The Art and Science of Email Deliverability and Optimization, as presented by Josh Aberant and Shonal Narayan at the 2010 Marketo User Summit

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The Art & Science of Email Deliverability & Optimization

Josh Aberant, Director of PrivacyShonal Narayan, Email Marketing Manager

© 2010 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential

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Goals


Understand -• How Marketo optimizes your deliverability• How receivers make delivery decisions• How you can optimize your deliverability

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B2B Deliverability Landscape


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B2B Deliverability Landscape


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Deliverability Partners

© 2009 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.

B2B RequirementsEmail Provider Sender

• Modern network compliant with receiverrequirements

• Advanced email technology platform

• Anti-spam and emailvendor relations (B2B)

• ISP relations (B2C)• Best practices• Data automation tools

• Permission• Opt-in• Expectations

• Data• List hygiene• Targeting• Relevancy• Content• Best Practices• Trust

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Deliverability Partners


Email providers take responsibility for providing theircustomers with the network, tool and know-how they needto achieve the deliverability they deserve

Marketo NetworkCisco McAfee Return Path

SenderBase TrustedSource Sender Score

Highest score on all Trusted IPs –“Good”

Highest score on all Trusted IPs –“Minimal Risk”

98 average score on Trusted IPs (out of 100)

Good or Neutral score on all sending IPs

Minimal Risk score on all sending IPs

89 average score on all sending IPs

Shared, Trusted & Dedicated IPs

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Receiver Relations


Anti-spam vendors & ISPs:• Connection requirements• Whitelistings• Feedback Loops (FBLs)• Bounce classifications• Tech troubleshooting• Block info• False positive issue escalation & resolution

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Deliverability Tech


• IP and DNS optimization• Minimize DNS lookups• Reduce friction

• Connection optimizing• HELO/EHLO• Concurrency• MX routing

• Adaptive bounce handling• Classification & specification• Action & retry configuration

• Authentication• DKIM – Domain Keys Identified Mail• SPF – Sender Protection Framework• SenderID

Protect your brand and online reputation against fraud and forgery

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What is Deliverability?


Once the tech is solved, inbox placement is the result of a algorithmic score based on:

ContentSender Reputation

You Are Master Of Your Deliverability

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Content Filtering


• Spam words• Spam patterns• Spam signatures

Lots of opportunities for false positives

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Sender Reputation


Receiving systems want to deliver message that subscribers want.

How can a computer score how much a subscriber wants a sender’s email?

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Sender Reputation


Domain & IP ReputationThe Good The Bad

• Opens• Time open• Images on• Clicks• Forwards• Prints• Save to folder• Archive• Add to address book• Move to inbox

• Inconsistent sending• Invalid email addresses

• Old• Malformed

The Ugly• Complaints

• Spam button• Move to junk folder

• Spam trap hits

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The Marketing Conversion Formula


TheRight

Person

TheRight

Message

TheRight

MethodConversion

Success

Targeting& Analytics

Relevant Content

BestPractices

Action orAwareness

+ =+

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Deliverability Best Practices


Person Message Method• Permission• Opt-in

• Set expectations• Capture preferences

• Focus on good data• Purge problematic data

• In-actives• Non-engaged• Bounces & un-subs

• Score data sources• Website• Search• Campaigns

• Score Engagement• High, medium, low

• Target Relevancy• Demographic• Location• Preferences• Behavior• Engagement

• Clear call-to-action• Scan-able• WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)• Branding

• Subject• From• Body

• Relevance• Personalization• Valuable content• Company logo• Design best practices

• Well formed HTML• In-line CSS• Alt tag images• Render testing

• Trust center• Company name• URL• Privacy Policy

• Timing• Calendar• Behavior• Preferences• Lead nurturing state

• Frequency • Recency • Preview attraction

• Snipped text• Above the fold• How does it look when

images are off?• A/B testing - Iterate your way there

• Subject line• Call-to-action• Content• Design templates

• Opt-in reminder • “You have received this

message because…”

Person• Permission• Opt-in







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Deliverability @ The Opt-in Form

• Create “Moments of Recognition”• Brand• Look & feel• Images• Previews

• Capture preferences• Frequency• Areas of interest• Demographics

• Set expectations• Make it clear what you have to offer• Attract potential customers


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Deliverability @ The Opt-in Form

• Validate addresses• Check for syntax errors

• Confirm opt-in (COI/DOI)• Make some downloads/incentives available after confirmation

• Sync with CRM• Unified view of lead through nurturing stages


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Deliverability Design of Opt-in


Privacy Policy –Builds Trust

Easy Concise Form

Branding-Value Prop

Branding-Moment of recognition

Sample – Set Expectations

WIIFM –Incentive & Motivation

Relevancy

Product Info– Lead Nurturing

Test, test, and test some more – what works on

this page? (eg. No testimonials here)

Build deliverability quality into test analysis

Page 18© 2009 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved.

DATA

EngagedSubscribers

Inactive or Non-engaged

Behavior Analysis

•Open

•Click

•Website activity

•Defined goals

Automating Deliverability

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Deliverability: Lead Gen & List Building

• Track deliverability effects of your campaigns and initiatives• How many of the subscribers bounce or hit report

junk?• Did the campaign or data source cause blacklistings?• Don’t ignore this real cost• Build deliverability costs into your profit/cost

analysis


Better Data = Better Deliverability

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Lost revenue (one week) $10,000 $10,000 PPC cost per lead $1 $1 Bounce block threshold 500 500Campaign leads generated 1000 1000Bounces percentage 0.5% 5%

# of bounces 5 50Bounce cost $20 $20 Total bounce cost $100 $1,000 Bounce cost per lead $0.10 $1.00

Adjusted lead cost $1.10 $2.00

Example Cost Analysis

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Behavioral Scoring


What’s Relevant? To Whom?Score their Engagement by their Behavior

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Engagement Scoring How-to


Structure your engagement scores on the best behavior data you have available -• Data vintage• Openers• Clickers• Web site goals & page visited

• Marketo munchkin• Lead score• Marketo app

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Engagement MailStream Example


Premium Product Packages

Industry Thought Leadership

Market Awareness & Business Benefit

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Targeting - Always Be Relevant


Use All Your Targeting Know-How

DemographicsLocationPreferencesBehaviorEngagement

Relevancy

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Advanced Deliverability


Marketing process -Automate sending messages that people want when they want them

• Who are they? (Demographics)• What did they say? (Preferences)• What did they do? (Behavior)• What do they want? (Relevancy)• How ready are they? (Lead nurturing)

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Advanced Deliverability


The key to great long term deliverabilityis a cycle of messages that people want

bringing them closer to conversion

Sending

BehaviorTracking

Analysis

Targeting

Marketing Automation Enables This

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Person Message Method• Permission• Opt-in







• Clear call-to-action• Scan-able• WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)• Branding





• Timing• Calendar• Behavior• Preferences• Lead nurturing state







Person• Permission• Opt-in







Message• Clear call-to-action• Scan-able• WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)• Branding





Method• Timing

• Calendar• Behavior• Preferences• Lead nurturing state







Coming Soon


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Summary


• Deliverability factors:• Content• Reputation• Email Provider

• To optimize deliverability follow the marketing conversion formula• Send to the right person• Set expectations• Focus on good data• Score engagement

• Always be relevant

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EXAMPLES

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OMS Event – A Great SuccessSuccess Beyond OMS - Social Media

Open: 32% Open: 40%CTO: 50% CTO: 17%

A B

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Testing – 3 Step Process

Determine what variable(s) to testCreate multiple versions of the email (A/B) Monitor and adjust

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My Findings - Opens

Subject line For event follow-ups: Put the event name in the title For invites: Personalized, yet tempting hook (ex: thought

you might be interested in xyz)

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My Findings - Clicks

HTML template with graphics Use clickable email banner, buttons, and hero shots/images

# of links Linking the title or name of the offer works better than “click here”, The offer has to be obvious at first glance; above the fold Highlight the keys of the offer via bullet points, easier to read than a

block of text Doing a event recap blog post is a hot offer, especially after a

tradeshow

Content length 3-4 total paragraphs + bullet points Short content doesn’t always win, make the content compelling and

flow nicely into the call to action

Message style Personal touch beats out generic message (seems obvious): Use of

tokens; “forwarded” messages

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Same Offer ≠ Same Results

August: 20% Open 72% CTO 580 new engaged

September 18% Open 28% CTO < 100 new engaged

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My Findings – Conversion

Timing is Everything for Conversion Keep your company

name fresh in their heads

You only get one first impression, make it count

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What to Remember

To optimize deliverability follow the marketing conversion formula: Send the right message To the right person At the right time With the right method (best practices)

Above all else…Stay Relevant!


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Read More..

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Q & A

Josh [email protected]

Shonal [email protected]

Want to Learn More? Josh and Shonal both blog on the Marketo B2B Marketing Blog

mailto:[email protected]�

mailto:[email protected]�

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Thank You!


Technology

The Art and Science of Email Deliverability and Optimization, as presented by Josh Aberant and Shonal Narayan at the 2010 Marketo User Summit