The deliverability top 5

W h i t e
p a p e r
the Deliverability "top 5"
A Best-Practice Guide for E-mail Marketing

executive Summary
E-mail marketing remains one of the most flexible and cost-effective channels through
which marketers can reach targeted audiences with direct and meaningful messages.
But e-mail marketing is only effective if it reaches recipient inboxes, and as ISPs develop
increasingly stringent rules and tests in response to the problems of spam, spoofing, and
phishing, many legitimate, desired e-mail messages are getting blocked or mislabeled
as spam. This white paper assembles a wide range of tactics and information regarding
deliverability into five core best practices to help marketers get up to speed quickly with
the constantly changing deliverability landscape and key strategies for improving results.

The Challenge of Deliverability the ever-changing tactics of spammers. The task can be
daunting, to say the least.
E-mail has undeniably revolutionized marketing strategies,
offering a low-cost, highly scalable means of reaching Burying one’s head in the sand, however, is no
customers and prospects. Beyond that, it has set new solution, and marketers who fail to adequately address
standards in terms of marketers’ ability to personalize deliverability issues will rapidly erode the effectiveness of
and target messages and track response and return on one of their most valuable and flexible channels.
investment. It is, in short, a marketer’s dream medium.
This white paper seeks to compile a range of deliverability
But marketers who have wholeheartedly embraced the information and tactics into five core best practices for
e-mail channel are also in danger of being lulled into e-mail marketers—what we call the “Deliverability Top 5”:
complacency. The minimal cost of e-mail marketing . Understand Why E-mail Gets Blocked
lowers the barriers to launching campaigns but may
also make marketers somewhat passive about response 2. Monitor and Respond to Deliverability Metrics
rates—after all, if the set-up costs are low, doesn’t any 3. Manage Your Sender Reputation
degree of response count as ROI? But if marketers aren’t
4. Send Messages Users Want to Receive
vigilant about tracking what happens to their marketing
e-mails once they are sent out, they may be missing a 5. Test, Test, and Test Again
shocking statistic: a large percentage of their e-mails
While it’s nearly impossible to cover the vast landscape
(20% or more,. in many cases, and up to 40% for
of deliverability in a single white paper, this document
business recipients2.) may not be reaching recipients at
should provide a good starting point for e-mail marketers
all, and ignoring the problem will only make it worse, as
wanting to make sure that more of their carefully crafted
sending out e-mails that do not meet current standards
permission-based marketing messages reach their
will further injure their sender reputation.
intended recipients.
In response to problems such as spam, spoofing, and
phishing, which represent a staggering 80% of all e-mail
traffic,3. Internet service providers (ISPs) have developed
The Deliverability Top 5
increasingly stringent rules and tests that e-mails and
their senders must pass to get through to recipients. . Understand Why E-mail Gets Blocked
It’s no longer a matter of avoiding certain trigger words It was estimated that the cost of e-mail incorrectly
in your content or subject line—in fact, it’s become a blocked as spam (“false positives”) accounted for
complex and increasingly technical challenge to ensure $0� million of total e-mail spending in 2006.4. With ISP
e-mail deliverability. filtering techniques getting more and more complex
and marketers struggling to keep pace, one can only
Even if e-mail messages do reach their recipients, many imagine that this figure is on the increase for 200� and
marketers would be shocked to see how they turn out. beyond. One thing is for sure: undelivered marketing
Some ISPs block images by default, and many more e-mails represent not just wasted effort, but wasted
block them if your sender reputation is unknown or poor, money. Beyond just wastage, this represents lost revenue
resulting in carefully crafted designs and messages opportunities: if marketers eliminate a 20% deliverability
rendering as garbled messes with missing information. gap, the results should have a commensurate impact on
Not only does this damage branding and impact sales and ultimately revenue. If e-mail marketers were
response, it also results in recipients interpreting your uncertain whether this problem was costing them, the
messages as spam and increasing your complaint rate, answer is now clear.
which further degrades your ability to deliver.
The first step toward fixing the problem is to understand
Most marketers are aware that deliverability is an issue, it. Far too many marketers shy away from educating
but many are not aware of the quantity of legitimate, themselves about e-mail delivery. By taking the time to
desired e-mail messages that are getting blocked and learn why e-mail gets blocked, marketers can get a sense
mislabeled as spam—and they don’t know how to find of the multiple lines of attack they must pursue to improve
out how their own campaigns are doing and how they deliverability. Even if you use outside experts or solutions
measure up with other companies. Other marketers know to combat the problem, a little knowledge can go a
the extent of the problem but lack the time and resources long way toward selecting the right partners and feeling
to keep up with—let alone comply with—the ever-evolving confident that you’re really covered on all fronts.
standards and rules ISPs put in place to keep up with

. Interactive Advertising Bureau, “Marketer Agency Guide to
Email Deliverability,” 2006.

2. MarketingSherpa, “E-mail Marketing Benchmark Guide 200�.” 4. David Daniels, “Outlook 2006: More Technology, More
Targeting,” DM News, February 6, 2006.
3. Interactive Advertising Bureau, “Marketer Agency Guide to
Email Deliverability,” 2006.
CDC MarketFirst | White Paper

Content Content considerations don’t end with text, however.
Images and attachments can also get an e-mail blocked.
Content is now something of a dinosaur in e-mail
Attachments are easily avoidable—if you have documents
deliverability, and arguably almost as extinct as a
or content that cannot be contained in the body of the
deliverability concern. For almost as long as there has
e-mail itself, post your content online and link to it from
been e-mail, there have been filters screening e-mail
the e-mail, rather than attaching it. Images can be difficult
subject lines and content to check for trigger words that
for some marketers to part with, as they can make e-mails
might indicate that an e-mail’s contents are obscene or
much more creative and aesthetically appealing. While
unsolicited and promotional. While this is still the case,
you may not need to dispense with them altogether, it’s
trigger words are now eclipsed by other deliverability
important to use them sparingly, as many ISPs see a
factors, and smart marketers can ultimately use any
higher number of graphical elements as a sign of spam.
content they desire provided they are diligent on other
In addition, many popular e-mail programs, including the
deliverability fronts. Nonetheless, it's worthwhile to be
widely used Microsoft Outlook, now block images in
aware of content that can cause deliverability problems
e-mails by default, requiring users to actively download
for marketers who may not have their other deliverability
the images to view them. Not only can this result in
bases covered.
garbled messages that look nothing like the sender
Some trigger words, such as foul or pornographic intended, but it also underlines the importance of not
language, are relatively obvious and unlikely to be used relying too heavily on graphics to draw readers in or
by any reputable marketer in the first place. Other words communicate information. If an e-mail doesn’t appeal to
and phrases, such as “free” or “apply now,” could a recipient based on its non-graphical elements, the user
easily be used in solicited e-mails, but most marketers is unlikely to take the extra step to download the images.
understand that the rampant use of such terms in spam If a key piece of information is contained in a graphic,
messages justifies some filtering of e-mails containing such as the call to action or important details or benefits,
them. But many of the words and phrases that trigger an e-mail’s conversion rate may suffer dramatically. The
spam filters are common in solicited e-mail and seem problem is more widespread than one might imagine: in a
innocent enough to many marketers: phrases such as 2006 study by the Email Experience Council, 2% of ,000
“unlimited,” “congratulations,” “weekend getaway,” “terms B2B and B2C e-mails reviewed appeared completely
and conditions,” or “guarantee.” In fact, even phrases blank when images were turned off or stripped by e-mail
associated with responsible e-mail marketing, such as clients.5. While this does not affect deliverability per se, it
“unsubscribe” or “opt in”—which usually signal that does support the best practice of minimizing graphics.
marketers are following the guidelines of the CAN-SPAM After all, if you are going to put increased effort into
Act, which require a clear way for recipients to opt out ensuring an e-mail reaches recipient inboxes, it’s worth
of e-mail communications—can label an e-mail as the extra step to ensure it renders well.
spam. It’s thus worthwhile for marketers to keep up with
trends in trigger-word filtering, which evolves along with Volume
spam trends and even legitimate marketing practices. E-mail volume per hour is another simple and obvious
Many trigger words can be easily avoided with a simple way to catch spammers: how many personal e-mails
rephrasing, such as using “Want to stop hearing from get sent out to five or 0,000 people at once? But at the
us?” instead of “unsubscribe.” same time, every day, thousands of people sign up for
e-newsletters, e-mail alerts, and other forms of mass
Trigger-word avoidance, however, is not an exact science.
e-mail communication, confirming that volume alone is
Lists of trigger words vary from ISP to ISP and spam
not a reliable indicator of whether an e-mail is spam.
filter to spam filter, and they’re always changing. The
Nonetheless, many ISPs closely monitor volume and
presence of a single trigger word is seldom enough to
impose volume caps, shutting down your connection
get an e-mail labeled as spam, but in combination with
if a resource-demand threshold is surpassed. Volume
other trigger words or spam-detection factors, it may set
thresholds not only vary by ISP, but also by sender—the
an e-mail “over the edge.” One useful common-sense
acceptable threshold for a sender may depend on a
test is to consider whether the language used in your
combination of other factors, such as sender reputation
messages is uniquely promotional in any way—“remove
score and number of complaints received about the
me from your list” or “act now” may be common phrases
sender. Accordingly, marketers should regulate, or
in a commercial e-mail, but they’re unlikely phrases to find
throttle, their volume, number of connections, and
in a non-commercial one. The only real way to determine
messages per connection (more on this below) to ensure
whether an e-mail contains trigger words is to test it, either
they are keeping within acceptable thresholds for various
using a software tool or by creating test accounts with
ISPs. In addition, they should carefully manage their
major ISPs and sending your e-mail to them, changing
phrases in subsequent tests if your initial test is blocked.

5. Email Experience Council, 2006.

CDC MarketFirst | White Paper 2

sender reputation to avoid low volume thresholds— they e-mail a few bad addresses—especially compared to
techniques for this are described in detail below. the cost of telemarketing or print mailings.

Of course, one surefire way to avoid volume caps List hygiene can be a nuisance for marketers, but the
is to reduce the volume of identical e-mails you results of not keeping your list clean are much more
send. Interestingly, this also dovetails with another injurious. ISPs measure the number of “unknown users”
marketing best practice: personalization via small-slice or recipients in your mailings, and if the number is too
segmentation. Rather than sending broad messages out high, they may block or even blackhole (automatically
to a large number of recipients, marketers should look delete) your messages. Unknown recipients can result
to increase relevance and personalization by carefully from a myriad of common reasons—people change ISPs,
segmenting their list by meaningful criteria and sending change jobs, enter their e-mail addresses incorrectly when
out more tailored messages to smaller groups. Not only subscribing, or provide a false address, for example.
will this tend to mitigate concerns regarding volume caps
due to smaller list size, it will also increase conversions. There are a few strategies marketers can take to reduce
If this sounds like more effort than a single e-mail the chance of bad data entering their lists, including
blast, it is, at least initially. But with today’s advanced requiring subscribers to enter their e-mail twice (reduces
marketing automation tools, you can create campaigns chance of typos), requiring a confirmed opt-in (sending a
that deliver the personalization on an ongoing basis, confirmation e-mail recipients must act on; this minimizes
and thus have lifecycles of months instead of minutes. fake addresses), asking users to provide secondary e-mail
Software that enables this kind of perpetually running addresses (so that marketers can switch to the second one
campaign can make the overall effort invested even less if the primary one fails), and making it easy for recipients
than that of running multiple large campaigns. And the to update their profile data and e-mail addresses.
payoff in terms of increased receptivity on the part of the Nonetheless, a certain number of bad e-mail addresses
recipient is difficult to overstate. With studies indicating will inevitably accrue on a list over time, and if you continue
that relevance is among e-mail recipients’ top criteria to e-mail a significant number of these addresses, there’s
when deciding whether an e-mail is spam, even when a good chance your e-mails will be blocked.
they subscribed to it, e-mail relevance is more than just
In addition to the methods listed above, recent
a nice-to-have feature: it could have a tangible impact on
improvements in software systems enable marketers to
your e-mail deliverability, not just in terms of volume, but
automatically eliminate e-mail addresses (or take other
also complaints.
defined actions) when they bounce or even when users
don’t open or click through after a prolonged period of
Complaints time. This can radically improve your reputation with ISPs,
In their efforts to enlist frustrated customers in the battle to resulting in both higher deliverability and fewer content
trounce spam, ISPs have made it easier than ever to label and image filters being placed on your e-mails.
an e-mail as spam, with many integrating one-click “report
as spam” buttons into their e-mail interfaces. Customers Spam-trap hits
no longer have to go to the trouble of complaining to an
Spam traps are e-mail addresses set up specifically to
ISP about spam the hard way—they can just select and
attract spam. Rather than going to a recipient, e-mails
click, and the complaint is logged with the ISP. If one of
sent to these traps are logged and monitored. They
your e-mails receives enough of these complaints, expect
may also be “fingerprinted”— labeled as spam and
your e-mails to start going directly to all recipients’ junk
then compared against new messages, which are also
mail boxes—or to be blocked altogether. The danger of
labeled as spam if their content or links match the
this easy mechanism for reporting spam is that many
original. Spam-trap hits can be avoided by eliminating
recipients will label anything they don’t want to read as
duplicates, generally keeping lists current and removing
spam—as mentioned above, often even if they subscribed
e-mail addresses that have not responded to a campaign
to it. They may also mistakenly believe that reporting an
for a significant period of time. Marketers should also
e-mail as spam is tantamount to unsubscribing. This
be careful when dealing with third-party list providers
emphasizes the importance of making your e-mail sender
and sending e-mails to partner lists—if these lists have
name and subject line as clear as possible to avoid
bad data or spam-trap addresses on them, it could
mistaken complaints (as well as your opt-out process),
introduce bad data into the list and negatively impact their
and it also reinforces the wisdom of following best
deliverability rate.
practices regarding segmentation, personalization,
and relevance.
Failing authentication tests
Unknown recipients Spoofing—masquerading as another e-mail sender—is
a serious problem for all e-mail users, because it means
Marketers can get lulled into a false sense of confidence
that anyone can have their sender reputation irreparably
when it comes to e-mail lists. Sure, their lists may have
damaged by a spammer appropriating their identity.
some outdated addresses or bad data, but is it really
Phishing—the attempt to extract private data such
such a big deal? After all, it doesn’t cost them any more if
as bank passwords by spoofing e-mail addresses of


legitimate service providers—poses even greater threats Good marketing automation solutions should make
to consumers and businesses alike. Because there is no it simple for marketers to generate detailed reports
common method on the receiving end to verify a sender’s showing open rates, click-throughs, bounce rates, and
identity, this has placed the onus on e-mail senders to other metrics. Start by generating and analyzing these
prove they are who they appear to be. Unfortunately, there reports—not just for a single campaign, but for a range
is no single method for authenticating e-mail senders, so of campaigns. Cross-compare them: did certain kinds of
marketers need to be aware of—and in compliance with— campaigns perform better than others? Did campaigns
a number of industry standards for e-mail authentication, to a specific list have higher bounce rates than others?
which will be discussed in more detail below. Keeping up Is campaign performance improving or deteriorating over
to date with e-mail authentication standards is critical for time? Simply making the effort to closely scrutinize and
e-mail marketers, as failing to authenticate correctly can compare reports will likely uncover an array of usable
easily result in the marketer’s address being blacklisted. insights into your e-mail marketing campaign performance.

Marketing reports of this nature are always valuable, but
reputation
on their own, it is hard to truly evaluate where you stand.
A sender’s e-mail “reputation” is a complex amalgam Comparing your figures against industry benchmarks
that may take into account any or all of the negative is a great way to see how your programs stack up. For
factors discussed above, as well as positive criteria such basic widely broadcast e-mails, Jupiter Research cites
as whitelisting or sender accreditation and history as an an average open rate of 20%, click-through rate of 9.5%,
e-mail marketer in good standing. On a more formal level, and conversion rate of .% as the industry benchmarks,
“reputation” is a score assigned by e-mail reputation with higher metrics for more targeted, personalized, or
services firms, which track all available data about e-mail event-triggered campaigns.6.
marketers and score them based on these factors. They
monitor the sender’s activity continuously, and thus In the absence of deliverability metrics, however, it’s
the reputation score may fluctuate with every e-mail hard to get the full picture about open rates and other
campaign. Scores from reputation services firm such as performance metrics. If your open rate is below 20%, does
Return Path, Habeas, TRUSTe, and Goodmail are used that mean that your subject lines aren’t compelling—or
by ISPs and anti-spam software vendors in determining simply that fewer people are receiving the e-mail in
sender quality and in making deliverability decisions. the first place? Getting to the bottom of your delivery
issues can help flesh out your overall e-mail marketing
accreditation performance picture substantially. Yet one quarter of
marketers are unsure of their deliverability figures.�.
Marketers can seek accreditation through reputation
services firms such as those listed above, usually by Deliverability benchmarks vary, but the most recent
undergoing a rigorous initial standards and policy available data suggests that permission-based e-mails
evaluation process and adhering to standards on an to U.S.-based ISPs are delivered to the recipient’s junk
ongoing basis, as well as paying some kind of fee. or bulk e-mail folder almost 6% of the time.8. Overall,
Accredited e-mail marketers are essentially automatically permission-based e-mails are reaching consumer inboxes
whitelisted with the ISPs that use use that particular only about �5% of the time. The picture gets more varied
reputation firm’s services, because the reputation services as one delves into specific ISPs: XO Concentric delivers
firm certifies their e-mail blasts as safe to deliver. a whopping 56% of permission-based e-mails to the junk
mail folder; SBC Global and Bell South, 30%; Yahoo, 26%;
2. Monitor and Respond to Deliverability and MSN Network, GMail, and Hotmail, 8%.9.

Metrics responding to Bounced e-mails
The large number of factors that contribute to e-mail
With these sobering statistics in mind, how can
deliverability can be admittedly prohibitive for marketers
marketers track and act on their metrics to improve
to address. But there are several simple steps that you
their e-mail deliverability?
can take that can yield immediate improvements in
e-mail deliverability. The first thing to do is get a handle on your bounce rate.
The overall percentage of e-mails sent that bounce back
Benchmarking is a nice figure to have and to track over time, but it’s not
Your first priority should be to get a handle on your
deliverability metrics as they stand right now. A surprising
number of e-mail marketers do not have any visibility 6. David Daniels, Jupiter Research, December 2006.
into the performance of their campaigns—they may see
incoming leads, but have little insight into whether non- �. Jupiter Research, 2006.
respondents opened the e-mail or even received it in the
8. Lyris, ISP Deliverability Report Card, Q2 200�.
first place.
9. Ibid.


enough to truly take action—it lets you know the extent Another good reason to pay attention to bounced e-mails
of the problem, but provides few clues on how to fix it. is to watch for “challenge-response” e-mails. Various
The good news is that ISPs send you back information spam blockers, including Earthlink and Spam Arrest, send
about why they bounce each e-mail. The bad news an e-mail the first time a recipient gets an e-mail from a
is that these “reasons” take the form of thousands of certain sender, requiring the sender to type in the code in
different cryptic bounce codes that differ from ISP to ISP, a CAPTCHA graphic. While this is laborious, it only needs
making it very difficult to make sense of this feedback. to be performed once per recipient, and with these kinds
Luckily, solutions are available on the market that can of programs growing in popularity, it is worth the effort to
normalize these bounce codes and sort them into logical ensure deliverability.0.
and understandable categories, enabling marketers to
get a good sense of the major reasons their e-mails are Monitoring Blacklists
bouncing back without sifting through bounce codes.
No permission-based marketer wants to think that they’ve
With an understanding of bounce rates and categories, been branded as a spammer, but it’s good to know for
marketers can begin to take immediate action to improve certain. If you send out large e-mail communications, even
their deliverability rate. First off, marketers should if they are permission-based, there is a strong possibility
automatically cull all e-mail addresses that receive a that you will at some time be misidentified as a spammer
“hard” bounce—that is, e-mails that are returned to the and listed on a blacklist. If you have been having e-mail
sender without being accepted by the recipient’s e-mail deliverability issues, it is worth checking whether your
server. Hard bounces may indicate that the marketer’s domain or IP address has made it onto a blacklist. In fact,
company has been blacklisted by the ISP, and continued it is worth monitoring blacklists on an ongoing basis to
attempts to e-mail these addresses will not be any ensure that you react swiftly should your company or
more successful—these e-mails should be immediately e-mail service provider appear on the list. Several blacklists
removed from the list. are published publicly, including those from SpamCop
and Spamhaus. ISPs use these public blacklists (often in
“Soft” bounces—e-mails that are bounced back after addition to their own private blacklists) to block and filter
being accepted by the recipient mail server—can occur e-mails. A variety of tools and services are available that
for a variety of reasons, and require more monitoring and monitor blacklists for you and alert you if your IP or domain
investigation to determine the best course of action. For appears on them. Some of today’s software solutions can
example, a mail server may bounce the e-mail because help detect when an ISP is not delivering your e-mails and
it cannot find the recipient’s address, because the also stop the e-mail flow through a particular problem
recipient’s mailbox is at capacity, or because the e-mail ISP, so that if you are blacklisted, you can hold affected
size exceeds the ISP’s pre-set maximum. If the e-mail recipients' e-mails until the problem is resolved. Getting
address does not exist, marketers will want to remove off a list can be challenging and take time, but being on
it, but since soft bounces can be due to a temporary a blacklist can decimate your e-mail marketing programs,
state such as a full mailbox or server problem, it would so it is important to be aware of blacklisting as soon as
be rash to remove all soft bounces automatically. possible and take immediate action.
A better method is to set a threshold for soft bounces—
for example, removing e-mails that receive a certain removing inactive Contacts
number of consecutive soft bounces—or to set different
courses of action depending on the different bounce As much as marketers would like to believe that every
code categories. contact is a potential conversion, there is value in
removing recipients from your lists after a certain period of
One strategy that is increasing in popularity is to send an inactivity. Recipients who have not opened or clicked on
automated welcome message to all subscribers who opt an e-mail you have sent them for some time may well see
in to an e-mail program and immediately remove all hard your e-mails as unwanted, increasing the chance that they
bounces—this lessens the chance that bad or fake e-mail will report them as spam. Stale, inactive contacts
addresses will make it onto the list for mass e-mails. are also more likely to be spam traps. What length of
inactivity qualifies for removal will depend on the industry,
A few software vendors have recently integrated their the frequency of contact, and other factors, but may be
e-mail automation systems with mail transfer agents as short as 90 days. Rather than simply removing the
(MTAs) that deliver the e-mails and detect and categorize contact from the list, marketers may instead wish to do
the bounces. This level of integration enables hard a final campaign to the inactive list segment—a “we want
bounces to be removed automatically and other types you back” campaign, for example—offering them the
of bounces to go through an automated process that opportunity to re-engage or unsubscribe. Current software
preserves good, deliverable e-mail addresses and deletes packages enable this process to be automated, yet highly
bad ones.

0. Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, “Best Practices that Improve E-Mail
Deliverability (Part 3)”, WilsonWeb.com, September 4, 200�.


interactive, enabling prospects to opt back in to content expectations more clearly with subscribers to reduce
that is relevant to them, potentially giving them several future complaints.
choices. Systems that allow conditional paragraphs or
sections can include these options in e-mails when they When it comes to e-mail deliverability, the more
get close to the “inactive threshold.” visibility you have into your campaign metrics, the more
empowered you are to troubleshoot and improve results.
It is worth taking every measure possible to preserve your Monitoring and acting on the metrics described above is
contact list, but equally important to draw an eventual line critical to ensure marketing e-mails reach their destination
with inactive contacts. As hard as it can be to remove and have the chance to convert prospects, and it can
hard-won contacts from the marketing database, doing so be made significantly easier through and automated
may have a positive impact on deliverability. response capabilities.

Subscribing to Feedback Loops 3. Manage Your Sender Reputation
Many ISPs, including AOL and Hotmail, make it possible A good sender reputation is golden in e-mail marketing.
for e-mail marketers to track when their e-mails are In much the same way that being on a blacklist can result
reported as spam or provoke complaints. These in your e-mails being indiscriminately blocked, having a
“feedback loops” are usually automated systems that good sender reputation can help ensure all your e-mails
merely require the marketer to enroll; it’s a simple way sail past the ISP gatekeepers without issue—certainly the
to get valuable data. Again, however, the onus is on ideal scenario for e-mail marketing.
the marketer to register for the feedback loop, monitor
the data, and act on complaint information. Given the Attaining a good sender reputation, however, requires
large number of ISPs, this can be a somewhat laborious diligence, knowledge, and often some financial investment
process, and marketing departments that lack the as well. But if e-mail marketing is a key channel for your
resources to adequately manage feedback loops in-house organization, the returns are well worth the effort.
may wish to seek out third-party solutions or service
providers to help alleviate the complexity. Build relationships with iSps
Whether it is managed in-house or externally, marketers ISPs are the unavoidable middlemen in your
should not ignore the valuable data provided by feedback communications with prospects and customers, and as
loops. Complaint rates should be monitored closely, such, it’s worth the effort to build relationships with them.
and all complainers should be removed from the list As with any friendship, this involves taking the time to
immediately. Ideally, software should be utilized that get to know them—their thresholds, their triggers, their
enables complaint rates to be monitored in real time; standards—and engaging in a sustained relationship over
if you notice that the complaint rate is approaching a time. If you’re the new kid on the block and don’t yet have a
known danger-threshold for an ISP (for AOL, for example, history of being a sender in good standing, you can expect
this is a 0.% complaint rate.), this software should halt your e-mails to be scrutinized by more image and content
or throttle down the campaign, reducing the chance of filters than companies with established reputations. But a
damaging your sender reputation. Another smart tactic commitment to meeting deliverability standards over time
is to test campaigns on small list samples first, getting will help you build up a solid reputation.
a sense of the complaint rate by individual ISP to help
predict whether any problems will be encountered with The challenge? There are 20 or 30 main ISPs, and
the main blast. Finally, marketers should analyze the those are just the major ones. And the truth is that few
implications of their complaint rates—if a certain segment marketers can expect to develop real relationships
or type of mailing receives higher than usual complaint with ISPs, especially if they’re from smaller firms. But
rates, there are valuable lessons marketers can learn that should not preclude marketers from seizing every
from this data. Are new subscribers complaining in higher opportunity to engage with the ISPs by whatever methods
numbers than long-time subscribers, for example? If are available. This can include signing up for the
so, this could indicate that subscribers don’t feel they aforementioned feedback loops with any ISPs that offer
are getting what they expected from you—or perhaps them. Some ISPs, including Yahoo, also offer marketers
that there was too great an interval between their opt-in a mechanism by which to submit themselves for whitelist
and the first e-mail they received.2. Marketers can use evaluation. Also, by becoming familiar with different
this information to fine-tune their programs and set volume caps and guidelines set by ISPs, you can throttle
your e-mail delivery rates and connections to stay in line
with each ISP’s recommendations.

. Derek Harding, “Getting in the Feedback Loop,” ClickZ,
September �, 2006.

2. Ibid.


avoid Switching ip addresses authenticate Your e-mail
To build up a reputation, you need to have a unique As discussed earlier, methods for authenticating the
identity that is comprehensible and distinguishable from identity of an e-mail sender have become increasingly
other e-mail senders. This means maintaining the same important in recent years due to widespread attempts
IP addresses for your mailings over time. Each time you by spammers to hide their identities or spoof the identity
switch IP addresses, it is like setting back the clock in of another sender. Since several different systems of
terms of building up a sender reputation. authentication are in use by different ISPs, both alone
and in combination, marketers should be aware of and in
Maintaining IP address consistency, however, does not compliance with all of the major authentication methods.
mean that you have to use a single IP address. In fact, These include Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Sender
it’s highly advisable to maintain separate IP addresses for ID (which combines SPF with Microsoft’s Caller ID),
corporate e-mails and bulk mailings, to ensure that if your DomainKeys (from Yahoo), and DomainKeys Identified
e-mail marketing reputation is damaged, this does not Mail (which combines DomainKeys and Cisco’s Identified
impede the delivery of other important corporate e-mails. Internet Mail).
Another strategy you may want to consider is maintaining Sender Policy Framework is an open standard that allows
different IP addresses for different kinds of mailings, senders to define their e-mail sending policy, including
such as customer versus prospect communications, or the servers and IP addresses from which they send mail.
informative versus promotional e-mails. This approach Senders publish an SPF record containing this “return
can also be used to maintain different IP addresses for path” information within their DNS, and receiving ISPs that
sending e-mail from different divisions or brands, which use SPF for authentication verify that incoming messages
can help build up the strongest sender reputations for comply with the listed domain/IP addresses contained in
the strongest brands or divisions while not allowing this record. If the e-mail is not in compliance with the SPF
weaker divisions or brands to weaken the overall record, the ISP blocks the e-mail.
sender reputation.
Many e-mail marketers and ISPs have embraced SPF,
Set Up Your Systems properly making it the most popular IP-based authentication
solution. But SPF records are not a one-time solution—
Minor blunders in system set-up can have a major impact they must be rigorously maintained and kept up to date.
on sender reputation. Ensure that your IT team has Recent data indicates that SPF authentication checks
configured your e-mail servers with reverse DNS and mail are now in the list of the top-0 content triggers that ISPs
exchanger (MX) records and does not have open relays or check, and failing an SPF check carries a much heavier
open proxies. These small errors can result in automatic penalty than other spam triggers.3. If e-mail senders
blocking of your e-mails by ISPs. neglect to keep their SPF record up to date with correct
IP/server information, this can have a far more damaging
Get Whitelisted effect on their e-mail deliverability than not having an
Getting whitelisted by ISPs is highly desirable for any SPF record in the first place. Ensure that you always
e-mail marketer. As previously mentioned, a few ISPs have a thorough and accurate SPF record in place, and
allow senders to apply to become whitelisted, but be certain to update it should you change IPs or e-mail
most rely on their own data and third-party services to service providers.
determine which senders will be whitelisted. Marketers
Sender ID is similar to SPF in that it verifies sender
can try to achieve good standing on these lists simply
e-mail addresses against a published policy record in
by following best practices, but for some it may be
the DNS. Sender ID differs from SPF in the layer of the
worthwhile to seek accreditation or employ the assistance
e-mail system that it checks against and what it validates.
of a reputation services firm (more on these options
Sender ID is a Microsoft-created authentication protocol
below) in order to ensure they get on ISP whitelists.
that builds upon SPF but is not entirely compatible with
Marketers should also ask individual subscribers to add existing SPF specifications, though there are workarounds
the sender to their whitelist. This can be useful not only in that allow e-mail senders to use the same SPF record
getting past ISP gatekeepers, but corporate spam filters with minor modifications to permit Sender ID validation.
as well, which are often even more restrictive than ISPs. You should ensure that your IT team is aware of the
Any marketer engaged in business-to-business marketing differences between SPF and Sender ID and sets up your
communications should go to every length to get SPF record to support both.
subscribers to whitelist them. You should ask subscribers
As with SPF and Sender ID, DomainKeys (DK) is a system
to whitelist you at the point of subscription, in confirmation
for proving that e-mail senders are who they say they are.
e-mails, and in all communications, linking to clear,
comprehensive instructions on how to whitelist you.

3. Lyris, “ISP Deliverability Report Card, Q2 200�.”

CDC MarketFirst | White Paper �

To comply with DK, an e-mail sender must create a pair services: third-party programs that certify sender policies
of keys (one public, one private) and use them to sign all and practices. An accredited firm must typically undergo
outgoing e-mails. The public key is published in the DNS, a rigorous evaluation, which might include scrutiny of
and the private key is made available to the e-mail server. corporate history, e-mail policies, complaint rates, opt-out
When an authorized e-mail message is sent from the processes, spam trap hits, data collection methods, and
domain, the e-mail server uses the private key to create a more. Accreditation is not a one-time event; accredited
digital signature header for the e-mail. The receiving firms are generally monitored on an ongoing basis
e-mail server reads the header and retrieves the public and must continue to comply with his standards to
key from the sender’s DNS record, verifying that the maintain accreditation.
pair of keys goes together. If they don’t, the e-mail will be
blocked. Accreditation leads to an improved sender reputation.
E-mails from accredited firms are generally given
To deploy DomainKeys, you must use a DomainKey- preferential treatment by ISPs that subscribe to the
enabled mail transfer agent and choose one of several accreditation firm’s programs, if not whitelisted outright.
options for key distribution. The public key should be These standards vary, however, and even accredited e-
published to your domain’s DNS and the private key mails may be subject to some regular ISP spam filtering.
inserted into the MTA. In addition, accreditation firms partner with various ISPs
but not necessarily all of them; accreditation from a given
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an open standard firm may offer no advantage whatsoever for e-mails sent
that synthesizes DomainKeys with Cisco’s Identified to non-partner ISPs. Nonetheless, accreditation can be a
Internet Mail specifications, and as with DK, it appends powerful tool in improving sender reputation, and it should
a digital signature to the outgoing message. It uses be considered by all serious e-mail marketers.
an enhanced DK DNS record that permits the use of
a number of additional parameters. As with Sender ID
Use Sender reputation Services
and SPF, you should ensure that your e-mail and DNS
administrators understand the differences between the Reputation services firms continually monitor e-mail
systems and set up your DomainKeys to support both deliverability data and score senders based on all
kinds of standards. available data. Reputation services firm Return Path, for
example, monitors 60 data points to develop composite
There is some indication that the future of e-mail “Sender Score” reputation rankings, including complaints,
authentication and reputation tracking lies not in IP-based filtering, volume, network integrity, ID stability, and more.
tests, but in domain-based ones. At the July 200� These scores are provided to ISPs, which use the scores
Federal Trade Commission Spam Summit meeting in in determining whether to deliver e-mails from a given
Washington, D.C., there was both strong governmental sender. E-mails from senders with higher scores are
and industry interest to move away from tracking typically given preferential treatment, though the e-mail
reputation by IP address and to track it based on domain. may still be subject to additional filtering. Because of
This could give crypto-based authentication systems the in-depth tracking performed by sender reputation
such as DomainKeys an eventual edge over IP-based services firms, however, most ISPs do consider their data
authentication standards such as SPF. At this point, valuable in determining deliverability status; furthermore,
however, IP-based approaches remain widely used, subscribing to sender reputation services can give
so marketers should continue to build marketers access to a wealth of information about
their reputations around the IP addresses they use for their reputation that they might not otherwise have the
e-mail communications. resources to track. Marketers looking to delve into the
factors impacting their reputation should consider sender
Keeping up with authentication standards can take reputation services as an option.
effort, as well as collaboration with your e-mail server
and/or DNS administrators, but it is no longer optional for
e-mail marketers. As these standards grow in usage, not 4. Send Messages Users Want to
understanding them and taking all steps for compliance Receive
will damage an e-mail marketer’s sender reputation. Even
With the many factors that impact deliverability, marketers
if you use a third-party e-mail service provider, it is worth
may begin to see getting their e-mails into recipient
spending the time to understand authentication standards
inboxes as an endless series of hoops to jump through.
to be better positioned to evaluate whether your service
But it’s important to avoid falling into the trap of seeing
provider is in full compliance with the latest developments
e-mail deliverability as some sort of elaborate contest
in authentication.
to trick your way into targets’ inboxes. The simple fact
is that even if your e-mails are successfully delivered to
Use accreditation Services recipients, if the receiver doesn’t want the message, he
Several companies, including Return Path, Goodmail or she will delete the e-mail unopened, unsubscribe from
Systems, TRUSTe, and Habeas, provide accreditation your list, or—worst of all—report your e-mail as spam,
damaging your sender reputation. Since the ultimate aim
of most e-mail marketing is to generate leads or convert


sales, deliverability is a means to an end, not the end in Send relevant, targeted, personalized,
and of itself, which is good to keep in perspective. adaptive Messages
Marketers should do everything within their power to send It is borne out time and time again in research reports
e-mails prospects and customers want to receive. To do that the more relevant and personalized an e-mail is, the
any less can negatively impact not just deliverability, but more effective it will be. Knowing this—and with marketing
brand equity and sales figures. Part of this is, of course, automation systems now available that put these
taking the time to develop compelling, valuable e-mail capabilities within the reach of almost any marketer—
copy and offers. But there are many other simple steps e-mail marketers have little excuse for blasting out
you can take to try to ensure your e-mails go to receptive generic, single-shot e-mails to unsegmented lists. Not
audiences that want to receive them. only will better-targeted, more personalized e-mails
achieve better conversion rates, they will also improve
Use a Closed-Loop Confirmation process deliverability due to fewer complaints.

Requiring subscribers to confirm their registration or Segmentation has achieved new heights in recent
taking steps on your end to confirm the validity of years, with the development of sophisticated marketing
a subscription are easy ways to help ensure right off the automation systems that allow lists to be segmented
bat that your subscribers want your e-mails. Closed-loop not just by basic demographic data, but according
confirmation processes can be put in place by sending to advanced, multi-factorial criteria that may include
subscribers a confirmation e-mail that requires them to preferences, past behavior, even website usage patterns.
respond or click a link to activate their subscription, Such systems enable marketers to create truly meaningful
which eliminates fraudulent or malicious subscriptions. list segments and target them behaviorally. The ability
At a minimum, send an automated welcome message to easily generate these complex lists and even sub-
to new subscribers and remove the bounces or any segments for testing purposes enables marketers to take
complainers immediately. their e-mail targeting to the next level.

Give Subscribers Control Similarly, “personalization” is no longer a matter of
inserting the recipient’s name into the “to” line. Today’s
The more options you offer subscribers, the more likely best marketing automation systems enable marketers
you are to offer a combination that suits them and to make almost every element of an e-mail conditional,
keeps them happy with your e-mails. There is no single composing completely custom e-mails based on the
combination that will please every subscriber, so why not contact’s profile data, from the sender line and different
give them control? As part of the subscription process, copy elements down to individual images. The sky is
give users the ability to set their preferences for format now the limit in terms of personalization; it’s up to the
(e.g., HTML, text, even non-e-mail formats such as fax or marketer to decide how they want the user to experience
SMS) and frequency (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly, or their e-mails.
unlimited). You should also give them options in terms of
subject matter: are they only interested in a certain kind of There is also no reason to see streams of e-mail
product, or in information relevant to their industry or role? communications as static and linear. Again, advanced
Not only will this give you valuable information about the marketing automation systems allow marketers to create
contact’s areas of interest, but it will also enable you to adaptive campaigns that react to past contact behavior.
ensure you do not send them messages on subjects they Perhaps the contact responded best to a certain kind of
don’t care about and are more likely to see as unwanted. offer in past, or clicked on a certain kind of link: marketers
Allow contacts to easily update and manage their own can ensure that the next e-mail this contact receives
profiles, changing their frequency or areas of interest, draws on this information to compose an even more
for example, should they change their minds about what custom message, with the e-mail stream becoming more
they want to receive. This process should also enable and more relevant and personalized with each successive
them to update their e-mail address to help keep your interaction. This is the dream of true one-to-one
list up to date. marketing, made possible on a mass scale.

By placing a link to user-controlled profile management Finally, if they aren’t doing so already, marketers should
on your website and in every e-mail you send, you can also consider evolving their e-mail marketing practices
improve list hygiene and help users think twice about to become less of a broadcast medium and more of an
whether they want to unsubscribe altogether or simply intelligent event-triggered channel. Rather than blasting
change the parameters for receiving e-mails from your firm. messages out to audiences when it suits you, meet them
where they are. E-mails triggered by recipient action or
lifecycle stage have significantly higher conversion rates
than other forms of campaigns. For example, sending
new customers an up-sell or cross-sell campaign for
complementary products based on the timing of their
recent purchase will yield better results than periodically


blasting generic up-sell or cross-sell campaigns to the By taking these simple steps, marketers can help ensure
entire customer base when it suits the company, not that they are sending their e-mail messages to receptive
the customer. An added benefit is that marketers can customers and prospects who wish to receive their
set these campaigns up once and allow them to run for communications; these recipients are consequently more
as long as they like, making minor periodic updates as likely to enact measures such as whitelisting that improve
required. In essence, it’s self-running perpetual marketing. deliverability and less likely to report e-mail as unwanted.

E-mail performance metrics prove that these advanced
personalization and targeting strategies work. Targeted 5. Test, Test, and Test Again
lifecycle messaging and user-triggered e-mails have more Too often, marketers learn their mistakes only once a
than double the conversion rates of untargeted broadcast mass e-mail goes out. At that point, it’s too late to do
e-mails, and campaigns that use website user click- over, and the damage is done: complaints have been
stream data in targeting outperform untargeted broadcast lodged with the ISP, list members have unsubscribed, and
campaigns in conversions by nearly 4 to .4. Clearly, the marketer’s sender reputation and brand integrity have
these campaigns are getting better user responses been impacted.
because they’re delivering more relevant messages at the
right time. Testing should be a critical part of every e-mail marketer’s
programs, and time should be built into each campaign
Make it easy to Unsubscribe to adequately advance-test its impact in terms of both
conversions and deliverability. Today’s software packages
You may not want contacts to unsubscribe, but if you often enable automated processes to be created
make it difficult for them to do so, you’re taking a far surrounding the testing of new campaigns, reducing the
greater risk, as disgruntled unsubscribers are far more potential effort and overhead surrounding testing.
likely to complain to ISPs and spread the word to
other potential subscribers about their frustrations. The
Conduct Spam-Filter tests
CAN-SPAM Act requires e-mail marketers to include an
opt-out mechanism in all marketing e-mails, and while With spam trigger-word lists constantly evolving and
this mechanism can take different forms, it is worthwhile overlapping with common marketing language, it is worth
to ensure the process is as intuitive and easy as possible screening your e-mails before sending them to see if
for the user. If a contact is unsubscribing, it could indicate they register as spam—even if you don’t think you’ve
that they are less than pleased with your company, or they used any major trigger words. Numerous spam-check
may simply not find your communications relevant to their tools are available online at no charge, such as the
needs anymore—either way, don’t make them angry on SiteSell SpamCheck Report, which tests e-mails using
the way out! SpamAssassin. These tools can not only help you avoid
sending out e-mails with too many trigger words, but
Unsubscribe requests should be processed immediately. also help you avoid being overly cautious. On your first
If this is not possible, be sure to set the expectation attempt, word your e-mail exactly as you would like to and
of the exact timeframe for removal at the time of the see how it does. In this way, you can minimize awkward
request. If you send frequent e-mails, do not let a lag in rephrasing designed to avoid suspected trigger words,
processing unsubscribe requests lead to an unsubscriber which may not even be necessary. Nowadays, many ISPs
receiving continuing e-mails, as the recipient will very likely rely much more on sender reputation than trigger words
lodge complaints with the ISP. Always use up-to-date in filtering e-mails, so you may be able to phrase some
suppression lists when sending e-mails. things more directly than you imagine, which is ultimately
much better for the end-reader.
While you do not want to create hurdles for those wishing
to unsubscribe, in some situations it may be worthwhile to
build a brief survey into your unsubscribe mechanism to
Don’t ignore rendering issues
try to glean information about what has driven a contact to At some point or another, most of us have been tricked
unsubscribe. Even if you lose that contact, survey data of into opening a spam e-mail, finding upon opening that its
this kind can be very valuable in fine-tuning your programs contents were not what we anticipated. What appeared
for increased relevance and recipient satisfaction. You can to be an e-mail from a friend or colleague turned out to
also use this as an opportunity to offer the alternative of contain a promotional offer or garbled content, links, and
changing subscription preferences, switching to alternate images. And immediately upon opening the e-mail, most
content, format, or frequency, for example—though be of us probably knew that something was wrong, due to
sure not to appear to be making it difficult to unsubscribe. a disconnect between what the e-mail might have been
expected to contain and what it contained upon opening.

Unfortunately, this disconnect is no longer reserved for
spam. With both ISPs and end-user e-mail applications
4. David Daniels, Jupiter Research, 2006. blocking images and rendering content in unexpected


ways, permission-based e-mails are also landing in change or an improvement to you may be enough to
recipient inboxes with garbled content and unintended confuse or put off your audience, creating a spike in spam
appearances. And when recipients open these e-mails, reports and unsubscribe requests.
there’s a good chance that many react just as they
do upon accidentally opening spam e-mails: with Survey recipients
the immediate feeling that something is wrong. This
decreases the chance that the e-mail will be read and Earlier in this paper, the idea of using “exit” surveys
increases the likelihood that it will be reported as spam. to determine unsubscribers’ reasons for leaving was
proposed. But why wait until a contact hits “unsubscribe”
The problem is more widespread than most marketers to find out what they think? Marketers should consider
might imagine. The Email Experience Council reports that periodically surveying their lists to learn what subscribers
less than 50% of marketers create e-mails that render like and don’t like about their company’s e-mail
appropriately, and that one in five e-mails is invisible and messages. What would they like to see more of? Less
ineffective due to blocked images.5. The only way to be of? Would they prefer messages more often? Less often?
sure that your e-mails don’t fall into this category is to These surveys can be sent to strategically segmented
thoroughly test e-mail rendering on a variety of e-mail or random list samples, depending on the survey
systems across a wide range of ISPs. objectives. But if you choose to pursue this strategy, be
prepared to act on what you learn, even if it’s not what
In addition to the concerns of image-blocking and you expected—contacts who take the time to tell you what
different ISP renderings, the increasing use of mobile they think should feel that you have taken their feedback
devices introduces additional rendering concerns for into consideration.
marketers. MarketingSherpa reports that 64% of key
decision-makers are reading your e-mails on BlackBerrys
and other mobile devices.6. Knowing this, e-mail E-mail Marketing: Still a
marketers should consider optimizing their e-mails for
mobile devices, either sending carefully formatted text- Marketer’s Best Friend
only e-mails or multi-part MIME messages that render as If all of this sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, don’t be
text in non-HTML environments. disheartened: it’s all achievable, and a variety of services
and solutions are available on the market to make it a
Fortunately, help is on the way. Many marketing software whole lot easier for those who simply don’t have the time
programs are evolving to be able to adapt the look of or technical resources to wade through the deliverability
an e-mail and send different versions based on the ISP quagmire. Deliverability is unquestionably a challenge, but
or e-mail platform it is destined for, resulting in more it’s far from insurmountable.
meaningful e-mails, lower complaint rates, and thus
higher deliverability. Above all else, don’t let a fear of tackling deliverability
issues erode your confidence in or use of e-mail
test all e-mails and Changes marketing. Industry statistics show that most marketers
still believe e-mail is their best marketing channel; 83.2%
Testing out e-mails on sub-segments and sample
of marketers in a survey by Datran Media cited e-mail as
lists before mass-sending is a marketing best practice
their most important advertising tactic for 200�, primarily
for multiple reasons. Not only can it help assess the
because of its ability to drive incremental revenue.�. While
effectiveness of your message and predict conversion
most marketers who have any experience with e-mail
rates, but it can identify deliverability issues. Test your
marketing understand its power, reach, and potential,
messages to check for higher-than-normal complaint
its advantages bear repeating. As a marketing channel,
rates or numbers of unsubscribe requests. Split-test
e-mail is:
different versions of the same e-mail on random lists to
isolate the biggest factors in deliverability rates, or test a. Still the most cost-effective: Few media offer such
the same e-mail on different segments to identify different low set-up costs and barriers to entry. The low costs of
list-segment behavior patterns—perhaps a certain list e-mail marketing allow marketers to concentrate their
segment is more sensitive to certain factors and at risk of resources on quality of message, segmentation, and
lodging spam complaints. content—not materials—and scale to reach very large
audiences with negligible increases in cost. Evidence
Any time you contemplate making changes to your
consistently shows that e-mail delivers greater return
campaigns, whether it’s something as simple as the
on investment than other marketing channels—$5.45
“from” line or design, be sure to test out the change on a
smaller list before proceeding—what may seem a minor

�. Datran Media, “The 200� Email Marketing Survey: Looking
Forward,” February 200�.
5. Email Experience Council, January, 200�.

6. MarketingSherpa, “Special Report: Email Marketing to
BlackBerrys - Usage, Formatting Rendering Tips,”
July 25, 200�.

CDC MarketFirst | White Paper

per US$ spent, versus $2.08 for other online
marketing and $�.20 for print catalogs.8. ways to block them, and marketers must often scramble
to catch up. With each ISP using a custom combination
b. Still the most personalizable: While direct mail of spam-blocking strategies and often erring on the side
technologies have advanced in recent years, they still of caution when it comes to any mass e-mail, e-mail
don’t offer anything approaching the personalization marketers are left with the burden of meeting a broad
capabilities of sophisticated e-mail marketing engines, range of standards to ensure their permission-based
and the costs associated with personalization in e-mails reach recipients.
other media can be prohibitive. With a good e-mail
marketing system, marketers can send e-mails that The end result is that most marketing departments
are not just personally addressed, but have custom struggle to keep up without some assistance. Few have
subject lines, images, links, and blocks of text. the time and resources to stay on top of each new
development in deliverability roadblocks and tactics. And
c. Still the best for advanced targeting/segmentation: frankly, many marketers would prefer to focus on their
While precise database segmentation can generate core competencies, investing their time and energy in
lists that can be used for other marketing channels, campaign planning, market research, and the creative
no channel makes it as easy as e-mail marketing to elements of their campaigns rather than learning the latest
target different audiences with truly custom messages ISP-friendly e-mail server configurations.
without dramatically escalating costs. Advanced
e-mail marketing programs can furthermore allow For some companies, especially those with fairly simple
marketers to segment not just based on demographics or linear e-mail marketing needs, the answer is to use an
or preferences, but on responses to other e-mail e-mail service provider (ESP) to send out their e-mails.
campaigns—opens, click-throughs, conversions— Good ESPs are aware of and in compliance with the
and even website visits. latest deliverability best practices, and many have the
scale and clout to build strong relationships with ISPs that
d. Still the most trackable: No other channel offers such small standalone companies could not hope to achieve,
a direct, immediate way of tracking response from resulting in higher overall deliverability rates.
open rate right through to revenue recognition. With
e-mail marketing, you can understand more than just As e-mail marketers move from a generic broadcast
conversion rates—you can learn precisely what the e-mail approach to a more personalized and interactive
recipient felt compelled to click on and what they did one-to-one marketing philosophy, however, many firms
after they clicked it. With e-mail marketing, marketers are finding that their e-mail marketing channel is too
are always able to quantify results and never at a loss important to outsource or restrict to simple one-way
to show their campaigns’ direct impact on revenues. e-mail blasts. To create more personalized, event-based,
and multi-wave e-mail campaigns, many companies are
e. Still the best for building relationships: While a seeing value in keeping their e-mail marketing in-house
short-term sale is obviously a desired outcome for and investing in robust marketing automation tools that
many marketing programs, companies today are empower them to create more sophisticated campaigns.
increasingly recognizing that a long-term relationship Furthermore, many marketers are finding that to realize
is substantially more valuable and desirable. Advanced the greatest benefits from their e-mail marketing, they
e-mail marketing systems allow companies to engage must treat e-mail not as a standalone channel but as an
customers and prospects in two-way exchanges integrated part of their multi-channel marketing efforts.
that unfold in multiple waves, progressively adapting
to responses at each stage and building strong, For these marketers, creating a unified customer or
loyal relationships. prospect experience across marketing channels means
finding a best-of-breed solution that enables them to
integrate advanced e-mail marketing into a holistic
Conclusion multi-channel marketing approach. Unfortunately, a
fractured technology infrastructure comprising a range
It’s no wonder many marketers find deliverability a
of disparate point-solutions can be a barrier to achieving
dizzying topic: there is no single answer to the challenge
this level of continuity. The best solution for this new
of deliverability, but instead countless factors marketers
generation of integrated marketing is one that addresses
need to be aware of and address with each campaign.
all of the marketing department’s complex demands, not
Adding to the problem, deliverability best practices don’t
the least of which is e-mail deliverability. A system that
stand still—as spammers develop new ways to try to trick
enables marketers to perform the most sophisticated
ISPs into delivering their e-mails, ISPs must develop new
of personalized e-mail marketing must also help them
ensure their e-mails reach recipient inboxes.

8. Direct Marketing Association, “The Power of Direct Marketing,”
October 2006.


As your marketing department looks at ways to realize
the full potential of e-mail marketing, seek out integrated
solutions that address the complexity of today’s
marketing environment, including the challenge of e-mail
deliverability. Partner with a reputable firm that can help
you leverage the best technology tools to not only create
compelling e-mail campaigns, but to ensure they always
reach their targets.

CDC MarketFirst: Your Integrated
Marketing Solution
CDC MarketFirst is an adaptive marketing automation
and lead management solution that enables marketers
to manage even the most complex, multi-channel
marketing campaigns. Using CDC MarketFirst, marketing
professionals can utilize the visual campaign designer
feature to create e-mail/web page streams, profile
customers and prospects, target each with a highly
personalized and relevant message, deliver the message
at the right time via the right channel, and ensure
consistent and effective follow-up. CDC MarketFirst can
help marketers achieve higher response rates and better
lead quality with perpetually running, precisely targeted
campaigns based on data captured at every point
of interaction.

Through partnerships with industry leaders Message
Systems and Return Path, CDC MarketFirst offers
an all-in-one deliverability, reputation, and marketing
automation solution suite, including the CDC MarketFirst
Deliverability E-mail Server. CDC MarketFirst is the first
and only integrated marketing automation suite that
also provides core delivery capabilities—authentication,
bounce management, reputation monitoring, and delivery
assurance services—in one solution. With CDC MarketFirst,
the days of looking at countless different reports to get
the full picture of campaign performance (from click-
throughs through bounce rates through rendering reports
and reputation scores) is over: CDC MarketFirst gives
today’s marketers the integrated environment they need
to effectively design, launch, gauge, and adjust complex
campaigns through a single solution.

For more information or a complete list of our worldwide offices, please visit www.MarketFirst.com or call
+1 877-748-6825.
Copyright © CDC Software 200�. All rights reserved. The CDC Software logo and CDC MarketFirst logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of
CDC Software.

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