list and the content of your email are the two largest components that ensure delivery of your email into your subscriber’s inbox.  So remember to review your practices to make sure you’re not your own worst enemy.

Are you not quite sure about all these email deliverability terms? We found this really good glossary by Mark Brownlow.