Email Marketing
This module will enable you:
What is Email?
How does email work?
What is Email Marketing?
Types of Email Marketing?
What is deliverability rate?
What is Spam Filtering technology?
How does spam filter works?
Email marketing software’s
Deliverability Metrics and Measurement
1. What is Email?
Email is short for 'electronic mail'. Similar to a letter, it is sent via the internet to a recipient. An email address is required to receive email, and that address is unique to the user. Some people use internet-based applications and some use programs on their computer to access and store emails.
2. How does email work?
Email systems consist of computer servers that process and store messages on behalf of users who connect to the email infrastructure via an email client or web interface.
When someone sends an email, the message is transferred from his or her computer to the server associated with the recipient’s address, usually via a number of other servers.
In more detail (please refer to the illustration on the right):
- A user (Alice) sends an email message and connects to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server as configured in her email client or Mail User Agent (MUA).
- On the SMTP server, a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) looks at the recipient address and looks up the domain part of the address to determine its destination.
- After querying a Domain Name System (DNS) server for the name of the Mail eXchanger (MX) for the recipient’s domain name…
- …the SMTP server will send the message to that server via the SMTPprotocol.
- The receiving server will store the message and make it available to the recipient (Bob), who can access it via web, POP, or IMAP.
3. What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing.
- Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
- Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately.
- Adding advertisements to emails sent by other companies to their customers.
4. Types of email marketing
Email marketing can be divided into two types:
a) Single Opt-in
b) Double Opt-in
What is Single Opt-in?
Single Opt-in is a process of sending emails to prospects or customers without consent. Single opt-in is also called non-permission based email marketing. In single opt-in, a user fill the web form or submit information such as email id, but there is no need of confirmation or validating the email id which use to happen in double opt-in.
Single opt-in can be done by below process:
- ) Collecting users email id through online research.
- ) Buying third-party data and use it for sending bulk emails.
- ) A user filled web form but don’t need to confirm email id.
Double Opt-in
Double Opt-In is when a user needs to confirm their sign up for an email list. This means that when a user subscribes to an email newsletter on your website, they are sent a confirmation email where they must click a button or a link that confirms their desire to be added to an email list. Only after this confirmation is the user officially added to email list.
5. What is deliverability rate?
The deliverability rate implies the ability to get into the inbox of your subscribers. But what it actually measures is the amount of sent email that received neither a hard nor soft bounce.
6. How Spam Filters Works?
Spam filters are part of the process. If you send email, it will be filtered.
Filter technology plays a massive role in the success of your email campaigns.
- What is filter?
Email filters organize email according to specific criteria. Originally, filters were designed primarily to identify spam and block it or place it in the spam folder.
As a massage traverses from the sender to the subscriber’s inbox, various types of filters can influence deliverability and inbox placement:
a) Gateway spam filter
c) Third party or hosted spam filter
c) Desktop spam filter
The basis of filter technology
Spam filter technology may be placed on both inbound and outbound email. Mailbox providers use both methods to help protect their customers.
The main types of filtering analysis
Mailbox providers look at three main aspects of mail making filtering decisions.z
1) The source of the email
2) The reputation of the sender
3) The content of the mail they send
1) The Source of the email
The two components that make up an email’s source are the IP address and domain.
Mailbox providers check the reputation of IP addresses sending emails on the behalf of your domains when determining whether or not to place your mail in the inbox.
There are two types of IP addresses that are relevant to marketers:
Dedicated IP address is used by a single sender or company. An IP address that is dedicated to a specific sender means that no other marketer or company is sending email from this IP address.
Shared IP address is used by multiple marketers or companies to deploy email. Because the overall reputation for the IP address is based on all mail deployed from it, the IP address reputation cannot be managed by individual sender. As a result, all senders are negatively affected if even one sender on the shared IP address is sending spam.
In order to evaluate your IP address reputation, you need to understand how mailbox providers may be filtering your emails.
Understanding sender permanence
Sending permanence relates to the mailing history on of an IP address. Mailbox provider will restrict the number of inbound emails they will accept from a new IP address (throttling) and often filter mail into the junk folder until they monitor consistency, legitimate volume over the IP address.
Following are the few things to keep in mind regarding sending permanence.
Don’t run from trouble.
You can’t escape from a poor reputation by moving to new IP address. Make the appropriate changes to your program.
Don’t hop from one IP address to another.
This technique is called snowshoeing. Spammers often move from one IP address to another in order to game the system.
Warm up your new IP address
It’s important to start slowly with a low volume, in order to establish an IP address reputation.
Maintain consistence send volume
Mailbox providers tend to filter mail when dramatic spikes in volume are observed. Once a positive reputation is achieved on an IP address, strive to maintain consistence volume levels.
Domain
A domain reputation is the sending reputation for the domain name. Some of the metrics mailbox providers are likely to use when determining domain reputation.
Spam folder placement rate
How many times mail from this domain went into the spam folder due to IP address reputation or content filters?
Inbox placement rate
How many times mail from this domain went to the inbox?
Complaint rate
How many times a recipient marked a mail from this domain as spam?
“This is not spam” rate.
How many times a recipient went into their junk folder and marked a message from this domain as “not spam”?
2) The reputation of the sender
List Quality and subscriber complaints
The quality of your email list can have a tremendous impact on your deliverability.
Mailbox provider monitor the addresses to which you are sending and will filter or ultimately block your mail if poor list quality is identified. There are three types of data you want to monitor within your list:
1) Unknown Users – recipient that never existed (2%)
2) Spam Traps– Don’t belong to active users
3) Inactive subscribers – Not open, clicked or taken any action
Subscriber complaints
Mailbox providers will perceive your email as unwanted and will block your mail from the inbox. Complaints are among the most important contributors to a poor sender reputation.
There are three ways a subscriber can register a complaint :
1) This is junk/spam button
2) Postmaster complaint
3) Filter application complaint
Authentication and other infrastructure considerations
Solid foundation (infrastructure) comprised of accurate authentication, bounce management and feedback loop processing.
Authentication
Authentication technology allows the receiver and mailbox provider to confirm the identity of the sender. Without authentication, your chances of being filtered or blocked by the major mailbox providers are increased.
Bounce management
When a mail server unsuccessfully attempts to send a message to another server, it will typically result in an automated email response called a bounce. Bounces contain a numeric code and a brief description that helps the sender understand why the message was not delivered.
Bounces are generally classified in two categories:
Hard bounce: A notice that the email message did not go through to the intended recipient because of a permanent failure; for example, email to an invalid address (unknown user), or a rejection due to spam filters. Simply sending the email again later will not result in successful delivery. If the bounce is reputation-related and the sender adjusts practices to improve reputation, resending may get the email delivered. A hard bounce code begins with a 5, such as “<subscriber@example.com> 550 Message rejected.”
Soft bounce: A notice that the email message was sent to an active address but was turned away before being delivered to the intended recipient. Often the problem is due to a temporary issue (like a server outage or full mailbox) or volume (telling the sender to slow down). The email may be successfully delivered if sent again later. A soft bounce code begins with a 4, such as “<subscriber@example.com> 421 Try again later.”
Feedback loop processing
To help email marketers track complaints, many mailbox providers offer what is called a feedback loop (FBL). When an email recipient reports email as spam, the mailbox provider forwards that email back to the sender. Generally, mailbox providers expect that these transactions will be processed as unsubscribe requests and that the sender will research the nature of the request to reduce complaints.
3) Content:
Content analysis technology scans every part of an email, including the header, footer, code, HTML markup, images, text color, timestamp, URLs, subject line, text-to-image ratio, language, attachments, and more. For some content filters, there is not one part of the message that the content filter ignores. Other content filters may look at only the structure of an email, or they might simply parse URLs out of the message and then reference them against blacklists.
Spam filters are an integral part of the email ecosystem. Without them, email simply wouldn’t work—billions of spam messages would overload the system. Filters are our friends; as users we appreciate when they keep unwanted mail out of our inbox but we’re also pleased to get the mail we do want. And filters are the reason that important transactional emails land in our inbox, where we can find them when we need them.
Various email marketing software available in the market.
There are many software available in the market based on varied functionality & features. The concept & process of using these software’s are almost same. The software’s are as follows:
1) SendGrid
2) Autopilot
3) Benchmark
4) Getresponse
5) MailChimp
6) Constant Contact
Here with ITCoil, we will provide your indepth coverage of Getresponse software. With GetResponse, you will be able to learn:
1) How to create campaign?
2) Adding contacts to your campaign?
3) Single opt-in & double opt-in
4) Creating templates for sending mails
5) Integrating web forms on website to collect email information or subscribers
6) Analyzing metrics such as open rate, click rate, bounce rate & much more.
Deliverability Metrics and Measurement
Analyzing metrics of your email program can be daunting task, but it is one of the most important aspects of email campaign. After you send relevant messages or promoting your brand through email campaign, marketers dissect the performance of email campaign and in order to do so, one must look at the advance email campaign metrics.
Metrics can be classified into different categories depends what they actually tell you about email program. Accordingly, email metrics can be divided 16 of the important metrics into three categories: Awareness, clarity, and connection.
Metrics to enhance your email performance
Delivery rate: Calculated by dividing the volume of emails delivered by the volume of emails sent. Note: “delivered” doesn’t necessarily mean your email hit the inbox—just that it wasn’t bounced or rejected.
Inbox placement rate: Inbox placement rate measures the percentage of sent email that actually lands in the subscribers’ inbox—a far more accurate measure than delivery rate.
Bounce rate: Bounced email is the opposite of delivered email. These are the messages that fail to get delivered for any reason.
Open rate: Calculated by dividing the number of emails opened by the number of emails delivered. This metric is actually less useful than you’d think, because an email will not register as “opened” unless images are displayed in the message—either through settings or active loading
Rejected rate: Rejected email is a subset of bounced email, and includes only those messages that fail to get delivered due to reputation issues (e.g., complaints, spam traps, blacklisting).
Click-through rate: Calculated by dividing clicks by the volume of email delivered. This metric is commonly used to measure email engagement, but it is actually far less useful than click-to-open rate, discussed later.
Metrics that provide clarity around email performance
Hard bounce: Hard bounces are messages that are permanently rejected, typically due to issues with list quality (e.g., invalid email addresses or domains).
Soft bounced: Soft bounced are messages that are temporarily rejected, typically due to issues with the recipient’s mailbox or server (e.g., mailbox too full or server down).
Read rate: Read rate is similar to open rate, but it is far more accurate because it accounts for all emails viewed, regardless of image rendering
Complaint rate: Calculated by dividing the number of spam complaints by the number of emails delivered. Complaints are a strong indicator of negative engagement and this metric is useful for identifying patterns and sources of complaints, but may be distorted by deliverability issues.
Deleted before reading rate: Measures how often a recipient deletes email without reading it. This metric provides powerful insight into the difference between subscribers who do not want to read your email and those who may just check their email infrequently.
Unsubscribe rate: Calculated by dividing the number of unsubscribes by the number of emails delivered. Be cautious of using this metric in isolation, as a declining unsubscribe rate can result from various things such as improving engagement or a decreasing inbox placement rate—two very different situations.
Metrics to evaluate subscriber connection
Click to open rate: Measured by calculating the ratio of total clicks to total opens. Click to open is the best and most accurate of the clickbased metrics, and provides valuable insight into the effectiveness of your email content and design.
“This is not spam” rate: Measures how frequently recipients click on the “This is not spam” button after an email is delivered to the spam folder. This metric is a powerful indicator of subscriber engagement.
Forwarded rate: Measures how frequently subscribers forward your email on to others. This metric is useful to gauge the virality of your content, and a high forwarded rate indicates strong subscriber engagement.
Conversion rate: Calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visits. Although a strong indicator of subscriber engagement, this metric typically speaks more to the quality of landing page or website content than email content.
