|
Dude, where's my email
Undeliverable emails, email "bouncebacks" or "bounces" for
short, are becoming more and more of a challenge for email
marketers these days.
According to a recent Association for Interactive Marketing
(AIM) survey, 77% of respondents had bounce rates up to 10%,
and 23% had rates greater than 10%.
Why should you be concerned? Because customer acquisition is
expensive, and email bouncebacks could mean the loss of
customers and prospects that you paid dearly to acquire.
 |
First, let's define some terms:
- A "Bounce" is where the proverbial rubber
meets the email. This happens when a recipient's mail
server rejects your email message.
- A "Soft Bounce" is often a temporary problem,
thus the descriptive word "soft." It happens when the
mail server confirms the recipient's email address, but
even so, cannot deliver the message. The recipient's
mailbox may be full or inactive, the recipient's mail
server may be temporarily down or the connection may
have been broken.
- A "Hard Bounce" is a message that's
permanently undeliverable because the address is
non-existent or invalid, or because the recipient's mail
server is blocking your mail server.
|
|
|
Why so many bounces and what can you do about them?
- Email address churn in your house list
People change ISPs, jobs and email addresses at random.
Often you'll be the last to know. Some email address
churn is normal, but the erosion of your house list can
make a seriously negative impact on your bottom line.
What can you do?
Check with sales, support or someone on the front line
in your company, and follow up by phone or by snail
mail to recapture valuable customers and prospects.
In addition to your unsubscribe or edit interests link
in your email, consider adding a note saying, "If you
plan to change email addresses, or if you prefer to
receive this newsletter at another address, please
email us."
Remember, it is 7 times less expensive to market to an
existing customer than it is to acquire a new one. The
effort will be well worth your time.
- The use of free email accounts
Many people who use free email accounts do so as a
secondary mailbox. As a result, they do not check their
mailbox often. Free email accounts, and some paid
accounts, can hold only a limited amount of email, so
many times newsletters and advertising email will bounce
back as undeliverable.
What can you do?
You can try the same techniques as above and, assuming
you have the recipient's permission, you could use
snail mail to obtain their new email address. Try
sending a postcard asking them to revisit your site to
update their profile. The postcard should include a
URL leading to the profile update area of your site.
- Spam filters and blocking
ISPs and corporations are paying close attention to
incoming email in the effort to block spam, or
unsolicited email. Anti-spam filters scan email from and
subject lines as well as email body copy for certain
language. They can also detect mailing patterns,
frequency and volume. Your legitimate, permission-based
email could be bounced back to you by a spam filter, or
your mail server might be flagged as a potential spam
source. In either case, your messages won't make it
through.
What can you do?
Use an email marketing service with a strong
permission policy and an active anti-blocking team.
Don't go it alone. Solid email marketing companies
develop relationships with ISPs to be sure their
customers' permission-based email gets through. A good
email marketing service gets more attention than you
could ever get on your own.
Ask your readers to help. If your email is being
blocked at a particular company or ISP, ask devoted
customers/readers to contact their postmaster and
request to have your email "un-blocked."
|
|
|
And then...?
- Analyze your bouncebacks
You should be using an email marketing service that
categorizes bouncebacks and provides detailed reports
that allow you to view and manage bounced email
addresses. Take the time to analyze your bouncebacks and
remove hard bounces from your list. It should also be
easy to correct obvious typos in your list (e.g. ".con"
instead of ".com").
- Monitor your "reply to:" address
Many recipients are fearful of using the unsubscribe
function as it has been used by spammers to verify an
address, rather than as a legitimate unsubscribe
function. So, be alert to unsubscribe requests coming to
your "reply to:" address and permanently remove those
email addresses right away.
Finally, pay attention to email address change requests
coming to your "reply to:" address and honor those in a
timely manner as well.
So dude, use these tips, take a look at your falling
bounce rates and say it with me: "Sweeeet"! |
Email
Marketing Video Tutorials Show you how to plan, create, and send
successful newsletters.
Read Email Marketing Tips
and Lessons written by Michelle Keegan, Constant
Contact's Email Marketing Diva.
Learn E-Marketing Lingo from the
glossary of Email
Marketing terms.
| by Michelle Keegan, Constant Contact's Email
Marketing Diva(TM) |
|
