How to Deliver eMails in a SPAM Filtered World

1. How to Deliver eMails in a SPAM Filtered World Peter Martin President Cactus Sky Communications, Inc. peter@cactusskyeMail.com 941-907-4132 954-205-7716 cell

2. Power of eMail • eMail earns the Highest ROI • Last year, the average return from every dollar spent on: • eMail Marketing was $45.06 • Newspaper advertising $16.86 • Direct mail of $15.55

3. The Value of eMail Per eMarketer: • Internet users in the US check their personal eMail throughout the day, including at work. • Over 70% of employed respondents also said they checked their personal eMail at work—and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day. • On average, business users spend over an hour per day managing their eMail account. • -Garner Report as reported in Digitrends Magazine

4. “It’s always easier and cheaper to keep oldcustomers than find new ones.” Dan Lawlor, senior analyst with J.D.Power,

5. Blocked eMail 20 percent of permission-based eMail messages are being blocked. The steps presented today will help you improve your eMail deliverability.

6. eMail Deliverability Challenges • Crowded inboxes • Creating compelling content • Testing and continuous improvement • Implementing personalized and segmented campaigns • Monitoring and analyzing program performance • Increasing revenue and return on investment

7. Poor Deliverability Poor deliverability costs your company significant revenue from: • Lost potential sales • Money wasted to create content • Building databases or lists • Sending messages that never reach their intended audiences

8. Reputation is the key to deliverability.

9. Minimize spam complaints America Online, for example, currently recommends keeping spam complaints below one per 1,000 messages.

10. Managing Complaints • Complaints are the #1 factor for deliverability • You need to set up and manage Feedback loops • Complaints are forwarded to sender’s abuse address for processing • Remove/suppress complaining addresses immediately • Analyze complaints for patterns • Frequency issue? • Relevancy issue?

11. Abuse Report

12. Spam Complaints • Complaints are the cause of ISP blacklisting. • Someone can complain or register your eMail as spam with the click of a mouse button. • When enough people do the same thing with your eMail, you will be blacklisted.

13. Your Sender Reputation Your sender reputation has become the primary check that ISP’s use when determining how to treat your eMail. • Use recognizable sender names and explicit subject lines. • Send only relevant, wanted content. • Message frequency: not too much, not too little

14. Opt in Permission • Define • Who the message will be from • Content you’ll be sending • Provide value & state the benefits • May want to show an example • The frequency of delivery • Display or link to privacy policy • Establish relevancy • Obtain segmentation information through preference center

15. ISP Monitoring

16. Database Development • Prospects • Leads from various lead providers • eMail address collected at the dealership • Customers • Sales/service/interaction • Ongoing communications • Service recalls

17. Maintain & Clean • Analyze your data and remove invalid addresses: • No spaces or special characters (i.e., commas) • Make sure eMails have a valid domain structure • Add data validation to your web sign up form • Remove: • Distribution addresses (i.e., sales@) • System addresses (i.e., postmaster@) • Any address with the word ‘spam’ in it • Complainers and inactives

18. Your customers The average dealership has less than 2%of its customers’ eMail addresses.

19. Average Match Rates Increase your dealershipseMail house list count by up to 30%.

20. eMail Enhancement Enhanced Consumer Database for Marketing Matching Process Your file is matched against our permission-based eMail append database. When a match is found, the eMail address is added to your file. Your existing customer database is sent to eMail Matching for processing. eMail Matching solution At the completion of the eMail matching Process, the enhanced file is sent back to you. A welcome eMail is sent to your customers introducing online communications to them, and giving them an opportunity to decline receiving any further online communications.

21. eMail Sign Up

23. Confirm Registrations

24. Address Book • Encourage new subscribers to add your eMail address to their address book. • These personal white lists are your fastest route to the inbox.

25. How to Improve Deliverability To achieve high deliverability rates requires involvement and cooperation from: • IT Department • Web designer/programmer • Copywriter • Marketing company • Database and list managers • Your staff on the front lines collecting eMail addresses • Executive management

26. Avoid Spammy Content • Avoid overaggressive language and spammy-looking content such as • Very large fonts • Using all caps • Big red letters • Anything that looks unprofessional and could be confused with a true spam eMail

27. “Catchy” vs “Spammy” • Run your copy through a content checker to identify any spam-like words, phrases or construction. • The content checker will tell you which phrases to avoid. • Two tricks that could trip a spam filter: • Subject lines in all capital letters • Using more exclamation points than necessary. • In fact, we recommend against using exclamation points at all if you can avoid it.

29. Service Coupons You can have an unlimited number of online coupons.

30. Relevancy • Relevant eMails equal: • Better opens, reads, clicks & conversion rates • Increased retention • Increased ROI • Enhanced deliverability • Easier to spot deliverability issues • Lower spam complaints

31. Online buying • One-third (33%) of users in a DoubleClick study had purchased something from a web site by clicking on a link in an eMail. • Another 42% clicked on an eMail link for more information, then purchased the product at a later time.

32. eMail Adoption Process Action Acceptance Comprehension Recall ROI Attention Builds Awareness Builds Intentions Builds Sales

33. Online Coupons 73% of consumers have a coupon for an online purchase. 59% have redeemed an online coupon offline.

34. HTML eMails • Optimize design and HTML coding for delivery and rendering. • Many self service programs create spammy code. • eMails that are improperly coded or designed will render poorly (particularly when images are blocked) and make your messages look untrustworthy and spam-like, increasing the chance of a spam complaint or unsubscribing.

35. HTML eMails

36. Sample eMail: Peter, I received your request for information regarding a Hummer.  Please let me know what you are interested in and I will assist you.Best regards,Mark "the bow tie guy"Cadillac and Hummer727-822-20

38. Benefits of HTML • If your message is promotional or informative, but not one you would typically send via post on letterhead, we recommend designing it in HTML. • HTML offers greater control over formatting, layout, color, fonts, graphics and branding. • A visually pleasing design can affect your reader’s ability to process and enjoy the information. • HTML design also opens up a wealth of possibilities and interactive functionality within each eMail. • It gives you the ability to embed forms, links and surveys to truly participate with your reader.

39. Frequency Reach your audience at the right time. • Frequency is determined by relevancy • No longer defined by calendar • Once per quarter, twice per month, once per week, once per day • As long as the message is relevant to the recipient, the audience will open, read, and respond to the message.

40. eNewsletters One of the most welcomed eMails.

41. Don’t over eMail • Stick to a frequency that you promised during the opt-in process. • Opt-in is the process of someone filling out a form on your web site. • We recommend twice a month. • Beginning of the month for service • Middle of the month for sales

42. Common Mistake Because eMail has such high potential ROI, many marketers and their internal stakeholders fall victim to the approach of, “If it works, let’s send more eMails.”

43. What happens when you hit send? Best case, it is delivered into the inbox.

44. Worst Case While ISPs and corporate filters all handle suspected spam messages differently, they generally are handled one of four ways: • Block it and return to sender with a message explaining the block • Block it without returning or notifying the sender • Route to the junk folder, often adding [SPAM] or similar notice to the subject line • Return it to you with a request to remove the subscriber if he or she clicked the spam button via a feedback loop

45. Authentication Verifies sender’s identity Accreditation Third-party verification of sender’s good habits Certification Tokenized proof of sender’s good reputation

46. Message Header The message header is the first thing that is seen by an eMail receiver (i.e. ISP) There are four major areas within an eMail header that should be checked prior to sending the message. These areas include: • Sender IP address • Host name of sender IP address • Envelope header From or Return Path address • Reply-To and From addresses

47. Authentication

48. Sender ID • The Sender ID Framework seeks to verify that every eMail message originates from the internet domain from which it claims to have been sent. • Sender ID validates the origin of eMail messages by verifying the address of the sender against the alleged owner of the sending domain. • Sender ID uses SPF records for part of this validation process.

49. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) • Most domains send outbound mail through relatively small number of servers. • Domains should describe that set of servers in an SPF record in their DNS. • Internet eMail receivers can then reject forged messages. • A typical SPF record looks like: fromaddressdomain.com IN TXT "spf2.0/pra include:sid.acme.com -all"

50. Domain Key Identified Mail (DKIM) • DKIM is a method for eMail authentication developed by YAHOO and now also used by other providers such as Gmail. • DKIM uses public-key cryptography to allow the signer to electronically sign legitimate eMails in a way that can be verified by recipients. • A typical DKIM DNS record has two parts that look like: key1._domainkey.acme12.com IN TXT “k=rsa\;p=key” AND _domainkey.acme.com IN TXT “t=y;o=~;”