stay out of the penalty box: email deliverability with sendgrid + sendwithus

Stay Out of the Penalty Box: Email Deliverability with SendGrid + Sendwithus

With Luke Martinez (SendGrid) & Kelly Kenney (Sendwithus)

Hi, I’m Luke

● Deliverability Consultant | SendGrid

● Problem Solver, Deliverability Expert

● Recovering food service professional.

Hi, I’m Kelly

● Marketing @ Sendwithus

● Over 9 years in the Tech marketing field

● Email nerd, animal lover and cheese enthusiast

Housekeeping

● SendGrid / Sendwithus Questions

● Follow-up Recording

● Swag Giveaway

● Email template management

● Iterate / Optimize without deploying code

● Set up A/B tests, drip campaigns

● Connect to Database directly, API from app or upload via CSV

Sendwithus & SendGrid

● Email API: Infrastructure

● Email Marketing: Marketing Campaigns

● Email Experts: SendGrid Expert Services

SendGrid Overview

● Founded in 2009

● Based in Denver, CO with offices in

Orange County, CA and Redwood City, CA

● Leading delivery platform for customer communication

● Send 1B emails per day for companies worldwide

Sendwithus Overview

● Y Combinator company (founded Jan. 2013)

● Based in Victoria, BC and San Francisco, CA

● Control + Optimize Email

● Top 300 Email sender Worldwide

Today’s Objectives

● Deliverability: What is it and why should it matter to you?

● Most important email metrics for sending reputation

● Top 4 expectations for senders

● A/B Testing + Deliverability

● Questions? We got answers

Email: ROI MVP

Reference: http://www.emailmonday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/National-client-email-2015-DMA.pdf

$1

$38

Don’t let this happen to you

$6M

How to prevent lost revenue?

How to prevent lost revenue?

Monitoring engagement, and keeping a close eye on delivery metrics and trends greatly reduces the likelihood of inbox placement issues.

How to prevent lost revenue?

Deliverability is a moving target.

Inbox providers and spam filters are constantly changing the rules that determine whether or not your mail makes it to your subscribers.

What is Deliverability?

250ok?End to end time?

Inbox placement?

Opens?

Clicks?

ROI?

What is Deliverability?

What is Deliverability?

Reputation

250okEnd to end time

Inbox placement

Opens

Clicks

ROI

What is Deliverability?

Back in the day...

Deliverability = Reputation

IP Reputation

2 + 2 = 4

Deliverability = Reputation

In 2016

Deliverability = Reputation

IP Reputation Domain ReputationContent Reputation

● SPF Domain● DKIM Domain● From Domain

● Template● Links/URLs● Syntax

● Dedicated/Shared● IP Neighborhood● IP Count

9 Most Important Engagement Metrics

Engagement

● Open● Click● Unsubscribe● Spam report● Add to contacts● This is not spam● Move to primary● Reply● Forward

List Hygiene

List Hygiene

● Invalid addresses● Spam Traps● Time since last engaged● Time since last engaged● Time since last engaged

Sending to recipients who haven’t engaged in six months is the kiss of death for your reputation.

Anti-Spam Team - Hotmail

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Monitor engagement and send accordingly.● Send less mail to less engaged recipients.● Remove recipients who do not engage

for an extended period of time.● When open rates drop, send less mail.

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Honor unsubscribes and spam reports.○ Keep spam report rate below 0.08%○ Make it easy for recipients to leave your

mailing list.

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Honor unsubscribes and spam reports: ○ Make it easy for recipients to leave your mailing list.

Marketing Perspective

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Honor unsubscribes and spam reports: ○ Make it easy for recipients to leave your mailing list.

Marketing Perspective

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Honor unsubscribes and spam reports: ○ Make it easy for recipients to leave your mailing list.

Marketing Perspective

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Honor unsubscribes and spam reports: ○ Talk to your customers in their language, not yours

Marketing Perspective

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Text to Image ratio● 2-4 sentences of text per image is

a good rule of thumb.● If an email consists of only a

single image, ISPs have no way of determining the nature of the email.

Top 4 Expectations for Senders

Whenever possible, be consistent with your sending domain(s) and IP(s)● New IPs and domains are inherently

untrustworthy.● Work on establishing and maintaining a good

reputation rather than trading IPs and domains when deliverability problems arise.

You’ve got great Deliverability - now what?

Transactional Email

● Sent automatically in response to a user’s action on your app

● Welcome email - 4x more opens and 5x more clicks vs marketing email

● Notification email - second highest engagement rate

● Receipt email - 64% of consumers consider these the most valuable messages

● People expect them and read them - take advantage!

Let’s start with Transactional Emails

Let’s start with Transactional Emails

Inbox providers are generally sympathetic to Transactional mail that ends up in the spam folder.● Password resets● Confirmation emails● Receipts● Invoices● Legal notifications

Marketing/promotional email gets treated very differently by the Inbox provider - ideal to segment to protect these messages.

TechPerspective

Transactional Emails: A/B testing

● Don't assume - A/B Test!

● Treat email like a landing page

● You can test:

○ SUBJECT LINES

○ INTRO TEXT

○ BODY STYLE

○ HEADINGS

○ CTAs and MORE!

Email A/B Testing Basics

High Low

High Yay! Subject

Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA

Open Rate

Cli

ck R

ate

● Segment to a subset of your most engaged audience

● Test 1 element at a time● Apply learnings to the entire

list and/or other emails

Email A/B Testing Basics

High Low

High Yay! Subject

Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA

Open Rate

Cli

ck R

ate

● Segment to a subset of your most engaged audience

● Test 1 element at a time● Apply learnings to the entire

list and/or other emails

A/B Test offer in Transactional email

● Prompt users to perform an action● A/B test messaging and offers● Retail brand examples:

○ Added something to cart○ Completed purchase○ Review product○ Repeat purchase

Wrapping Up

● Sending Reputation =

● With list hygiene, time since last engaged is key

● Make unsubscribes easy + honor their request

● Be consistent with IP addresses + email frequency

● A/B test messaging, offers to a segment

Questions?

kelly@sendwithus.comluke.martinez@sendgrid.com