What's truly valuable in today's marketing world? The data. More, more, more! The more data we capture, the more we can understand...and better yet, predict....the behaviors of our target users. If we can understand our users' tastes & preferences we can begin to shape their user experience into a journey that we set out for them to take. Where do we start? What do our list counts, soft bounces, hard bounces and more numbers mean, let alone list count discrepancies that are often encountered when systems integrate. This session will get to the heart of data and you'll leave feeling confident that you can decipher data, start to assess patterns and more.

1. Whaddup With the Data:
Working with Segmentation,
Queries & Opt-Outs
Jenny Lassi
eMarketing Consultant
HighRoad Solution
@highroadjenny

2. Today’s Content
www.highroadsolution.com
• What is segmentation strategy and how could we approach segmentation
• We’re integrated with our AMS so how do we use pre-segmentation to be
more segmented
• How are our email addresses resolved to being invalid and what do I do with
that information?
• What are all the ways people get onto system opt-outs and what can we do
about it?
• Best practices
• Resources takeaways

3. SEGMENTATION
It’s all about that data

4. Blanket Communication Top Down Approach

5. Beyond Member/Non-Member/Prospect
Segmentation is a marketing strategy that
involves dividing a broad target market into
subsets of consumers/constituents who
have common needs and priorities, and
then designing and implementing strategies
to target them.

6. Identify Your Constituents & Data You Have
For Them
Who are your repeat customers? Who nets you the
most revenue? What do they have in common?
What have they purchased? What web pages do
they frequent? When are they most likely to renew
their membership? What is the perceived value of
membership with you and how do they consume
what you have to offer them?

7. Common Segmentation
1. Member/Non-Member/Member Type
2. Demographics (Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Income, Etc.)
3. Job Function/Certification
4. Event Type (Conferences, Continuing Education,
Webinars, Etc.)
5. Committees
6. Areas of Interest

8. Segmented Communication Top Down Approach II

13. Segmentation
gone wrong…
very very wrong

16. QUERIES/VIEWS
It’s all about that data

17. To query or where to query, what
is the question again?

18. AMS Query

19. HighRoad
Query

20. Hybrid
Query

21. Count Discrepancy
There will almost always be a slight discrepancy between
your AMS query/view count and the HighRoad Static
Segment because:
 There may be subscribers who have previously opted out
 There may be duplicate records that are scrubbed
 There may be malformed email addresses that are
scrubbed
 Depending on the architecture of your integration, there
could be additional filtering on your data sync.

22. INVALIDS
It’s all about that data

23. Invalid eMail Address Handling
1. 1-Hard Bounce
2. 3-Consecutive Soft Bounces of a
Particular Bounce Type

25. What’s causing the bounce?
1. Lack of Authentication
2. Blacklists
3. IP Reputation
4. Filter thresholds met then all other traffic
deferred
5. Changes on recipient email server filter software
6. Recipient email server not available temporarily

26. How can we minimize or prevent bounces?
1. Set up DKIM/Sender ID if you haven’t already
2. Make sure email address is correct in the system and your
AMS/CRM
3. Review bounce code/reason from Bounce Logs
4. Reach out to abuse@ AND
postmaster@whateverthedomainis.com to request to
whitelist the IP address of your HighRoad account and your
domain ideally within 48-hours of the sent message

27. What do we do if a subscriber is invalid?
1. Look up subscriber history to see the last message sent that
bounced
2. Get to the root of the invalid by reviewing bounce code/reason from
Bounce Logs from that specific send
3. Reach out to abuse@ AND postmaster@whateverthedomainis.com
to request to whitelist the IP address of your HighRoad account and
your domain ideally within 48-hours of the sent message
4. Run system invalids through an Email Validation tool to catch all true
invalid email addresses
Once you get to the root of the issue and resolve it, ONLY
THEN should you un-flag the record as invalid.

28. Invalid Export Analysis
The bounce column indicates
the present count of either soft
or hard bounces the subscriber
has experienced.
The invalid column indicates
whether the subscriber is
permanently invalid (2),
temporarily invalid (1), or not
invalid (0).

29. OPT-OUTS
It’s all about that data

30. Are we having fun yet?

31. Does this help?

32. Opt Outs Versus Opt Down
Opt Outs mean they are opting out of
receiving any emails from you
Opt Down means they are
unsubscribing from one or more emails
from you but not all

33. Email addresses can get onto the HighRoad Global Opt Out List:
1. By choosing the Global Opt Out option on the email preference
center
2. By clicking unsubscribe on footer links that uses %%OPTOUT%%
system tag
3. By clicking unsubscribe from email clients that add their own
unsubscribe mechanism
4. By hitting the SPAM button inside their email client
5. Your team added an email address to the Subscribers>Opt Out
Subscriber or by importing a list (on purpose or by accident) to
Subscribers>Import Opt Outs

34. Exporting Opt-Outs

35. What do the Opt-Out Source values mean?
1. Survey Opt-Out = Opting out via EPC Global Opt Out
option or footer link using %%OPTOUT%% system tag
2. System Opt-Out = A user either opted out a subscriber
via the UI or imported a list into Opt-Outs
3. List Unsubscribe = Recipient used the email client’s
own unsubscribe mechanism that is tied to Feedback
Loops (FBLs)
4. Spam Complaint = Recipient hit the spam button
inside their email client which is tied to FBLs

36. The Pesky Spam Complaint!
There are Feedback Loops FBLs tied from
all ISPs and your HighRoad account.
Anyone can hit the Spam button by
accident or on purpose to be removed
from your email platform. This is recipient
behavior you cannot control.

37. Samples

38. List Unsubscribe
Some web based email clients like Gmail
and Hotmail have their own unsubscribe
mechanism that is tied to the FBLs in
place with that ISP and will add on it’s
own to none, some or all emails if they
determine it has characteristics of spam.

39. Samples

40. Samples

41. Common Issues/Questions:
1. We are a member driven organization and members are not allowed
to globally opt out.
2. Our Email Preference Center only writes to the AMS Email Exclude.
How are they opted out?
3. Our EPC writes anyone who chooses the global unsub option to both
the AMS email exclude AND HighRoad. Why are there records on
the Opt Out export that are NOT flagged as Opt Outs in our AMS?
4. We have a special Opt Out sync that writes all Opt Outs from the
Sent Message from the previous day and flags them in our AMS.
Why are there records on the Opt Out export that were not caught
by this sync?
5. Why do we have a huge amount of Opt Outs on 1 particular day

42. What’s the lesson here?
You can try to make it as difficult as possible
for a member to opt out, but bottom line,
they can just click the spam button and get
opted out if they have no other choice. In the
process, their perception of your brand takes
a hit as does your sending reputation.

43. Recommendations
Embrace a member/subscriber centric
communication preference model. Allow
them to choose what communication
method they wish to receive information
from your organization.

44. EMAIL FORENSICS
It’s all about that data

45. Why didn’t they #$%@&%! get the message?:
1. Your BOD chair didn’t get the message. Where
do you start?
2. A member didn’t get your last weekly newsletter
and is calling Member Services to complain.
3. A member is receiving the message to the wrong
email address
4. A .edu recipient doesn’t get our Monthly
newsletter but they get our weekly update.

46. Why didn’t they #$%@&%! get the message?:
1. Are they in the included segment?
2. Were they in an excluded segment?
3. Is their record valid/invalid?
4. Are they on the Opt Out export?
5. Does the Message History say it was sent to
them? If so, was it routed to their spam folder?

47. Content Leader
Jenny Lassi
eMarketing Consultant
HighRoad Solution
@highroadjenny