ThinData's Marketer's Guide to Successful Email Delivery

BEST PRACTICESPUBLISHED BYThinData. The Email Authority.T2 St. Clair Ave. East, 4th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 2T5Canada
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www.thindata.com ThinData The Marketer's Guide to Successful Email Deliverability | 1INSIDE THIS DOCUMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................3INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................4 Who should read this whitepaper? What will you know / be able to do after reading this whitepaper? Why has ThinData prepared this whitepaper? Why is it important for marketers to address email deliverability? When should marketers use this whitepaper? What research was conducted to prepare this whitepaper?SUCCESSFUL EMAIL DELIVERY....................................................................................5FIVE CHALLENGES | FIVE BEST PRACTICES Challenge 1 | Making Sure Email Can Be Authenticated ..............................................6 Challenge 2 | Maintaining A Good Email Reputation.....................................................7 Challenge 3 | Preventing Being Mislabeled As a Spammer by Email Recipients .........8 Challenge 4 | Preventing Being Mislabeled As a Spammer by Third-Party Software ...9 Challenge 5 | Configuring Email Servers to Meet Industry Standards ........................10EMAIL DELIVERABILITY BEST PRACTICES ACTION CHECKLIST...........................11NEXT STEPS ..................................................................................................................12 What comes after this whitepaperRESOURCES ..................................................................................................................12 Making Sure Email Can Be Authenticated Maintaining a Good Email Reputation Preventing Being Mislabeled As a Spammer Configuring Email Servers to Meet Industry Standards Legislation
www.thindata.com ThinData The Marketer's Guide to Successful Email Deliverability | 2EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Every marketing campaign is intended to create a specific response. Whether that desired action is to make a purchase, to refer a friend or to feel a particular way about a brand, the marketer's message has to reach the target audience and reach it at the right time.
To that end, marketers are increasingly using email as a critical tool to distribute their messages, as several recent cross-industry studies have shown. For example, in the Spring of 2007, an independent Internet research firm revealed that 94% of marketers use email as a communications channel.
However, just as email's popularity as a cost-effective marketing tool has grown, so too has the volume of unsolicited email. As a result, firms and individuals are implementing technologies that reduce the volume and type of unwanted email being delivered into their email systems. Similarly, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - organizations providing access to the Internet - are adopting methods to prevent the distribution of unwanted email.
While taking these steps may be necessary to reduce the inconvenience and expenses incurred by receiving unwanted email, they pose a challenge to marketing campaigns. Even the most intrepid marketers can find themselves spending considerable amounts of money, effort and resources only to have their legitimate email messages blocked - i.e. never reach their targeted audiences.
This whitepaper helps marketers increase the likelihood that their email messages will reach targeted audiences in a timely manner. By clearly identifying the five central challenges to email deliverability - authentication, email reputation, being mislabeled as spammers by email recipients, being mislabeled as spammers by third-party software and server configuration - this paper provides marketers with a core understanding of deliverability. At the same time, the best pr... [download for more]