Outlook 2003 says Junk It!

Testing.........
Gmail …: Inbox
Yahoo …: Inbox
Hotmail …: Inbox
AOL ...: Inbox
Outlook 2003 …: JUNK!

Time and time again we face the same problem of creatives being classified as Junk mail on desktop applications -- when they are reaching the Inbox of major ISPs. While whitelisting and authentication entries can take you to inboxes on large ISPs, it does not help much on desktop applications.

Outlook 2003 is one of the more used email desktop applications. The first thing we have to understand about desktop applications is that:

:: The filtering aspects are different
:: The filters are user defined

…and outlook 2003 is no different. Over a 100 million people use Outlook as their email application which means it is likely that your users may be among them. Getting your email communication out to them is of utmost importance, as one user not receiving the communication is one lost source of revenue – if you are a business.

We have to better understand how we can reach these users; we have to understand the tools they use to read your communication. Here is some insight of how an outlook filter works, and why your creatives maybe rotting in a Junk folder waiting to be deleted.

Message Sending Time Check – Weekends are a bad time to send a campaign to your users who use Outlook. The filters give it a higher score and are more likely to end up in the Junk folder than if the mailing was sent on a weekday.

Upper Case in Messages - If the message contains around 25% or more uppercase words, it classifies the message as SPAM. Avoid Uppercases both in subject lines and body of the messages as a rule of thumb for all your communication.

Numbers and Symbols - If the content has close to 8% or more numbers and symbols, the message is classified as SPAM. As an example for $100, avoid using “$” signs or “100” values – instead use “One hundred dollars”.

Duplicate Check – Outlook filters checks for duplicates. The more the repetition of the same word, the higher the weighted SPAM score and more likely the message will end up in Junk.

User Settings - User settings most often send the emails to Junk. Ask your users to whitelist your IP or domain.

The above are some of the pointers for better deliverability to the inbox in Outlook. Look to next week when I delve into the filter aspects of Hotmail Live, Yahoo, Comcast and AOL --- and not in that specific order.

Happy Mailing!

Email Campaign Creative - 101 - Part Deux

As promised here is the continuation from my last post on creating effective creatives optimized for deliverability. These are some of the things I continually advise my production team and clients to focus on. Although following some of these may cause the creatives to loose some luster, at the end of the day deliverability is all that matters, and getting through to your consumers. So here are some more tid bits for your creatives --

Height and Length of Logo / Banner: The length of the logo/banner should be equal or less than 600 pixels. The width should be proportionate and ideally under 100 pixel range. Anything over will be one blocked image in the preview pane until the user allows images to be downloaded

Font Size: Medium font size is recommended for all creative, as large fonts within the creative affect the SPAM score and increase based on repetitive usage.

Tables: Avoid using excessive tables and/or nested tables within the creative. When images are blocked, this can cause the creatives to look broken and the text out of place.

Image Dimensions: The height and width should be defined for all images in the creative within the image source tag. This will make the creative text readable even if the images are blocked.

RTF Images: RTF images are not recommended as it's become a spamming mechanism -- so while it can get images opened, you risk getting put on a SPAM list by a user who has created a filter for this.

Email Campaign Creative - 101 - Part 1

Create campaigns that are great looking with a focus on deliverability and maintaining creative conformity when received by the ISPs. Here are some of my suggestions:

CSS Styles: Yes they look GREAT when used on a website but for email creatives its a big AVOID. Creatives that are heavy on the CSS styles have a low text to html ratio low. CSS should be avoided in emails as they will be ignored by most web clients. Style sheets (inline or external) will be ignored by Yahoo/Gmail. Instead it is advised to use inline table styles for all your styling requirements within a creative.

Clean and Smooth Transition: Creatives should be clean and must have smooth transition between image and text from top to bottom ---limiting to a maximum of one column where text is displayed. Adding multiple columns of text and images causes the creative to break when the images are not displayed -- currently a standard practice by most web based and pc based email clients. To attain a cleaner and more presentable look, we recommend that you do not exceed more than one column for your email creatives where text is displayed. This will not only make your creatives look more professional, but also when images are disabled it will make the email acceptable as well as readable. It also makes it easier to convince the ISPs that the Newsletter is legitimate--because of the look of the creative--and not intended as SPAM, when someone reports the email.

Backgrounds and Alignment: Colorful backgrounds again raise the SPAM scores precipitously. A white background is the lowest scoring color within a creative. Also, most SPAM creatives are centered. We advise that you left align your creatives to make it look more legitimate form of communication. Developing creatives with a white background and aligning the contents to the left, makes your email campaign look less like a SPAM mailing. The combination of these changes i.e. of background and alignment will have a positive effect on your deliverability by decreasing your SPAM score

Text to HTML Ratio: Creatives must have images and text in a creative. A 60-40 rule should always be followed while creating html based creatives. Most SPAM messages are center aligned image only, and hence is a SPAM indicator for various filters.

The second part will continue on this post.

Happy Mailing!

"You-Centric" vs. "Me-Centric" Part 2

My last entry touched on the subject of "Me-Centric" versus "You-Centric" emails. This entry, Part 2, will be a continuation of the last entry. It will expand on the "You-centric" and "Me-centric" concept.

KobeMail has a few clients that have already made their newsletters You-centric. One example is The Mystery Method. Here is an excerpt out of one of their recent newsletters.

“ I thought this would make OAP members happy. After all, now you can get immediate advice – news you can use tonight – to cover a sticking point like Qualification or Storytelling and Humor or you can take an hour to upgrade your overall game with an advanced topic like Frame Control or Identity. You can download these directly to your computer, so you can listen to them there, on your iPod, on a CD, or on anything else that plays sound. And, we don’t charge for shipping (obviously).”

The Mystery Method has always made an effort to make their emails You-centric and their numbers reflect their efforts. They have grown to an average of 46% open rates on their curriculum emails while experiencing a dramatic improvement in their click through rates -- during 2007. Read on to learn how you can make your emails more You-centric.

In order to utilize email marketing to its fullest potential your emails should be “You-Centric” (customer) and not always Me-Centric (company). The self-absorbed approach to email content and design may not always persuade visitors to become buyers or users. If done in excess, you become another push-sell email in the inbox with the probability of easily getting deleted. Your emails should try to contain information and solutions catering to your users. Take the initiative and add a personal approach to your email making it beneficial to the user. For example mention case studies on how your product/services helped another user. Include the compliments you have received on that product/service.

Studies have shown that going through emails is stressful for people. Users are too busy to deal with certain messages and they consider “fluff” email a waste of time. Remember they are getting messages in their inbox from their boss, colleagues, family and friends. For many people “checking their mail” is a task they want to finish it as quickly as possible. Your email should stand out in that clutter as an email they want to read. Converting glancers into readers of content is probably the toughest job out there. Once you have done that, you have acquired a loyal user and a potential long term buyer.

To fulfill email potential, companies need to view email creation as a user interface design activity even though the majority of email content is text. You can and should combine relevant graphics along with content. However, don’t over do it. The images you display should receive the same consideration and thought as the content displayed. Images can be one of the easiest ways of doing a soft-sell. On the other hand, make sure your content has links and soft-pushes towards your services. At the end of the day, you too need to capitalize and see returns from your emails sent.

Emails are a powerful tool for strengthening customer service, increasing users’ confidence and trust in your company. They allow you to reach out to users in ways that are impossible for websites. Websites sit still and wait for users to approach, but emails can reach out to users. For you to approach, you must go through the acceptance phase where you talk about your user and how beneficial your services are to them.

Email marketing takes time. It is not a quick solution to marketing. It takes planning, testing, measuring and consideration. Email strategy is about building relationships with your users. You don’t rush relationships nor do you abuse them. If you take care of your relationships then you will reap the benefits. Make sure you show your users how important they are to you in 2008. I am sure your customers will appreciate the gratitude.