Most users of email marketing software will experience at some point that their emails can reach their subscribers’ inboxes faster or slower than with previous sends which is the reason that we often are asked how long it takes for an email to be delivered.

 To provide the answers, we asked our delivery expert, Sean Swanepoel who advised us ….. ‘The speed of our sending is dictated by how fast the recipient server can accept . Because of these limitations, caused by network issues, full mailboxes and invalid addresses, there is a strain created by retrying. Without those, delivery would be almost ‘light speed’! ‘

As Shawn highlights and as we have stated in past blog articles emails go through many steps to reach their target consequently affecting the delivery time of your campaign and here we list a few of them :

•    How busy the ISP (Internet Service Provider) is
•    How fast the recipient email server is able to accept it
•    The anti-spam techniques employed by the recipient server to block SPAM from getting through to the recipient.

As with all other services, ISPs have their peak periods and slow periods and it is at the really busy periods that email sends are likely to be delayed. It may be useful to keep this in mind when planning your sends.

How fast the recipient Server can accept the incoming email

Every email is dispatched from the sending server to the recipient server.  It is not, however simply a matter of getting from one end to the other.  With Spam being everyone’s major annoyance, ISPs are being ultra-serious in their attempts to ensure that their users don’t receive hundreds and thousands of SPAM messages to their in boxes, so they set up certain rules that every email must go through in order to be delivered to the inboxes of that particular ISP’s clients.  The settings can vary widely from each ISP although they will all usually include a limit on the number of recipients for each message or connection, or a rate limit, such as a limit on the number of messages permitted to be sent out over a certain period of time.  This is their outline of how many emails they are willing to accept over a given period.
If your sends do not comply with these specifications, your emails are more likely to bounce.  This is not a big worry however, because bulk email service providers call upon the assistance of Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) whose task it is to arrange their sends according to the various specific limitations of each individual ISP, thus ensuring that their sends are in compliance with these regulations.

Anti-spamming techniques

ISPs apply a wide range of anti-spamming techniques as a strategy to combat spam.  (Sean suggests that you read more about them here).  A common example of this is Grey Listing; This is when emails are required to retry over a specific period of time before they will be accepted by the ISP.  This is a really efficient anti-spamming device, as spammers do not generally retry sending their messages.  However, it does have an impact on you, as your legitimate bulk emails also have to undergo this process before they can be  delivered.

So there you have it - predicting an exact delivery time is a highly technical ‘piece of string’  – and, as there are so many factors involved, nearly as impossible to estimate. However, As members of ReturnPath, the EEC and Truste, GraphicMail does try to ensure timely delivery.  To find out more about deliverability issues, read this blog article or watch our video.

Are you aware that Internet Service Providers are changing their spam filters? How does this impact on you as a legitimate email marketer? In their exclusive report , Pivotal Veracity recently highlighted the fact that the domain-based reputation has now arrived.  A number of top ISPs including AOL and Yahoo are said  to augment IP-based reputation systems with portable domain-based reputation systems for those mailers using DK/ DKIM authentication. This means that ISPs will “attach” your spam complaint rate, your unknown user rate, and your spam trap rate to your domain, in addition to your IP.  So even if you switch IP addresses, you retain your domain-based reputation – be it good orbad.

So what can you do to ensure emails get delivered?
First and most important, reputation is and will remain of your own doing  To be sure of a good reputation you must be using a domain in your “from” address that links to you.  This means - don’t use generic domains (like @gmail.com or @hotmail.com) as your “from” address.   If you do not do so already, start to use an email address with a domain within your control and for which you can begin to create a reputation.  For example, if your email address were jo@jofarm.co.uk your reputation would be based on the past and current behavior of the sends originating from the domain jofarm.co.uk and not just on an IP address relating to the server from which the email originated nor the sender from which it originated.  This will make each sender more responsible for the delivery rate of their mailings.   Both Yahoo and AOL are moving towards this structure and it will probably be in full swing in the early part of next year.  Other ISPs are expected to follow suit.

How can we help you to build your reputation?
If PivotalVeracity are right, then having your FROM domain properly authenticated, will become increasingly important. So if you haven’t already started to implement DKIM on your domain, it’s time that you should consider doing it.  The DKIM process uses public-key cryptography to guarantee that the FROM sender is actually the domain owner.  To implement it, the sender attaches an electronic signature to the email that is then checked against a signing module saved at the DNS. If you don’t know how to generate the public and private keys needed to implement DKIM, then GraphicMail's tool will create them for you.

What else are we doing?
Almost every ISP now bases the decision whether or not to deliver emails to client’s inboxes, on some ratio of the complaint rates that they receive from their clients against the number of sends originating from IPs or domains.  ISPs share these rates with ESPs using feedback loops.  So every time a client clicks on the ‘this is spam’ in their email client, they let us know that that client didn’t want to receive the message.

We help them close the opt-out loop by unsubscribing these clients and we mark those as complaints against the client’s account which advises them that not all recipients are happy to receive their email and we make the ISPs happy by reducing the amount of unwanted email being sent to their users and as a result they accept more of our mails.

When it comes to achieving high rates of delivery, it’s important that we all understand that Email Service Providers (ESPs) cannot be held solely responsible for delivery issues. The majority of delivery issues are caused by the ESP users and email marketers themselves, knowingly as well as unknowingly. Matt Blumberg, CEO & Chairman of ReturnPath, refers to Ken Magill when stating that deliverability being controlled by the ESP is a myth – deliverability is controlled by the marketer. Ken Magill further comments that each client can make a massive impact on deliverability by using the right “data collection, data hygiene, frequency and relevance. These are the main factors that affect deliverability and they are all within the list owner’s control”.

Delivery issues

We think that the majority of delivery issues arise from bad list acquisition and bad list management.  Delivery issues such as ‘domain unknown’, ‘mailbox unknown’ and ‘complaints’ can be attributed directly to the actions of the user. Sometimes, a simple spelling mistake can lead to the email being returned (domain or mailbox unknown); however, the mail is returned much more often because the subscriber thought that they had not given their permission to be on the list.

Clean lists

Some email marketers become much too greedy when acquiring lists and buy lists or scour the net for random email addresses that fit their marketing segment. This has created an army of expert spammers – users who buy lists are usually far more likely to be blocked and thrown off a sending server because they are easy to spot.

Having a good opt-in list saves time and money and, in the long run, improves delivery.  It’s also a good idea to remember that subscribers can change their preferences from time to time – it is therefore a good idea to send the occasional email asking them to update their profile. Then, if someone is no longer interested in receiving your newsletter, they can unsubscribe immediately.  It also gives you the opportunity to shift them to a list which is much more targeted and which will communicate directly with them, re-enforcing and deepening your relationship with them.

Clean content

Remember that the content of your subject line and the email itself are both extremely important in reminding your subscribers that they have given their permission.  Content should be clean and not contain any words that could be interpreted as spam. Give your next email newsletter a spam check before sending it.  Also ensure that your content is in line with what your subscriber has asked for.

Your email content and the quality of your list are the main components that ensure that your email gets delivered into your subscriber’s inbox.  So remember to review your practices and make sure that you don’t become your own worst enemy.

If you’re not quite sure about all these email deliverability terms, checkout this helpful glossary by Mark Brownlow.

Email marketing is the most common and cost-effective way companies use to promote their products and services. However some companies don’t realise that sending newsletters or email publications is simply not enough. In order to achieve a high success rate, you have to have the right tools, strategy and marketing reports to go with your simple email.

Unfortunately, some companies still commit these five common email marketing mistakes:

Unsolicited Email

Nothing annoys people more than getting newsletters or advertisement emails without their permission. Make sure that you use an email service that allows you to have a double opt in for new subscribers. In this way, you avoid miscommunication with subscribers.

Weak Subject Line

As we very well know, first impressions last. So it is crucial to have a solid subject title in order to encourage recipients to open and read your whole email. This is where good marketing background comes in handy. It’s like creating a tagline for your new advertisement; it should be good enough to have an impact to the audience and encourage them to listen to everything you have to say. This does not mean the use of full capital letters, this, although more noticable in the inbox will actually reduce the chances of it ever reaching the recipient's inbox as it will potentially be identified as spam

Overly Showy Newsletter

While HTML email marketing brings life and color to your newsletter, it can also distract readers if not creatively and neatly done. Make sure to keep your design at a minimum level. A header graphic, bold headings and sub-headings, a sidebar with a few graphics is ok, but 100% images is overkill.

Ignoring the essence of Time

“…Sometimes, right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing” an author once said. This especially holds true in the world of email marketing. Some people think that the more newsletters you send the more chances of getting the attention of the prospective client. But with bulk email marketing, most of the time, the opposite happens since people usually get annoyed at receiving advertisement on a daily basis.

Your ultimate goal is to give your customers the right message, and this means giving it to them when they have the time to read and understand your message.

If you feel you have something interesting to say to your subscribers on a daily basis then offer them the option to subscribe to the frequency of mailing that they prefer - daily, weekly, bi-weekly or just monthly

Quality over Quantity

People subscribe to newsletter and other email publications to get viable information on things that are relevant to them and of great use. Therefore, it is important to provide up-to-date, unique information that entices them to read your emails.

It’s okay to commit mistakes as long as you realise it soon enough to correct them. Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect. So as long as you stick to your goals, you will be able to create a good email marketing campaign.

Over the years, email marketing has gained popularity due to the growing number of people who have connected to the internet. Hence, more and more companies have seen the advantages of promoting their products online and utilising the functionality of the Internet.  One of the most common and cost effective online marketing campaigns that companies prefer to use is email marketing. But email marketing is a very tricky kind of advertisement that, if not properly use, can work against you.

Below are the top five email marketing best practices that can sure yield you good results:


First Impressions Last

The title that you decide to put in your subject line is probably the most important piece of information in your entire email.

It’s the determining factor whether the recipient decides to open and read your entire mail or just automatically put it in the trash. Always keep it short, never use full CAPITAL LETTERS, exclamation points, or certain words like “free”.  Popular email clients such as MS Outlook show previews of emails received, so make sure to have an interesting opening line to encourage recipients to read your entire mail.


SPAM on the plate not on my inbox

Most of the major Internet providers use spam filter protection software to trap unsolicited emails and filter and delete it even before it is delivered to the recipient. Spam filters usually rank each email based on certain criteria and if an email ranks above these criteria, then it’s flagged and automatically deleted. So avoid using words such as “save”, discount, and “£££'s” both in your subject line and content.


Middle of the Week timing

Studies show that the best time to execute a mail-out and get higher response rate is during the middle of the week, Tuesdays - Thursdays that is. Research analysts explain that during these times, people are generally over from their weekend hangovers and are most likely not planning yet for the next one. Hence, they are more open towards communicating with others and, in some cases, are looking for something good to do.


Be Consistent

If your company sends newsletters or has email publications, you have to ensure consistency in both communication frequency and the look and feel of your newsletter. People welcome things that they can grow to expect and are sometimes unappreciative to change.  Thus, make sure to create a template for your newsletter and use it as the basis for your future issues.


Add some PERSONAL touch

If you have your subscriber's names, use them! It is important to address your subscribers as individuals rather than as a generic group. A person who feels like he’s being addressed as a single individual is more likely to respond rather than someone who feels like he’s a nameless face in the crowd. It’s not that hard to find email marketing software that can help you add the names of each of your subscriber on your email template and subject line to make it look more of a personal message.


The list can go on and on about the things you should do when launching an email marketing campaign. But the above-mentioned key points should not be missed in order to achieve high level of success rate for your company. Make sure to use email marketing software that can help you create a formidable email marketing campaign.