Best Practices that Improve E-Mail Deliverability (Part 2) Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Founding Editor, Web Marketing Today, Rocklin, CA - Aug 28, 2007

In part 1 of this series, we examined some basic ways to improve e-mail deliverability. Here are some further best practices.

5. Be Alert to Spam Trigger Words

I see four main types of spam filters (with an increasing number of blurring between types).

1. Word-trigger filters, such as SpamAssassin (spamassassin.apache.org) -- very popular among small businesses because it Open-Source and thus no cost. They scan incoming e-mails for words that might indicate spam.
2. Network reporting filters, such as Cloudmark (which I use, www.wilsonweb.com/afd/cloudmark.htm), nicely priced for individuals and small businesses. If enough people report a message as spam, its "fingerprint" is recorded and marked as spam for all participants.
3. Response-required filters, such as SpamArrest (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/spamarrest.htm), where the sender must respond before the recipient sees the message -- at least the first time a sender e-mails to this recipient. More on this below.
4. Whitelists and Blacklists filters. ISPs increasingly check blacklists to filter out known spammers (such as RBL). They also check whitelists that contain "authenticated" e-mailers that use good practices. More about this later.

Marketers should check e-mails before sending them in order to detect excessive marketing "hype" words that would put them over the top in SpamAssassin's point score -- and put their e-mails in the "probably spam" category. To see an example of the complex list of spam indicators to determine whether a message might be spam, see the current "test performed" at the SpamAssassin site.

Most EMS providers have such a pre-screening tool you can use. SiteSell SpamCheck Report tests your message at no charge using SpamAssassin and sends you a report. Send your test e-mails to mailto:sales-spamcheck@sitesell.net Be careful, however, that you put the word "TEST" (without quotes) as the first word in the subject -- and make sure it is capitalized. Otherwise, the system will delete the mail. Following the word "TEST," add the subject line that would appear in the email normally. Don't avoid trigger words entirely; just make sure that you don't overuse the ones that will signal your message as spam.

6. Ask Subscribers to Add You to Their Whitelist

Many major ISPs and spam filtering programs will automatically place bulk e-mails into a spam folder or bulk folder unless the recipient has identified the sender of the e-mail as "desirable" on some kind of "whitelist." You can find comprehensive instructions you about this that you can pass on to your subscribers at www.cleanmymailbox.com/whitelist.html  It's a good idea to link to a set of whitelisting instructions from your subscription form, on your "confirmation" e-mail, and in your "thank you for subscribing" e-mail. I've also tried audio on the thank you page with varying results.

7. Study Delivery Reports

Your E-mail Marketing Service (EMS) will tell you the number of e-mails sent, bounced, and opened. But that information is too general to do you much good. A much more precise approach involves using a service that provides 100 or more "seed" e-mail addresses. They monitor these addresses and report when or if an e-mail was received from your mailing. This way you can begin to spot problems in deliverability. Address the problems you've identified with your EMS (best approach) or directly with the ISPs themselves (frustrating). A few of the more expensive EMS providers supply clients with this kind of data, but your best approach is probably a deliverability service. Small businesses may want to take advantage of the 30-day free offer at  Delivery Monitor from AWeber (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/deliverymonitor.htm), a service I've used for years. Other services include: ReturnPath's Mailbox Monitor (www.returnpath.biz/delivery/monitor/), the Delivery Monitor component of Lyris Email Advisor (www.lyris.com/products/emailadvisor/), Pivotal Veracity eDelivery Tracker (pivotalveracity.com/solutions/eDelivery.php), and Delivery Watch (www.deliverywatch.com) for European e-mailers.

Improving e-mail deliverability is complex, frustrating, and vitally important. Keep at it!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

 Dr. Wilson is an Internet marketing pioneer and author of more than a dozen books and reports, including The E-Mail Marketing Handbook (2005) and Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy (Wiley, 2001). He is the founding editor of Web Marketing Today.