9 things every marketer must know about email - redesign

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with Greg Kraios & Chris Arrendale THINGS EVERY MARKETER MUST KNOW Inbox Pros ABOUT EMAIL

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Page 1: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

with Greg Kraios & Chris Arrendale

THINGS EVERYMARKETER MUST KNOW

Inbox Pros

ABOUT EMAIL

Page 2: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2

CHAPTERS

250ok.com | InboxPros.com

123456789

Deliverability Branding

Shared IP vs. Dedicated IP

Feedback Loops

No-Reply's

Setting Subscriber Expectations

Single Opt-In vs. Double Opt-In

Permission Marketing

Email Authentication

Email Throttling

3

7

13

18

21

29

37

44

50

Page 3: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

http://www.pardot.com/blog/the-2015-email-marketing-landscape/

3

Your domain is your identity. Write that down on a Post-It

Note and stick it to your monitor. Now repeat after us,

“my domain is my identity.”

It’s the identity that your customers, the recipients of

your marketing and transactional messages, have come

to trust, or believe they can. It’s this trust that you must

guard as if your business depends on it because it often

does.

How so? In the 2015 State of Marketing Report, the

Salesforce survey of 5,000 marketers revealed 20% of

the audience reported their business primary revenue

source is directly linked to email operations. Those

people saying email is dead? Tell them to put that stat in

their pipe and smoke it (in locations where that’s legal,

of course).

So, in an e�ort to get your identity in order, we are

going to focus on the Display Name or Friendly From,

From Address, and the links used within the email.

DELIVERABILITY BRANDING: YOUR DOMAIN IS YOUR IDENTITY

EMAIL, STILL NOT DEAD

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http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pdfhttp://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pf

https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-name-search/index.xhtml

4250ok.com | InboxPros.com

The Friendly From, subject line, and preview text are the

first connections your message has with a subscriber. It’s

an email’s first moment of truth. Now, consider this - the

average email user receives 215 emails per day (The

Radicati Group). It’s an email deluge out there, so clearly

identifying yourself and purpose helps you cut through

inbox noise.

THE INBOX EXPERIENCE

Example of the Gmail mobile experience

In a perfect world, an intuitive and consistent

Friendly From should:

Friendly From Subject Line Preview Text

• Reinforce recipient trust in your email

channel

• Instantly provide insight as to the

nature of the message you’re sharing

• Improve the odds of a message getting

discover by a subscriber that’s located

somewhere other than in their primary

inbox (i.e., promotions tab, junk, trash)

• Increase the odds the subscriber will

add your email address to their

address book (“whitelisting”/ ”safe

listing”)

• Help subscribers search, sort, and

archive messages

• Ultimately, improve the likelihood of an

open and a better brand experience

1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING

Page 5: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business

http://kb.mailchimp.com/accounts/email-authentication/about-dmarc

https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-name-search/index.xhtml

1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING

5250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Along the same lines, a branded and appropriate From

Address can also be crucial for getting your subscriber

to open the email. Choose a From Address related to

the mail stream (e.g., support, billing, promotions) and

don’t change it. In addition to your customers, internet

service providers (ISPs) prefer to see stability in the

From Address.

If you use a free email service for the address you

provide in the From Address field, a warning may appear

that recommends registering for a domain. The DMARC

authentication policies for some free email services like

USING A FREE EMAIL SERVICE ADDRESSFOR YOUR FROM ADDRESS

Example of the From Address

For those mailing to U.S. subscribers, there is a

non-negotiable requirement that your From Address and

Reply-To Address “must be accurate and identify the

person or business who initiated the message,”

according to the CAN-SPAM legislation.

Sending to subscribers in the E.U.? Disguising or

concealing the identity of the sender on whose behalf

the communication mailed is strictly prohibited. Canada

requires that the sender must identify itself and the

persons on whose behalf a commercial electronic

message is sent. We’re not attorneys, so we recommend

you consult someone who is when setting up your email

program.

LEGAL STUFF

Gmail, Yahoo!, and AOL can a�ect the deliverability of

emails sent by various email service providers (ESPs), so

our recommendation is to use a domain you own.

Neither you or your organization have one? Learn how

to register a domain. After all, your domain is your

identity, right?

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https://litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-preview-text-support

1 | DELIVERABILITY BRANDING

6250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Finally, branded email links are also important in making

your customers feel comfortable clicking on links. When

your subscribers hover over a link in the content, ensure

that the link is branded with your domain, or a

subdomain, and not a shared domain provided by a third

party. Most ESPs have the ability to apply custom

domains for link tracking. This type of link not only helps

with any shared link reputation factors, but it reinforces

trust.

BRANDED EMAIL LINKS

Example of Preview Text

While we're trying to stay on topic with domain branding,

we had to mention preview text - the text that

immediately follows the subject line. Again, this is your

email's first moment of truth in the inbox, so you need to

optimize the preview text when possible.

Our friends at Litmus did a nice job explaining

preview text in detail and created a list of email clients

that display preview text.

PREVIEW TEXT

Page 7: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

LET’S GET THE COST CONVERSATION OUTOF THE WAY

If messaging and communication is important enough to

the success of your business, and you step back and

look at the overall budget of your marketing programs,

you’ll see that the extra $20/month or so you'll spend on

a single dedicated IP address at places like SendGrid or

SparkPost is a drop in the bucket compared to the piles

of cash you burn on PPC on a daily basis.

And let’s not forget your transactional mail – password

resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications – that

you depend on to minimize customer support inquiries

and optimize the brand experience. If email is your

primary driver of communication and critical to revenue,

this is not the place to be penny-wise. For most

businesses, cost should not be the driving factor in the

decision-making process.

7

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical

number assigned to any device connected to the

Internet. When it comes to sending mail, your IP address

allows ISPs to identify you and your mail server.

When you hit send, your email is transmitted from your

IP address to the ISP’s receiving mail server, who then

decides whether or not to accept your message based

your IP’s reputation, sending practices, etc. These

factors directly impact whether you land in the inbox,

spam, or get blocked altogether. A clean IP doesn’t

guarantee inbox placement, as the journey an email

takes is complicated, but you get the picture.

As you consider your IP options, know you’ll use a

shared IP, a dedicated IP, or a pool of dedicated IPs.

DELIVERABILITY DECISIONS: SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

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2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

8250ok.com | InboxPros.com

INTRO TO SHARED IP

Source: Direct Marketing News 2015

If messaging and communication is important enough to

the success of your business, and you step back and

look at the overall budget of your marketing programs,

you’ll see that the extra $20/month or so you'll spend on

a single dedicated IP address at places like SendGrid or

SparkPost is a drop in the bucket compared to the piles

of cash you burn on PPC on a daily basis.

And let’s not forget your transactional mail – password

resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications – that

you depend on to minimize customer support inquiries

and optimize the brand experience. If email is your

primary driver of communication and critical to revenue,

this is not the place to be penny-wise. For most

businesses, cost should not be the driving factor in the

decision-making process.

The shared IP environment involves a series of IP

addresses used to send mail from a single organization

or a group of unrelated organizations. This group of IPs

is also known as the “shared IP pool.” The shared IP is

the entry-level environment o�er by most ESPs.

Shared IPs are often used to group the outbound mail

delivery of multiple, low-volume senders or smaller

senders with inconsistent sending behaviors (e.g.,

seasonal senders). The downside of the shared IP is that

pooling together with other senders leaves you with

limited power to influence the sender reputation and it

exposes you to greater risk based on the sending

behaviors of your IP neighbors.

Life on a shared IP tends to weaken performance for the

best senders and improve performance for lower quality

senders. That being said, the ESPs of today are

extremely skilled at uncovering and shutting down

abusive senders, and getting even better at predicting

bad behaviors before they happen.

Bottom-line: If you are a small, irregular or infrequent

sender, the standard shared IP environment at most

top-level ESPs is a great option. Also, if you have higher

than average hard bounce rate (3%+), the shared IP

environment is a safer place for you.

$44 ROION EVERY

$1SPENT ON

EMAIL

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2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

9250ok.com | InboxPros.com

INTRO TO DEDICATED IP

Dedicated IPs are the gold-standard approach to today’s

email landscape and investment in the success of your

The shared IP environment involves a series of IP

addresses used to send mail from a single organization

or a group of unrelated organizations. This group of IPs

is also known as the “shared IP pool.” The shared IP is

the entry-level environment o�er by most ESPs.

Shared IPs are often used to group the outbound mail

delivery of multiple, low-volume senders or smaller

senders with inconsistent sending behaviors (e.g.,

seasonal senders). The downside of the shared IP is that

pooling together with other senders leaves you with

limited power to influence the sender reputation and it

exposes you to greater risk based on the sending

behaviors of your IP neighbors.

Life on a shared IP tends to weaken performance for the

best senders and improve performance for lower quality

senders. That being said, the ESPs of today are

extremely skilled at uncovering and shutting down

abusive senders, and getting even better at predicting

bad behaviors before they happen.

Bottom-line: If you are a small, irregular or infrequent

sender, the standard shared IP environment at most

top-level ESPs is a great option. Also, if you have higher

than average hard bounce rate (3%+), the shared IP

environment is a safer place for you.

Is my email volume high enough for a dedicated IP?

program. It’s exactly how it sounds: an IP exclusively

dedicated to your business. Because you define the

characteristics of the mail sent over that dedicated IP,

receivers build the most accurate picture of your

behavior. In other words, you gain total control over

shaping your reputation.

Beyond control, dedicated IPs allow senders to avoid

having a sender appendix like mybrand.myesp.com

associated with their emails. This appendix occurs in the

shared IP environment but not with dedicated IPs.

There is no hard and fast number available. SendGrid

recommends that you send 100k emails per year before

considering a dedicated IP, and they caveat that by

saying you can send less if your sending consistency is

strong. Others, like Mailgun, recommend you send 50k

email per week before jumping to dedicated. Marketo?

50k emails per month. See what we mean?

Does being on a dedicated IP mean no other sender can impact your reputation?

Page 10: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

No. That’s just sender mythology. The truth is that if your

ESP has senders of marginal and/or poor reputation all

with dedicated IPs, even fairly small subnets of just a few

hundred IPs, then it's possible the ISP will see enough

bad behavior in that IP range that they'll just flag to the

whole block. You could have the best intentions but, in

this case, you're hosed and need to seek mitigation. The

meta-point here is to purchase a dedicated IP with an

ESP that has a sterling reputation and ask hard questions

about the other senders "near" you and their sending

history.

You can always operate a single IP. Of course, we don’t

recommend it, but you certainly can. At a bare minimum,

split your transactional and bulk mail on two separate

IPs. If you don't have a very sophisticated messaging

program, start with one. If you have many di�erent kinds

of programs, some riskier than others, get several

dedicated IPs.

For high-volume senders, consider the max volume you

send hourly and walk through the hourly throttling limits

2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

10250ok.com | InboxPros.com

per IP with your ESP. This type of constraint will factor

into the number of IPs required.

How many dedicated IPs do you need?

Page 11: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

11250ok.com | InboxPros.com

ESP

YOUR COMPUTER

DEDICATED IP ADDRESS

111.222.33.4444

YOUR COMPUTER ANOTHER COMPUTER

SHARED IP ADDRESS

111.222.33.4445

S H A R E D V S . D E D I C A T E D I P

Page 12: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

“New or unknown IPs are treated as innocent until

proven guilty, but the bar for guilt is incredibly low,”

according to 250ok VP of Engineering and former

Inbound Delivery & Anti-Spam Senior Engineer at

Hotmail, Paul Midgen.

Below is the recommended IP warming plan from

Marketo for your first five days on the new dedicated IP…

WARMING THE DEDICATED IP

2 | SHARED IP VS. DEDICATED IP

12250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Bottom-line: If you’re consistently sending…

• Less than 50k messages per month,

a shared IP will work just fine.

• 50k+ messages per month, a

dedicated IP test might be

worthwhile.

• 200k+ messages per month, we

recommend dedicated IPs. Your

reputation lift may not be as strong as

those high-volume senders on

dedicated IPs, but, at this stage,

you’re doing the right thing for the

future of your program.

When purchasing dedicated IPs, go with an ESP that

has a sterling reputation and ask hard questions about

other senders "near" you and their sending history.

Remember, your ESP is likely supporting other

dedicated IP senders in your block.

Stay beneath these limits:

Hotmail & MSN.com:

10,000 messages/day

Yahoo & Rocketmail & YMail: 4,000

messages/day

AOL & AIM: 10,000 messages/day

Total (all domains): 50,000

messages/day

After the first five days, you can slowly

ramp up the volume.

Page 13: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

13

For you rookies out there, FBL stands for feedback loop,

the mechanism ISPs like Hotmail and Yahoo! use to

report spam complaints to senders. Spam complaints

(a.k.a., abuse complaints) are generated when a

subscriber clicks on the “report as spam” button.

When someone on your list hits the spam button, the ISP

(a.k.a., the mailbox provider) forwards the o�ending

message back to a designated email address that has

been set up by you or your ESP with the expectation

that you will suppress this user in your database.

The key component of thinking about how you respond

to complaints is time. Most feedback loops operate in

near real-time, meaning while there can be a delay of

days or weeks between the time you send the message

and when it is reported as spam, the FBL notification

arrives very soon after the recipient files the report.

The only safe way to interpret a spam complaint is to

take it as an indication that the recipient wants to

opt-out of that mail stream. Therefore, your

responsibility is to do so, immediately. You should note

FEEDBACK LOOPS: SUPPRESSING COMPLAINTS

How do feedback loops work?

Page 14: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

that there is a direct correlation between deliverability

and a timely response to complaints. Why?

Repeatedly sending messages to recipients who have

opted-out of those messages is the fastest way to tank

your reputation. You can wind up in the spam folder, or

worse, be fired by your ESP.

3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS

14250ok.com | InboxPros.com

ISP’S & YOUR FBL EMAIL ADDRESS

Not all ISPs maintain an FBL, but it is important to get

signed up with all that are available. The one major ISP

that does not have a traditional FBL is Gmail, but they do

o�er your ESP the ability to receive alerts based on

complaints. New feedback loops come out frequently

and it is always a good idea to check and see if you are

signed up for any new ones. Recommended: bookmark

F E E D B A C K L O O P

ISP Notification Sends Report

Sender SuppressesAddress

Email Sent

ReceiverReports Spam

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https://250ok.com/email-deliverability/list-available-isp-feedback-loops/

3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS

15250ok.com | InboxPros.com

GETTING STARTED

Your ESP will typically sign you up and process these

complaints so they will be automatically suppressed

from further email campaigns. Make sure to confirm that

feature exists when you’re shopping for an ESP. Each

ISP has an application process to enable their FBL which

can usually be found on their postmaster site. The most

common information requested includes contact

information, IP address, and the designated FBL email

address for receiving reports.

While most FBLs are IP based, Yahoo! o�ers a

domain-based FBL and requires senders to authenticate

with DKIM to enable the feedback loop process. Also, as

part of Yahoo!’s application, you will be asked for the d=

and s= values from your DKIM signature. Be prepared to

spend a little extra time setting up Yahoo!.

this page at 250ok.com that includes an up-to-date list

of ISP feedback loops. Perform a periodic check to

ensure you are covering all the FBL bases.

As the sender, you should set up a dedicated email

account to receive the reports back from the ISP. You’re

going to need it as you register for FBLs. You can

consider adding a parsing script to the email account

that combs through the arriving messages to extract

critical information.

Once you begin receiving complaint reports from the ISP

that is sent to your FBL email address, it will contain a

copy of the email that triggered the spam complaint.

These messages coming from ISPs are typically in the

Abuse Reporting Format (ARF), and you are allowed to

collect the information contained in these reports which

include the message header and body. This is also

where you collect the complainant’s email address so

you can quickly suppress it.

For the sake of user privacy, some ISPs redact the

complainant’s email address from the message, which

can complicate the suppression process. Best-in-class

sender programs will include tracking links in the email

body or subscriber identifiers in the x-header that

provide signals to help identify the complainant.

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https://250ok.com/tour/reputation-informant/

Example of FBL monitoring via 250ok's Reputation Informant

3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS

16250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Don’t be a hero and try to manually manage the FBL

process. Technology is your friend. We recommend

using an email reputation monitoring tool like 250ok’s

Reputation Informant™ to manage the FBL process.

USE FBL MONITORING SOFTWARE

Using the right tool allows you to:

• Understand which campaigns are

generating the highest complaint

rates

• Identify the recipients hitting

“report as spam” most often

• Predict which of your IP addresses

are likely to be a�ected and at

which ISPs

• Easily export a list of complaints to

simplify your suppression process

Page 17: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

3 | FEEDBACK LOOPS

17250ok.com | InboxPros.com

If someone is hitting the “report as spam” button, they

want o� that stream. Make it so. Not making it so is

going to damage your sender reputation and, ultimately,

it’s going to hurt your brand.

If you receive a spam complaint on a piece of mail you

never sent, your IPs have likely been compromised and

you need to act. FBLs serve as a safety net and as a

component of your network security. Use them as such.

If you add campaign ID or list source ID to your email

headers, you give yourself the opportunity to identify

which campaigns and/or lists are causing headaches.

That base will give you a jumping-o� point for a deeper

analysis of content, timing, frequency, personalization

(or lack thereof ), and so on. Take the intelligence you

glean and apply it to your program.

BENEFITS OF A STRONG FBL PROCESS

It’s never too early to mention that the easiest way to

reduce spam complaints is to avoid spamming

strategies. Shocker, we know. Build a list of confirmed

opt-in subscribers (a.k.a., double opt-in), live up to the

frequency and volume you promised when they signed

up, and give them a clear path to unsubscribe. But

know that no matter how much TLC you put into your

program, you’re going to receive complaints. So, be

prepared.

Oh, and by the way, is your unsubscribe link broken?

Check that link early and often.

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND

Improving your program.

Protecting your reputation.

Watching your back.

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18

We’re going to put on our devil horns for a minute and

make the argument that there are situations where a

No-Reply works.

Yes, sending a message from a No-Reply is like calling a

consumer but muting their mic. You say what you want

to say and then force them into alternative options for

responding to you. It works for you, no doubt. But is it

ideal for them?

In the U.S., where receiving mail from a No-Reply

address is legal, the Department of Motor Vehicles or

Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in some states is an

example of a business that sends emails they never

want you to reply to.

The BMV is a state government organization, so there is

no competitive pressure on the business. They simply

don’t have to provide the same level of stellar customer

service as that of Macy’s, for example. Want to speak

with them? Go to one of their o�ces and take a number,

or use the live chat on their website during business

hours. It’s their way or the highway.

SAY “HELL NO” TO THE NO-REPLY

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4 | NO-REPLY

19250ok.com | InboxPros.com

What about businesses that are in heated competition

for consumers, or those aiming to please and retain

subscriber bases? For those senders, our

recommendation is to avoid the No-Reply routine.

Example of BMV email footer

BENEFITS OF SAYING NO TO ‘NO-REPLYS’

Unsubscribe flexibility. You’re including

contact information and an unsubscribe

link in the body of the No-Reply, but

some subscribers will inevitably be too

impatient to jump through your hoops

and want to reply with a request to

unsubscribe. It’s going to happen. Now

guess what those subscribers are likely

to do once they realize you are making

them work to unsubscribe?

Address book. It certainly is not

instinctive to add an address starting

with “No-Reply@” to your contact list.

With the average American being

served 362 advertisements per day

(Media Dynamics), reducing

unnecessary barriers to purchase or

engagement feels like a sound

practice. Of course, if you work at the

BMV, barriers are probably not a

concern.

This email was sent by: Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles

100 North Senate Avenue, Room N440 Indianapolis, IN 46204

Please do not reply to the email. To contact the BMV, use

myBMV.com or 888-692-6841

Unsubscribe

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Deep cleanse. By sorting through

these responses, you’ll be able to see

if addresses are still valid. For example,

an auto-responder might notify you

that someone is no longer at that

company. You will also get the

automatic responses when an email

address bounces or fails. Remove

inactive subscribers, update new

contact information and domain

changeovers.

Engagement Metrics. We know that

mailbox providers generally view

recipient engagement with mail as a

positive signal. As a result, it’s our

opinion that when you have the

opportunity to o�er better engagement

with a message, you do so.

More Human Than Human. Well, not

more human, but bringing a human

approach to your marketing

communications, like allowing people

4 | NO-REPLY

20250ok.com | InboxPros.com

to directly respond to your messages,

is something we advise.

I FOUGHT THE LAW

Personal marketing and support preferences aside,

there is one non-negotiable regulation in place: If you

send direct marketing mail to subscribers in the

European Union, Article 13 requires a sender to

include a “valid address” to which the recipient can

reply with a request to unsubscribe. Learn about more

global email regulations here.

Think your consumer or subscriber base will expand to

the E.U.? Save yourself future work and ditch the

No-Reply approach now.

Page 21: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

21

With email marketing, you have a golden opportunity to

dramatically move the business needle. A 2015

MarketingSherpa survey (graph on pg. 22) found 72%

of consumers say that email is their preferred form of

communication with companies they do business with.

61% say they like to receive promotional emails weekly

with 28% wanting them more frequently. The only

demographic exception in this survey was among

females 65 or older, where 64% preferred email to

postal mail. They are ready.

As you race to communicate with your audience,

remember that everything you do as a marketer is

influencing what consumers think about your brand. No

matter how grandiose or subtle, every action by you

that registers with a consumer creates an impression.

As you engage them, providing the experience they

expect (or better yet, over-delivering) is critical - some

studies have shown that it can take 12 positive

experiences to make up for one unresolved negative

experience (

Newell-Lengner).

Picture this: Your customer is sitting in gridlocked tra�c

when she hears a “ding” from her phone. She stops

SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS

Understanding Customers,

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5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS

22250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Page 23: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

trying to break-up the chaos of her kids fighting in the

backseat to check her email – she’s expecting to get an

email about an o�er she’s made on a house. With one

hand on the wheel and the other on her phone, which

we do not condone even in gridlock, she discovers

you’ve sent her your third email of the day. But you

promised you would only send one message per week.

You promised! The last email doesn’t even include an

o�er, but that’s why she signed up in the first place. If

she wasn’t so busy, she would opt-out, right now. To

Bezos’ point, what she’s saying about you right now is

what your brand means to her.

5 | SETTING SUBSCRIBER EXPECTATIONS

23250ok.com | InboxPros.com

For marketers that have already gone through a brand

strategy exercise, you probably have a strong sense of

what will work with your audience. As a byproduct, you

baked up which audiences to target, what

content/o�ers will be meaningful, and how to deliver it

all via email. And for you, the email marketer, your

competitive research of successful email programs

revealed what other brands promise, what personal

SETTING THE TABLE

We cover Seth Godin in greater detail in our Let Them

Eat Ham: Permission Marketing chapter, but this is

where you define the promise of what you will deliver to

those who give you permission. This promise, and

examples of what it entails – a video example, an

infographic, a coupon – is likely where you will win or

lose your attempt to build a new connection (i.e., adding

a new subscriber).

DEFINING YOUR PROMISE (WITH EMAIL)

“In order to get permission, you make a

promise. You say, ‘I will do X, Y and Z, I hope

you will give me permission by listening.’ And

then, this is the hard part, that’s all you do.”

- SETH GODIN

data they collect and how they leverage it, content

format and quality level, mail frequency options, single

opt-in vs. double opt-in, and so on. You have a firm

grasp on your space. If you don’t, you should.

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You have multiple touchpoints available to set customer

expectations when it comes to your email program.

Never miss an opportunity to reinforce what you do,

how you do it, and why it’s meaningful for them.

COMMUNICATING THE PROMISE

Landing pages & other registration

(i.e., opt-in) screens. Make your pitch

and explain the benefit of being

subscribed. Talk about the type of

content you share and the frequency

at which a subscriber can expect to

receive messages from you.

Confirmation emails & thank you

pages. This is your chance to

reconfirm everything, so list the bullet

points you covered at the opt-in point.

For double opt-in lists, this

opportunity allows you to reconfirm

everything before you begin.

Digital Touchpoints

Welcome emails. Trigger this

message to go out immediately and,

yes, hit them with a rezcap of the

program. Show them how to update

their preferences if that’s available.

Hand them the keys to your kingdom.

Within every email. ESPs often

provide a template that includes all

the key information you are legally

obligated to include in every email

(e.g., postal address, unsubscribe

link), but consider including a simple

sentence towards the header or

footer that reminds them about your

purpose and the expected message

frequency. Also, adding your Privacy

Policy and Terms of Use/Service

within the footer is a pro move.

Unsubscribe screens. Make opt-out a

breeze, and a two-click process at the

most. If you o�er the ability to update

preferences, show that here.

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Preference center. Allowing

subscribers to update their

preferences mid-stream will help

reduce churn. If you manage multiple

email lists, we recommend that you

allow users to choose between opting

out of a single email list or opting out

of all streams you o�er. CAN-SPAM

requires that a sender o�er the ability

to unsubscribe from all future emails

from any main list or sub-list (a.k.a.,

the "universal unsubscribe").

Privacy Policy & Terms of

Use/Service. Both are important

locations where you set expectations.

CONSUMERS SHOW UP WITH THEIR OWNEXPECTATIONS

Consumers have a ton of experience with email. As a

result, they bring a set of pre-baked expectations to this

process:

Hold the spam. You would be

amazed at the number of big

companies still buying/renting lists.

Consumers don’t appreciate it.

Deliver on promise. You can do

everything else right on this list, but

fail them and nothing else will matter.

Delight them or behold the dreaded

list churn.

Let them drive. Leave the “send me

tons of email” checkbox unchecked

by default and earn the subscription.

Make it simple. At every touchpoint,

customers expect things to be made

simple.

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Be flexible. Sophisticated email

programs give subscribers flexibility in

what and how they consume. Do your

research and meet your consumer

where they want to be met. Anything

less is you failing to be the best

marketer you can be.

Be reasonable & protective. Only ask

for the minimum amount of data

required. Do not share their email

address or other data with a third

party without express permission to

do so. Provide easy access to the

Privacy Policy. Take care with their

data.

Pay attention. From monitoring

opt-ins, unsubscribes, complaints,

support feedback, surveys, and

customers flaming or loving your on

social media, always be listening

across all channels.

What about personalization as a consumer

expectation? 73% of consumers prefer to do business

with brands that use personal information to make

their shopping experiences more relevant (Digital

Trends), so don’t be afraid to ask for data that helps

you improve their experiences.

Example of personalization within email copy

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CONTINUALLY MEETINGEXPECTATIONS

See, that’s the thing about expectations: they never

end. When setting expectations for subscribers, it’s

exponentially easier to make a promise than to keep

one. You’re nodding your head right now. You know

it’s true, but that lazy marketing devil on your

shoulder won’t shut up.

“Tina’s on vacation. We knew it was coming, but we

failed to prepare. Oh, well. I know we promise a video

with every message, but missing it once won’t matter,”

the marketing devil recommends.

Don’t fall for it. Send what you promised to send.

Don’t send more or less frequently than the

expectation you set. If you promised this stream has a

20% o� deal or more in every message, deliver it.

Failing to do so will compromise the integrity of the

stream.

OUR 4 BIG TAKEAWAYS

We’ve shared a bunch of information in this chapter,

but here are the four high-level takeaways to

remember:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Do your research on your target

audience and existing customer base.

Learn what makes them tick. Design

your program to meet their desires.

Under-promise and over-deliver on

your content or o�ers. Wow them,

consistently. Remember, nothing else

matters if you don’t.

Use the touchpoints you have with

consumers or subscribers to

communicate expectations.

Listen to all the feedback signals

within your reach and adjust

accordingly.

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28

The opt-in is the process of a subscriber enrolling in a

mail stream. There are a numerous subcategories of

opt-in according to a variety of email professionals we

respect; however, we like to narrow this down to three

main types: single opt-in, double opt-in, and

unconfirmed opt-in.

Like most marketing campaigns, we advise taking into

consideration the campaign characteristics like target

audience, the country of origin of the audience (and the

laws in place), and any previous deliverability problems

before making a decision. More about this later.

To give you a sense of the landscape,

MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Report (2013) found 39% of programs were deploying double

opt-in campaigns. However, the 250ok study How The Top 500 Internet Retailers Collect Email Sign-ups

(2016) reviewed the top 500 internet retailers which

included over 1,000 websites, revealed that only 9% of

these retailers were using double opt-in. ESPs like

MailChimp strongly recommend their customers use

double opt-in in an e�ort to reduce spam, and the

promise of better long-tail engagement.

SINGLE OPT-IN VS. DOUBLE OPT-IN

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SINGLE OPT-IN

Single opt-in (SOI), or just “opt-in,” is a process that does

not require a new subscriber to confirm their

registration. Upon initial registration by the new

subscriber, their email address is instantly added to your

email list and you can begin sending to that address.

UNCONFIRMED OPT-IN

Unconfirmed opt-in (UOI), or unverified opt-in, is when a

sender enrolls an address to their mailing list without

verifying if the address owner has provided permission

or not. Say “hello” to spam.

Example of a single opt-in program

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DOUBLE OPT-IN

Double opt-in (DOI), or closed-loop opt-in/confirmed

opt-in, is a process that requires a new subscriber to

confirm their registration. This confirmation typically

occurs through a verification email sent to the new

Example of a double opt-in program

subscriber immediately following their initial

registration that requires them to click a link. Only

after the confirmation is verified will the new

subscriber be added to the email list.

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SHOW ME THE MONEY

If ROI is your top KPI, you curious about the cash. The case for double opt-in Improving the Return on Investment (ROI) for Direct Email Campaigns authors

report an average ROI for a DOI list may vary from 33%

to 102% as compared to only –6% to 58% for an SOI list.

But other anecdotal, yet interesting, studies from

marketers like Jarom Adair of Solopreneur Marketing

make a case for SOI. In Jason’s test, he set up two email

lists, one with SOI and one with DOI. The tests ran

side-by-side until both lists had a minimum of 1,000

subscribers. The result was interesting: •

“Only requiring a single opt-in to

join your email list seems to work out better

because you get more subscribers.”

- JAROM ADAIR

Subscribers: By the time the DOI list

achieved 1000 subscribers, the SOI

list acquired 1249 subscribers.

Opens: He designed a five-part

welcome series of auto responder

emails and measured engagement.

SOI had a 63.8% open rate with a 17%

CTR, and DOI had a 57.6% open rate

with a 15.6% CTR.

Orders: The SOI list generated 14

orders while the DOI list drove 12.

ROI: Unfortunately, the order values

and ROI were not reported. Also, we

have no sense of the lifetime value

(LTV) each list drove.

Spam complaints: This was another

metric omitted which we feel is critical

for a healthy comparison.

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http://www.isipp.com/documents/The-Case-for-COI.pdf

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PROS & CONS OF OPT-INS

The following points are commonly cited pros and cons

regarding both approaches.

Committed subscribers. You have a

built a list of people that actually want

to be on it. Congratulations.

Cleaner Data. By its nature, this DOI

process yields cleaner lists by

creating protection from typos, spam

bots, revenge spam, and subscribers

that had a change of heart

mid-confirmation process.

Confirmed proof of permission. If

subscribers begin hitting the spam

button, you have evidence of their

permission. You might need this in

Germany or elsewhere.

Pros of using double opt-in:

Extra work. It’s an extra step for

subscribers. Some people will not

mind, others will be annoyed.

Leakage. This is the group of new

subscribers that initiate but fail to

complete the DOI process. They can

leak for multiple reasons: the extra

step required, got distracted,

misunderstood the confirmation email

instructions, confirmation email hit a

di�erent tab and was missed,

confirmation email failed to deliver,

and so on. People like Smart Insights’

Tim Watson say that the leakage rate

is commonly around 20% with 40%

leakage not being unheard of.

Process failure. More than 15% of

homepage and site registration email

sign-up processes resulted in failure,

according to a study of more than 160

B2C brands by ExactTarget.

Cons of using double opt-in:

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Revenge Spam. The act of signing

someone else up to a list to get back

at them. “I just signed my

ex-boyfriend up for Dr. Phil’s emails.

Maybe he’ll get the hint.”

Cons of using single opt-in:

Simplicity for subscribers. The user

that wants to receive mail from you

will find the SOI process easiest. It’s a

one-step action.

Instant satisfaction. There is no delay

or time gap in the registration process

like there is with DOI. Everybody’s

happy.

List growth speed. Because of the

simplicity advantage in the

registration process, the SOI

programs typically produce higher

numbers of registrants more quickly.

Pros of using single opt-in:

33250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Fake emails. Some subscribers are

willing to try entering a fake email

address to gain access to content.

Content marketers gating content

should expect to see some emails

bounce and your CRM to have some

bogus contacts.

Your haters. Everybody has some and

yours might intentionally register

address of known anti-spammers, your

competition, or known troublemakers.

Honest typos. It’s inevitable that some

percentage of new subscribers will

accidentally fat finger their email

address upon registration. Mailing to

these addresses will negatively impact

your reputation.

List hygiene overtime. You’re going to

need to put in some overtime on the

list hygiene work with these SOI lists.

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CLEANER DATA WITHOUT DOI?

You can jump through other hoops to improve the

quality of your SOI lists:

List verification. List verification

services from companies like

BriteVerify, StrikeIron, LeadSpend, and

FreshAddress are used to identify

bad addresses. We are seeing more

integrations at the ESP level which

will create better ease of use for

senders.

Double-entry confirmation. Asking a

new subscriber to enter their email

twice is a simple and immediate

quality check. But let’s face it, it’s not

uncommon to copy and paste the

initial email into the secondary field in

this scenario. We do.

Non-starters. Assuming your

deliverability to a list is strong,

subscribers that have failed to

engage with your emails in any way

within the first 120 days or the first 10

messages are what Chad White of

Litmus calls Never-Actives. These

subscribers present a risk to your

sender reputation and it’s in your best

interest to find a way to trigger their

engagement or cut them loose. We

agree.

REALITY CHECK

This is how we see it:

If you want to minimize your risk of

being blacklisted, use DOI.

If your top KPI is “build a huge

freaking list,” use SOI.

Will engagement metrics be stronger

on DOI? We have shown anecdotal

evidence of varying results.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

For us? We fancy ourselves as idealists. Our top KPI is

the evolution of email. We dream of a world without

spam, where advances in sending technology allow for

extraordinarily personalized experiences, and, as a

result, a world where the consumer places even greater

value on the email channel as a whole.

But the current engagement and revenue generated by

SOI lists mean most businesses are unlikely to switch

just for the sake of creating a better email experience

for humans. We get it.

Will DOI improve the long-tail value of

a list? You’re going to need to test.

Don’t base your decision o� of a

couple email marketing blogs, test

with your audience, your promise,

your content/o�ers, and program

management team. Test, review, and

react.

Through countless conversations with marketers about

what it would take for them to move to DOI, we have

uncovered some interesting potential hooks. Look for

a future blog post on 250ok.com addressing this topic.

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36

Remember Seth Godin? If you don’t, you’re probably

younger than us. Savor it while you can. The point is that

it’s impossible for us to talk about permission-based

marketing without tipping our hat to Seth Godin and his

1999 book, Permission Marketing. Here, he coined the

term permission marketing - the process of earning a

voluntary opt-in, or situational permission, from potential

customers. Little did we know at the time how important

his thinking on the topic would prove to be, and how it

would still be a conversation point today.

That being said, some businesses keep spamming for a

reason: it works. For a surprising number of companies

that will not advertise this fact, spam drives enough

revenue to justify their deliverability headaches and the

poor customer experience it creates. At least, that’s

what they think.

But regulations in the E.U. and Canada’s CASL are

beginning to change that reality. As the total number of

worldwide email accounts is expected to increase to

over 5.2 billion accounts by 2018 – a growth of more

than 26% (Radicati Group) – we are bullish that legal

pressures will continue to mount around the world and

drive regulations regarding spam.

LET THEM EAT HAM: PERMISSION MARKETING

Permission Marketing

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7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

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DEFINING SPAM

In the face of Seth’s rallying cry, the CAN-SPAM Act of

2003 was passed in the United States which made the

spamming of Americans legal with a few conditions.

In an e�ort to make sure we’re all on the same page,

let’s define spam. Here is Wikipedia’s take: “Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email (UBE) [or unsolicited commercial email (UCE)], is a subset of electronic spam involving nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email.”

The key is the combination of “unsolicited” and “bulk.”

The two of those things by themselves do not constitute

spam.

We see some blogs and media sites publishing lists of

companies “spamming” customers because they send

so much mail (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook).

For example, Unroll.me’s 2016 Spammy Awards is an

interesting read. But if a consumer asked to receive a

daily deal email, a sender is not spamming when they

send the requested mail. Also, if you, as a subscriber of

these companies, wish to turn o� notifications or change

email frequency, you typically can. And you can always

opt-out, which is one of the conditions of CAN-SPAM. We

need to be careful about what we call spam.

Hard-core spam? Spamhaus, creators of The 10 Worst

Spammers list, report that up to 80% of spam targeted at

global internet users is generated by a group of

approximately 100 known spam operations.

“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the

right) of delivering anticipated, personal and

relevant messages to people who actually want

to get them.” - SETH GODIN

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In the face of Seth’s rallying cry, the CAN-SPAM Act of

2003 was passed in the United States which made the

spamming of Americans legal with a few conditions.

In an e�ort to make sure we’re all on the same page,

let’s define spam. Here is Wikipedia’s take: “Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email (UBE) [or unsolicited commercial email (UCE)], is a subset of electronic spam involving nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email.”

The key is the combination of “unsolicited” and “bulk.”

The two of those things by themselves do not constitute

spam.

We see some blogs and media sites publishing lists of

companies “spamming” customers because they send

so much mail (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook).

For example, Unroll.me’s 2016 Spammy Awards is an

interesting read. But if a consumer asked to receive a

daily deal email, a sender is not spamming when they

7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

38250ok.com | InboxPros.com

2 TYPES OF PERMISSION

There are two common types of permission that are

known by several di�erent names.

Implied permission, the weakest form of consent, refers

to a contact for whom it is reasonable to believe that

you have permission to send messages. Implied is

based on you having a prior relationship with the

contact. The requirements associated with this type of

send the requested mail. Also, if you, as a subscriber of

these companies, wish to turn o� notifications or change

email frequency, you typically can. And you can always

opt-out, which is one of the conditions of CAN-SPAM. We

need to be careful about what we call spam.

Hard-core spam? Spamhaus, creators of The 10 Worst

Spammers list, report that up to 80% of spam targeted at

global internet users is generated by a group of

approximately 100 known spam operations.

permission vary by country but typically limit the access

to these contacts based on the length of time since their

last business engagement (e.g., a purchase, a lease, a

consultation, etc.) with your company.

The transactional mail of today falls into this category.

Purchase receipts, shipping notifications, and changes to

a company’s privacy policy are all examples of implied

permission. Of course, implied permission can

technically include a giveaway registration at a trade

show booth, an exchange of business cards, or a simple

verbal request. Thinking about adding people to email

lists without verifying they want on them makes us

uncomfortable, and we do not recommend that practice.

Along these lines, some claim we are seeing the limit of

implicit permission being tested by businesses that use

inbound marketing tactics. Patrick Hathaway’s blog post

Is This What Seth Godin Meant By Permission

Marketing? details how downloading a single piece of

content, and not checking the opt-in box, resulted in his

inclusion on 19 di�erent mail lists. Needless to say, he

was not happy.

Implied (a.k.a., Implicit or Inferred)

Is This What Seth Godin Meant By Permission

Marketing?

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Explicit permission is real permission. This exchange is

where the sender makes a promise about the value of

opting into a specific list and a subscriber decides if that

sounds interesting or not. The subscriber must opt-in for

the sender to possess explicit permission.

"Real permission is di�erent from presumed or

legalistic permission. Just because you

somehow get my email address doesn't mean

you have permission. Just because I don't

complain doesn't mean you have permission.

Just because it's in the fine print of your

privacy policy doesn't mean it's permission

either.” - SETH GODIN

3 MANTRAS FOR PERMISSION-BASED EMAILMARKETERS

We believe that Godin’s philosophy is just as important

today as it ever was. Remember, we are talking real

permission here, not implied.

The entire premise of permission is that you actually ask

and receive it. You shouldn’t buy lists, rent lists, or share

lists among friendlies. If you don’t have permission, don’t

mail them.

Nail your promise, show enticing examples of what they

will receive (i.e., the value), and drive awareness of your

o�er in places your audience spends time.

“In order to get permission, you make a promise. You

say, ‘I will do X, Y and Z, I hope you will give me

permission by listening.’ And then, this is the hard

part, that’s all you do.” - SETH GODIN

7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

Mantra #1 – Permission is granted, not fabricated

Explicit (a.k.a., Express or Express Consent)

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Understand your customer’s journey and how email will

play its role in that process. Many businesses are

building relationships with di�erent types of buyers, so

leverage segmentation to address the specialized

needs of each group.

For email marketers, the beginning comes in the form of

the welcome email or campaign. This initial message is a

great opportunity for you to convert as the average

open rate is approximately 50%. Don’t miss this chance,

and don’t delay in sending. Use an auto-responder to

kick-o� the welcome program upon opt-in.

Mantra #2 – Permission is only the beginning

“The goal of the Permission Marketer is to move

consumers up the permission ladder, moving them

from strangers to friends to customers. And from

customers to loyal customers. At every step up the

ladder, trust grows, responsibility grows, and profits

grow.” - SETH GODIN

7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

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Assuming you are keeping very close tabs on your email

deliverability with tools like 250ok, you can send with a

high degree of confidence that subscribers are receiving

your mail. Missing or blocked mail is you breaking the

promise in the eyes of the consumer.

Not even transaction mail has a right to be forced on

consumers. Target doesn’t make us leave their brick and

mortar stores with a receipt when we make a purchase,

so why should eCommerce? Updating your Privacy

Policy might be a big deal to you, but it doesn’t mean I

want to hear about it just because you captured my

Mantra #3 – Permission is fragile and impermanent

“The promise is the promise until both sides

agree to change it. You don’t assume that just

because you’re running for President or coming

to the end of the quarter or launching a new

product that you have the right to break the deal.

You don’t.” - SETH GODIN

address six months ago when I downloaded a white

paper. If customers want to opt-out of transactional

messages from you, allow them. If they don’t want those

messages, they will find a more painful way to shut you

out. Let them eat ham.

You don’t have to wait for spam complaints to

unsubscribes to figure out you might be heading

towards a break-up.

Early warning signs (assuming your mail is being

delivered):

Open rates. If this number is going

downward, you’re doing it wrong.

Click-thru rates. A decline in CTR is

an indicator that you might be missing

the mark with your content,

messaging, or o�ers.

Tab movement. If a subscriber moves

you from their Gmail inbox to the

promotions tab, you might be heading

in the wrong direction.

7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

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Don’t give up too quickly. For email addresses that have

gone stale – commonly 3 to 6 months without an open

(depending on the frequency of the mailings), try

sending a reconfirmation campaign. These campaigns

are sent to existing email subscribers to reconfirm

permission to send. The email asks the subscriber if

they’d like to remain on your mailing list, or if they’d like

to be removed. A reconfirmation message should be

sent periodically to avoid high bounces, complaints, and

unsubscribes.

You’ve were given permission to feed them ham...

NOW GO DO IT!

7 | PERMISSION MARKETING

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43

You didn’t think you were getting through this series on

email deliverability best practices without some

semi-technical email talk, did you? Welcome to our

chapter on email authentication.

Email authentication allows Internet Service Providers

(ISPs) to accurately identify the sender of an email and,

based on the outcome of the authentication process,

decide what will be done with that message.

Authentication has moved from being a

recommendation to a mandatory practice as spammers

have become more malicious and clever. By spoofing

your domain (i.e., your identity), spammers use a

technique called phishing to trick your customers out of

passwords, personal information, and, sometimes, cash.

(Note: The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) says it observed a record-breaking 250% surge in phishing attacks between October 2015 and March 2016.)

For most email marketers, you probably have a

dedicated email ops sta� or person that helps handle

your authentication. However, phishing attacks can have

such a serious impact on your brand, we feel that it’s

imperative for you to have a basic understanding of

authentication. Knowledge is power.

EMAIL AUTHENTICATION: SAFETY FIRST

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8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

AUTHENTICATION TOOL: SPF

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a path authorization

mechanism. Email spam and phishing often use a forged

from address, so publishing and checking SPF records

are recommended anti-spam techniques. SPF says that a

message claiming to be from a given domain was

allowed to be sent over a given IP. The list of authorized

sending IPs for a domain is published in the Domain

Name System (DNS) records for that domain. It’s critical

to keep those IP addresses up-to-date within your DNS

records.

SPF has a reputation of being easy to implement, but it

is also universally known as being easy to screw up.

Proceed with care.

SENDS EMAIL

RECEIVES AUTHORIZED

EMAIL

VERIFIESSPF

RECORDSERVER

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8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

AUTHENTICATION TOOL: DKIM

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a content

verification mechanism. It simply says whether a

message has been modified since it was sent. DKIM

intended to prevent forged sender addresses in emails,

a technique often used in phishing and email spam.

Upon sending an email, digests of the message body

and headers are computed then encrypted with a

private key and both values are stored in the message.

The recipient does the same in reverse and uses the

public key to decrypt the encoded digest. If the values

match, the message was not modified.

Your ESP will keep the private key on the Mail Transport

Agent (MTA), while you will update your DNS records

with the public key. It is worth noting here that DKIM is

required for getting enrolled in the Yahoo! and Gmail

feedback loops - something we feel is mandatory.

SENDING MAILSERVER (SIGNING MTA)

PRIVATE KEY SIGNED

MAIL OUT

RECEIVING MAILSERVER (VERIFYING MTA)

VERIFIED

MAIL IN

MAILBOX

RETRIEVEPUBLIC KEY

PUBLISHEDPUBLIC KEY

DNS SERVER

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46250ok.com | InboxPros.com

8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

10 STEPS TO GETTING STARTED WITH DMARC

Authenticate using both SPF and

DKIM.

Create a list of all IP addresses -

internal and at your ESP - that you use

to send email.

Ensure that your domains are

correctly aligning the appropriate

identifiers.

Create your authentication record on

SPF and DKIM, then publish them.

Setup your mail server to sign

outbound email with DKIM.

Test your records. DKIM has two

testing tools: the Policy Record Tester

and Selector Record Tester. SPF has a

series of testing tools available on

their website.

Publish a DMARC record with the

“none” flag set for the policy so you

can begin receiving reports.

Analyze the data and modify your mail

streams as appropriate.

Modify your DMARC policy flags from

“none” to “quarantine” to “reject” as

you gain experience and review the

reports.

Use a software platform like 250ok to

monitor DMARC.

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47250ok.com | InboxPros.com

8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

YOU RECIPIENT’S MAIL SERVER

RECEIVESMESSAGE

CHECKS REPUTATION,

BLACKLISTS, & AUTHENTICATION

PASS

QUARANTINE

REJECT

VALIDATE SPF& DKIM

DMARC POLICY

INBOX

SPAM

BLOCK

MAILBOX

APPLY DMARCPOLICY

SPAM FILTERSCONTENT SCORING

DIPOSITIONYOUR MAIL SERVER ADDS

DKIM SIGNATURE

COMPOSE &SEND EMAIL

D M A R C

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LOOKING FORWARD

Most ESPs will set up your account with SPF and DKIM.

DMARC is often an added requirement, but worth

inquiring about if you do not have the internal resources

to make it a reality. After reading this chapter, check

your email headers and make sure you see SPF, DKIM,

and DMARC pass, or have your email ops sta� assist

you. If you are unable to do so, feel free to reach to us

for a consultation.

It's critical to review and perform email authentication

testing on an ongoing basis. This includes making sure

that the emails continue to pass SPF and DKIM checks.

We often find that someone may make a change to a

DNS record that may cause authentication failures.

There are a lot of moving parts with here, but buckle

down and ensure your program is always on top of

authentication and DMARC.

48250ok.com | InboxPros.com

8 | EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

Page 49: 9 Things Every Marketer Must Know About Email - Redesign

Being a spammer. If your sender

reputation is low due to spamming,

you might have issues.

Hitting rate limits. Limits might

include the number of emails sent per

minute/hour, SMTP connections per

minute/hour, and the number of

emails sent by each SMTP

connection.

Sending from an unknown IP. Until an

ISP has enough data to determine

WHAT CAN CAUSE A THROTTLE?

HTTP://WWW.TRIPWIRE.COM/STATE-OF-SECURITY/FEATURED/PHISHING-FRENZY-THE-GOOD-THE-BA

D-AND-HOW-YOU-CAN-PROTECT-YOURSELF/

49

Email throttling is the act of limiting the number of email

messages simultaneously sent to one ISP or remote

server. A deferral is what happens to a message when

you’re throttled. The message is not accepted and it is

handed back to you with a slap on the wrist and a

request to come back later.

What’s the point? Throttles limit the amount of damage a

spammer can do. When a non-spammer is hit with a

throttle, it’s because they’ve been careless.

EMAIL THROTTLING: SLOW & LOW TO DELIVERY

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your IP reputation, you will be under

increased scrutiny and, likely, rate

limits. This typically occurs when an IP

has not been warmed up properly.

All ports full. When a receiving server

does not have any open ports

available to receive email.

Mailbox is full. When the recipient’s

mailbox is full and unable to receive

more mail.

50250ok.com | InboxPros.com

9 | EMAIL THROTTLING

Spam complaints. When your mail

has trigger increased spam

complaints but not enough for the

server to block you. The receiving

server shifts to a holding pattern on

receiving more mail from you until

other recipients have reacted to the

mail already delivered.

RECIPIENT’S ISPSENDER RECIPIENT'S MAILBOX

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Most ESPs will attempt the delivery of your mail for up to

72 hours. If your mail remains deferred past this period,

it’s likely that there is another cause beyond throttling

and they will often convert your deferral to a hard

bounce and possibly move the address to your block

list.

51250ok.com | InboxPros.com

9 | EMAIL THROTTLING

WHAT DOES THROTTLING LOOK LIKE?

You’ve just sent an epic campaign and begin to check

the email activity.

You see a lot of “deferred” where you expected to see

“delivered.” Know that a “deferral” and “throttled” and

“soft bounces” are synonymous in the email world. A

large number of email is being deferred, but you’re not

seeing many hard bounces.

Some ISPs provide detailed bounce codes that may be

related to sending emails too quickly. Examples include

the RP-001 error from Outlook, and the TS01 and TS02

bounce codes from Yahoo!. These SMTP errors are

almost always reported as a 400 class error. It is not

uncommon for a response of “User is receiving mail at

too great a rate right now, please try again later,” “User’s

mailbox is over quota,” or “Too many connections from

your host.”

Example of a Bounce Code

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52250ok.com | InboxPros.com

9 | EMAIL THROTTLING

AVOIDING TROUBLE

There are six key tactics that help avoid a throttling situation:

Work with a stellar ESP, one that has a

robust feature set to handle throttling.

Consult with an expert deliverability

agency like Inbox Pros, expert in-house

sta�, or with consultation from your ESP.

Only send from fully warmed IPs.

Schedule your emails to send over an

extended period of time.

Expand the runway leading up to your

desired completion date. Start sending

earlier.

Segment your emails by domain or split

your lists into multiple parts. Remember,

we have recommended that you split

transactional and marketing email at a

bare minimum. Ideally, your program also

isolates riskier lists on their own IPs.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Email throttling is an integral part of email deliverability.

Each ISP has their own threshold which they constantly

evolve. Follow our recommendations and you will be o�

to a great start.

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53

EMAIL DELIVERABILITY WRAP-UP

We covered Deliverability Branding, Shared IP vs.

Dedicated IP, Feedback Loops, No-Reply’s, Setting

Subscriber Expectations, Single Opt-In vs. Double

Opt-In, Permission Marketing, Email Authentication, and

Email Throttling. While there are other important topics,

we felt this base was a solid starting point.

Please feel free to contact 250ok with questions,

anytime. And thanks, again, for stepping up your

deliverability game with us.

250ok contact email: [email protected]

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

54

GREG KRAIOS

250ok.com | InboxPros.com

Greg Kraios is the founder and CEO of email deliverability software company,

250ok. For over 15 years, this email entrepreneur has made his way from

ExactTarget to running his own flourishing email analyics company. Greg

consistently pushes the envelope to produce software that maximizes deliverability

across all systems.

250ok.https://250ok.comcom/

CHRIS ARRENDALEChris Arrendale is the founder and CEO of email deliverability and privacy

consulting firm, Inbox Pros. With over a decade and a half of experience, he

continues to solve a variety of clients’ deliverability and compliance challenges.

Chris works to ensure his client’s email reaches the inbox by providing

strategic guidance as well as hands-on support.

http://inboInboxpros.com/xPros.com

Inbox Pros

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250ok.com | InboxPros.com© 2016, 250OK LLC.