Email Marketing Tips Blog

When your email bounces…
Have you ever wondered why your emails are returned with the annoying comment that they couldn’t be delivered? You think you did everything right, yet they still bounce! Well, everyone may know what “bounces” are, but let’s review the causes and see if we can improve your delivery rates.

First, there are two kinds of email bounces: hard and soft.
A soft bounce is an email message that gets as far as the recipient’s mail server, but is bounced back before it reaches the recipient. One of the most common causes for a soft bounce is a full mailbox. This often occurs with subscribers who use the basic (not premium) ISP email boxes, which offer very little storage.

A hard bounce is an email message that has been returned to you because the recipient’s address is invalid, the domain name doesn’t exist, the recipient is unknown, or the recipient’s mail server has blocked your server.  This is a bit more troublesome and requires careful investigation.

When you receive email complaints…
What does it mean when you get email complaints and how can you reduce them? It’s quite simple.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Yahoo and AOL provide Feedback Loop software which returns all messages marked as SPAM by their email account users.  Now, here’s where your email may get treated as an abusive message or SPAM for a variety of reasons. For example, if recipients get email they didn’t ask for and don’t want, they should click “This is SPAM”.  But sometimes it’s because they don’t recognize – or remember − the sender, even though they opted in.  Sorry, they’ll get flagged and filtered out just the same. Remember, whatever the reason, if your email message is marked SPAM by a recipient and you receive the dreaded message, they are removed from your GetResponse contact list.

Mailing lists are the email marketers’ goldmine, so it’s both productive and profitable to apply best practices to your list hygiene and message creation. Of course, GetResponse does much of it for you automatically, but here are some simple tips to help you reduce bounces and email complaints:

• Keep your subscriber list clean.

Make sure every person you are sending messages to knows they are coming from you. Be very clear on your web sign up forms about what type of information the subscriber would like to receive, whether newsletters, blog updates, coupons, or articles, even which topics.

• Use double opt-in

Double opt-in is a great way to ensure that your list is clean and free from human error. Typing errors can not only clutter your list, but cost you in lost sales opportunities. The double opt-in process makes “doubly sure” that all your email addresses are genuine and correct. And don’t forget to personalize your confirmation emails to welcome new subscribers!

• Test your email messages before sending!

Spam testing your emails is a great way to keep your content spam free and your reputation protected. Whether you know it or not, ISP’s are constantly changing their methods and GetResponse ensures that our spam testing software is up to date and fully compliant. So all you have to do is click the spam check button and wait for the green tick!

Tags

autoresponder, autoresponders, email, email marketing, list building, marketing, news, spam

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 4:38 pm and is filed under autoresponder, autoresponders, email, email marketing, list building, marketing, news, spam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.