Blog Series: Complexity of Email – Part 5: Sending emails

Finally we have reached the last part of the process – sending the emails! Wonderful at least there is one easy step. Not quite…..

This is probably one of the most involved steps – here, all the elements involved in the email campaign come together, namely:

• Send optimization – The delivery engine needs to adapt the delivery of emails based on the information ISPs are sending back. Do we need to retry a message or moderate the volume so we don’t get greylisted?
  
• Authentication – The information available in emails goes much deeper than what is visible to an everyday user. Various sets of information are tied closely together by technologies like SPF, DKIM and DMARC that help authenticate the sender. The correct use of these authentication techniques could mean the difference between the Inbox the junk folder.
  
• Reputation – Many factors influence your reputation with the ISP, so it’s important to get this right from the start – warm your IP’s, send at the correct rate for each phase of your reputation, adhere to anti-spam laws and keep constant track of your scores.

• Content filtering – Content reappears as an important factor from the previous design and testing phases. During sending, you want to make sure your content does not raise any flags. It is also not always the words you use, but rather the text to image ratio and other similar items.

• Deliverability – Deliverability is the most important and necessary factor that should be considered during the sending phase. See the deliverability checklist

Once your email has reached the inbox, reporting becomes key. Information extracted from the reports need to be fed back into the data management phase so the cycle can start again.

Conclusion

The strength of a digital customer communication tool is not just about sending out bulk email. It’s about understanding the medium, tracking each communication and making adjustments to future campaigns so that your goals are met.

You need to ensure you have experts in this space to help you along the way.

(64)