E-Mail Secrets Exposed

“It’s amazing how many people we talk to, even large companies, that aren’t taking advantage of the analytical opportunities out there,” Parks says. “They send out e-mails using Outlook, and they can’t track anything, so they have no idea if they’re succeeding or not.”

Experts also recommend e-mail service providers because they’re better able to ensure your e-mail makes it to where it’s going instead of getting caught up in spam filters. “ISPs [internet service providers] are always looking at all inbound e-mail to see if it’s spam,” says Curt Olson, senior business development manager for the e-mail service provider ExactTarget. “We send nearly 2 billion e-mails a month for our clients and have developed relationships with the ISPs, so we know what they want and they recognize e-mail coming from our system.”

One of the ways ISPs identify e-mail as spam is by bounce rate, Olson says, explaining that a bounce happens when an e-mail is sent to an old, expired, or incorrect e-mail address and is identified as undeliverable. High bounce rates are often due to old lists. High bounce rates could also mean that the e-mail list hasn’t been properly maintained, Olson says. Gone are the days of buying lists and sending e-mails to anyone.

Today, most e-mail service providers will not allow e-mail marketing messages to be sent to a list that has been purchased. Instead, they require companies to supply e-mail addresses of people who have opted to receive e-mails by doing things like signing up on a Web site or checking a box on a printed publication. “We’ve got a lot to lose, so we have to be stringent about lists,” Olson explains. “Procured lists underperform and generate complaints from people who call the e-mails they get spam. Those aren’t great business results for us or our clients.”

Other laws and rules that e-mail service providers and others who do e-mail marketing adhere to include the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) of 2003, which spells out guidelines for sending commercial e-mail, as well as penalties for violators, and the industry’s own list of best practices (see sidebar at end of article).