Marketing Management Policy Best Practices Deliverability Inbox Placement Marketing Tips/Ideas

Deliverability

Deliverability What is a delivered ? –No Set definition –For some it means: The left their servers The was delivered to the recipient’s server The was delivered to the recipient’s inbox

Deliverability What is the definition of SPAM? –CAN-SPAM definition: Non-solicited marketing –Our definition: s that have been sent without the specific request to receive it from the sender –The real definition: Whatever the recipient thinks it is

Where does the process Break down?

Deliverability How do I get my into the Inbox? –Reputation The servers that are sending the s We have complete control over that –Content The stuff in the s You have control over that –Engagement Are the people opening, clicking, whitelisting You have some control over that

Deliverability How many s did Infusionsoft deliver last week? 62,282,726 Week ending March 23, 2012

Deliverability Reputation –Monitoring –3 Rd party verification –3 Strike Policy –Getting rid of problem clients

Deliverability Stats for last week Single Opt-inDouble Opt-inTransactional Attempted46,743,0899,237,601524,559 Successful46,425,6759,201,379523,517 Reputation Blocks 317,41436,2221,042 Deliverability99.32%99.61%99.80%

Deliverability Some of the complaints we’ve seen… –I never asked for this (consent) –I don’t remember asking for this (age of opt-in) –They send me a million s! (frequency expectations)

Deliverability Content –Always use confirmation –Use a check box on all web forms to obtain permission to –Send a re-opt in every 6-12 months –Don’t just send blasts –Set frequency expectation at time of lead capture or in the first

Policy Permission Based –Every contact must agree to receive from their company –No purchased lists (this includes bartered, traded and rented) –Permission is given, not implied –A product purchase is not permission –Attending a webinar or live event is not permission –Purchasing similar products or services is not permission

Policy Permission? Only for the download. No other permission is given by the recipient.

Policy Permission? Only for the 3 videos being promised

Policy This is permission to send a video and additional information.

Throttling What is it? –Throttling is a service IS provides to help minimize SPAM complaints and protect all of our senders How does it work? –Newly imported/Cold list (not ed in last 4 mos.) –IS sends to random portion ( depends on size) –Waits 4 hrs. and checks SPAM Complaint rate –Less than approx..3% (3/1000) it sends the rest –If higher, batch stopped and sent to alert sender –If there are warm and cold s in the same batch, all of the warm sent, then the cold follow process above

Throttling What does it mean to the user? –IS is concerned about protecting their reputation –Senders need to have clean imports Remove opt-outs Remove complaints Remove bounces –They need to pay attention when they send a batch It will display that a batch will be throttled It will tell them when the balance will be released/stopped

Throttling What does it mean to the user cont’ –Be careful about sending time sensitive s as a first send –They should take advantage of the try again button It will send to another small portion If the complaint rate is below.3% (3/1000) is releases the batch If the complaint rate is high, the batch is stopped Another is sent to notify the sender

Throttling What can I do if my broadcast gets stopped? –Do not grab the list and send it again Everyone who got it the first time gets it again It doesn’t help address the possible causes of complaints –Try and determine why –Go to help.infusionsoft.com to see common causes –Study complaints and opt-outs. What can you learn? –Segment the list Age of contacts Lead source Customer/ non-customer

Throttling Common reasons for high complaints. –Length of time since last contact –A sudden change in sender or subject –Content was not what the recipient was expecting –Content is now making it to their inbox instead of the SPAM/Junk folder –The imported list included people who had previously opted-out/complained (don't laugh, it happens a lot) –The recipient didn't ask for –The list is purchased (One more time for clarity, this is absolutely cause for termination)

Policy ISP Complaint Rates –The current industry acceptable complaint rate is 1/10 th of a percent,.1%,.01, or 1/1000 –ISP’s calculate this based on the number of complaints they receive divided by the number of s we deliver to their users –Some people complain multiple times –The reports you see combine the ISP complaints with the internal complaints (that annoying “do you want to mark this as spam” button

Policy Where to find the ISP complaint rates –There are several reports, the two best places to look are in the Stats Widget and Batch Status Report –You may have to add two columns. Opt Type Opt Notes –The opt type will be Spam or Feedback

Policy Go ahead and sort it by Opt Type

In this case, there are 17 “spam” complaints and 54 “feedback” complaints.

Policy One major mistake many of our customers make –ISP complaints are recorded in the system as Feedback because the recipient marked it as spam and the ISP provided us with that feedback –Internal complaints are recorded in the system as Spam because the recipient is marking it as spam directly in our system. They are also able to leave specific feedback if they’d like. These typically run at less than 25% of the overall complaints.

Policy Opt-out/Unsubscribe Link –Cannot be hidden –Cannot be excessively padded with line-breaks –You can create custom opt-outs, but still must be within the guidelines in AUP

Policy If There Are Violations? –Strike policy to work with people when they have issues –Termination Blatant and widespread abuse Inappropriate content Known to be associated with SPAM

Policy

Best Practices Expectations Frequency List Hygiene

Best Practices Expectations –The single biggest factor you can control –The biggest reason people complain Didn’t expect at all Didn’t expect this much Didn’t recognize who it was from Didn’t contain the information I was expecting

Best Practices Set Expectations (Falls into 3 categories) –How often Daily Weekly Monthly –Who from The company name A particular person –What is the content Newsletters Tips and tricks Marketing

Best Practices Setting and Reinforcing Expectations –Tell them what they are getting in to before they sign up –Double opt-in Not required It’s the best way to reinforce the expectation you set when you collected the information and verify the person understood what they signed up for –Check boxes Gives people the ability to tell you what they want Not required, but recommended

Best Practices Frequency –There are lots of opinions about this Only one correct answer-As often as you said you were going to. No more, no less When you set the expectation, remember that most people would probably like to receive less Probably shouldn’t be more than 90 days between communication –Put yourself in their shoes and minds

Best Practices List Hygiene –The dangers of poor (lack of) list hygiene permission can go stale –People might not be as interested in losing weight in August as they were in July –They may have purchased elsewhere –They may not want to buy from you People change addresses –Most don’t bother to forward their addresses –Probably wouldn’t matter

Best Practices List Hygiene –Dangers cont. People abandon their address –Throw away addresses –ISP’s judge you as a sender based on the % of abandoned addresses you send to Money –You pay Infusionsoft to store contacts and send –Give us less, while sending to a more effective list Spam traps

Best Practices List Hygiene –How long should someone be on my list? They’ll tell you Activity zones Trackable links –Things you shouldn’t try (actually do not try) Send an apology to people who mark your as SPAM Send an opt-out Send me an defending your honor Import a list with questionable permissions

Questions? Thomas Jones