Deliverability
Deliverability will remain the number one concern for email marketers for the foreseeable future. Marketers’ ability to implement best practices for subscription management, message composition and ISP relations will make all the difference. Investing resources to implement best practice strategies will reap the benefits of many of the devices put in place over the past several months by ISPs and corporate email administrators.

Listrak’s Deliverability Commitment
As always, Listrak is committed to providing the highest level of deliverability to our clients. Our pledge to this commitment will be found in a number of our new deliverability services such as Listrak’s Spam Score, AOL Abuse Processing System and our new Global Suppression System.

Deliverability, however, is not a one-way street. Email marketing vendors, such as Listrak can only do so much to ensure the deliverability for their clients without those clients also taking responsibility. In many respects the rules of the game are changing and it’s important for email marketers to understand those new rules. In order to achieve high rates of deliverability, marketers must embrace change in their current email strategies.

Listrak’s Strategic Approach
These strategies go beyond the basic direct response principles of writing subject lines that inspire clicks and creating campaigns with links “above the fold.” Deliverability strategies include educating new subscribers on the types of email communication that will be sent to them, how often or when the communication will arrive, and what email address you will be using to send the message. Along with education and preference, email marketers will want to ensure the hygiene of their lists, keeping their bounce ratio to an absolute minimum.

Along with measuring open, read and click-through rates, smart email marketers will want to measure their Spam Score to determine how it affects response rates and overall deliverability. This year Listrak has implemented a new feature called Spam Score, which is based upon the popular Spam Assassin architecture. This is a valuable feature that will help messages get past Spam Filters, such as Spam Assassin, which often falsely block permission-based email communications.

The Bottom Line
You know the rules—stick to the principles and best practices of email marketing and you’ll be successful. But to ensure your email marketing efforts are not in vane, you will want to team up with email experts, such as Listrak, to help you achieve the highest deliverability rates available.