| It's well known that email continues to provide the most | | | | - Recipients have agreed to let your message to their |
| cost effective marketing medium and has great | | | | inbox. Make the opt-in permission obvious and clear as |
| advantages in immediacy and ability to measure the | | | | to the extent of the opt-in. Is it for particular messages, |
| ROI. | | | | or is it an opt-in to any email from you? |
| But in today's world we also all know the risks of an | | | | - Your email branding is clear and consistent with the |
| email not getting to the inbox. A solution to ensuring an | | | | branding when the user first got to know you. If your |
| email gets to the inbox is to use Certified Email, for | | | | sister company sends an email with different branding |
| example as provided by Goodmail. | | | | there is every chance that the user won't understand it |
| So how does it work? Your ESP (email service | | | | was opted-in. |
| provider) needs to support Goodmail and Goodmail in | | | | - Don't send too frequently. Between once a week |
| turn have relationships with some of the major ISPs to | | | | and once a month is typically right. |
| ensure inbox delivery. The systems of your ESPs, | | | | - Target the content, sending content that is useful and |
| Goodmail and the ISP then work together to put a | | | | interesting to the user. With all professional email |
| certified stamp onto the email and the email is | | | | marketing systems content can be heavily dynamically |
| delivered to the inbox without the ISP filtering it out. The | | | | targeted. |
| recipient sees an icon to let them know it is a certified | | | | - Provide a clear unsubscribe method that works. If the |
| email. Reporting is then available to confirm it was | | | | process doesn't work or isn't clear then users will hit |
| delivered. | | | | the 'spam' button as the easier option. |
| So what is to stop spammers becoming certified? To | | | | - Let them know they did opt-in and when, to jog their |
| be accepted into the Certified Email scheme you have | | | | memory. How many people can remember all the |
| to show you are well behaved. In today's world | | | | times they have provided their email address and to |
| Sender reputation in email marketing is everything. If | | | | whom? |
| you have a poor reputation then you can't become | | | | - Stop sending to people who show non-responsive |
| certified until you clean your act up. | | | | behavior patterns. |
| Crucial today to sender reputation is the 'report as | | | | - Look at the spam complaint reports that the |
| spam' button on many email clients, such as AOL, | | | | professional ESPs can provide. Do the people who |
| Hotmail, Yahoo and more. If too many people hit 'report | | | | report as spam share common characteristics? Did |
| as spam', then the ISPs will consider that it is spam. | | | | they come through the same source, did they all |
| The reality is that the definition of what is spam is in | | | | subscribe a long time ago (eg more than twelve |
| the hands of the recipient and not some legal definition. | | | | months). This can allow you to remove people before |
| To have a good reputation means ensuring: | | | | they complain. |
