Are there holiday dates or times that are a hard-no for sending? Does it differ for email versus SMS or push?
Do we get to see everything being asked for this entire event? Or only our own questions?
@Cassie Moralez
Question: Do we get to see everything being asked for this entire event? Or only our own questions?
Answer: You get to see all of it!! 😀
@Jesi Bolandrina
Question: "Are there holiday dates or times that are a hard-no for sending? Does it differ for email versus SMS or push?"
Answer: Not really. Mailbox providers are used to getting tons of mail during the holidays, so just know that as a sender you're competing for space with others. The same applies to SMS as email here. Be relevant, be timely, don't annoy
Do you have any advice on keywords, number of links, photos etc that will help with deliverability around this inbox sensitive time?
We're a fintech app focused on getting people to fund their account. Do you think we should expect a decrease in open rates, click through rates and conversion rates during the holiday season? If so, what are your suggestions to ensure performance is kept stable or even to improve performance of our marketing communications?
Thanks!
In your opinion, what's the most impactful thing brands should do to ensure deliverability during the holidays?
If we begin to see high bounce rates, what is your advice on what type of immediate actions we can take without diminishing send volume around a critical time for business?
Is there any way to get deliverability to it's highest point for me in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday? I'm thinking of only sending next week's emails to people with really high engagement, but I'm not sure if it will have much of an effect.
@Cassie Moralez
Question: Do you have any advice on keywords, number of links, photos etc that will help with deliverability around this inbox sensitive time?
Answer: As far as image or URL "count" there isn't really a hard number that are used by Mailbox Providers as a limit. The main thing to think about is adequate copy to explain or help provide narratives to what the CTAs/images are saying. Image to text ratio _is_ a thing, but it usually won't trigger filtering on its own.
@Frank Dorval
Question: In your opinion, what's the most impactful thing brands should do to ensure deliverability during the holidays?
Answer: When thinking about email deliverability and how spam filtering works, to me it comes down to really being careful and mindful about your recipients and quality of data. Being relevant and honoring the recipients expectations and not over mailing is key too. In the realm of data quality, making sure to really analyze how engaged the recipient base is and keeping the email sends to a more engaged cohort and minimize older data where you can. Lastly, send in a consistent manner that does not look suspicious to mailbox providers and spam filtering mechanisms.
How can we get out of the promo tab in Gmail? Does asking users to add us to their address book really work? If so, is there a one click url we can use to do this?
If you usually have several planned sends (over a variety of topics), would you recommend combining them for the most impact or continuing with the normal number of sends (to try to get noticed in a busy inbox?)
@"Ann-Lee Chin"
Question: We're a fintech app focused on getting people to fund their account. Do you think we should expect a decrease in open rates, click through rates and conversion rates during the holiday season? If so, what are your suggestions to ensure performance is kept stable or even to improve performance of our marketing communications?
Answer: It's possible, but no more likely due to industry than anything else. I would always be careful being in that space as far as your subjects, message copy, etc. because funds, funding accounts, etc. are always subject to scrutiny. To make sure you're controlling what you can control, make sure you're using engaged segments over time and that way mailbox providers see that those you're sending to find value in the content.
If Image to text ratio _is_ a thing, then why do so many marketers use all images in their emails? Do you think they are just not looking at their deliverability?
Do you have any deliverability "don'ts" or things to avoid during the holidays for Email & SMS?
@Eoin Lyons
Question: Is there any way to get deliverability to its highest point for me in advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday? I'm thinking of only sending next week's emails to people with really high engagement, but I'm not sure if it will have much of an effect.
Answer: That's not a bad idea. You always want to make sure you're up to your best behavior leading up to those busy times. If you make sure you're sending to engaged audiences, and your reputation is at its optimized place, you should be positioned to market effectively during holiday.
@Cassie Moralez
Question: If we begin to see high bounce rates, what is your advice on what type of immediate actions we can take without diminishing send volume around a critical time for business?
Answer: This can depend on which mailbox provider/recipient domain you are seeing the bounce rates coming from and what kind of bounce it is. You may need to reduce volume at a specific domain like gmail.com or hotmail.com down to a more engaged cohort to allow for short recovery period. So you may not need to stop or reduce all send volume but just focus one which recipient domain is having the issue, then monitor closely to see if you see improvements and adjust accordingly.
We have a lot of sections within our email that stay the same from send-to-send. Assuming people engage with that content at the same rate, is this harmful to our deliverability?
@Jesi Bolandrina
Question: If you usually have several planned sends (over a variety of topics), would you recommend combining them for the most impact or continuing with the normal number of sends (to try to get noticed in a busy inbox?)
Answer: To avoid Subscriber Fatigue, it is best to minimize the number of sends per day. If it make sense for your brand, rolling up into a "digest" format, is a great approach. During the holidays this can be helpful, because there is a fight to get the Inbox, furthermore to be noticed.
@Cassie Moralez
Question: How can we get out of the promo tab in Gmail? Does asking users to add us to their address book really work? If so, is there a one click url we can use to do this?
Answer: _Is_ the content promotional? Most senders that don't want their content being sent to the promotional tab are sending....wait for it....promotional content :)
So first ask yourself if you're sending anything except one to one communication (like to your friend) or _truly_ transactional, like purchase confirmations.
That notwithstanding, if a user adds you to their safe senders list, sure that can have an impact. But keep in mind Google modifies their filtering models several times a day and what happened yesterday won't necessarily be what happens today or tomorrow.
@Eoin Lyons
Question: We have a lot of sections within our email that stay the same from send-to-send. Assuming people engage with that content at the same rate, is this harmful to our deliverability?
Answer: Not at all. If people consistently engage with various sections of your content, there is nothing wrong with having a consistent template.
@Jeannie Stezano
Question: If Image to text ratio is a thing, then why do so many marketers use all images in their emails? Do you think they are just not looking at their deliverability?
Answer: It is a thing, but not as big as a thing as it once was. The reason all image emails can look "suspicious" is that spammers/bad actors sometimes try to avoid any text based filtering algorithm and hide behind the images to get an unsuspecting user to click where the image is linked.
In terms of why marketers may do all image emails, it could be a mix of not paying close attention to deliverability/potential content filtering and marketers focusing more on creative designs of their emails and feeling their recipients respond better to image based emails.
I always like to advise to have a good mix of images and text because it will give the spam filtering system a chance to evaluate and know you are a legitimate sender. As always, it is a good idea to test different types of email content out and see what your recipients engage with the most.
Unsure if you guys will double back to the second part of my question but if not posting again :)
Does asking users to add us to their address book really work? If so, is there a one click url we can use to do this?
@"Katie Ray"
Question: Do you have any deliverability "don'ts" or things to avoid during the holidays for Email & SMS?
Answer: Thanks for asking this Katie, we had a similar question submitted ahead of time and my answer to that is below.
Some best practices surrounding the holidays would include:
Set a “line in the sand” to how deep you target your recipients and try to avoid straying too far from the path for the holidays. For a hypothetical example, if you normally send to recipients that have opened/click/opted-in in the last 6 months, jumping to 1 year or 2 year open/clicked/opted in could spell trouble depending on how the numbers change and the quality of the data.
Sending cadence - if recipients are used to getting 1-2 emails a week let’s say, increasing that number to 4-5 emails during the holiday may create adverse effects. This is all about managing recipient expectations and honoring them. More emails might create more exposure and opportunity but it also tends to increase unsubscribe rates and spam complaints which results in lost users and potentially negative signals to the mailbox providers.
Avoid sending at the top of the hour. This is when almost all bulk senders send blast campaigns and where heavy rate limits and throttling will get applied. Our friends at various mailbox providers have asked us to tell our customers to avoid the top of the hour and 5 minutes past.
Action Plans to solve each issue that may come up:
This depends on what the issue is, but the best action plan is a proactive one. It will all tie back to being able to quickly pivot segmentation logic and reduce volume to a more engaged recipient base to allow for a recovery period. Be ready to change the campaign calendar quickly and alter strategy based on what you run into.
For example - Gmail junk folder and/or reputation drops - immediately pull back to your most engaged recipients and let metrics smooth out for the next 7-14 days.
Ways to monitor and identify warning signs:
Establish what “normal” email metrics are for your email campaigns - for deliverability specific metrics that matter, look at Delivery Rate, Bounce Rate, Open Rate, Complaint Rate. If any of these metrics change in a significant way up or down, it’s worthing looking in more detail.
Pro tip - in Iterable the best way to look at a campaign would be to click into the campaign itself and scroll down to the Segment Analysis section and type in “domain”. This will allow you to look at the receiving domains level (gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.) to see if there is a spike or drop at a specific mailbox provider. For example, if you look at gmail.com and you see your open rate has gone from 25% down to 10% or lower and all other providers are staying up in the ~25% range (give or take) there likely is a reputation issue starting to surface.
Although the above is mostly focused on email, you can use similar tactic and rules for SMS. Sending messages that are timely and not over sending to frustrate users and perhaps not the top of the hour where other marketers are pushing messages out.
