Ensure Your Email Is Being Delivered Gwynne Dixon, Engaging Networks 19/20 June 2019 Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Hi, I’m Gwynne! I joined Engaging Networks in 2017 and work there today as a Dev Ops Engineer I specialise in email delivery and help to monitor all email traffic for our clients Previously I’ve worked as an email engagement specialist in the charity sector I’ve worked with a diverse range of email audiences globally Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

What I do… Engaging Networks operates as an email service provider (or ESP) I monitor and manage email delivery across our servers for all of our email service clients We provide tools for you to deliver effective email campaigns 5.1 billion emails were sent by our clients in 2018 On Giving Tuesday alone, 45 million emails were sent through Engaging Networks servers (up from 35.7 million in 2017) A further 47 million emails were sent to supporters by our clients at year-end 2018 (up from 36.6 million in 2017) Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

What is deliverability? Email deliverability is the demonstrable rate at which your emails land in inboxes It can be effected by anything from the content in your email to the email address you’ve sent from, or the people to which you’re sending Improving your email deliverability is the most effective way to improve engagement with your email campaigns Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Why is it key for 2019? 2018 saw the enforcement of GDPR, changing the email deliverability landscape and effectively setting as law what were already good email delivery practices 2019 has picked-up where GDPR left off, as the large webmail providers continue to clamp down on senders that deliver to inactive subscribers (more on that later) There are strong indications that the US government could pursue its own GDPR, following recent state legislation such as the California Consumer Privacy Act Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

What we’ll cover Inbox placement Using welcome emails Email templates/testing Segmentation Email seed lists Bounces & suppressions Types of spam traps Data hygiene Further reading Getting technical Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Inbox placement Using a seed list to monitor inbox placement (more on this later) Different types of inbox placement (spam folder, inbox, secondary folders etc.) Gmail and Outlook.com (the ‘Primary’ or ‘Promotional’, and ‘Focused’ or ‘Other’ folders) Improving your inbox placement: avoiding complaints and getting added to ‘trusted’ lists Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Using welcome emails Highest point of engagement, as much as 81% open rates and 56% click-through for some charity sector emails (source: Adestra) Sets the tone for future communications – compels your subscribers to keep opening A good welcome series can reduce your attrition or ‘churn’ rate over time The perfect place for an ‘Add to Contacts’ ask due to such high engagement Source: Experian Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Using welcome emails A 2017 study found that only 50% of charities use welcome emails, and only 2% send more than one email (source: Just Giving blog) You can use the marketing automation tool in Engaging Networks to drive dynamic welcome series Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Responsive templates Source: Return Path ‘The Email Client Experience’ (2017) Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Engaging Networks Email Builder Mobile responsive design at your fingertips Build and edit new template components with ease Use editable regions to customise your content The confidence of having a rigorously tested product shaping your email templates Ensure that your templates are up to spec with current industry standards and requirements Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Testing your emails Use the Email Preview tool to check your email on a range of different devices and platforms Check how the email layout renders in iPhones, Samsung Galaxy phones, tablets, and desktop computers Send test emails to a range of different webmail, desktop clients, and devices before your supporters receive it Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Segmentation Email blasts to your full subscriber list can harm more than they help your campaigns Does your email about a local event need to be sent to supporters nationally? Mailbox providers will notice if you repeatedly send to the same large list of inactive supporters (and penalise you for it) Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

What’s a seed list? A set of mailboxes managed by your organisation that’s added to your subscriber list and set to receive all mail from your campaigns. Each mailbox should represent a different provider, which can be selected according to the distribution of your audience The most prolific providers should feature on your seed list (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo etc.) Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Seeds of the future Industry leader in email deliverability analytics, Return Path has recently developed SmartSeed technology SmartSeeds use machine learning and artificial intelligence to interact with emails like real subscribers would These AI personas then allow e-mail marketeers to drive deeper and more realistic insights into mailbox behaviour Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Bounces & suppressions spam-related=99999 virus-related=99999 content-related=99999 quota-issues=1 routing-errors=4 inactive-mailbox=1 bad-mailbox=1 relaying-issues=4 bad-domain=1 policy-related=99999 protocol-errors=99999 bad-configuration=99999 no-answer-from-host=3 bad-connection=99999 message-expired=99999 other=99999 invalid-sender=99999 The difference between a soft and hard bounce Different types of hard bounce (spam or policy related, bad mailboxes or domains etc.) Suppression criteria and the suppression list Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

The March 2019 Yahoo bounce 554 delivery error: dd Sorry, your message to xxxx@yahoo.com cannot be delivered. This mailbox is disabled (554.30). March of 2019 saw a vast increase in a specific type of Yahoo hard bounce We attributed 97% of all Yahoo bounces to this error code over a 10 day period Bounce rates to Yahoo mailboxes increased twelvefold between February and March Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

The March 2019 Yahoo bounce Yahoo was sending this email to users of its webmail service Any account that hadn’t been logged-in to for 12+ months was being closed If the mailbox had been closed, we received the hard bounce response Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Types of spam traps Pure spam traps (honey pot email addresses designed to dupe spammers) Recycled email addresses (old accounts no longer used by customers) Invalid email addresses (typos, fake addresses) Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Data hygiene Attrition and re-engagement Using double opt ins Opt-in management from external CRMs Acquisition of data (paid for lists, typos from submission) Third-party data cleaning services Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Shrinking list sizes M+R compared end-of-year giving patterns in 23 US organisations for December 2017 and December 2018 They found that overall revenue was down 9% year-on-year, and revenue from email was down 18% However, they also saw subscriber list sizes dropping by 13% year-on-year (as orgs changed tack by removing inactives) The group with the largest list size decreases saw a 26% improvement in response rate from 2017, which then translated to a 2% improvement in email revenue Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Further reading 2018 Deliverability Benchmark, Return Path (Aug 2018) Reliable stats from an industry standard in email deliverability Rates by country, region, industry etc. Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Getting technical SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication Email testing services such as Email on Acid, Litmus and 250ok Knowing your sending IPs (dedicated versus shared use) Consider your sender address and domain reputation Return Path Senderscore and third-party DNS blacklist checks Feedback loops and Gmail Postmaster Tools Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019

Thank You. Enjoy the rest of the conference! gwynne@engagingnetworks.net Engaging Networks Community Conference 2019