2016 Benchmarks and How to Beat Them

1. Stemming the Fall of Email Deliverability:
2016 Benchmarks and How to Beat Them
Justin McHenry, Technical Account Manager, Return Path
April Mullen, Sr. Marketing Strategist, Selligent

2. Today’s Speakers
Justin McHenry
Technical Account Manager
Return Path
April Mullen
Senior Marketing Strategist
Selligent

3. 14 700 500
Global Offices Consumer Brands Employees
50
Partners
Email
Mobile
Social
Web
Offline
Consumer-First
Marketing

4. 15+ Years of
Experience
• 450+ dedicated professionals
• 14 offices in 7 countries worldwide
• Backed by Union Square Ventures,
Foundry Group, Costanoa
Ventures, Vista Equity Partners,
SAP Ventures
Proven Data
Infrastructure
• Over 2 billion Certification inboxes
• Scoring 26 million IP addresses daily
• Nearly 300 global partners
• Processing millions of transactions
per day
Over 2,500 Email
Optimization Customers
• Industries include:
• Retail
• Technology
• Finance
• Entertainment
• And more
About Return Path

5. The inbox is the center of most
consumers’ digital lives.

6. Your inbox knows a lot about you

7. The Path to the Inbox

8. Deliverability Defined

9. Deliverability
de·liver·a·bili·ty n.
To bring or transport to the proper
place or recipient. distribute: deliver
groceries; deliver the mail.
9

10. Email Deliverability Defined
The ability to deliver email to a
subscriber’s inbox.
10

11. Monitor Your Inbox Placement Rate, Not Delivered
#50EmailTips 11

12. Delivered Rate
= (Total Sent – Bounces) / Total Sent
12

13. Inbox Placement Rate
= ((Total Sent – Bounces) – Spam) /
Total Sent
13

14. 2016 Deliverability
Benchmarks

15. Global Inbox Placement Rates
Source: 2016 Deliverability Benchmark

16. USA Inbox Placement Rates
Source: 2016 Deliverability Benchmark

17. Canada Inbox Placement Rates
Source: 2016 Deliverability Benchmark

18. UK Inbox Placement Rates

19. Australia Inbox Placement Rates
Source: 2016 Deliverability Benchmark

20. How Marketers Can Improve Deliverability
Understand the basics of deliverability
and how to measure
Build and improve sending reputation
Acquire and maintain quality lists
Focus on subscriber engagement

21. Understanding the
factors and impact of
reputation

22. Your Reputation Defines Your Deliverability
Complaints
Quality of
Subscriber File
Email
Infrastructure
Engagement Sending History Message Quality
22

23. Find out your reputation
www.senderscore.org

24. High Sender Score = High Inbox Placement Rate
24
Source: Return Path 2016 Sender Score Benchmark Report

25. Subscriber Complaints Cause Major
Reputation Issues

26. How Unknown Users Impact Reputation
26

27. Spam Trap Reputation Impact
27

28. Authenticate
Failing authentication can cause deliverability issues
• Consistently passing DMARC=rise in inbox placement
#50EmailTips 28

29. Changes in
authentication
protocols
29

30. DMARC
#50EmailTips 30

31. DMARC process
#50EmailTips 31

32. DMARC policies
#50EmailTips 32

33. Google and Microsoft now p=reject
#50EmailTips 33
Only Gmail can send from @gmail.com

34. Google and Microsoft now p=reject
#50EmailTips 34
Only Microsoft can send from:
● @hotmail.com
● @outlook.com
● @live.com
● @msn.com

35. Google and Microsoft now p=reject
#50EmailTips 35
If you send mail from these domains your message will
be rejected and deleted!
Only send mail from a domain you own and control!

36. Recommendations to
Improve Engagement
and Deliverability
36

37. Acquisition

38. Collect subscribers close to your brand
38

39. Avoid weak permission
• Complaints can be a sign of
weak permission
• Pre-checked box
• Opt-out
• Express permission is required
in Canada
39

40. Be transparent on how information is used
40

41. Set expectations in welcome email
41
• Thank and/or welcome the
customer
• Get customer excited about
what’s ahead
• Allow preference changes

42. Drive Lasting Engagement

43. Understand customers over the long term
43

44. Evaluate the relevancy of your content
44

45. Testing is necessary and ongoing
45

46. Mobile must be top of mind
46

47. Respond to customer behaviors
• Purchase
• Browse
• Cart Abandon
• Email Engagement
• Offline Behavior
47

48. Set it, but don’t forget it
48

49. Re-engage subscribers
Subject line:
It’s been a while...
49

50. Offer an opt-down
50

51. Winback using permission
Image source: Facebook
51

52. Q&A
52

53. Connect With Us
Justin McHenry
Technical Account Manager
Return Path
justin.mchenry@returnpath.com
April Mullen
Senior Marketing Strategist
Selligent
april.mullen@selligent.com

54. Next Steps
#50EmailTips 54
Return Path Resources
● ebook: 2016 Deliverability Benchmark Report
● Blog: 10 Common DMARC Misconceptions, Debunked
● Blog: Demystifying the DMARC Record
● Free tool: Sender Score site
● Free tool: Blacklist checker
Selligent Resources
● ebook: Open-Personalization Lookbook
● ebook: Consumer-First Marketing Defined
● ebook: Making Privacy a Brand Asset