1. Deliverability & The Realities and Demands of
Today’s Market
Presented by:
David Fowler | Act-On Chief Privacy & Deliverability Officer
david.fowler@act-on.net | #AOWEB

2. David Fowler
Chief Privacy & Deliverability
Officer
@ActOnSoftware
#AOWEB

3. Deliverability Wake Up
 The Realities:
 State of the email state
 Email and the law
 The Demands:
 Email performance realities
 Authentication
 Reputation
 Engagement
 Your path to the Inbox: The barriers to ROI
 Deliverability Feud – The game show for marketers!
 Receiver changes and expectations
 Final thoughts

4. Marketing Used to Be So Simple
Private and Confidential

5. But Not Anymore
Private and Confidential

6. The Value of Email
 3 Times as many email accounts as FB and Twitter accounts combined
 Total posts on FB and Twitter add up to 0.2% of all email traffic
 Total number of searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing equals just 1.1% of all email traffic
 4X as much email is sent as web sites are visited inclusive of social sites, search sites and
internet page views combined Source: Smarter Tools
Source: Smarter Tools
Private and Confidential

7. The Realities
THEY SEE YOU SEND

8. State of the Email State
 Email Deliverability = Brand Management
 Brand Management = Email Reputation
 Good Email Reputation = Better Deliverability
 Email Authentication is a Requirement
 User Engagement is now Paramount for Senders
 More aggressive filter implementation
 More streamlined industry organization/cooperation
 Continued legal | privacy | technology issues remain
 More informed clients as access to information is available
 There are still No Guarantees for delivery to any inbox

9. Email and the Law
 All major countries have some form of email / online
regulation and compliance obligations
 Canada to enact the CASL legislation in Q1 2013
 Not all privacy barriers are created equal:
 Privacy standards today are reverse in the US -vs- ROW
 Consent (opt-in) versus non consent (opt out)
 USA: You have several compliance issues to consider:
 CAN-SPAM | States Laws | Child Registries | FTC | FCC
 UK: Privacy & Electronics Communication & Regulation
 The FTC has prosecuted the behavior of an organizations
partners recently: Affiliate Marketers
 Privacy bill of rights release earlier this year

10. Performance Considerations
Deliverability is YOUR Responsibility
MAILING BUSINESS DESIGN & DATA
REPUTATION
SYSTEMS POLICIES CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Dedicated IP Legal Public & Private Design & Text Frequency
Shared IP Compliance Blacklists Elements in SL & Data Collection &
Affiliates, URL Blocklists Body Hygiene
Authentication
Advertisers & Abuse Boards Rendering Bounce
Volume & Advertising
Frequency Spam W3C Compliant Management
Management Permission Complaints HTML Feedback Loop
Practices Link Management
RFC Compliant Collaborative
Outbound & Filters Configuration Unsub
Inbound RFC Compliant Management
Processing User
Engagement Headers
Web Site
Transparency
 Deliverability: Are the messages received in the inbox?
 Renderability: Are images in emails viewable; do links work?
 Credibility: Do your customers trust the mail is from you?
 Brand Management: Does the email reflect your brand strategy?

11. The Demands

12. EMAIL AUTHENTICATION
Establishes YOUR Email Identity

13. Email Authentication

14. Email Authentication
 Proof of identity is achieved through the
following authentication protocols:
 SPF: Sender Policy Framework
 Sender ID
 DK/DKIM: Domain Keys / Identified Mail
 DMARC

15. Reputation & Engagement
=
Engaged Customer | Maximum Deliverability | ROI

16. Email Reputation
 20% of legitimate email never reaches the inbox
 Blame the ISPs and then look in the mirror
 Your sending reputation plays a MAJOR role
 It’s your sending practices that drive deliverability
 And reputation is all about YOUR NUMBERS

17. Email Reputation
 Majority of deliverability issues are based on reputation
 Your data that affects YOUR reputation:
 Authentication
 Email volume
 Complaint rates
 Your “Hard Bounce” rate
 Spam trap hits
 Consumer engagement – Very Important!
 To protect your reputation:
 MONITOR your sends
 To repair your reputation:
 FIX THE PROBLEMS – data integrity / confirmed opt-in

18. ISP Reputation vs. Content Filtering
Source: Return Path
18

19. Email Reputation

20. Engagement
 Means the degree to which your email subscribers are interested in
and acting on your email messages
 In the ways you want and expect, including:
 Add to the address book | safe sender lists
 Clicks & opens
 Sales conversions
 Frequency of mail
 Email folder management
 Hotmail’s engagements metrics include:
 Messages read, then deleted by the subscriber
 Messages deleted without being read
 Messages replied to, a tough one in the email marketing space
 Frequency of receiving and reading a message from a particular
"From" address
20

21. The Barriers to the Inbox

22. • DELIVERABILITY
• Myths or Realities?
DELIVERABILITY
FEUD
with your charming host, David Fowler
22

23. Common Myths and Realities
Let’s start
the show...

24. There is an ISP “Bat Phone” to call. There has NEVER been a bat phone.
Authentication gets me delivered Authentication is a first step in
to the inbox. building your identity.
There’s a magic list of words you Reputation has more influence
can’t use in your content – like free. today than your content.
Everyone hits the spam button sometime.
Confirmed opt-in members If you are confirmed opt in it could be
won’t hit the spam button. more unlikely.
CAN-SPAM is a minimum threshold of
Being CAN-SPAM compliant will compliance. Has no impact on reputation
keep me from being considered spam. or deliverability.
Definition of spam as abusive email. As opposed to unwanted email.
I’m on a blacklist, is my It depends on which blacklist you are on.
deliverability going to be poor? Some are more serious than others.
24

25. I mail at night because the ISPs These decisions are being made
do not watch during those hours. computationally and not by humans.
Send more mail: Increased mail frequency Incorrect in 2012; engagement is more
will increase your metrics. important than quantity.
My sales will decrease if I As you build relevancy, you build consumer
use “confirmed opt-in”. engagement, which leads to greater ROI.
My list is different so I don’t need The principles of permission don’t change
“confirmed opt-in”. based on list type.
This may eliminate one-time issues, but if
I scrub with a third-party service your data collection practices are poor,
so my list is problem free. you’ll have continued issues.
I have signed up with a third-party reputation These services are based on complaints
service so all my problems are solved. and user feedback = a work-in-progress.
My ESP is responsible for my Your ESP is your partner and not
performance and results. responsible for your performance.
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26. ISP Changes and Expectations
 Major headcount reduction and consolidation
 Outsourcing postmaster duties, delivery management and functionality
(FBLs)
 ISPs Have evolved: They don’t consider themselves ISPs
 Creating features that allow the user to control their in-box
 Offering additional filtering options for inbox management
 Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! have enhanced user experience options
 User control equates to engagement = This is good (ROI)
 Authentication is a REQUIREMENT now
 Deliverability decision making is a reality
 No authentication: do not pass go straight to the junk folder

27. Deliverability vs. ISP Remediation
Deliverability ISP Remediation
 ROI Insurance  Proactive Outreach
 Client Onboarding  ISP Troubleshooting
 IP Warming  Blacklist Resolution
 Reputation Execution  Re Ramp Planning and
 FBL Management Execution
 Whitelisting  Reputation Repair
 Execution Management
 Ongoing Management
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28. Final Thoughts
 The song remains the same
 Deliverability is your ROI protector
 Deliverability services are insurance services
 You are still “guilty until proven innocent” with the receivers
 Retention vs. Acquisition email have separate issues and
challenges associated with their respective models
 Deliverability and ISP Remediation are two separate areas of
management
 It takes time to solve ISP issues and they can be very complex
 The road to the inbox will evolve as messaging strategies change
 Your mailing reputation cannot be ignored - it WILL follow you!

29. Thank You
david.fowler@act-on.net
act-on.com
Ready Now?
1 (877) 530-1555 or sales@act-on.com