First, while I am a big fan of AI and use it myself, I mean who wouldn’t want to leverage it, this is not a ChatGPT article, or written with, or written by AI, this is my thoughts after 10 years of being inside email marketing, email consulting, direct response marketing, and technology.
Email has changed so much in the past 10 years, and with the inclusion of AI inboxes, the changing compliance, regulation, and algorithms it becoming more challenging to end up in inboxes with strong reputation.
However, every problem within deliverability I have solved within the last 10 years comes to one of my core pillars; volume, hygiene, segmentation, and tech debt. Each issue I have solved whether it’s been increasing inbox placement, fixing damaged reputation, fixing a new list that imploded on startup, SPAM complaints, getting blacklisted, on and on and on, they all boil down to an issue of not following a core pillar.
Inbox placement was solved by increased segmentation, blasting the same massive free list every single day was not helping generate increased engagement. By focusing on our segmentation into 3 to 4 groups; highly targeted (smaller file of high engagement) to a single send of the full file. Using engagement data and our list behavior we can easily determine when to use our high target lists, and when we can swing for the fences.
I had one client specifically use this, and it was really interesting, they had a few hundred thousand people on their full free list (engaged last 120 days or less) and they could only target that list twice a month usually. We tested it several times, and because of the content and the engagement, their list really only could handle a full send twice a month without causing dips in their reputation. The list will tell you what it can handle, you just need to listen.
I could talk for a few hours on these stories but lets talk about my 4 pillars in depth first.
Volume is a key metric and tells you a lot about your list, like how many new names you can effectively bring on in a month, if you can start sending two marketing messages instead of 1, if you can send two different types of editorial/free content, and more.
Everyone will tell you a different number for volume, how many names you can safely add, 5%, 20%, 75%, only double your list every 3 days. I have my own personal version, I have tried all of them over the last 10 years, and consistently for me I have always had success with one volume path. Remember to ramp volume strategically, avoid sudden spikes and dips, watch your 7-day volume number. Consistency is key and email reputation is closely tied to patterns…. “oh but Austin you said earlier to vary your segmentation; the numbers are different every day for our lists…” I hear you loud and clear, and paying such close attention, but we are talking patterns, so for example if every Monday we are targeting our highly engaged list and every Friday our full list, that too is a pattern. I also have a rule to my segmentation for those, which we can talk about in depth in a more specific conversation.
Remember volume is about strategy to drive engagement, not about brute-force results.
Hygiene, just like it’s important to take a shower, wash your hands, and cover your coughs, it’s important to think of hygiene for your lists. There is a reason we call it ‘scrubbing’ your lists!
Bad in, gets bad out. This idea works for data, works for people, works for everything if we get meta about it, but to stay on topic we won’t. Scrub that list, I get it every name on that list costs you money, depending on industry that might cost $1 a name, or you might be paying hundreds for each name. I can’t tell you how many times marketers prioritized names over list hygiene (I love marketers, they pay the bills and grow the company, so not gonna harp on you too long) but if you don’t protect your list from bad names then you didn’t just waste 1 name you wasted thousands or worse, because at the end of the day if you can’t reach their inbox then who cares if you have a list of a thousand or a million.
Scrub that list often, scrub it in real-time, and also monthly. Names will age out, become spam traps, bounce due to inbox full, so keep that list tidy. Sunset unengaged names with a sunset policy, use re-engagement automations to try and recapture aging names, but if they aren’t engaging let them go.
Segmentation is probably where I spend 90% of my time with my clients, it is always ongoing based on the data. It is so under-utilized in my opinion; people blast away at massive files to get 18-22% engagement. Not every message is meant for every subscriber, get smart, use your tools, and build engagement groups. It not only improves your reputation but has shown to increase overall list responsiveness.
I have the most to say on this topic, but I think I might do a whole breakout topic later on this, so I’ll leave you with this last thought. Match your message, frequency, and offer to the segment, its not longer a one-size fits all world.
Tech Debt I think I have to say this is the hardest one to watch go wrong, because arguably it’s the easiest. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a new list fail due to tech debt. DKIM, SPF, DMARC, these are not just confusing tech acronyms, they are instrumental in managing proper authentication and landing in inboxes. If you have no idea what this mean, then use a freemium tool like MXtoolbox (not sponsored) to view your records and make sure they are aligned.
Tech debt also covers things like IP’s like shared or dedicated and using the right one. How many times I have seen someone try and warm a cold dedicated IP with a cold new domain and wonder why their reputation tanks and never recovers after spending 2-3 weeks warming a list, and then 2-3 months trying to recover it.
Tech debt is the hardest to watch go wrong because it’s the easiest one to get right. Spend a little time planning and checking that you are ready to send before launching, it’ll payoff a hundred fold in time, energy, and money.
My parting words, Deliverability isn’t magic, its consistency, its respect for the inbox, it is staying up to speed on the quickly changing landscape of what’s working and what’s not. I hope this helps you with your inboxing strategy, the world needs more good senders, and with a little bit of work and planning you can contribute to bring a world of better senders to everyone’s inbox.
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