Email Deliverability

INSIDE:
Gmail tabbed inbox
Yahoo! deactivation
The key to the inbox
and more!

2
THE EMAIL DELIVERABILITY BEST PRACTICES NOTEBOOK
Email deliverability is on a lot of email marketers’ minds during the holidays
because of increased volume from almost all senders.
Although delivery is important for seasonal email campaigns, delivering
smarter is vital all year round. It’s more important than ever to make sure
your messages not only get delivered, but also make it into the inbox where
they can be seen and acted upon.
We’ve taken copious notes about the recent shakeups at Gmail and Yahoo,
as well as everyday delivery challenges. Inside this notebook, we have ideas
and best practices for optimizing your inbox placement during the holidays
and all year long.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
• Changes at Gmail and Yahoo
• What changes took place
• How they affect you (and the email industry)
• Whether you should react – and how
• Engagement as the key to the inbox
• How personalization and targeting improve delivery rates
• The effect of user engagement on your deliverability
• When it’s time to say good-bye
There’s no guarantee your emails will always get into the inbox.
However, by understanding the way ISPs look at emails and following
evolving deliverability best practices, there’s an excellent chance your
emails will make it into subscribers’ inboxes!
What if your email
never reaches the inbox?

3
What’s inside
4
Gmail Tabbed Inbox
11
Yahoo! Account Deactivation
13
The Key to the Inbox
21
Q&A with a Deliverability Expert
25
Deliverability Definitions

4
CHAPTER 1
Introducing the
Gmail Tabbed Inbox
In early June 2013, Gmail quietly announced the addition of tabs to its
inbox. What this meant was that from now on, emails would be
automatically sorted into tabs.

5
Primary Tab:
The tab automatically displayed when a user opens his or her Gmail account,
the Primary tab displays emails from people users know, as well as emails
that don’t fall into the other tabbed categories. By default this also includes
any starred conversations.
Social Tab:
Facebook friend requests, Twitter DM notifications, Pinterest invites – all
these emails and others like it get sent to the Social tab in Gmail.
Promotions Tab:
This tab mostly contains promotional or marketing emails.
Updates Tab:
Emails from financial institutions and things like order and shipping
confirmations will usually end up here.
Forums Tab: (user-added)
If you’re following comments on a form or forum, the Forums tab is where
Gmail will reroute notification emails.
The Tabs

6
Gmail’s recommendations come via:
Behavior:
Basically, Google crowd sources emails.
How other people categorize certain
emails affects the way Google
categorizes emails into tabs.
For example, if most people open
your emails and move them to the
spam folder, that’s where Gmail will
most likely send your emails.
Google algorithms:
Gmail has been close-mouthed about the details of the tabbed inbox,
including how its algorithms work. Just because you don’t understand
something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, though. What is known is that the
algorithms are based on Gmail data, to which no one except Google has
access. Not to worry, though, as there are still ways to improve your chances
of inbox placement. We’ll discuss a few of those later.
Your emails are
filtered based
on Gmail’s
recommendations.

7
Gmail Tabbed Inbox is Here to Stay
After slowly releasing the tabbed inbox to some Gmail accounts, in July
2013, Google went “whole hog” and released the new feature to everyone.
Not only did desktop accounts see the change, but tablet and mobile devices
using Gmail apps were also updated with the new tabbed interface.
What happened to the messages email marketers sent? Since most
commercial and marketing emails are routed to the Promotions Tab, not
the Primary tab, many marketers assumed their messages were doomed. It
seemed like the end of the world for open rates.
The not-so-good news is that yes, some open rates have been affected by
the Gmail tabs feature. The good news is the decrease is so slight, it
probably hasn’t impacted your email marketing overall. On average, digital
marketers reported only a one to three percent decrease in opens. In fact, a
few individual senders have reported slight increases in opens.

8
Some marketers have sent emails asking readers to move their emails to the
Primary Tab. Maybe you’re one of them. Or maybe you didn’t send one of
those emails and are still wondering if you should.
As with most ideas in email marketing, there is no right answer.
Sure, industry data can certainly give you a baseline to work from.
If companies similar to yours have seen open rates soar after sending a
specific move-our-emails-to-the-Primary-tab email, perhaps you should
consider it.
However, your own open and conversion rates should be the driver of any
decision you make in email marketing.
Pinpoint your motivation for sending a notification email to subscribers
about Gmail tabs. If your emails aren’t seeing a negative impact from this
feature, don’t send a special message. It’s a privilege for you to send
subscribers emails; make sure you don’t abuse that privilege by sending
unwanted or pointless emails.
Your own open and
conversion rates
drive any decision
you make in email
marketing!
Should you take action?

9
If your metrics indicate you should send an email to subscribers
encouraging them to move your emails to the Primary Tab, include concise,
correct directions for doing so.
Drag and drop:
Encourage users to drag and drop emails from one tab to the other. Gmail
will prompt the user to allow all future emails from your email address to be
rerouted to that tab. This prompt allows subscribers to move your emails
ONCE or ALL. If it’s not apparent, encourage subscribers to choose ALL.
If You Send that Email

10
The prompt asks if a person wants to move emails based on your email
address, so make sure it’s the same for all the emails you send. If you have
different email addresses for different mailings, Gmail users will have to go
through the prompt several times to move all your emails to the Primary tab.
That’s a hassle for readers – it’s probably best to avoid asking them to take
this action.
Star a message:
Another way to get a message to display in the Primary Tab is to star it.
However, stars only apply to that specific message. It will not move future
emails to the Primary Tab. It’s a manual change similar to flagging a message
in Outlook.
Use a consistent
from address in
all your emails.

11
About the same time Gmail introduced its tabbed inbox,
another ISP dropped a bomb on email marketers. In June 2013,
Yahoo! announced it would be deactivating any account not
accessed in 12 months. Yahoo! also said it would allow users
to request the deactivated usernames, which would be
reactivated just one month later.
Concerns skyrocketed about increased hard bounce rates for deactivated
accounts, as well as spam complaints for the reactivated accounts. Yahoo!
repeatedly asserted there would be little to no impact in these areas. They
stated the deactivation would affect only a small amount of Yahoo! mail
users; most of the affected accounts were other types of Yahoo! accounts.
The deactivation date rolled around on July 15, 2013.
WhatCounts: Our users saw no significant increase in hard bounces.
Other sources: Most marketers reported little or no change in hard
bounces.
On August 15, 2013 Yahoo began reactivating requested accounts.
WhatCounts: Our users saw no significant increase in spam complaints.
Other sources: Reported scattered complaints of users receiving emails not
intended for them.
CHAPTER 2
Yahoo! Account Deactivation
“
If you’re following email marketing best
practices, you’re running re-engagement
or win back campaigns that get rid of
inactive subscribers. Or you’re tossing
out subscribers after one hard bounce.

12
In theory, someone who reactivates an old Yahoo! email address could log
into a site like Facebook and ask the social media site to send them a reset
password link. The new user would then be able to access the old user’s
Facebook account. This potential issue could affect many social networks
and even financial institutions using online log-ins.
Yahoo! worked with Facebook to create a special header for senders with
sensitive data who use their email addresses as login keys. If you send
sensitive and/or personal data in your emails, implementing this header is a
good idea. This “Require Recipient Valid Since” header requires the recipient
to confirm owning the email address before the deactivation (June 2013).
Yahoo! also rolled out a “this is not me” button to benefit those who
requested and were given a reactivated account. If these subscribers
receive any emails intended for the old recipient, they can click this button
and Yahoo! will filter those emails from their inbox in the future.
Our Support Team can
answer questions about
Gmail and Yahoo! changes,
and help determine the
best solution for you.
Potential Yahoo! Risks
And what to do about them
Reach out to us!
support@whatcounts.com

13
Nearly all major ISPs have recently increased their focus on
user engagement as the primary factor in email delivery.
In years past, the factors were certain words or phrases in a
message. Sending to specific types of users also affected
inboxing, which still matters, but not as much.
ISPs determine positive engagement levels through certain metrics.
There are also metrics contributing to negative engagement.
CHAPTER 3
The Key to the Inbox: Engagement
D
D OPEN rates
D
D CLICK rates
D
D CLICKING the “not spam” button
U
U SPAM complaints
U
U NOT opened
U
U NO ACTION taken within the email

14
“
To keep up, marketers must adapt their
practices to target engaged users and
foster engagement in others.
Send relevant
content to
targeted users.
Set clear
expectations for
new subscribers.
Provide a
prominent
unsubscribe link.
Clean lists regularly.
Cut ‘em loose if
they’re not engaged.

15
Smart Delivery =
Relevance + Targeting
Provide content subscribers want to read, not the content you want to send
them. When they want to read it, engagement with your messages goes up.
For example, just because you have three specific items on sale doesn’t mean
that’s what your subscribers want to buy.
Tailor mailings to segments of subscribers based on demographic data. In
the WhatCounts Smart Marketing Engine, segment by zip code or state.
Take it a step further and segment by psychographic data: target
back-to-school messages at college students, teenagers, or parents.
Give subscribers a reason to keep opening your emails instead of deleting
them. The more times someone engages with your emails, the more times
they’re going to convert on your email and the better placement your future
emails will have in the inbox overall.
Use open, click and purchase data to target your most active and loyal
subscribers. Send these subscribers an extra email each month with
never-before-seen content or special offers. Doing this not only drives
engagement metrics. It also boosts revenue since repeat buyers produce the
most return-on-investment.

16
When new subscribers sign up for your emails, they should know exactly
what to expect in their mailboxes. It’s essential for you to include vital
information about each of your emails on your Preference Site. At a
minimum, you should address these topics:
Who is sending:
Identify from which email address the email will be coming. This address
should be clearly identifiable with your company.
Type of email:
Create a short blurb about the content in the email. It doesn’t have to be
long; just a sentence or two indicating whether the email is a newsletter,
event invitation, a promotion or educational content.
How often:
This is mucho important. Tell people how often, on what day, and at what
time they’ll be receiving your email: daily, weekly or monthly. If you don’t
say you’ll be sending a daily email, people who sign up for it expecting a less
frequent email will burn out quickly. Be honest and upfront about your send
frequency.
Set Clear Expectations
“
Unclear expectations at the time of
sign up are often the drivers of spam
complaints. Clearly outline these items
to reduce these complaints.

17
Topics of interest:
Preference Sites provide customization options for pinpointing specific
topics in which subscribers are interested: deals and specials, hot products,
newsletters. Target people by what information they want to receive.

18
It goes against your instincts to promote the unsubscribe link: you don’t
want people to unsubscribe from your email list. You think smaller lists are
bad. You think losing subscribers means losing ROI.
No, it’s not crazy to think this way. Consider the alternative to
unsubscribing. Inactive, unengaged subscribers would most likely mark your
emails as spam or delete them. This could lead to bigger deliverability issues
overall and a definite loss of ROI. Think about a person who unsubscribes as
one less individual who could hurt your engagement metrics.
Promoting the unsubscribe link in your emails will help your delivery rates.
Hidden or hard-to-find unsubscribe links will generate spam complaints
from unhappy users who aren’t interested in the content of your emails
anymore.
Where should the unsubscribe link appear in your email? Placing the link in
the preheader has been shown to reduce spam complaints in many cases.
Promote the Unsubscribe Link
The truth is,
you should value
unsubscribes.

19
Who knows why subscribers stop reading your emails. It could be they’ve
abandoned their email addresses. Perhaps they rerouted your emails to a
folder they purposefully never open.
Whatever the reason, it’s time to say farewell to these subscribers.
For every email marketer – no matter who you are or what you’re sending
– there comes a time when you must say goodbye to non-engaged users on
your lists. No matter how enticing your subject lines, no matter how
delicious your deals, these people aren’t reacting. There’s no clicking, no
opening, no action whatsoever on your email. All they’re doing by sitting
motionless is damaging your deliverability - doing nothing is (almost) as bad
as clicking the spam button.
How do you know when to officially bid farewell to subscribers? Generally,
a good rule of thumb is to say bye-bye when users don’t open your last 50
emails or six months of inaction. This is based on a sending frequency of a
couple of times a week, so if you only send an email once a month, this time
period will be longer. Overall, subscriber inactivity behavior should be based
on your company’s particular target market and send frequency.
So long, farewell

20
Last Shot:
Re-Engagement Campaign
You’ve figured out the love is gone between you and your
inactive subscribers. Is it time to throw them to the curb?
Try a re-engagement campaign first.
Re-engagement campaigns are one way to recapture some
of your unengaged subscribers. Best practices recommends
sending a series of two or three emails based on subscribers’
behaviors. For example, the first email would go to subscribers who’ve been
inactive subscribers for over six months. The second email would send to
those who received the first email, but didn’t open it after two weeks.
Type of content for re-engagement campaigns:
Remind subscribers this is their last chance to stay on your list.
Create strong calls-to-action for the subject line and preheader.
Promote a coupon or special offer in the content of the email.
Grab their attention with a catchy subject line: “We’re saying goodbye.” “Are
we breaking up?” “Don’t go!”
Most importantly, let go. After sending these emails, and not receiving any
responses, it’s time to remove these non-responsive contacts.
Your deliverability will be better off!

21
You’ve got questions about deliverability and we’ve got
answers. Here to help is our resident expert. Brad Gurley is
the Director of Deliverability at WhatCounts and has over
10 years’ experience working for email service providers.
He’s got the skinny on getting into the inbox.
Do ISPs factor engagement into overall reputation or at the individual junk
inboxing level?
Both: User-level engagement drives individual placement and aggregate
data drives overall placement.
No doubt, engagement is getting more critical. Any idea how much the
individual webmail providers are currently using it?
All of the big four (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and AOL) are using engagement,
with Gmail probably using it most heavily. Smaller ISPs and third-party
filters are also becoming more reliant on engagement by the day.
Related to engagement, how essential would you say responsive email
layouts are?
Responsive email layouts are usually only seen once a reader is engaged. But
these templates can foster future opens. For example, if I know Company A
sends mobile-friendly emails, I’ll be more likely to open its emails going
forward. An email marketer’s primary focus should be developing a
relationship with subscribers and fostering long-term engagement. A move
to a responsive email template is a big one, but worthwhile, as mobile email
opens are overtaking desktop email opens.
CHAPTER 4
Q&A with an Expert

22
Is image-to-text ratio still a concern?
Image-to-text ratio still matters, but not as much as it used to. Most filtering
has moved from content to engagement. It’s still important to include
text-only versions. Omitting them can cause delivery issues.
What’s the biggest difference between B2B and B2C delivery?
B2C inboxes mostly use similar filters, especially the big four (Gmail, Yahoo,
Outlook and AOL). B2B inboxes have a much wider range of filter methods.
Overall, complaints/spam trap hits are still the #1 driver for delivery.
Is there a benefit to serving images in email over https instead of http?
There can be security and user experience advantages, but there’s not
necessarily any provider using that to determine inbox vs. spam folder
placement.
Has Comcast had any recent changes?
We have not seen any indication of changes at Comcast.
Typically, mail blocked at Comcast indicates your volume of spam complaints
and/or spam trap hits are too high. List cleaning is usually the best option.
If you have questions on specific delivery difficulties, you can contact our
Technical Support team for further assistance.
How can I determine a good open and click-through rate?
This question is probably better suited for our Strategy Team, but I can say
what is considered “good” for open and click rate varies widely by industry
and market. The “average” open rate across all sectors is typically in the
10-20 percent range.

23
Many companies are using the little graphics in subject lines. Does that
affect deliverability?
All of the testing we’ve done, along with data from others in the industry,
indicates most symbols in the subject line do not affect delivery rates – yet.
In fact, many tests indicate they increase open rates considerably. However,
there’s always the possibility spam senders may start using these characters
frequently, which could lead to a delivery impact down the road.
When we launch a campaign that includes thousands of emails to Google,
Yahoo, Outlook/Hotmail, and certain other services/ISPs, mail servers
begin to throttle the receipt of email and start bouncing mail once we
reach a certain limit/hour.
Is this common, and is there a way to overcome this problem?
ISPs and mail providers rarely block mail based solely on volume. Any blocks
are usually based on reputation or engagement. While most ISPs do have a
connection limit or limit on number of messages sent per connection,
WhatCounts’ mail software is already set up not to exceed those thresholds.
So any blocks you’re seeing would likely not be based on the volume of mail
sent, but on other factors.
If you could give one tip to everyone doing email marketing, what would it
be?
GET PERMISSION! Send timely, relevant email to engaged users who have
explicitly requested it (maybe I cheated – that’s really about four tips rolled
into one!)

24
The notes we took on deliverability best practices will help you send
smarter, more personalized messages that get into your subscribers’
inboxes. But we wanted to leave you with one last idea.
Every company is different – each has unique goals, target markets and
email marketing programs.
Testing your email marketing and comparing those metrics against your own
past metrics is how you should measure improvement. Industry standards
are a way to see if your metrics are significantly off. However, improving
your metrics against yourself should be your primary goal.
One Last Thought
All of the information in
this notebook is available on
our webinar recording -
Deliver Smarter: Insights
on Reaching the Inbox.
Watch it!

25
blacklist - a list of IP addresses identified by an ISP as unacceptable or spam
senders. Placement on some blacklists will cause much of your outbound
email to be outright blocked.
click-through rate - the rate at which subscribers open your email messages
and click inside them.
complaint - when a subscriber clicks a “junk” or “spam” button while reading
your email, this is registered as a complaint, as opposed to an opt-out. High
complaint rates negatively impact deliverability.
hard bounce - when an ISP’s mail server explicitly rejects a message due to
any number of reasons, such as an invalid email address, your email being
blocked, etc.
ISP (Internet Service Provider) - an email provider such as Gmail, Hotmail,
Yahoo!, AOL.
open rate - the rate at which subscribers open (or view) email messages, e.g.
if one subscriber out of a hundred opens a message, then the open rate is
one percent for that particular send.
soft bounce - when an ISP’s mail server temporarily withholds delivery of a
message in order to try again sometime later. This is often due to mailboxes
being full, for example.
spam - unsolicited bulk email messages.
spam trap - email addresses which have been inactive for a very long period
of time and are then recycled by ISPs for the purpose of identifying
spammers. Also sometimes known as honeypots.
whitelist - a list of email addresses or domains that a user grants explicit
permission for sending email, usually to prevent the spam-filtering of
desired email.
Deliverability
terms to know:

WhatCounts provides data management, software, and services to
marketing professionals seeking to deliver smart personalized digital
messages to their target audiences. Each day our team partners with over
800 customers to leverage email, social media, mobile devices, and the web
to drive revenue.
We believe that smart marketing equals personalization which requires
marketers to have the right data, a content strategy and automation. Using
smart technology, some of our customers are seeing email marketing ROI as
high as $200 returned for every $1 invested.
We’re headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices in Seattle, Sydney,
Baltimore, and other regional locations.
Learn more at www.whatcounts.com.
About Us
© 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. All rights reserved.
WHATCOUNTS, Inc.
3630 Peachtree Rd. Telephone: 404.995.8600
Suite 900 Toll Free: 866.804.0076
Atlanta, GA 30326 Fax: 404.995.8611
www.whatcounts.com Email: sales@whatcounts.com
ATLANTA • BALTIMORE • SEATTLE • SYDNEY

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