Deliverability Readiness for Peak Season and High Volume

Transcription

1 Deliverability Readiness for Peak Season and High Volume

2 marketing is still considered the king of digital marketing channels, adapting itself time and time again to serve as the official workhorse for many digital marketers. It s no surprise that has a median ROI of 122% over 4x higher than other marketing formats, including social media, direct mail, and paid search. With 95% of marketers rating as important or very important to their organization according to DMA s latest tracker, the future of marketing has never been brighter. As brands continue to invest in , one of the constant challenges facing marketers is managing deliverability during peak season and high-volume periods. Whether you are a retail brand focused on the holidays, a sender who needs to mail their full database, or another seasonal business, navigating the dynamic landscape of deliverability is crucial to drive sales and revenue with . If s are not reaching your subscribers inbox, it is a lost opportunity and wasted effort. The practices and tactics implemented during these crucial time periods can have lasting impacts far beyond their sending periods. In this guide, we ll cover key topics to keep in mind while preparing and navigating high-volume and seasonal swings with .

3 Contents Data Hygiene and List Acquisition 2 Content, Formatting, and Branding 3 Volume and Frequency 4 Segmentation and Targeting 5 Monitoring, Reporting, and Escalations 6 Deliverability Readiness Checklist 7 Deliverability Services 8

4 Data Hygiene and List Acquisition The cornerstone of any marketer s program is the quality of addresses joining your list. The tactics used to collect and verify your subscribers set the foundation for the deliverability and reputation of your program. Receiving explicit opt- in permission from your subscribers is paramount in building a healthy and clean list. List acquisition, while often an easy strategy to implement, may lead to higher bounces, blocks, or blacklistings. When preparing for a largevolume send to your full database or send deeper into your marketing file, consider vetting the quality and validity of the addresses with a list-cleansing vendor to remove known parked domains or invalid addresses. Bottom line, there are no shortcuts to building a quality list organically. Positive deliverability begins and ends with clean data and honest acquisition sources. Risk Associated with Subscriber Acquisition Sources list rental 46.8% 104.3% Co-registration 31.3% 64.8% Purchased list 46.7% 57.4% Lead generation form for e-books, reports, etc. 21.5% 38.9% Promotion of sign-up via direct mail, catalog, etc. 30.9% 33.3% More likely to be used by a blacklisted sender How much more likely these sources are to be used by brands that have been blacklisted in the past 12 months compared to brands that haven t been blacklisted during that time 2,034 respondents More likely to be used by a blocked sender How much more likely these sources are to be used by brands that have been blocked in the past 12 months compared to brands that haven t been blacklisted during that time 2,034 respondents Experiencing a High Hard Bounce Rate? Marketing Cloud senders can request their hard bounce policy to be set to 1-and-done in their Bounce Mail Management settings at a business unit level. This will help cut down the rate of hard bounces hit consecutively from the standard default Bounce Mail Management settings. Talk to your deliverability services consultant or open up a Help & Training ticket to request this change. page 2

5 Content, Formatting, and Branding Deepening on the use case, high-volume sending periods are a great time to get into the spirit of a promotion and incorporate new seasonal themes, emojis, and slick subject lines to drive engagement. These are usually more prevalent for retailers during the holidays, but can apply to other seasonal business as well. What shouldn t be changed or modified during high-volume sending is your brand consistency. Avoid changing branding and recognition anchors, including your FROM authenticated domain name, IP address, or completely new design templates. Your subscribers need to be able to easily recognize your brand, and sender reputation is tied to your domain name and IP address. New infrastructure takes time to establish and can impact your delivery and folder placement if it is implemented during a high-volume sending period. Focus on spoiling your subscribers with personalization. Whether incorporating a simple first name in dynamic s based on past purchases or tailoring content based on other data points, leveraging personalization in content will help you stand out in the inbox. If sending a transactional send to your full database for Terms & Condition, Privacy Policy updates, or other legally required notification, ensure content is simple, straightforward, and clear. Plan, confirm, and test content and template strategy in advance. Most brands plan their off -peak season content one month out and their peak season content only two months out. 85% of shoppers are more likely to buy brands that offer highly personalized content. Google Content Planning Horizon 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 53.3% 35.8% 25.2% 21.2% 19.9% 14.8% 12.0% 9.0% 4.2% 2.5% 1.5% 0.5% 1mo 2mo 3mo 4mo 5mo 6+ mo For Peak Season(s) How far in advance does your company typically plan content for your peak season(s)? 1,819 respondents For Off-Peak Season(s) How far in advance does your company typically plan content for your off-peak season(s)? 1,844 respondents page 3

6 Volume and Frequency It is no surprise that volume and frequency continue to break records each year. According to a study from Radicati Group, in 2017, the total number of business and consumer s sent and received per day reached 269 billion and is expected to continue to grow at an average annual rate of 4.4% over the next four years, reaching billion by the end of For retailers, peak season culminates between Black Friday and Cyber Monday of the holiday shopping season, with shoppers flocking to digital commerce sites for early season bargains. Marketing Cloud customers sent more than 3 billion messages using Marketing Cloud on Black Friday in 2017, up 20% year over year, and a total of 17.5 billion during Cyber Week. As expected, shoppers were highly mobile-driven in 2017, with mobile devices driving 60% of digital traffic and 41% of all orders across Cyber Week. Consistency is one of the most tried-and-true methods for preferred inbox placement. With pressure to ensure they meet annual sales goals, many marketers are pressed to send more s more often during the peak season. Here are a few do s, don t s, and considerations regarding volume and frequency. FY18 Holiday Summary 4m 3m 2m 1m 0 Cyber Week 2.3m 2.6m 2.2m 7-day Average 3m 1.8m Rolling 1.9m 3.3m 0.1m Never more than double your historical peak volume per IP in a single day. Sending s is not instant messaging and requires bandwidth constraints on both your sending MTA and receiving ISP server. If you want to increase volume drastically, do so methodically to those segments who are the most engaged and most likely to appreciate the increase in messaging. Volatile sending patterns are a trigger for ISPs to flag you as being suspicious. If you have plans to send 3x or more volume over the holidays or on specific days, ramp up your IPs in steps to do so. General rule of thumb: One Salesforce Marketing Cloud IP can handle upward of 3 million/day depending on reputation. Audit the number of dedicated IPs you have in your sending pool to determine the maximum volume you should be sending in a 24-hour period. If you should need more, contact your Sales Executive and prepare in advance. Offer a preference center and let your subscribers customize and dictate what s they want to receive and how often. Including options for your subscribers to down- subscribe or opt out from your holiday sends will help prevent subscriber fatigue, spam complaints, or decrease in engagement. Tip Avoid scheduling large sends at the top and bottom of the hour. ISPs receive a majority of volume from marketers at these times, which can cause server constraints. Choose off-time intervals for faster delivery and less deferrals. Black Friday Billion 17% increase from FY17 Cyber Monday Billion 22% increase from FY17 Peak Hourly Volume 242 million (8 hours > 200 million/hour vs. 2 million/hour in FY17) 28% growth over weekend page 4

7 Segmentation and Targeting An increase in volume and frequency or a need to send to your extended database often entails targeting older, more inactive subscribers within your list. Marketers often face the need to add in older list or inactive subscriber segments into their high-volume marketing strategy in an attempt to increase reach. Even though targeting these inactive subscribers during peak season can generate additional sales for retailers or may be legally required from other use cases, the risk and impact outweigh the reward if not approached correctly. Internet service providers are aware of the on engagement of your subscribers when making blocking and spam filtering decisions. Targeting inactive subscribers often results in an increase in bounces, spam complaints, lack of engagement, and blacklistings, and can lead to deliverability issues that impact your loyal and active subscribers as well. What are the most effective personalization tactics used for marketing purposes? list segmentation 56% Here are a few tips to consider in your segmenting and targeting strategy. 1. Categorize or segment your active subscriber file into smaller groups based on engagement, including opens or clicks. An example would be new -to- file, 0-30 day recent opens/clicks, 1-3 month recent opens/clicks, 3-6 month recent opens/clicks, 6-12 month recent opens/clicks, 12+ months of no opens/clicks. 2. By understanding and defining segments based on engagement, you can target and treat specific segments with unique offers tailored to each group. Your most loyal and active subscribers oftentimes are more receptive to additional volume and unique offers whereas your unengaged subscribers might not be. 3. It s best to front-load your most engaged subscribers and send to them first. By doing so, you increase positive engagement and reputation out of the gate, which will benefit you as you mail more risky or inactive portions of your file. 4. Leverage Marketing Cloud features, including the in app throttle, burst sending, or catch and release if available, to optimize high-volume send requests. Contact your AE for more information. Individual messaging Behavior-triggered s 54% 45% 5. Consider implementing auto re -engagement triggers for subscribers who are becoming inactive past six months. This strategy will aid in salvaging any subscribers who may become permanently inactive. Responsive design Social media integration Individualized landing pages Self-managed preference center 31% 28% 27% 21% 6. Re- permission subscribers who have not opened or clicked an for 12+ months to solidify your target file in advance of your high-volume period. 7. Remember that internet service providers measure subscriber engagement with your brand based on activity. Other activity data points such as last login date, account activity, past purchases, and so on are helpful in creating a subscriber profile, but are irrelevant to ISPs in measuring engagement with your s. According to a recent study from Campaign Monitor, list segmentation and individual messaging are the most effective personalization tactics for 56% and 54% respectively of marketing influencers. page 5

8 Monitoring, Reporting, and Escalations Measure twice, cut once is an old proverb that is valuable in relation to deliverability. Deliverability is not a set-it-andforget-it type of strategy and can change at any moment. Internet service providers are constantly updating filters, and many large webmail providers use 1-to-1 subscriber engagement in their filtering decisions. Having visibility into your deliverability allows you to quickly measure the success and engagement of your campaigns. Without it, marketers are flying blind. If deliverability issues arise, having the right reports and tools to quickly identify and remediate the problem is key to resolution. Here are a few standard Salesforce Marketing Cloud reports that can be utilized to monitor your deliverability and track performance through high-volume periods. reports can be found in the Studio tab by selecting the Tracking link on the top navigation panel, and then clicking the Reports option. Performance by Domain This report provides key performance metrics and deliverability by your top 10 domains for a specific campaign. This report is helpful to determine if a select internet service provider is blocking or bouncing your mail. Holiday Tip Are open rates considerably lower at one ISP compared to other top 10 domains? If so, this is a strong indication that mail is being delivered, but is automatically being placed in the spam/bulk folder rather than the inbox. Account Send Summary This allows you to see key performance metrics from one specific campaign, or you can input a date range to see detailed response metrics across several campaigns. Items to look out for are high bounce rates, indicating mail is being bounced and not delivered. An explanation of bounce types can be found below for reference. Escalations If you are in need of support or guidance on preparing for a large-volume send or remediating delivery issues, the best course of action is to open a Help & Training support ticket, which will be routed to our Deliverability Operations team for assistance. This team specializes in deliverability-related inquiries and can provide helpful information and answers to your questions. Bounce Type Definitions Bounce Bounce Type Type Definitions Hard Bounce Definition and Action Occurs when the server rejects the due to permanent conditions. Typically this is when an address is invalid or unknown. Soft Bounce Block Bounce Occurs when the server rejects the due to a seemingly temporary condition, such as a full inbox. The system retries sending the to the subscriber every 15 minutes for 72 hours, for up to 288 tries. Only after is the soft bounce recorded. Occurs when the server rejects the due to a filter issue, spam policy, lack of authentication, or reputation. These block bounces can be temporary or require remediation and corrective changes to remove. Technical Bounce Occurs when the server rejects the due to technical errors, such as data format or network error. Examples include server too busy or connection lost or timed out. Unknown Bounce Reserved for SMTP bounce codes returned from ISPs that cannot be classified by our bounce processing engine. ISPs often have unique SMTP bounce codes, and sometimes they cannot be classified and fall into the unknown category. page 6

9 Deliverability Readiness for Peak Season and High Volume Checklist Begin planning your peak season strategy and schedule well in advance. Avoid the pressure, stress, and panic of trying to create a strategy at the last minute. Optimal deliverability starts and ends with clean data. Ensure you are receiving explicit opt- in permission directly from your recipients for you to communicate with them via . Consider partnering with a list- cleansing vendor to weed out known invalid domains if you are sending to your full or extended database. Incorporate relevant themes and spirit into your content, but avoid changing your sending IP address or authenticated FROM domain name. New infrastructure requires time to set up and become established, and ISPs are more cautious in accepting and inboxing mail from unknown IPs and domains. Your subscribers are not all the same. Personalize and communicate with them leveraging the subscriber data you have. Increase volume and frequency methodically; avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Focus on targeting your active customer base. Priority seasonal periods are not a time to pull in old lists or inactive subscribers. The risks far outweigh the rewards in trying to increase the reach of your seasonal marketing s. Avoid the temptation. Monitor, measure, report: Having visibility into your deliverability is key to measuring the success and delivery of your campaigns. Create automated tracking reports within Salesforce and define a strategy for if and when a deliverability issue occurs. Begin to scale and ramp volume in advance of large sending days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday or for other for high-volume sending periods. Avoid volume spikes that can cause your mail to be throttled or blocked. Consider scheduling large-volume campaigns at off -hour times and throttling them across a few hours or days. By not scheduling campaigns at the top or bottom of the hour, you avoid competing with thousands of other marketers sending at those same times and ISPs that struggle with server constraints. Have you audited the number of IPs you have to send from Marketing Cloud? A single IP can support upwards of 3 million sends/day. Equip yourself with the right infrastructure to meet your volume goals as your business scales. Give your subscribers a choice in frequency and content they receive with a preference center. Allow your customers to opt down, opt out, and customize the frequency and types of they desire to receive. This will greatly improve your engagement, complaint rates, and relevancy. page 7

10 Deliverability Services is the cornerstone of digital marketing. It delivers your key brand messages, helps nurture customer relationships, and anchors your other digital initiatives. Yet, even with richer customer data and sophisticated technology, many s don t make it to inboxes. Managing IP reputations and making sure your s don t get labeled as spam are only two of the ongoing challenges in today s complex tech environment. As the challenges in navigating the deliverability landscape increase, making sure that your programs are successful can t be left to chance. Salesforce s Deliverability Services is a comprehensive solution that provides marketers the right mix of deliverability strategy, monitoring, and remediation. Deliverability experts will help ensure your messages are delivered and stay in people s inboxes. With strategic guidance and best- in- class practices, you can maximize the value of communications for successful 1-to -1 customer experiences. Comprehensive Reporting Here are three benefits of working with us: Optimization We will provide ongoing analysis and data-driven insights to monitor deliverability performance and maximize inbox placement and engagement. Strategic Delivery Guidance Resolution We will provide hands-on expertise to quickly resolve unexpected deliverability issues and provide strategic guidance to avoid recurrence of deliverability issues. Enhancement We will regularly evaluate all aspects of your programs that impact deliverability, such as data collection, list hygiene, and subscriber engagement, to help you obtain optimal performance and mitigate issues. Deliverability Risk Mitigation Interested in partnering with Deliverability Services during the holiday season? Contact your account executive to learn how our team can ensure your subscribers receive the marketing messages you send straight into their inbox. Achieve More with Studio Through: Deliverability Performance Reporting and Monitoring IP Warm up & Onboarding Deliverability Audit Assessment ISP Remediation Services IP Usage and Strategy Advanced Deliverability Enablement Workshops page 8

11 About the Author Anthony Chiulli is a senior member of the Salesforce Deliverability Services team, responsible for the management and development of go-to-market deliverability service offerings, pre-sale support, and custom scoping requests. With over seven years of marketing and deliverability experience, Anthony is recognized for strengths in strategic thinking, enablement, and thought leadership.