Deliverability and List Health: Part 2

What if my email is not reaching my audience?

Today we continue our series on email deliverability and list health.  Last month we discussed, how to know if your email is really reaching your audience.  If you took a deep look at your email programs and found anything from sub-par performance to a serious issue, what do you do next?

Blacklists

We start with the most serious issue, blacklists. If your email program is on a blacklist, this must be addressed.  Start by talking to your email provider. Many email programs include it as part of their service to go to bat for you and resolve black list issues on your behalf.  If you have this level of service, use it. If not, you’ll need to reach out to wherever you are blacklisted and ask them the process to resolve the issue.

Bad addresses

Clean up your bounced and invalid addresses. Watch for and remove spam traps. There are many methods for updating your list. Some contacts are simply no good. Others are valuable contacts with an issue in the email address.  It’s important to understand what kind of contacts you may have on your list and the volume to determine your strategy.  Updating your bounced addresses can range from a manual cleanup, to using other marketing channels to reach these contacts for a new address, to using an Email Change of Address (ECOA) program.

Reactivations

If you have email addresses that repeatedly show the emails are being delivered but not opened (and I don’t know any companies that can say no here), build a reactivation campaign process. These campaigns aim to move the non-openers on your list to openers and should be done on a periodic basis.

If you have questions, or are ready to get started on any specialized campaigns to help your emails reach your audience, write to me at colleen@peakmarketingcommunications.com to see how we can help.

Next Month: In the third and final part of our series, we talk about preventative measures:  what to do to stay healthy and keep your list and metrics strong.