Emails not delivered? So what?
Database are still a top of mind for businesses !
Production planning, personnel management and customer relations are stored in databases. In other words, every vital operational information is gathered in there and therefore, use in email marketing strategies. Problem is that frequently, some emails addresses have error in them like a double @ digit or an email written with a .c at the end, missing the full .com. Before uploading a database into an email software, marketers should cleanup and standardize email addresses or at least, modify their database after the email software filters them.
The deliverability of messages is an important issue for the success of an email marketing campaign. At many agencies specializing in emailing, the deliverability rate corresponds to all the messages sent minus all messages received in error.
To ensure maximum delivery rate of an email campaign, it’s necessary to regularly filter its database. By doing so, it enables companies to reach a maximum ROI (return on investment). Keeping an out of date database will increase the risks to be considered as a spam campaign.
During a mass mailing, if the email address are not carefully maintained, the email service providers like Gmail, Hotmail and other can detect that you’re not maintaining a clean email address list and therefore, could consider your campaign as spam. Why? If you send you thousands of emails to a provider that don’t correspond to active emails, that sure sounds like you don’t quite know the people you are speaking to.
In case the number of undelivered emails is too large, the ISP may then decide to block all your messages, even valid emails. Unfortunately, the delivery rate will drop significantly. The consequences of this drop may result in a very large number of sales. To avoid this situation, it is necessary to regularly handle these invalid emails.
When you send an email to an invalid address, the email service provider like Gmail, Hotmail and others send a reply message to our email software server to indicate that the message couldn’t be delivered. Those reply are mainly can be categories in three categories : Hardbounces, Softbounces and Spamfilter bounce .
Hardbounce replies shows that the email address do not belong to an existing user. Those are permenant errors in the email address and must be corrected or deleted from your database to avoid sending unnecessary emails.
Softbounce, replies are messages sent to our email software server to indicate that a temporary error has been identified with the email address when receiving your email. For example, it may indicate that an email box is full. A good email management strategy requires regular reviewing of Softbounces to ensure that those emails doesn’t remain softbounce indefinitely. After an email have been identified as a softbounce for over a period of three months, you should delete the email address since the possibilities that the user do not consult his email is very high.
Spamfilter bounce replies are send to our system to tell us that your marketing campaign have been considered as spam. Therefore, your email did not reach the subscriber. The cause of a rejection reply may vary in so many ways that an investigation process must be put in place by an email marketing specialist. At the end of the process, our experts will be able to know the reasons for the undelivered emails and propose solutions adapted to the specific situation. Those may include rejection problems such as: blacklist, inappropriate content, user complaint, poor basic hygiene, messages considered as undesirable (either by the filtering system, either by the feedbacks of users).
In conclusion, email marketing must be done in some specific ways to ensure that messages are being properly delivered to valid subscribers. If done properly, the return in investment are very high. Take care of your database by looking into server replies to keep a good reputation with email service providers.
Myriam Gosselin
Account manager
Want professional advice?
The management of a email marketing projet begins with a thorough knowledge of the email software. Working with ADNETIS for 10 years, she sure knows what she’s talking about !
Get more details on why emails delivery and what to do with it by getting in touch with her right now! She will be able to assist you in the deployment of your email marketing campaign.
E : mgosselin@adnetis.com
P : 1-877-638-6584