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Beginners Guide

Lesson 7, Feedback Loops (FBLs)

fbl

Lesson 7, Feedback Loops (FBLs)

More often or not, we complain if we receive unsolicited emails. We can complain in many forms.
Typically with emails we’d hit the ‘spam’ button and let that manage itself, we may even delete the emails or unsubscribe manually, although that is a labourios task, as even the best filters let spam get through. So we’d simply be wasting time by doing this.
Thats where feedback loops come into play, also known as an ‘FBL’ these are used to process user complaints.

What is a feedback loop?
A feedback loop in email form is a process of managing complaints from mailing list members or ISP users, inbetween ISP and ESP, or any source who has enrolled into a feedback loop. See more information here.

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[Gmail] Promotions Grid View…Open Up

[Gmail] Promotions Grid View

Last week Gmail made a change to the Promotions Tab.
In a nutshell; for a trial period for those members who have the Promotions Tab enabled, they will now have the option to view the images nested within the emails in a more visual way. Potentially this could be huge for marketers and from a Deliverability perspective this could also be used to build a better reputation amongst your community. Image below from Google:

gmail field trial

Whats everyone saying ?

Clickz created a good article which explains in detail the changes made and what you could expect, see here. This was original based on the article over at zettasphere.com and gives you some insight into why gmail might be doing this.

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Beginners Guide

Lesson 6, Single Opt in, Confirmed Opt in & Double Opt In

Lesson 6, Single Opt in, Confirmed Opt in & Double Opt In

The biggest factor that affects your Deliverability from the offset is your data collection process, which in turn directly affects your data quality. Here we are not just talking about who you enter into your database but also how you do that. The first thing is you need to be clear with your sign up process about setting expectations for perspective members, and making sure it is relevant to them. There are many issues that we face naturally from poorly designed sign up forms, for example if the syntax of the email isn’t checked we are likely to encounter an increase in bounces, which will in turn have a negative affect on our reputation.

That is key, now it’s time to talk about how you enter members into your database and differences in the methods. In regards to the layout and design of your subscriber form, i found this blog post which had some good tips in regards to sign up process. No matter which method of sign up you use, it’s always important to validate your data on sign up, check out a basic form here there is of course many ways of doing this. It is also important to see where your users are signing up from.

There are a few opt in processes, they are: Single Opt In (SOI), Confirmed Opt In (COI) and Double Opt In (DOI) below i will go into more detail about each form:

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Gmail auto unsubscribe and pilot FBL

Starting from last week, gmail has implemented an auto list unsubscribe in the header of the email.
See illustration below:

gmail auto unsub

 

 

 

 

After clicking the link, the user will then need to click to confirm you want to unsubscribe from the mailing list:
unsubscribe-supported

 

 

 

If for example, the client doesnt support this setup with gmail or the email is spam, then gmail redirects the member to navigate the clients unsubscribe or gmail policies to see the best way to be removed from the mailing list.

unsubscribe-notsupported

 

 

 

 

This might cause some uproar, but this is no showstopper in my mind. If a member doesnt want your email anyway, then better they unsubscribe directly than to complain. Look after your list and gmail will look after your reputation.

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Beginners Guide

Lesson 5, Spam traps & Honey traps

[Beginners guide to Deliverability] Lesson 5, Spam traps & Honey traps

Lesson 5, Spam traps & Honey traps

The key point here is your list hygiene or that of your clients. You can’t just drive your results with a good configuration, and a creative with great marketing. It helps, but its also about the data quality, and within that your list hygiene.

What is your list hygiene?

Your list hygiene in a deliverability sense is the condition of your list, and your management to try and prevent the list working against you. Often or not we are looking at such things as inactive members, repetative soft bounces, hard bounces and your unsubscribes.

For the purpose of this lesson i want to concentrate on inactive members and what part they play in regards to affecting sender reputation. The inactive segment of your clients database contains spam traps;

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Wiping the cobwebs away

I hope you’ve all had a good start to the year, it’s that time again.
Following on from the boom of the holidays, now the sales are upon us…but what’s that, a lul, a silence..

I still hear the whispers about gmail changes, out with the old and in with the new,
Spamhaus planting a gentle kiss in regards to how they deal with ESPs; what does this mean? will anything change? do marketers care, will ESPs enforce anything? isn’t it all just a vicious cycle, i mean, my emails are delivering what do i care.

In deliverability there’s always hope, and that burst of optimism at the start of the year.
Key point here is, keep your house clean, don’t worry about neighbours or external issues and concentrate on what’s on your plate.

What’s your biggest worry from a Deliverability perspective? I’d be interested to know.
This year i’ve promised myself to be more active on the blog, it’s time to get those cogs moving in time for the increase in volume.

Looking forward to the year ahead, I wish you all the best of luck.

Regards,
Anthony Mitchell