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Guidelines For A New Sending Paradigm - Part 3 of 5 - Use (Legitimate) Tools and Tactics (M2M)

Sustainable email sending programs in anemail systems that activate blocking and
inherently hostile environment now requirefiltering systems routinely run unquestioned
great care and planning. Before consideringat both corporate and ESP data centers. Many
technical complexities and marketing tactics,ESP operations are being pushed into
email senders must adopt this basic paradigmunfamiliar technical territory in an attempt
shift.to improve delivery performance. If you don't
probe past the comforting superficialities
The five guidelines included in this seriesyour  outcomes  may  be  diminished.
should become watchwords for ezine emailers
as they incur the risk and responsibility ofMore information on email sender tools and
sending newsletters or any other repetitivetactics can be found in the Email PhD Sending
type  of  email.Signature  Management  section.
Part 1 of 5: Treat Email as a True Risk andUpgrade and modernize your systems - whether
Cost  Centerinternal  or  external
Part  2  of  5:  Avoid  Collateral  DamageDelivery tactics, drop-box testing, high
granularity reporting, trends analysis all
Part 3 of 5: Use the Available (Legitimate)these are necessary features for email
Tools  and  Tactics  (M2M)program control. If you still think that
there is something simply called a "bounce"
Part 4 of 5: Build Strong Relationships (H2H)(as opposed to a "server level response
message") then you may be lacking sufficient
Part  5  of  5:  Continuously  Evaluatedata to influence your sending outcomes.
There is a lot more to managing a successful
Part  3  of  5sending process today than just pushing the
"send"  button.
Use the Available (Legitimate) Tools and
Tactics (M2M)within your email sending systemIn line with these needs, new levels of
control are now being built into many sending
One of the most basic systematic distinctionssystems, from the MTA package through to the
influencing email performance is betweentotal messaging system. These can allow
those barriers operating under human control,managers to avoid accidentally activating
and those that are under machine control.many routine volume and rate blocking traps.
Email senders today need to understand andAnd virtually all system developers are now
work  within  this  dicotomy.  Remember:providing improved reporting and data
integration. The use of controlled sending
* Human solutions (such as ISP relations)policies and scheduling can reduce your
tend  to  work  for  human-run  systems (H2H)sending signature, and improve your reception
and  delivery  at  most major recipient ISPs.
* Machine responses (such as sender
authentication) tend to work for machineThe same level of expertise should be
systems  (M2M)expected from external service providers.
Presenting an easy to use interface, or good
* Not understanding the differences betweendatabase integration features is important,
these types of systems tends to create at lotbut it is not sufficient. Investment and
of  frustrationeffort to control and improve email results,
from ISP relations to technical delivery, is
Most of the systems that stop your email areessential  in  a  good  ESP  partner.
automated. This means machines, not people,
determine whether your email gets through.Good  decisions  are  based  on  data
From client-side boxed software packages to
ISP email profiling systems, it is usuallySenders have been subject to a litany of
the things that machines can see and measureaphorisms about how to improve delivery. A
that  count  the  most.few of these suggestions are entirely
useless, and others may have only an
Many ESPs rely almost exclusively on H2H "ISPextremely narrow field of effect. Effective
relationships" at major recipient ISPs foremail managers know that the only accurate
delivery improvement. Email managers need toway to tell what is really happening to your
remember that only a few ISPs even offer suchsends  is  to  test  and  to  collect  data.
channels, and that a large portion of their
email list addresses are at ISPs that don't.Many online publishers have a key metric that
For those destinations, and just asthey like to use. Unfortunately, chances are
importantly, for all of the outsidethat it has been corrupted by some type of
monitoring systems that watch and recordsending barrier. Other senders still rely
email flows, your technical (M2M) sendingonly on aggregate indicators of sending
behavior is the primary determinant of yoursuccess, or worse, indicators that can simply
success.tell you if your campaign succeeded or failed
according to a measure other than delivery.
This section addresses the machine-to-machineThis data, while better than nothing, does
(M2M) communication universe - that strangenot provide the diagnostics and granularity
virtual place where what people think and seeneeded to control and adapt your sending
counts for little, but where algorithms, rulestrategies. To control an email program today
sets, and thresholds control everything. Ofit is just as important to be able diagnose a
course, people usually set those rules andproblem as it is to simply report a result.
thresholds, but once in place the machines doData collection at multiple levels is key to
the sorting, filtering, and blocking. Anddiagnosis.
they determine whether your recipients get
your  messages.Complete  reporting  systems  should provide:
Email delivery and communications is your* detailed data from the Internet
business,  and  your  responsibilitytransmission  level  (server-to-server)
Successful email communications programs* data from monitored mailbox landing systems
actively use many types of M2M tools and(filter/junk-bin)
tactics to overcome delivery barriers and to
improve the level of recipient response. In* data from email-based actions (opens, click
fact, at a point in time where 22% ofthrough)
permission-based email from a wide spectrum
of sources is being erroneously blocked, and* results measuring value created (such as
with email response rates far below theirpurchases  or  requested  recipient  actions)
historical highs, managers cannot afford to
just accept the status quo. From HTMLEach of these data sources addresses a
checkers to drop-box landing systems toportion of the delivery and response cycle,
sending profile control systems, emailand only in aggregate can delivery and
managers already use a range of M2M tools andresponse problems be identified and
resources first to map out their own emailaddressed. Each measure also has
delivery situations, and then to takecharacteristic sources of error (for example
corrective action. Even at the mostimage blocking for opens rates), so it is the
elementary level, investigation andrelationship between these data points that
remediation of sending errors or deliveryprovides the most information for sender
failures can dramatically turn aroundcontrol. This data is almost always created
difficult  situations.from several different sources, and senders
may need to build a customized system for
Senders can effectively use either internalintegrating and displaying these results in a
or  external  solutionsuseful  manner.
With the right controls in place, outboundIntegrated reporting data recorded over time
email programs can effectively use either (orallows senders to measure changes in system
both) internal or external sending resources.and recipient behavior, indicating at which
The goal is to cost-effectively access thelevel problems (or improvements) may be
expertise and capacity necessary to operate aoccurring. Changes in the pattern of these
sustainable system. To do this email managersbehaviors is very informative to email
first have to realistically evaluate theirmanagers seeking to control their delivery
internal capabilities as well as the claimsprofile.
of  potential  Email  Service  Providers.
More information on email data collection and
The key to this process is to ask the rightanalysis can be found in the Email PhD Data
questions! In an era dominated by deliveryand  Tracking  section.
and sustainability problems, many managers
still evaluate systems only on the basis ofCopyright © by Email Ph.D.
convenience or ease of use. Old "broadcast"



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