Pressing the “send” button on an email doesn’t necessarily mean your messages reach your recipients’ inboxes. Along the way, email communications can encounter an array of deliverability issues that can affect your email marketing ROI as well as your open, click-through, and conversion rates. Using data from 20 leading retailers tracked over a two-month period, Ryan Moss explains why messages from even the biggest brands can land in spam folders or even go missing. He also reviews how message subject lines, content, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can impact your email deliverability.

1. Email Deliverability:
The What, Why & How
Ryan Moss
Deliverability Manager
December 5, 2012

2. Objective
In today’s session we’ll address the following questions:
• What is deliverability and why is it important for your
digital marketing success?
• Why bulking and blacklisting impact your email
marketing ROI?
• How do you avoid revenue loss due to deliverability
issues?

3. Key Points
The Bad News:
Most of the largest brands in the world encounter
deliverability challenges on regular basis.
The Good News:
You can overcome deliverability issues and avoid substantial
revenue losses (ranging from $50,000 to up to several $
million) by applying:
• Pre-flight testing
• Inboxing reporting
• Blacklist detection

4. Our Topic & Agenda
1. Deliverability
• Inboxing
an email message reaching its intended recipient’s inbox
• Bulking
an email message being trapped by spam filters and thus
being prevented from reaching the inbox
2. Blacklisting
a major ISP (Internet Service Provider) blocking all
communications coming from a specific domain
3. Deliverability DOs & DONTs

5. Deliverability
- Inboxing
- Bulking

6. Inboxing: Current Landscape
• Reaching your subscribers’ inboxes is becoming increasingly
difficult
• According to Yesmail Interactive data, email recipients at the
four major internet service providers (ISP) represent over 80%
of a marketers’ email audience
• ISP bulking issues will result in approximately 20% revenue
loss per ISP, per campaign
• Those losses typically range from $50K to several million
depending on the size of the brand’s subscriber list

7. What We Discovered: You Lose Revenue
Example: GMAIL Bulking
• ACME Marketing generates $250,000 in revenue per email campaign.
However, this marketer has been blocked at GMAIL for its past 4
campaigns within the last 7 days.
– Average Weekly Revenue - 4 campaigns x $250,000 = $1,000,000
– Revenue Loss / Bulking Issue = $1,000,000 * 20% (GMAIL Audience
Size) = $200,000.00
• ACME has lost $200,000 in revenue this past week as a result of a
single GMAIL bulking issue.

8. Our Deliverability Study
• Over 20 major marketers from different verticals
were studied for inbox placement at AOL, Hotmail,
Yahoo, and GMAIL for a period of 60 days.
• Our study concluded that the largest brands in the
world experience inbox issues regularly.

9. Real Campaign Data: Yahoo Bulking
Lowes:
Date: August 2nd
Subject Line: NEW $50 and Change Project Inside
Date: August 16th
Subject Line: Manage Your Home in Your Hand
Yesmail Confidential 9

10. Real Campaign Data: Yahoo Bulking
Kohl’s:
Date: August 8th
Subject Line: Your $5 Gift from Kohl's has arrived!
Date: August 23rd
Subject Line: Last Chance to Save up to 20%
During the Lowest Prices of the Season Sale!
Yesmail Confidential 10

11. Real Campaign Data: GMAIL Bulking
Barney’s New York:
Date: September 6th
Subject Line: Shop the Fall Trend: The Electric
Blues
Date: August 29th
Subject Line: Miracle Moisture: Shop La Mer's
Soft Crème
Date: August 27th
Subject Line: Beat the Heat: No-Sweat Summer
Style from The Glamourai's Kelly Framel
Yesmail Confidential 11

12. Real Campaign Data: GMAIL Bulking
Barney’s New York:
Date: August 24th
Subject Line: Read All About It: Insider Fashion
Access on The Window
Date: August 22nd
Subject Line: Last Call to Shop Barneys
Warehouse Sale Online - Up to 90% OFF!
Date: August 20th
Subject Line: Under the Influence: Shop Personal
Favorites from François Nars, Sunday Riley and
More!
Yesmail Confidential 12

13. Real Campaign Data: GMAIL Bulking
Barney’s New York:
Date: August 17th
Subject Line: Up to 85% Off Styles for Women,
Men & More! Shop NOW Before They're Gone For
Good
Date: August 16th
Subject Line: The Urban Uniform: Introducing
BASCO Barneys Sportswear Company
Date: August 14th
Subject Line: New Markdowns! Now Save Up to
85% OFF Select Styles for Men, Women, Kids,
and the Home!
Yesmail Confidential 13

14. Inboxing Issues: the Causes
Sending Reputation: ISPs measure a variety of metrics generated by a
marketers email campaign that are fed into a central scoring framework.
The following metrics compose a sender’s reputation:
1. Abuse Complaints
2. Opens
3. Click-Through Rates
4. Messages ‘Passed By’ (abaca)
Problematic URLs: Links contained within the content body are known
to cause deliverability issues. ISPs will flag certain URLs that are
commonly found in messages that generate excessive abuse complaints
Example: www.3rd-party-company.com

15. Inboxing Issues: the Solution
Proactive Action:
Inbox Placement Testing / Preflight – Marketers are recommended to
generate inbox placement reports at the major and mid-tiered ISPs before
EVERY campaign.
• Step 1 - Generate inbox report 72 hours before campaign deployment
• Step 2 - Inspect inbox placement at each ISP
• Step 3 - Investigate discrepancies at problematic ISP
• Step 4 - Determine if the issue is tied to Creative Content or IP
Reputation
• Step 5 – Once issue is identified, take preventive measures to avoid it
recurring in the future

16. Inboxing Issues: the Solution

17. Inboxing Issues: the Causes
Much like a car travels on a road to reach its destination, an email
campaigns travels on an IP addresses.
Most marketers have dedicated IP addresses exclusively reserved for
their email program.
Just like there are different types cars on the road, there are different
types of email campaigns with different purposes (mail- streams):
Different Types of Mail Streams:
• Retention
• Marketing
• Third Party (Co-reg, Rental, eAppend)
• Transactional

18. Single Mail Stream

19. Inboxing Issues: the Solution
Preventive Measures:
Mail stream separation based on offer type and engagement.
The audience should be separated into individual mail
streams based on most recent engagement.
IP Set 1 – Engagement Stream – (12 months
or less)
IP Set 2 - Legacy Engagement – (13 months
plus)
IP Set 3 - Other – 3rd Party, Append, Lead
Gen.
Deliverability issues will be isolated to the higher risk mail
streams, leaving the core streams uneffected.

20. Multiple Mail Streams

21. Take Action Today
1. Ensure you are generating inbox measurement
reports BEFORE each campaign
2. Ensure your email campaigns are being sent
over DEDICATED IP addresses
3. Ensure your email campaigns are divided into
separate IP sets per mail stream

22. Blacklisting

23. Blacklist: Landscape
What is Spamhaus?
• The largest commercial blacklist in the world
• Protects over 2 billion email recipients worldwide.
• Adopted by 70% of major ISPs
GMAIL Hotmail Yahoo
Comcast SBC Bellsouth
Cablevision Road Runner USA.net
Marketers in all industries can experience Spamhaus listings. We have
listed a few examples of brands from different verticals that have
experienced Spamhaus issues.

24. Blacklist: Causes
Spamtrap email addresses are ‘learning beacons’ operated by
Spamhaus. These beacons help Spamhaus monitor and
penalize Marketers with faulty mailing practices.
1. Honey pot – an email address that has never subscribed to a
marketer’s message, nor been released to the outside world.
Example Beacon: tommy1.smith2@sbcgloibal.net
2. Inactive Recipient – an email address that has not opened,
clicked, or purchased from a marketer in 13 months or greater.
Example Beacon: mark@hotmail.com

25. What We Discovered: You Lose Revenue
Example:
ACME Marketing generates $250,000 in revenue per email campaign.
This marketer has been blocked with Spamhaus for the past 4 email
campaigns this week.
– Average Weekly Revenue: 4 campaigns x $250,000 = $1,000,000
– Revenue Loss / Spamhaus: $1,000,000 * 70% (Spamhaus Audience
Size) = $700,000.00
ACME has lost $700,000 in revenue this past week as a result of the
Spamhaus blocking issue.

26. Real Campaign Data: Blacklist
Bath and Body Works:
Listing Date: August 24 to Present
ESP: Cheetahmail
Cause: Hitting spamtraps
Groupon:
Listing Date: October 30, 2011 - Present
ESP: Exact Target
Cause: Hitting spamtraps
Disney Credit Card:
Listing Date: June 19, 2012 - Present
ESP: Exact Target
Cause: Hitting spamtraps

27. Real Campaign Data: Blacklist
Sirus XM Radio
Listing Date: September 9 to present
ESP: Cheetahmail
Cause: Spamming to harvested addresses
in violation of CAN-SPAM.
•State of Michigan
Date: July 29, 2012
ESP: N/A
Cause: Spam source (traps)
•Children’s Place
Listing Date: August 28 to Present
ESP: Cheetahmail
Cause: Hitting spamtraps

28. Blacklist
Preventive Steps:
Marketers are encouraged to perform the following actions in
order to avoid Spamhaus issues:
1. Engagement Analysis – Understand your audience and
perform segmentation based on recent engagement
2. Mail Stream Separation – Ensure mail streams are
completely isolated from each other
3. Hygiene – Utilize 3rd party hygiene solutions on data to
eliminate possible problematic data
4. Scans – Ensure your IP addresses are being scanned
at Spamhaus every 24 hours (at minimum).

29. Optimal Deliverability

30. Make Deliverability a Priority!
What you should expect from your dedicated Email Solution
Provider:
• Constant monitoring of all deployments
• Inbox placement reporting across all major ISPs
• Hourly Spamhaus Blacklist detection
• Content rendering reporting across all major ISPs
• Proactive recommendations and guidance on deliverability
strategy

31. Questions???
Call me, maybe…
Ryan Moss
Email: ryan.moss@yesmail.com
Phone: 647.624.3512