The document outlines the importance of email deliverability, defining it as the rate at which emails reach recipients' inboxes. It discusses key metrics like return on investment (ROI) and list growth versus churn rates, emphasizing the impact of sender reputation, list quality, and messaging on deliverability. Strategies to maintain good email hygiene and avoid spam traps are provided, alongside best practices for effective email marketing.

1. Email Deliverability
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

2. What is deliverability?
Deliverability is the term used to measure
the rate at which emails ACTUALLY reach
recipients inboxes, versus the number of
emails sent.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

3. Why is this important?
• Return on Investment (ROI).
• Churn versus list growth rate.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

4. Return on Investment
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

5. Investing in Email?
Email has the highest ROI of all direct
marketing methods of communication.
(Social, SMS, Inbound marketing)
• 4+ billion email accounts worldwide
• 25% of these are work accounts
• 20-25% average open rate for marketing emails.
• Average person receives 500+ marketing
emails/month.
• Average ROI of $40-$45 for every $1 invested.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

6. SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

7. SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

8. ROI
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

9. ROI
Links for ROI Calculators will be in the hand outs.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

10. Churn vs List growth
rate
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

11. What is Churn?
• Churn Rate - Measures how many
subscribers leave a list in a given period of
time. Usually monthly.
• Churn Rate = (Subscribers who leave your
mailing list) / Total Addresses
– Churn Rate calculation INCLUDES all subscribers who
opt out, hard bounces and spam complaints.
• A realistic churn rate is between 20% and
30% annually. Average is 30%
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

12. What is List Growth Rate?
• List growth rate – Measures how fast your
list is growing. Subtract the opt-outs and
hard bounces from the number of new email
subscribers gained in a given period (usually
monthly). Then, divide that number by the
original list size.
• List Growth Rate = (# of New Subscribers –
Opt outs and Hard bounces) / Original list
size
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

13. Churn vs List growth rate
• If your Churn Rate average is 30%
• And your List Growth Rate is <31% you
have an issue with your marketing.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

14. What does this have to do with
deliverability?
• Because the ROI and Churn won’t matter
if your emails don’t get to the inbox!
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

15. Deliverabilty.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

16. Deliverability terms.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.
ISP: Internet Service
Provider (Or Mailbox
Provider)
ESP: Email Service
Provider
BLACKLIST, Block
list
FBL: Feedback loop

17. Your Sender Reputation
Your Email List
Your Content and
Messaging
Deliverability Depends on:
3MESSAGING
2EMAIL LIST
1REPUTATION

18. • Follows you…. No matter
which email delivery
service you use.
• 80% of email deliverability
issues come from sender
reputation.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

19. Reputations consists of:
• Subscriber complaints.
• The reputation of your ESP.
• Domain reputation and
Authentication.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

20. Subscriber Complaints:
• Keep SPAM complaints under
0.01%
• Why do subscribers
complain?
• They haven’t heard from
you in a while
• You are not memorable
• You did not deliver on a
promise.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

21. Types of Spam?
• External Spam is when a
complaint is made with an
email client. Gmail –
“Mark as Spam”
• Internal Spam is when a
contact clicks the
unsubscribe button on
your email – then chooses
to report the spam on the
confirmation page
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

22. • External Spam has higher
consequences because it
becomes part of the Web
mail client database, and
affect your reputation.
• Internal Spam is for your
ESP to work with you on
correcting items before
they affect your
reputation.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

23. The Reputation of Your ESP:
• Who you send email with is
important. (Gmail, Outlook,
are webmail providers.)
• Some ESP’s monitor and vet
customer lists, handle
bounces, monitor IP
reputation, and others.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

24. Your Sender Domain
Reputation:
• The part of your email
address that starts with @
and ends with .com
• Even using multiple ESP’s
can’t hide the Sender
Domain and can hurt you.
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

25. Your Sender Domain
Reputation:
• Keep your Domain off
Blacklists and monitor for
this.
• Free tool:
https://mxtoolbox.com/Supe
rTool.aspx
Your Sender Reputation:
1REPUTATION

26. • Know your reputation score.
Over 90 okay.
• SenderScore.org
Manage Your Reputation:
1REPUTATION

27. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP

28. • Authenticate your EMAIL IP
Address.
Manage Your Reputation:
1REPUTATION

29. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP

30. Authentication Explained
• SPF: Sender Policy Framework – Can the
sending IP send email “On behalf of me (my
domain)?”
• DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail. – Has the
email been modified in transport?
• DMARC: Domain-based Message
Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.
– Mailbox providers review incoming messages and place
according to the results of SPF & DKIM
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

31. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP
Authentication process
Image courtesy of SendGrid

32. Authentication Importance
1/5 emails does not reach an
Inbox.
70% of those are blocked at the
gateway.
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

33. Your Email list Quality:
• Volume of bad or
nonexistent addresses.
• Whether or not you’re
mailing to spam traps.
• Sending history.
• List Hygiene & Best
Practices.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

34. Volume of Bad addresses:
• Robo form completions.
• Spam traps.
• No double opt –ins.
• Too many Hard or Soft
Bounces
• Number of Unsubscribes
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

35. Robo Form Completions:
• Where you receive a
large number of
annoying "junk" form
submissions.
• Captcha – does it work?
• WHY……
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

36. Are you emailing to
Spam traps?
“Spam traps are addresses used
by Internet Service Providers
and blacklist operators to
identify senders who aren't
following industry best
practices. Any email address
that hasn't engaged with an
email for over one year has the
potential to be a spam trap.”
Hubspot
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

37. Pristine Spam traps
“Pristine spam traps are email
addresses that have never been valid
and could have never opted into
receiving email. They are available on
public websites but hidden within the
site's code. The purpose of pristine
traps is to identify email marketers
who use poor list building practices
such as scraping sites for email
addresses and purchasing lists.”
Hubspot
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

38. Recycled Spam traps
“Recycled spam traps were once valid
email addresses but have since been
repurposed by their provider.
Someone could have used this
address to opt in but the address has
since been abandoned. Recycled
spam traps can be on your sending
list if:
• Your list is more than one year old
• You don't email your list frequently
• There are fake addresses (e.g.
12305355fdd@fakefakefake.com)
on your list.” Hubspot
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

39. Typo Spam traps
“These are email addresses that
usually end up on recipient lists due
to user error. Typing
example@hitmail.com instead of
example@hotmail.com. Similar to
recycled spam traps, these addresses
never open or click any of the
messages they receive. The anti-
abuse community believes sending
excessive amounts of mail to typo
traps is indicative of poor list
acquisition practices, and poor list
hygiene.” SendGrid
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

40. Other Spam traps
“Some email blacklists also list
domains and IP addresses based on
user generated feedback and manual
reporting of unsolicited emails.”
SendGrid
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

41. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP

42. What happens if you hit
Spam traps?
• Your IP will get blacklisted
• Your History with the listing
web mail provider will be
compromised.
• You must manually take steps
to remove it – and it is
different for each blacklist.
• Your Email will not get
through …………… because
they all check the blacklists.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

43. Black list?
• There are tons shown here:
https://www.dnsbl.info/dnsbl
-list.php
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

44. Main ones:
Spamhaus –most reputable
SURBL –works in conjunction
with Spamhaus.
Barracuda Reputation Block
List –lists known spammers
Invalument –speciality blocker
Spamcop – lists IP spam
addresses reported by SpamCop
users.
MultiRBL –free cross reference
services of other blacklists.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

45. How to avoid Spam
traps…
• Don’t buy lists, or scrape
email addresses.
• Use Double Opt-in for your
web forms.
• Keep your list clean and
pruned.
• Have a human check for mis-
typed email addresses.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

46. How to avoid Spam
traps…
• MONITOR YOUR IP at:
• https://mxtoolbox.com/Super
Tool.aspx
• Free tool that emails you
results.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

47. Double Opt in Pros:
• Completely prevents
typo traps, recycled spam
traps, and pristine traps.
• Greatly increases open
and click rates.
• Reduces spam reports
and unsubscribes.
• Improved ROI per
message sent.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

48. Double Opt in Cons:
• An extra step for the
contact
• As high as 20% never click
through.
• Can stop a campaign.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

49. Double Opt in Alternatives:
• Real-Time Address
Validation: Check email
addresses at the point of
signup for validity and
common typos.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

50. Double Opt in Alternatives:
Pros:
• Reduction in typos, pristine
spam trap hits, fake email
addresses.
• Much less “friction” than
confirmed opt in.
Cons:
• Licensing costs (3rd party
tool).
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

51. Email Bounces:
• Affect your list reputation
because it implies low list
hygiene.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

52. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP
Hard Bounce
•A permanent failure to deliver an email,
often due to a non-existent, invalid, or
blocked email address.
Soft Bounce
•Temporary disruptions in delivery to an
email inbox. Examples include, a full inbox,
or server unavailable. It will become a hard
bounce if undeliverable for 72 hours.

53. Number of Unsubscribes:
• Unsubscribes only count if
they are registered at with
the web mail “Mark as
Spam”
• Those emails will mark
you are low quality sender
with the web mail host.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

54. Sending History
What is your history with the
web mail client?
Do you have a history of
blacklisting, or spam complaints
with Gmail/Outlook/Yahoo,
etc.?
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

55. List Hygiene & Best
Practices.
• Email List Never Buy or scrape
lists – guaranteed to hit SPAM
traps and get complaints.
• Warm up IPS, or throttle large
email batches. Check adjust
and then continue.
• Reduce HTML and images
in new groups.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

56. • Use focused segmentation
and engagement
• Remove hard bounces
from your list
• Remove Soft bounces
after a max of 7 attempts.
Manage Your Email List:
2EMAIL LIST

57. Ideal Email Warm up Plan
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.
Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
Day 1 – sent
to 50 Most
engaged
contacts
Day 2 –
Send to 100
Most
engaged
contacts
Day 3- Send
to 500 Most
engaged
contacts
Day 4 –
Send to
1000 Most
engaged
contacts
Day 5 –
Send to
5000 Most
engaged
contacts
Day 6 –
Send to
10,000 Most
engaged
contacts

58. List Cleaning – Email Engagement
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.
Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
More Unengaged
Subscribers
Less Email
Engagement
More Emails
Entering Spam
Increasing Less
Obscure Churn

59. Reality based Churn?
• Obvious Churn are those recipients that
have unsubscribed, or reported you as spam.
• The less Obvious Churn are those recipients
that have just stopped opening your emails,
or the emails are going to the spam folder.
• A realistic churn rate is between 20% and
50% annually. Unless your list has high
engagement. (Clicks, replies, and purchases.)
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

60. • Set clear expectations.
• What to expect from you
• When to expect it
• Clear Privacy Policy
• Include a welcome email
with what to expect and
how to whitelist you.
• Test content and timing,
things change.
• Invite subscribers to join
any new lists, don’t
assume.
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

61. • Send subscribers ONLY
what they have opted in for.
• If someone hasn’t opened
an email in 3-6 months –
roll out a re-engagement
campaign. If no
engagement after 5
attempts remove them
from your list. Move them
to retargeting, or offline
campaign.
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

62. Email Lifecycle Workflow
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.
Confirmation Welcome Transactional Promotional
Targeted
Win Back
Series
Sunset
Policy
WebSite
Sign Ups
- With
Checkbox
Transactional email should
go out without opt in.
Opt out
No
Confirmation
No Opens or
Clicks within
30 days.
No Opens or
Clicks within
30 days. Of
last message.

63. Email Lifecycle Workflow:
• Ensure your webforms
have a check box, asking if
they want your follow up
emails.
• Use a text based Welcome
email.
• Use transactional Emails to
get clicks or opt ins to
promotional emails.
Your Sender Reputation:
3REPUTATION

64. Email Lifecycle Workflow:
• Ensure your promotional
emails are relevant and
segregated.
• Monitor your open rates.
• Use Re-engagement
campaigns or retargeting.
• Sunset policy – Decide
when to stop mailing to an
unengaged contact.
Your Sender Reputation:
3REPUTATION

65. Your Content:
• Avoid Spammy content,
headlines, click bait, or
images.
• Watch your image to text
ratio (Industry standard is
40:60)
• Your links and their
reputation can help you.
(don’t use link shorteners)
Your Sender Reputation:
3REPUTATION

66. • Review, evaluate and
modify.
• What are people
responding to or not.
• Keep SPAM complaints
under 0.01% - move all
complainers to the “Do
not contact list” This
ensures they don’t re-
subscribe and complain
again.
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

67. • Watch unsubscribes to see
the types of content that
may cause a spike.
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

68. The one thing that changes it
all – Engagement.
• Spam filters are smart
enough to catch the most
blatant spam.
• BUT engagement tells the
web clients that your
content is valuable.
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

69. Engagement is a contact
that:
• Opted in within the past 6
months.
• Recently opened an email.
• Recently clicked a link.
• Recently purchased online.
• Is on a subscription plan.
• Whitelisted your email
address.
• Replied to a message.
• Rescued your message from
the Spam folder
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

70. BUSINESS HEROES MEETUP
Image courtesy of Infusionsoft.

71. Engagement Means:
• Staying in the inbox.
• A 50% open rate will
ensure you stay in the
inbox.
• QUALITY over QUANTITY
Evaluate Content & Messaging:
3MESSAGING

72. Resources
• ROI Calculator links.
• https://sleeknote.com/email-marketing-roi-tool
• http://www.emailmarketingroi.com/
• http://www.smallbusinesscalculators.com/email-marketing-roi-calculator/
• https://sendgrid.com/resource/roi-calculator/
• Email Deliverability best practices guide.
• https://sendgrid.com/resource/email-deliverability/#introduction
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.

73. Resources
• MxToolBox https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx.
• Blacklists: https://www.dnsbl.info/dnsbl-list.php
• Return Path 2017 Report
• https://returnpath.com/downloads/2017-deliverability-benchmark-report/
• Email Marketing Rules by Chad S. White
• https://www.amazon.ca/Email-Marketing-Rules-Checklists-
Frameworks/dp/1546910638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=15188
14331&sr=8-1&keywords=email+marketing+rules
SEEGER CONSULTING INC.