Delivery to the Big Four: AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo

Transcription

1 Delivery to the Big Four: AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo A White Paper on How Deliverability Differs Between the Four Most Popular Global Providers Patrick Owens Technology Specialist AccuData Integrated Marketing

2 Contents Introduction...3 Current Popularity of Global Providers...4 How Each Provider Differs with Deliverability...7 What Does the Future Hold for Digital Marketers...11

3 Introduction One of the biggest concerns marketers face today is the risk of subscribers drowning in a deluge of irrelevant content. marketing remains atop the list as the primary marketing tactic for small and large businesses alike. Approximately 97% of businesses are using marketing to try and convert recipients into buyers and it must be working as 76% of subscribers have made a purchase from an marketing message.1 According to research by VentureBeat, nearly 70% of marketers will use more marketing in 2015 than in The value is high, therefore businesses everywhere are working to improve the coverage and quality of their s and are sending even more. There s a fire hose of content aimed at every inbox and only the best of the best will stand out. As a reputable marketer, what can you do to ensure that your s are delivered to the inbox and seen by your intended audience? Anything that affects whether your outgoing appears in front of the recipient comes under the heading of deliverability. deliverability differs greatly between the four most popular global providers. With fewer than 80% of legitimate s ultimately hitting their intended recipient s inbox, it s important to understand those differences and how to navigate them to ensure the success of your marketing efforts.3 Delivery to the Big Four 3

4 Current Popularity of Global Providers During B2C deployments, the majority of records fall within a handful of global service providers: AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, and Yahoo (Hotmail and Outlook both fall under the umbrella of Microsoft). Over the last decade, there has been much discussion on which service is the most popular. This is important information for marketers, as each service provider poses different challenges when it comes to deliverability. Understanding and overcoming these challenges will help marketers maximize the deliverability of their campaigns, while increasing the overall ROI of their marketing efforts. AOL Before 2000, AOL was one of the primary accounts in use by the majority of internet users, but over the past decade, AOL has remained flat showing very little growth. Present day, we see a much different AOL environment. New AOL accounts are virtually nonexistent; only legacy accounts are still in use by users that have not switched to other more popular services. AOL accounts are seen as a good solution for spam accounts, in that people use these addresses to sign up for accounts and services from which they intend to receive a lot of spam. Generally, these users will never check the account after the initial registration process.

5 Google After 2005, Gmail took hold of the internet landscape by ushering in a new minimalistic search experience called Google. Online consumers quickly took notice and Google took a foothold. Google has immersed itself in everything to do with the internet and today is a popular solution for . The majority of new accounts being created will come from Google services through the remainder of Microsoft With Microsoft's constant influence on our day-to-day work flow, it is no wonder that their Hotmail service began gaining momentum in 2005 alongside Google. It is important to note that Hotmail merged with Outlook.com as one universal service in 2013 (this merger also included Live.com). While Hotmail s are still in use, all new accounts created will fall under the Outlook.com domain. Microsoft services are still being utilized to a large degree as a runner up to Google services. 17% 6% 77% Sender Reputation Filters 4 Domains in Content: 6% Content: 17% Sender Reputation: 77% Delivery to the Big Four 5

6 Yahoo Between the years 2000 and 2005, Yahoo s popularity was propelled through the increasing use of their very popular search engine. In 2014, Yahoo started to mirror AOL s life cycle with less new account creation and movement to other services. Hotmail, Gmail, and Outlook.com have taken hold of the Internet as the new choice of services. Yahoo, like AOL, is used by many as a spam account that will be checked infrequently, if ever. Google trends highlighting consumer interest in providers over time

7 How Each Provider Differs with Deliverability Spam Traps Hitting spam traps during an campaign can result in severe deliverability issues for the sender, including a poor reputation. Spam traps are used by providers to target poor sending practices. Spam traps are either abandoned addresses that have been made into a trap or a specific address created with the sole purpose of being a spam trap. marketers may run into spam trap issues when purchasing and renting lists, especially from a vendor that does not ensure opt-in verification. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo may classify third-party opt-in as unsolicited bulk commercial and result in high bounce rates, even if spam traps have not been triggered. AOL creates spam traps from abandoned or canceled accounts after a year or more. Microsoft does not create spam traps; however, sending to inactive accounts will impact a sender s IP reputation over time. Microsoft recommends standard list hygiene measures to avoid any potential issues. Google, like Microsoft, does not make old s into spam traps, but focuses on how many inactive s are engaged during a campaign. Yahoo has very little information public about their spam traps. Delivery to the Big Four 7

8 Engagement As global volumes increase, providers are relying heavily on the engagement activity of s to determine the legitimacy of the senders. For a long time now, marketers have relied on basic rules to make sure they were avoiding spam: Certain words were advised not to be included in subject lines An equal ratio of image and text in creative should be maintained While these rules are still important to remember, they do not play as large of a role in determining whether a sender s will have a shot at actually hitting the inbox as they did in the past. The majority of providers gauge a sender s reputation solely on engagement actions of the campaigns sent before, usually on a per account recipient level. Engagement Factors 5 Mailbox Providers look for signals that your subscribers love your s: Messages Read Messages Read Multiple Times Replies Deleted Without Reading Forwards This is Spam This is Not Spam marketers need to focus on creating highly engaging, targeted s concentrating on creating the positive engagement actions detailed below. All service providers make a point of stressing that they do not track links clicked within s, as this poses a privacy issue. Other levels of engagement are weighed differently by each service provider. AOL focuses on engagement actions like moving to a folder, reporting as spam, moving from spam to inbox, and forwarding. AOL looks at engagement per account level, so while a sender s may not hit one AOL user s inbox, it can hit another. Google utilizes a complex algorithmic measurement of user engagement, averaging all user actions per account level. Google believes opens are not a large indication of engagement.

9 Microsoft looks at similar engagement actions as AOL while also focusing on replies (puts the sender on a safe list). Conversely, Microsoft also tracks recipients who delete an without reading it. Yahoo focuses on bounce rates, ing to unknown users, total volume, a sender s IP neighborhood, complaint rate and spam trap hits, as some of its main indicators of reputation. Bulk ing Yahoo servers, even opt-in, may get a sender s severely deferred. Important Tips AOL recommends utilizing the tools at your disposal as marketers to improve campaign results. At a certain point, AOL recommends not to continue to re-engage, unengaged recipients. Simply remove them from your list. If an AOL user does not log into their for more than 180 days, their account is turned off. Compared to Google, a sender is much more likely to hit an inactive since AOL s time frame is so short. AOL recommends authentication of your s including signing up to their feedback loops. Microsoft deactivates a user s account following 1-2 years of inactivity. Feedback loops are critical for Microsoft and should be used by Marketers. An feedback loop happens when the mailbox provider forwards the complaints originating from their users to the sender s organization. Delivery to the Big Four 9

10 Marketers can remove these subscribers from their future sends and they can analyze complaint rates to determine if their marketing content is not appropriate for the recipients. 11% 6% 83% One-In-Six 6 For every six commercial messages sent worldwide, one never reaches the subscriber's inbox Spam: 6% Missing: 11% Inbox: 83% Google would rather accept all connections from a sender s platform and then filter it into spam, instead of blocking at the connection level. Google has an incredibly large infrastructure to accomplish this. Yahoo would rather do the opposite and block a sender s connection at the initial level and not accept any of the message content into their servers. Google looks at spam reports as a major indication of reputation. Google usually sees higher complaint rates with larger volume campaigns. Reactivation campaigns see the highest spam complaints. If the user has not signed up for a sender s message the chances they will get into a Google recipient s inbox is very low over time. DNS: Domain Name Servers SPF: Sender Policy Framework DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail Yahoo likes to receive limited connections and messages from the same sender. Throttling your connections and sends to Yahoo is very important for delivery to this service provider. Senders also must make sure to have a reverse DNS, host name with an A record, valid SPF and working DKIM. Yahoo uses Spamhaus blacklist, so make sure you are not listed there if you are experiencing issues with Yahoo.

11 What Does the Future Hold for Digital Marketers? marketers will need to become very knowledgeable with the engagement actions Microsoft and Google focus on to allow messages into their users inboxes. This will be critical to marketing s success into Google and Microsoft will continue to be the major players in the space moving into the next decade, while Yahoo and AOL will most-likely fade into internet history. In the digital marketing mix, has long been the leader in terms of revenue and on average, returns $38 for every dollar invested.7 It s the top preferred channel for customers who wish to receive information from brands, in fact, 72% of adults surveyed want brands to contact them through .8 However, information overload on every channel has caused many challenges for marketers. One effect in particular is that the average person s attention span has dropped by nearly half in the last ten years. The impact on is an ongoing decline in click rates because people have less time, less patience, and more rapidly scan content when hunting for meaningful information. marketing is expected to continue to grow and become an essential element in the marketing mix for businesses of all sizes. Marketers should focus on sending highly engaging and targeted s with great offers as service providers will continue to rely heavily on recipients engagement with previous campaigns to determine whether to ultimately deliver the into the inboxes of your users. Delivery to the Big Four 11

12 For more than 25 years, AccuData Integrated Marketing has remained dedicated to addressing our partners' challenges through innovation and service. Today, we are a leading data solutions provider, helping our clients succeed with a full suite of data-driven marketing solutions. We propel marketing success for thousands of companies through our strategic data partnerships, powerful technologies, and by offering scalable data solutions to meet the needs of both small to mid-size businesses and large national brands. For more information, call us at The Houston Chonicle, The Effect of Marketing on Consumer Behavior, August 18, VentureBeat, Marketing Report, April 7, Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Benchmark Report, February ReturnPath Sender Reputation Filter Infographic, 2014 Inbox Placement Benchmark Review, September 24, ReturnPath Engagement Factors Infographic, 2014 Inbox Placement Benchmark Review, September 24, ReturnPath One-In-Six Infographic, 2014 Inbox Placement Benchmark Review, September 24, The Direct Marketing Association (UK), DMA National Client Report, April Marketing Sherpa, Marketing Research Chart: How Do Consumers Want to Communicate?, February 3, 2015 AccuData Integrated Marketing 5220 Summerlin Commons Blvd. Suite 200 Fort Myers, Florida accudata.com