John Tabita

The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide A practical guide to email marketing for business and nonprofit Introduction Effective email marketing is more complicated than uploading a list of contacts and pressing “send.” Doing so puts you at risk in a host of ways. Abiding by email marketing industry guidelines will: 1. 2. 3. Increase the likelihood that emails are delivered to the recipient’s inbox and not filtered to a spam or junk folder Minimize the number of recipients who opt out or mark the message as spam Protect sender reputations and avoid blacklisting The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 2 Comply with the CAN-SPAM Act Most email marketing platforms are designed to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. However, complying with CAN-SPAM only meets the bare minimum legal requirements. It does not prevent you from being blacklisted or protect your sender reputation in any way. The most often overlooked requirements are:  Tell recipients where you’re located  Tell recipients how to opt out CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 3 Adhere to Established List Criteria Most email marketing platforms have stringent rules about what type of list you can upload and will suspend your account if you violate them. Typical restrictions are: 1. The list isn’t purchased, rented or leased 2. A prior relationship exists with these contacts 3. The list is clean, meaning: • It doesn’t contain emails that bounced, opted out, or reported you as spam • It doesn’t contain role account email addresses (e.g., admin@, info@, sales@, support@, webmaster@, etc.) • These contacts have been emailed within the past year The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 4 Optimize for Scanability Most readers won’t read the entire message but will scan it. For best results: 1. Use short blocks of text and bullet points 2. Call-to-action (CTA) should be above the fold 3. Links should be clearly formatted as clickable links 1 2 The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 3 5 Use the Proper Image-to-Text Ratio Don’t design an email using one large, sliced-up image. While it may look pretty, these kinds of emails perform poorly and are likely to trigger a spam filter. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 6 Never Use Images for Important Content Assume images will be initially blocked by email clients. Headlines, links or calls-toaction should be text, not an image. The exception is when using a call-to-action button: Just be sure to also include a text link in the body of the message, such as: To make a donation, please visit our website. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 7 Use the Proper Fonts Email clients like Outlook can only display fonts that are installed on your computers. But just because you have them won’t mean everyone else does. What’s more, Apple and Windows computers have completely different fonts installed by default. Follow these guidelines for maximum font compatibility:  Use only cross-platform fonts  Sans-serif fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Verdana are best for readability  Other cross-platform sans-serif fonts are: Arial Black, Tahoma, and Trebuchet MS  Avoid Times New Roman, as it tends to look dated  If a serif font is needed, use Georgia Using Web Fonts in Email Web fonts are not pre-installed on the user’s system. Instead, the fonts are downloaded by the user’s browser, then applied to your text. Web fonts aren’t supported by all email clients and there are drawbacks to using them:   Can increase the file size of your email, which may affect deliverability Requires technical knowledge of HTML and CSS Using Webfonts in Email http://blog.postup.com/using-web-fonts-in-email The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 8 Optimize for Mobile A large percentage of your recipients will be viewing your message on a mobile device:  There are more mobile-only adult Internet users than desktop-only Internet users.  More than 75% of adults Internet users access digital content on both desktop and mobile devices (a 68% increase from the year before)  42% of adults 55 and up own a smartphone You’ll most likely use a pre-made template within the email software platform that’s already optimized for mobile (i.e., “responsive”). So don’t try to make your email look like a static printed letter, as elements will be repositioned when viewed on a mobile device. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 9 Optimize for the Preview Pane Most desktop recipients will be viewing your email from within a preview pane: Emails should be 600 pixels maximum width. This will make them display better within the preview pane size provided by many email clients. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 10 Write Great Subject Lines Keep it Short and Sweet Your subject line should be a maximum of 50 characters. It may prove difficult to get your point across in so few words, but it’s effective. Get Personal Use personalization tokens to add a feeling of rapport. For example: “Hi John, here are some email marketing tips we wanted to share with you…” If you can’t (or don’t want to) use personalization tokens, use “you” or “your,” so it still sounds like you’re addressing them directly. Don’t Make False Promises Trying to get your email opened through false pretenses will irk your audience and increase opt-outs. Use FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) Deadlines like “today only” or “24 hour giveaway” create urgency and encourage readers to act now, rather than putting it off until later. Emphasize Benefits “Increase your open rates by 50% today” is more appealing than “How to increase open rates.” Make it a List People love numbered lists and human curiosity always spikes when numerals are involved. For example, these tips are from the article, 19 Quick Tips to Improve Your Email Marketing Subject Lines. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 11 Write Great Subject Lines (cont.) Ask a Question Question like “Are you making these email marketing mistakes?” or “Do you know how to write effective email subject lines?” draw readers in with Tailor Subject Lines to Recipient’s Location Location-specific offers or news can increase open rates. Make Recipients Feel Special Subject lines like “For our beloved donors only…” can be magical. Do Not Use Uppercase “OPEN NOW AND RECEIVE A FREE TRIAL” isn’t going to get your email opened. (It’ll actually do the opposite.) Always Be Testing A/B testing is a great idea. You should use this on most of your content, and your email subject is no different. 19 Quick Tips to Improve Your Email Marketing Subject Lines http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/improve-your-email-subject-line The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 12 Avoid Spam Trigger Content Content in the subject or body that could trigger a spam filter are:  Words like “free,” “guarantee,” and “no obligation”  Red fonts or script fonts  ALL CAPS  Exclamation marks!!!!!  Misspellings  Too much copy, or copy stuffed with keywords  Low text-to-image ratio (e.g., too many images or very large images) The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30684/The-Ultimate-List-of-Email-SPAM-TriggerWords.aspx Email Spam Test www.emailspamtest.com This is a free online tool that helps determine if your email may be flagged as spam or filtered away by spam filters. It’s rules are based on SpamAssassin, the leading spam filter used by millions of email servers . Results are based on email subject line, text content, links analysis, etc. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 13 Use a Proper “From” Line The From line is vital to the success of a campaign. Most people will not open an email unless they recognize the From line.  Use an email address based on your domain  Never use-– it’s less personable and less likely to get opened  Use no more than 25 characters, including spaces  Use a consistent from line in case recipients have white listed you Do not use just an email address as your From line. Some options are:  Company/organization name  Brand name  Product or service name  Publication name  A person’s name  A campaign name, for example “YMCA Strong Kids”  A combination of the above The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 14 Use Preview Text Preview text displays in the preview pane of some email software, so make it interesting. (Well written preview text can increase open rates substantially.) Enable a Browser Version Most email marketing software platforms have a feature that allows you to enable a browser version of the email. This gives the recipient the option of viewing the email in a web browser: The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 15 Enable a Plain Text Version Plain text emails are void of any images or formatting, such as bolded, italicized, different font styles/sizes; colors, etc. Enabling a plain text version allows your message to render properly in email clients that don’t support HTML emails. PLAIN TEXT HTML The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 16 Optimize Your Images Always Optimize the Image File Size Most stock photos are more than 3000 pixel wide. Do not place an image larger than 600 or so pixels wide into an email and then reduce it down to size in the email editor. Nor should you place an image that’s too small and make it larger. Instead, images should first be resized to the exact size needed using image editing software like Photoshop, and then uploaded to the email platform and placed in the message. Use the Correct Image File Format The wrong file format size can drastically increase the kilobyte size of your email.  Use JPG for photos and images containing gradient colors  Use GIF for plain, sharp graphics like logos  Avoid PNG, as it tends to create larger file sizes The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 17 Use the Image ALT Tag Attribute Be sure to add ALT tag text that describes the image. This help readers who have images turned off by default. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 18 Determine Optimal Send Times On average, open and click rates are highest in the early morning hours. But is early morning the best time to send emails? As a general rule, yes—but some kinds of promotions are better sent at certain times of the day more than others. The timing is relative to the time zone you’re targeting. When targeting multiple time zones, it may be best to segment your list by time zone. The Science of Social Timing Part 2: Timing & Email Marketing https://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timing-2/ The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 19 Monitor Key Metrics Closely monitor deliverability, opt outs, complaints, bounce rates and other key metrics. The Essential Email Marketing Metrics You Should Be Tracking https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/metrics-email-marketers-should-be-tracking Google Postmaster Tools https://support.google.com/mail/answer/- If you send emails to Gmail users, you can use Google Postmaster Tools to see:  If users are marking your emails as spam  Whether you’re following Gmail’s best practices  Why your emails might not be delivered  If your emails are being sent securely Create Monitoring Accounts Add a “seeded” list of email addresses using ISPs that your customers use most often, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, and Hotmail. 1. Set up approximately five mailboxes at each provider 2. Include the seed email addresses in each mailing list 3. Log in to each account and verify whether the email was delivered, blocked or sent to spam/junk folder The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 20 Always be Testing A/B testing (sometimes called split testing) is showing two versions of an email or landing page to a similar audience to see which one performs better. How to Boost Email Conversion Rates With A/B Testing [Video] http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-a-b-test-emails-video The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 21 Practice Good List Hygiene Online reputation depends on maintaining a clean, healthy email list. You should plan to purge or re-engage address displaying no activity for 12 months. 1. Purging Too often companies don’t think about purging data until significant email delivery problems have surfaced. If you wait until your email is blacklisted or delivered to the junk folder, you risk having to make much more aggressive purging decisions than marketers who proactively manage their data. 2. Re-engagement Sending a re-engagement message offers a chance to win back the recipient. A reengagement message usually alerts a recipient that their subscription is expiring due to lack of activity, and entices the user to opt in again to continue receiving the email. Re-engagement messages provide the benefit of shedding abandoned accounts or spam traps from your list. Your list will lose some numbers, but usually the people lost were unengaged, poor prospects anyway. For very valuable lists, marketers may use a series of emails enticing the recipient to come back. This can have a better response rate than a single email. If a subscriber doesn’t interact with the re-engagement email, then it’s time to remove their address from future sends. How to Use Email to Re-Engage Sleepy Subscribers http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32123/How-to-Use-Email-to-Re-Engage-SleepySubscribers.aspx The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 22 Monitor Your Sender Reputation Sender Score Sender Score is a number ranging from 0 to 100 that Mail Service Providers and ISPs use as an email filtering criteria. The lower your Sender Score, the more likely ISPs will apply filtering criteria to your entire IP address as well as each email campaign. Senders with scores below 70 will experience aggressive email filtering applied to every email coming from their IP address. Sender Score of a domain or IP can be checked at https://senderscore.org. Other sites to monitor sender reputation:  Senderbase.org  ReputationAuthority.org  BarracudaCentral.org  TrustedSource.org The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 23 Acquire 3rd-Party Sender Accreditation Email sender accreditation is an additional safeguard to protect your sender reputation. Return Path is a third party firm used by all of the major ISPs to assess sender score reputation. Over 2,000 ISPs and spam filter providers utilize Return Path as a variable to determine if a message will get filtered. Return Path offers a certification program that will get you in the inbox of the majority of the ISPs in North America, Canada, Latin America and Europe. Fees range from $1,375 to $82,500 annually. However, nonprofits who mail no more than 250,000 messages a month are free. The only cost is a one-time $400 non-refundable application fee. It typically takes 45-60 days of demonstrating good mailing practices (frequent, minimal bounces and complaints) to be awarded certification. Ensure your email reaches the inbox with Return Path Certification http://returnpath.com/solutions/email-deliverability-optimization/ip-certification The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 24 Monitor Blacklists The following sites will tell you if your domain or IP address is blacklisted:  http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check  http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx  http://blacklistalert.org/ The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 25 Blacklist Removal Procedure Most reputable blacklists usually have a threshold and will delist servers after a reasonable period of time. However, the proactive solution is to get delisted immediately, get to the root cause, fix the issue and avoid the vicious cycle. While several do have self-removal sites, it’s important to resolve the problem that caused the blacklist before submitting a delisting request. Failure to do so will result in being blacklisted again and over time delisting requests can be rejected. The following are the most common and widely used blacklists: Domain Based Blacklists  Dbl.spamhaus.org: The Spamhaus DBL is a real-time blacklist that includes domains found in spam messages. Maintained by both an automated system and global team members, listings automatically expire when the domain no longer meets the proprietary criteria and appear in spam email.  URIBL: The URIBL is a list of domains they have identified as being used in spam email. While they have several public lists, the most common list that can result in delivery issues is the black.uribl.com which has a goal of zero false positives. The list updates frequently as new data is received, so delisting can occur automatically. The domain owner may also request removal once registered with the uribl.  SURBL: SURBL is a list of web site domains that have appeared in unsolicited messages. The domain owner may request removal by conducting an initial lookup and following removal instructions here. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 26 Blacklist Removal Procedure IP Based Blacklists  Return Path Reputation Network Blacklist (RNBL): The RNBL is a real-time list of senders that have been categorized as the “worst of the worst” by the reputation network. It uses a predictive model that analyses more than 600 variables to score IPs in real time by incorporating volume, spam trap and complaint sources.  Sbl.spamhaus.org (SBL): The Spamhaus Block List (SBL) is the most common Spamhaus blacklist. It managed by volunteer editors who look for senders that hit their spam trap networks and manually list senders that look abusive. As a trusted blacklist in the industry, an SBL listing can have a very negative impact on your deliverability. Getting delisted from the SBL will require you to develop and execute an action plan to rectify the problem that caused the listing.  Xbl.spamhaus.org (XBL): The Exploits Bot List (XBL) includes the IPs of servers that are known to have security problems such as open proxies or are sending executable viruses. Most IPs are listed as a result of sending spam or viruses to Spamhaus spam traps. If listed, your system is likely compromised and you need to take action to secure your system. The XBL incorporates the CBL blacklist as well as other lists of spam sources related to compromised systems.  Cbl.abuseat.org (CBL): The Spamhaus Composite Blocking List (CBL) only lists IPs that exhibit behavior indicating it is an open proxy being used for sending spam or a virus. The CBL offers an easy self-removal option here.  SpamCop (SCBL): The SCBL includes a list of IP addresses which have sent reported spam to SpamCop users. The length of time an IP is listed varies depending on how many spam reports are received. Delisting is automatic after 24 hours if spam reports stop. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 27 Blacklist Removal Procedure IP Based Blacklists (cont.)  Psbl.surriel.com: The Passive Spam Block List (PSBL) is a list of IPs that have sent email to their spam traps and the IP is not a known mail server. They do encourage whitelisting to stay off their list.  Ubl.unsubscore.com: Lashback’s UBL lists IPs of senders that are sending email to addresses that have been harvested from suppression lists.  Invaluement: The Invaluement Anti-Spam DNSBL consists of three separate lists: ivmSIP which includes IPs that only send spam, imvSIP/24 is similar to the imvSIP except it will list an entire block of IPs and ivmURI which is their domain based blacklist. While other blacklists use spam traps to identify IPs for listing, Invaluement targets spam sent to real users as well as snowshoe spam. Blacklist Basics: The Top Email Blacklists You Need to Know https://blog.returnpath.com/blacklist-basics-the-top-email-blacklists-you-need-to-know The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 28 Glossary Blacklist A real-time database that uses set criteria to determine if an IP or domain is sending email that could be considered spam. Blacklist Provider Organizations that publish lists of IPs or domains that send excessive amounts of mail. ISPs and Mail Service Providers use these blacklists as part of their filtering criteria. Bounce Rate The number of emails that hard bounce or soft bounce. Bounce rates should remain below 2% - 4%. CAN-SPAM Act The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes the first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions. Catch-All Commonly used to ensure a company receives any email that has been sent to them, regardless of typos. Complaint Rate The number recipients who marked your email as spam. Dedicated IP Address A unique IP address dedicated to a single web hosting account or mail server. Delisting Getting removed from a blacklist. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 29 Glossary Disposable Emails Temporary accounts used to avoid using a real personal account during a sign-up process. Domain Based Blacklist A type of blacklist that looks for the URLs in the body of the email to see if it contains a domain that has been identified as a source of spam. Also known as URI Real-time Blacklists (URI DNSBL). Domain Name Server Black Lists (DNSBL) See IP Based Blacklist. Domain Reputation The sending reputation of a particular domain. DNSBL See IP Based Blacklist. Email Deliverability The percentage of emails that actually make it into the inbox. Gmail Blacklist Spam volume, user complaints and other issues trigger Gmail’s blacklist filters and they start automatically sending your messages to the spam folder. Google Postmaster Tools A tool to check if Gmail users are marking your emails as spam, why your emails aren’t being delivered, etc. Hard Bounce The email is rejected by the ISP because the account is no longer active. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 30 Glossary Inbox Placement Rate The number of emails that land in the inbox. IP Address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a network or the Internet. The same way the post office needs your mailing address to deliver a letter, a remote computer needs your IP address to communicate with your computer. IP Based Blacklist A type of blacklist that identifies if the IP address of the sending server belongs to a known spammer. Also known as Real-time Black Lists (RBL) and Domain Name Server Black Lists (DNSBL) IP Reputation The sending reputation of a particular IP address. ISP (Inbox Service Provider ) Not to be confused with Internet Service Provider, an ISP is the email service your recipient is using to receive email (i.e. Yahoo, GMail, Verizon, etc.). Junk Folder See Spam Folder. Large Volume Senders Anyone sending more than 25,000 messages each month. List Hygiene Cleaning and purging you email database on a regular basis to remove inactive subscribers and old email addresses. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 31 Glossary List Management See List Hygiene. Mail Service Providers and ISPs Companies that provide email hosting and email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for other organizations and individuals. Marked as Spam See Complaint Rate. Open Rate The measure of how many people opened your email, normally expressed as a percentage. Opt-In The term used when someone is given the option to receive email, as opposed to sending email without permission (i.e., unsolicited or spam). Opt-Out Express instructions by a recipient to stop the sender from sending email marketing messages. Pristine Spam Traps Never-been-used email addresses that have been fabricated by an ISP or blacklist provider for the sole purpose of identifying spammers. Hitting a pristine trap has the most negative effect on sender reputation. Purchased Lists Buying a list of email address from a list provider to obtain a list of names and email addresses based on demographic and/or psychographic information. Emails sent to purchased or third party lists contain people who don’t know you and are more likely to be marked as spam. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 32 Glossary Pure Spam Traps See Pristine Traps. Purging Removing email addresses of inactive subscribers from your list. Public Blacklist See Blacklist. Re-engagement Send an email to inactive subscribers asking them to take an action to stay on the list. RBL See IP Based Blacklist. Real-time Black Lists (RBL) See IP Based Blacklist. Recipient The person receiving your email marketing message. Recycled Spam Traps Old addresses that the ISP has taken back to use as a spam trap. Seed Email Addresses Accounts at common mail providers such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, and Hotmail used to monitor whether your emails are being delivered, blocked or sent to spam/junk folder. Sender The person or company sending email marketing messages. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 33 Glossary Sender Accreditation Sender accreditation is a third-party process of verifying email senders and requiring them to adhere to certain accreditee usage guidelines in exchange for being listed in a trusted listing that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) reference to allow certain emails to bypass email filters. Sender Reputation The overall reputation that ISPs and mailbox providers give to your sending domain through analysis of many email related data sets, such as Sender Score, Domain and IP, Reputation, Complaint and Bounce Rate, etc. Sender Score A score between 0 – 100 that indicates of the trustworthiness of a sender’s IP. Shared IP Address An IP address that is shared by multiple web hosting accounts or mail servers. Soft Bounce The email is rejected by the ISP because the mailbox is temporarily full or the recipient is out-of-office. Spam Unsolicited Bulk Email where the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Spam Filter A program that uses certain criteria to detect unsolicited email and re-route them to a spam/junk folder instead of the inbox. Spam Folder An email folder where spam messages go to die. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 34 Glossary Spam Rate The number of emails that are filtered to the spam folder. Spam Trap Fake email addresses used to catch spammers. Subscriber Engagement Metric that tracks how engaged subscribers are with an email and its sender. UBE Acronym for Unsolicited Bulk Email. Unsolicited Bulk Email Email sent to a group of recipients who have not requested it or given permission for it to be sent. URI DNSBL See Domain Based Blacklist. URI Real-time Blacklists (URI DNSBL) See Domain Based Blacklist. Word Triggers Practices commonly used in spam messages that increase the chances of your email getting filtered to the spam/junk folder. The Ultimate Email Marketing Best Practices Guide 35