When your deliverability heads south, you call your Email Service Provider (ESP), right? The question is, “Do ESPs control your deliverability?”
Bronto clients look to us to help with deliverability. As we all know, the best copy, the snazziest creative, or the catchiest subject line is worthless if the email never gets delivered. The “D” word has become a very hot topic in light of the issues Yahoo! had a few weeks ago. When a client calls with questions regarding their deliverability, the conversation usually unfolds as follows:
Client: I noticed that my most recent campaign had lower-than-normal delivery (high bounce rate).
DJ: Was this a new list that you sent to? Did you revise the From Name, Subject Line, and/or copy? Are you using a new template? Have you hired a new designer? Basically, what did you do differently?
Client: Yes, we changed a few things, but how can that impact my deliverability?
While it is accurate to say ESPs like Bronto help with deliverability, there is only so much in our control. The rest is up to you - the email marketer.
How do ESPs impact deliverability? Through infrastructure and authentication. Part of having a solid infrastructure means that Bronto sends your mail through multiple IP addresses (as well as dedicated IPs) to help disperse your send volume. This ensures that your email messages aren’t sent “too fast” (most ISPs wave a red flag for too much inbound mail from one IP). Bronto also ensures that the mail server settings are aligned with the ever-changing ISP requirements - again, see recent post on Yahoo!.
Domain Keys
There are several ways ESPs help authenticate your email. Bronto takes care of this by implementing both Domain Keys/DKIM and SPF/Sender ID. While these do not guarantee delivery, it is one more way that ISPs know you are who you say you are.Incidentally, infrastructure and authentication, while important, have a relatively small impact on your deliverability. The major reason most email gets blocked is because of reputation. The factors that contribute to reputation are completely in your hands. This means that you - the email marketer - have the most control over your own deliverability.Over the next several weeks, Bronto is soliciting the help of our deliverability partner, Return Path, to write a series of blog posts on “the three R’s of deliverability”:
- Reputation
- Relevance
- Rendering.
These posts will give you solid advice on what you need to focus on to ensure that every email you send gets into your subscribers’ inbox.
Coming Soon…
DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto
Related posts:
- Reputation DOES matter - go figure Last week, Christine of the “Official AOL Postmaster Blog” posted...
- Optimize Deliverability With A Dedicated IP Address We’re proud to announce the launch of our new Dedicated...
- Sender Reputation: What it Is, And Why You Care This is the first in a series of three posts...
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