Myth Busters: Stephanie Miller on Deliverability, Subject Lines, and More

Many marketers, novices and seasoned vets alike, have fallen prey to a few misconceptions when it comes to e-mail. In what will be an occasional series, E-mail Essentials asks experts to set us straight regarding common myths. Here, Stephanie Miller, vice president of strategic services for e-mail technology provider Return Path, gives us the skinny.

Myth: Revenue equals subscriber interest.  
 
Truth: Too many marketers are lulled into a false sense of security by the seemingly unquenchable revenue generated by the e-mail channel.  Take a hard look at your file. The data will show that most purchases are made by only a portion of the file. That means a lot of unsatisfied subscribers and missed revenue. Even simple segmentation—post-purchase, prerenewal, prospect status)—goes a long way toward engaging the rest of the file and earning higher revenue overall.

Myth: My e-mail service provider handles inbox placement for me.    
 
Truth: Sorry, but marketers must own their own sender reputation. A good e-mail broadcast vendor will maintain a solid infrastructure and help you authenticate, track complaints, and manage bounces properly. But no vendor controls your data sourcing, frequency, or content strategy—all of which contribute to sender reputation. Do not get complacent. Make sure you have the data you need [such as inbox placement on the campaign level] to actively manage and optimize inbox deliverability. Sender reputation is not a one-time project; it’s an ongoing measure of your current practices.  
  
Myth: Changing the content or subject line is a good way to get a spam block lifted.
 
Truth: Content is actually a very small contributor to filtering decisions and only plays a big role when it’s egregious, like a subject line that is misleading or has excessive punctuation, or if the message contains one big image. Most legitimate marketers don’t use these tactics. Sender reputation (measured free at www.senderscore.org) reflects the combination of factors—including content—that result in blocking or reaching the inbox.

Myth: Reports showing high “delivered” rates mean my messages reach the inbox.
 
Truth: This is such an unfortunate language barrier. “Delivered” for most reports is simply a measure of the bounce rate. Inbox placement (or inbox deliverability) is a different number and reflects what percentage actually reaches the inbox. In addition, don’t be satisfied by average inbox placement across all clients of your broadcast vendor. Be sure you know this number for your own campaigns.