1. © 2008 RightNow Technologies, Inc. Email Best Practices & Deliverability with RightNow Marketing Mathew Callison RightNow Technologies

2. Opted in means: Contacts who give you consent to send email Contacts with whom you have had a previous business relationship Methods of Opt-In include: Single opt-in Double opt-in (subscription confirmation) Confirmed opt-in (closed loop) using a unique token All Individuals in your Mailing List should be Opted-In

3. Permission to Email

4. Contacts should be able to opt-out of all (global opt-out) or a portion of the communications that they receive from an organization (by interest area). Remind contacts why they are receiving the email (sign-up location) Include a link for contacts to opt-out and/or update their profiles –Profiles should allow contacts to update their contact information and preferences Do not require customers to login, type info, or make a purchase in order to unsubscribe Confirmation of opt-out requests can be used to remind contacts that they do not have to opt-out of all email programs Allow Contacts to Easily Opt-out

5. Opt-out Confirmation

6. What to Include in Every Outbound Mailing A means to opt-out of future communications (CAN-SPAM Requirement) Ensure the “Subject Line” and “Body” of the message is intuitive and informative. The subject should provide enough information to state your purpose. Subject line represents the contents/subject matter of the email honestly. (CAN-SPAM Requirement) Include the physical address of your organization within your email. (CAN-SPAM Requirement) Include a privacy policy. Give contacts the ability to easily review this policy and understand how their profile information is being used Within your privacy policy always promise contacts that their profiles will never be rented or sold to outside organizations

7. Consistent Subject & Body Content

8. Consistent Experience CAN-SPAM

9. What Not to Include in Your Outbound Emails Avoid the use of special characters, all caps, “!” or using words like “free” or “win” in the subject line and body. Don’t include email attachments. Emails with attachments may be blocked from delivery due to virus risks and/or spam identification procedures. Attachments also contribute to exceeding email account quotas They can contribute to increased download times, delivery times and hardware requirements

10. Send with the “From” address configured at the mailbox level Changing the “From” email address in the outbound console can cause email authentication to fail if DNS is not configured properly –ISPs using Sender-id or SPF authentication will not deliver email that doesn’t come from the domain listed in the “From”address –See http://rightnow.custhelp.com/ answer 2489 for more information. If sending from your company’s domain. –Update your web server’s DNS entries with the information provided on answer 2489 Ensure the “from” and “reply-to” clearly communicate your organization name. Be sure not to include special characters Remind contacts to add the “from” address to their address book Who Should Your Outbound Email be From?

11. Update DNS if Changing the “From” Address Update your domain DNS If you’ve changed the “From” address To your own domain.

12. Test & Validate Your Materials Ensure the appropriate parties have approved all content. All content, including design, offers and standard links should be approved by legal, marketing or other appropriate management. Ensure all customer touch points within your organization are aware of all high volume email communications. This facilitates accuracy and consistency across your customer support, sales and marketing functions. Test your email content for spam identification. Sites such as http://www.enetplace.com/spam-checker.html and http://www.marketing- register.com/top_tools/Free_Spam_Checker/index.shtml are sites you can use to test your mailing for spam evaluation. http://www.marketing- register.com/top_tools/Free_Spam_Checker/index.shtml

13. All Customer Touch Points Aware of Email Communications

14. Setting Goals for Your Campaign Target your campaigns for a specific audience. Demographics, firmographics, campaign history, offer acceptance analysis and stated interests are all important in campaign planning and design Determine the timing and relevancy of the mailing to your audience. Understand your recipient’s bandwidth capabilities in determining the proper balance of graphics and text delivered in the content. Design reporting to support campaign goals. Ensure that you collect contact response data that supports detailed campaign reporting and analysis Tracking open rates and links clicked is critical for identifying initial communication success it is also important to track intended action completion (i.e. purchase, download, form submittal, etc.) to determine the campaigns true R.O.I Use test cells to optimize your campaigns. Testing offers against randomly selected sub-segments of your audience allows you to optimize each element of your communications for maximum return

15. Target Your Campaign

16. Managing Contact Lists Implement a process for managing bounce and reply emails. Implement a process to automate the handling of bounces, “out of office” replies, unsubscribe requests, spam complaints and general replies Avoid list procurement for customer acquisition. It can be difficult to validate the accuracy of the email addresses, quality and permission. Purchased lists also tend to drive only a small portion of the response rate in comparison to in-house lists As new legislation is introduced, the risks involved in using purchased lists will increase. Exercise caution when using email append

17. Marketing Spam Complaint Management

18. Marketing Reply Response Management

19. Compliance with Spam Laws Ensure compliance with spam laws. it is very important to stay abreast of current and pending legislation in the US and other countries Two good sites are www.spamlaws.com and www.findlaw.com. www.findlaw.com Implement a thorough spam complaint resolution process. Given the volume of emails people receive, it is not uncommon for recipients to forget how or when they granted opt-in permissions for specific communications. it is critical that you create a thorough spam complaint resolution process to address concerns submitted by individuals, corporations and ISPs.

20. Deliverability Bounces You can think of a bounce as an email that is "returned to sender." The email gets sent off okay, but for some technical reason it can't get through to the recipient email address. Anti-spam measures Anti-spam measures are where the system receiving the email at the recipient's End deliberately interferes with delivery of your email. Warming ISP’s If you are sending high volumes of emails be sure and send them out in batches to ensure ISP acceptance. Process, Process, Process…. It is so important to have a process around the sending of emails and then ensure that they are being delivered whether it be a dedicated source or a collective effort be sure you are doing everything you can to ensure the deliverability of your emails.

21. RightNow Marketing Best Practices Include standard links for all email communications. Ensure that you have obtained prior affirmative consent from the individuals in your mailing lists. Remind contacts to add the “from” address to their address book. Include a privacy policy. Including a link to your privacy policy is important. Allow contacts to update their profiles. Include a link for contacts to easily. See Appendix for more details.

22. RightNow Marketing Best Practices, Cont’d Ensure the “from” and “reply-to” addresses clearly communicate your organization name. Don’t include email attachments. Ensure all customer touch points within your organization are aware of all high volume email communications. Ensure compliance with spam laws. Implement a thorough spam complaint resolution process. See Appendix for more details.

23. Resources RightNow Customer Community Manuals & Documentation Answer 1760: Best Practices for RightNow Marketing RightNow Marketing forum board Tune-up (request form available in Community) Professional Services (info available in Community) Marketing Managed Services Outsourced Solution Administration (OSA) - for Marketing “Email Deliverability for Newcomers” article http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/deliverability/introduction.htm

24. Thank You

25. Questions

26. © 2008 RightNow Technologies, Inc. Appendix

27. RightNow Marketing Best Practices Include standard links for all email communications. To ensure a consistent experience for contacts, the following information and/or links should be included in all emails: email opt-in source/sign-up location, add to-address book, company web site, copyright reference, opt- out, privacy policy, profile update and “reply-to” policy (if different from “reply-to” email address). Tip: Because some spam filters compare incoming messages to address books, you can improve email delivery and open rates by asking contacts to add you to their address book. Ensure that you have obtained prior affirmative consent from the individuals in your mailing lists. Be sure that your contact list includes only those who have asked to receive information from your organization (opted-in). Opt-in includes contacts who give you consent to send email or with whom you have had a previous business relationship. Permission is gained from either single opt-in, double opt-in (subscription confirmation) or confirmed opt-in (closed loop). It is important for each organization to determine which opt-in method to use, and to track when and how contacts agreed to receive emails from your organization. Remind contacts to add the “from” address to their address book. Adding the “from” address to the recipients address book will ensure consistent delivery of your messages to the contact’s inbox. Include a privacy policy. Including a link to your privacy policy is important. Give contacts the ability to easily review this policy and understand how their profile information is being used. Within the privacy policy always promise contacts that their profiles will never be rented or sold to outside organizations unless they specifically opt-in for partner email promotions. This policy may increase overall contact opt-in for your marketing programs.

28. RightNow Marketing Best Practices, Cont’d Allow contacts to update their profiles. Include a link for contacts to easily update their profiles. If possible pre-fill any information on the profile page. Profiles should allow contacts to update their contact information and preferences by interest category, communication frequency, Internet connection speed and email type (HTML vs. text). Ensure the “from” and “reply-to” addresses clearly communicate your organization name. Make sure the “from” and “reply-to” addresses include your organization name and do not include special characters (any characters other than letters) that can identify the email as spam. Don’t include email attachments. Emails with attachments may be blocked from delivery due to virus risks and/or spam identification procedures. Attachments also contribute to exceeding email account quotas (B2C marketing to personal email accounts), and to increased download times, delivery times and hardware requirements. Instead, include a link to the attachment(s) and give contacts the option to read the document on-line or download where appropriate. Ensure all customer touch points within your organization are aware of all high volume email communications. When a campaign is delivered ensure that all internal customer touch points are aware of the communication. This facilitates accuracy and consistency across your customer support, sales and marketing functions. This consistency across channels effectively builds customer loyalty and overall satisfaction.

29. Ensure compliance with spam laws. Legal definitions and penalties for spam vary between countries. Therefore, it is very important to stay abreast of current and pending legislation in the US and other countries. There are many sites that you can check to stay current with the law. Two good sites are www.spamlaws.com and www.findlaw.com. www.findlaw.com Implement a thorough spam complaint resolution process. You will receive spam complaints despite your permission-only email communication practices. Given the volume of emails people receive, it is not uncommon for recipients to forget how or when they granted opt-in permissions for specific communications. In order to support your permission strategies and maintain email as an effective communication channel for your organization, it is critical that you create a thorough spam complaint resolution process to address concerns submitted by individuals, corporations and ISPs. RightNow Marketing Best Practices, Cont’d