Black Friday-Cyber Monday: The busiest days for ISP’s

In the week leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year, our research showed a decrease in deliverability. There was a decline of as much as 15% email communication received for false positives. Deliverability was also affected via junk/spam box placement. Here at KobeMail, we have seen more and more of our clients flourish during the season, as a result of being proactive and strategizing ahead of time and planning for the Holiday season.

The rush before the holidays affects everyone and is not just limited to consumers- it also includes ISPs. Simply following best practices is not always the key to deliverability success. Email marketers are wise to send incentivized emails to subscribers. The major influx of emails sent during this period from companies causes ISP’s to get flooded. In obvious reaction, the floodgates come down to protect themselves. In order to deal with that digital mess, ISPs are forced to queue messages. When queued for a long time, some of these emails time-out and receives a false positive i.e. the ISP silently eats away the email without taking action of delivery.

ISPs deal with backlog and continue mitigating the millions of pieces of spam that are also inbound for the same inboxes that your email campaign is sent to. ISPs receive larger amounts of volume so they are forced to set their threshold lower. Spam thresholds also are lowered at this time and ISPs have a lower tolerance on how many spam complaints they will accept from a specific entity. More words are flagged as SPAM and overall deliverability becomes more challenging. This makes it even more difficult for email marketers to successfully send large quantities of emails in a short period of time. Throttling is one of the best options and planning a strategy to distribute out the send is wise to do – especially if you have a large list.

The ability to reach the inbox during these high traffic days is almost completely out of your control. KobeMail clients have an upper hand because of their whitelist status and the reputation they have built in the past months. As always, there are certain things you can do to better your chances of getting into the inbox. While utilizing tactics such as segmentation and subject line work, the real key to success lies in preparation. We will be doing an article soon on to do’s for the holiday season soon.

You need to take advantage of the days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday as you know for a fact your subscribers are most likely actively shopping. Stay tuned for tips on how to better your chances of making turkey day make you a lot of green.

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Yasifur Rahman

Gmail’s “Priority Inbox”

If you use Gmail, you may have noticed a new button displaying Priority Inbox (Beta). This new and improved inbox is meant to provide users with a far more efficient way of filtering their emails. What does this mean to you? Well, the Priority Inbox filters emails in a way that enables users to control what emails they will see, and when they will see them. Emails are organized into three categories: Important and unread, Starred, and Everything else.

The idea behind the new inbox is simple – Emails are tagged and then sorted by importance. Placing emails into the “Important” inbox is as easy as a click of the mouse. Gmail users can now enjoy the luxury of seeing what they want when they want. Ultimately, this could be considered the most efficient inbox to date, leaving email marketers in quite the conundrum.

To be successful, you must adjust to the change, revamp emails, and send accordingly. If you can adapt accordingly, you will reap the benefits, leaving competition far behind.

The Priority Inbox could pose a threat for your email lists hitting the inbox. However, if you implement a few minor tweaks, emails can be optimized to reach these users

Initial Email
You must continue to try to maximize engagement. This can be done through something as simple as asking users to place emails into their priority inbox. It takes very little time on both ends to do so

Optimize Emails
This concept should be nothing new to you. It’s simply an adjustment that should be made to adapt to the changing times. You should note that the Priority Inbox algorithm does not use sender I.D. to classify “important” emails.

Link Social Networks
Try to take even more advantage of social networking sites that have been implemented. If emails contain any type of link to these networks, Priority Inbox will automatically mark them as “important”.

Consistency in Emails
You must make sure that your emails are consistent. Frequently repeat keywords within emails from specific addresses. Since Priority Inbox organizes by click rate & keywords, this is sure to bolster your chances of being an “important” email.

Here at KobeMail, we like to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to strategic email marketing. Our strategy team is designed to keep our clients up to date with the newest technology and revenue generating practices. The Priority Inbox represents a step in the right direction for inbox management. For personal emails, this is a great feature. On the business side of things, outlook seems to control a good portion of the work force. However, countless small businesses do rely on Gmail. In order to be successful, you must realize this and personalize emails towards these people. The small amount of time it takes to make these changes could make the world of a difference for your campaigns.

Author: Anthony Lee

Editor: Peter Schirripa, Yasifur Rahman