1. Email Marketing Management Policy Best Practices Deliverability Inbox Placement Marketing Tips/Ideas

2. Email Deliverability

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

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

5. Where does the process Break down?

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

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

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

9. 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%

10. 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 emails! (frequency expectations)

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

12. Policy Permission Based E-mail –Every contact must agree to receive email 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

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

14. Policy Permission? Only for the 3 videos being promised

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

16. 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 emailed in last 4 mos.) –IS sends to random portion (800-1200 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 email sent to alert sender –If there are warm and cold emails in the same batch, all of the warm sent, then the cold follow process above

17. 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

18. Throttling What does it mean to the user cont’ –Be careful about sending time sensitive emails 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 email is sent to notify the sender

19. 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

20. 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 email –The list is purchased (One more time for clarity, this is absolutely cause for termination)

21. 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 emails 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 email as spam” button

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

23. Policy Go ahead and sort it by Opt Type

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

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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

28. Policy

30. Email Best Practices Expectations Frequency List Hygiene

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

32. Email 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

33. Email 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

34. Email 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

35. Email Best Practices List Hygiene –The dangers of poor (lack of) list hygiene Email 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

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

37. Email 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 email to people who mark your email as SPAM Send an opt-out email Send me an email defending your honor Import a list with questionable permissions

38. Questions? Thomas Jones Thomas.jones@infusionsoft.com 480-289-6871 @TJ_emailguy