by Wikus Engelbrecht
19. January 2011 01:13
Deliverability, best practices, and South African email marketing
Bizcommunity recently reported on the newly published Bulk Email Deliverability Report South Africa 2011, as endorsed by the DMA (Direct Marketing Association).
According to the report, statistics for the United States, Europe and Asia indicate that 14-20% emails sent never make it to the inbox, and it can be estimated that South African statistics are around the same range. South Africans are wasting about 20% of the money they spend on digital (and email) marketing.
The DMA reports that email marketing is still growing steadily among South African marketers, however they tend to ignore email marketing best practices. According to the article, this happens because we have slacker online and internet regulations than other countries. I can definitely see this as an influence, but also think that sometimes the reason is simply that email marketers aren’t informed of these best practices, or don’t take the time to educate themselves on them. Not surprisingly, ignoring internet best practices results in low deliverability. What’s the pointing in sending an email that doesn’t make it to the inbox?
When deciding whether or not an email should be let through to the inbox, ISPs monitor and evaluate the sender’s domain name and IP address. More and more ISPs are focusing on monitoring sender reputations than content when it comes to spam filtering. Yahoo, for instance, recently changed the way in which they evaluate sender reputation. They’ve always monitored the sender’s domain name and IP address for inbox deliverability, but as of December they also monitor the from address. What this means is that each of the email addresses you use under your domain name will now be monitored for their own reputation. It’s resulted in many senders (who’ve had whitelist status for years) seeing their emails sent from certain addresses landing in the bulk folder.
What are the common mistakes?
Spray and pray – Blasting emails out to entire lists with no thoughts to targeting. Lists should be segmented for greater relevance.
Mailing too frequently – Email marketers should pace their emails, not overload their recipients.
Not adding value – Subscribers sign up to newsletters to get something from them. Content should be valuable and relevant, otherwise they’ll opt-out.
What can you do to avoid wasting your email marketing sends?
The internet has a wealth of email marketing-related articles dishing out tips and advice on best practices and strategies. We also post advice on this blog regularly and can direct to you to valuable email marketing resources – keep yourself informed. (If you received this month’s newsletter, you’ll also know that we’ll soon be launching our brand new Resource Center.) Stick to industry best practices to ensure the best delivery rates for your campaigns. Remember to also use our spam checker before sending your newsletters to make sure your email won’t be marked as spam.
