Email Deliverability

[Anonymous]

If I follow the best practices, such as setting up my DKIM, SPF, Whitelisting, Email Invalid cleanup, get on a Trusted IP, etc. and still experience deliverability rates of let’s say, 80%, what more can I do?  

[Anonymous]

SPF and DKIM: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000KyrDCAS 

Whitelisting: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000KypECAS

Branded Links: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000L3QKCA0 

Email Invalid Cleanup based on: http://community.marketo.com/MarketoArticle?id=kA050000000KytYCAS

[Anonymous]

Perhaps email in smaller batches.  I find that smaller batches have much better deliverability rates.

It also depends a lot on the type of email addresses you have.  If you have a lot of personal addresses (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, comcast, etc) then your emails might be being suspended by the ISP due to volume (small batch size should address this)

You may be able to ramp up batch size as deliverability improves and you begin to be seen as a "trusted" mailer.

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

If you warmed up your IP properly and you are still at 80%, then you can do what Jocelyn suggests by segmenting the database and email sends by personal domain and putting them out in batches. I think someone recommended 30-60min between sends for a domain.

But I suspect that your list is just bad. When I was around 85% I jumped to 98% by going through spam traps, multiple bounced leads, and people who hadn't done anything in awhile. Seems a bit odd that you'd have to cut 20% of your database to achieve 99% deliverability, but that's what needs to happen in many cases.

Another test after all this is to run smaller, more targeted offers on a consistent basis. 

I have also asked people to sign up specifically for a new list/offer from an old list so I know who is engaged.

[Anonymous]

Josh,

How did you ID the SPAM traps?  Did you use a 3rd Party company to help you?  If so, which one?  We are lost in the sea of options out there -- looking for best practices advice and recommended companies.

Re: soft bounces.  Do you treat all soft bounces the same?  Do you look at the email error codes to determine steps?  What is your process for categorizing these?

Thank you in advance!!
Kay Knowles
303-330-7321