Today I’m going to share a case in which a client approached me with this problem:
We’ve done a ton to maximize deliverability (ex: 6 different domains for emailing; warmupinbox; set up DMARC, SPF; 20 emails per day per person max; neverbounce for email verification; etc.).
We’re trying to do everything right, but I’ve been noticing lower open rates, and higher “block” rates (especially by mimecast). I’d like an expert in deliverability to make sure there’s nothing else we can / should be doing. Seeing what i’ve listed, do you think you could add value?
Thanks!
We ran a test using GlockApps and this was the result:
I analyzed the result of the test based on the 7 pillars of email deliverability defined by Chad White and sent this assessment to the client:
‘You seem to be doing well with pillars 1, 2, and 4.
I believe there are opportunities for improvement in pillars 3, 5, 6, and 7.
Note that we can influence but do not have 100% control over them.
Regarding pillar 3:
- Some expressions that are typical of spam, such as “no cost” and “opportunity.”
- You must include your postal address (source: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business, item 4)
- I needed help relating the email subject to its content. It can violate item 2 of the above article and lead people to mark your email as SPAM.
Regarding pillar 5:
- Besides the above, have you and the recipient connected on any media? If not, it may lead to more SPAM complaints.
- Always make it easy and highly visible for the person to stop receiving your messages. The word “unsubscribe” is established. I recommend using it. Another tactic is to encourage replies to make them stop receiving responses. See attached an example I received today. In my experience, it works well.
Regarding pillar 6:
- Engagement is the gold mine: any engagement, even negative, will favor your deliverability. Facilitate engagement and treat with respect anyone who engages. I am a follower of the methodology of this company.
Regarding pillar 7:
- Register your domains in Google Postmaster Tools. Perhaps you don’t have enough volume to have data, but it’s worth registering anyway.
- Even if you don’t have data available, through the responses, you’ll have a good feeling if people are engaging with your message and your reputation is high.
- In my approach, the cold email marketing campaign’s goal should be just to open the communication channel (get the recipient’s permission to present your offer). The final goal — in your case, the 30-day trial – should come later.”
Then, he wrote back:
thanks so much Fabricio, this is incredibly helpful. A few questions:
1. Is there any risk for registering in postmaster? Ex: if I have low engagement is it worse that I’m registered with postmaster? or does google already have all the information so it makes no difference?
2. Is there anything I should be doing about the IP blacklist that I saw in your report? Ex: Spoofing IP or any other tools? Or is this not negatively impacting me?
3. Any experience with Mimecast? I’m getting blocked by Mimecast and curious if there’s anything to do there?
4. Any idea why the outlook reputation in your report looks ok but the report I’m getting elsewhere shows a very low reputation on Outlook?
You have already provided a ton of value!
Then, I wrote back:
“No problem, ______. Here are the answers:
1. Google already has all the information, making no difference. If you register to Postmaster, they’ll be visible to you as well.
2. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. The IP is from Google, and it’s dynamic. It changes several times, even during the same day. So, nothing to do related to the IP being blocklisted.
3. I also forgot to mention that. It’s probably because of the content of the messages (and the many times they probably were marked as spam.) I’d say that the main reason is the highlighted text in the attached image (source.)
Ideally, you should pause sending to them until you have figured out what’s causing your email to go to the spam folder. Once fixed, you can start sending it to Mimecast’s recipients again.
4. They’re not 100% precise… each one has your way of measuring… but probably it’s due to the content of the message. The messages used by warmupinbox are different.”
