Among the leading problems that send e-mail marketing messages into spam bulk folders are a heavy use of images and “from” identifiers that use numbers or symbols rather than names or brands, says a new report from Lyris Technologies.
“Heavy use of images not only renders poorly in clients with image blocking, but increases spam scores by a full point and can be a reason that marketers see their messages delivered to junk/bulk folders,” the study says.
The “Lyris EmailAdvisor ISP Deliverability Report Card for Q1 2007” is based on a study of more than 440,000 permission-based e-mail marketing messages sent from 69 organizations from Jan. 1 to March 31.
But though it found that images and “from” identifiers can increase an e-mail message’s likelihood of getting blocked by spam filters, the study also noted message content alone is not the major cause of deliverability problems for most e-mail marketers. For 1,705 unique e-mails processed through the EmailAdvisor content scoring application, the average content score was 1.04—compared to the score of 3.0 that is generally accepted as an indicator of spam.
“The main message of this quarter’s EmailAdvisor Report Card for e-mail marketers is that there are no easy fixes to senders’ deliverability challenge,” says Stefan Pollard, director of consulting services for EmailLabs, an e-mail services provider. “Changing a few keywords in the hopes of boosting inbox success rates is no substitute for adhering to e-mail marketing best practices.” EmailLabs and Lyris Technologies, a provider of e-mail marketing software, are both units of J.L. Halsey Corp.
The study notes that deliverability problems are mostly caused by ineffective marketing practices that send unclear messages that consumers tag as spam. Extensive use of images inserted into e-mail can exacerbate these problems because recipients often must click on the image files to make them appear. But if the e-mail message isn’t clearly marked by a recognized brand, recipients often just delete the messages or mark them as spam without even clicking on the images,
“Most e-mail clients, such as Outlook, Yahoo, and recently AOL, now block images by default,” Pollard says. “Many use a preview pane to display a small portion of the message. Retailers need to make sure that their offers are available in text form ‘above the fold’—meaning the message’s call to action will be shown in the preview pane even with images turned off. Assuming images are set to be blocked, using text encapsulated in an image means the entire e-mail will show up as a series of red x’s. That’s simply not good for the sender or the recipient. Retailers need to design an e-mail template that enables images to support the offer, not be the offer.”
Among e-mail marketing best practices are understanding a consumer’s expectations at the point of signing up for e-mail marketing messages, including the frequency per week or month, and clearly displaying the sender’s brand, Pollard says.
He adds that Internet service providers are not automatically filtering out as many e-mail messages as they have in the past, and instead providing more control to recipients by letting them mark messages as spam. “ISPs have reduced their reliance on filters to identify spam,” Pollard says, adding that filters no longer routinely block messages containing the word “free” in the subject line or message content.
But putting more control in the hands of recipients is requiring marketers to assure that recipients recognize e-mail marketing messages from trusted brands, he adds. In case images of branded products inserted into e-mail don’t appear, for example, marketers should insert a sentence such as “If you’re having trouble seeing this e-mail message from Target, click here,” Pollard says. But many marketers will forget to insert their brand into that sentence, leaving the recipient more likely to delete the message or mark it as spam, he adds. “That’s a pretty easy fix, but it makes a huge difference,” he says.
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