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Kris Dougherty is Director of Deliverability Operations for Delivra. His day-to-day oversight of Delivra's email marketing operations and monitoring of deliverability enable clients to use the Delivra platform with maximum efficiency.

Dougherty has spent more than 16 years in the technology sector, where he has honed his expertise in email marketing, email design, deliverability, authentication and best practices. Before joining Delivra, he led project management teams for Virtual Financial Services in Indianapolis, a leading technology provider in the banking and financial services industry.

Dougherty is active in the email marketing community, providing insight and expertise to clients, partners and the community-at-large through speaking engagements, blogs and editorial writing.  His primary goal is to ensure that email marketers are communicating effectively and abiding by industry regulations.

Dougherty holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

I get a lot of questions about what these services mean to marketers and do they have an effect on deliverability.  The topic came up recently during one of my discussions with friend and Deliverability Consultant Greg Kraios (Den Of Deliverability), who emphasized that "it is important to understand why those features exist in the first place.  Recipients feel like their inboxes are out of control.  And that isn't an issue of SPAM anymore.  The large email providers have largely eliminated true SPAM from inboxes."

And that's so very true.  And to those of you who just spit out your coffee and shouted "SPAM isn't a problem anymore?!?", calm down. I understand SPAM is still a problem in many ways (from phishing and malware to the the sheer bandwidth and resources it consumes), but SPAM is generally not what is responsible for an overcrowded inbox.   The problem they're addressing now is greymail: those emails you may have signed up for, but are either no longer relevant or are coming too frequently. 

And why does that happen?  Because, in large part, marketers are setting poor expectations and giving little control over frequency at the point of signup.  Many marketers take the approach of "keep sending until we get push-back."  That "push-back" is often in the form of an unsubscribe (or worse, a complaint.)  I've seen growth in the use of profile forms which allow recipients to adjust frequency or type of mailings happening at the back end (after they've decided they've had enough), but very rarely have I seen it being given at the front end. 

Keep this in mind as you're creating (or making adjustments) to your email marketing program.  Put yourself in the shoes of your audience when examining your sign-up process.  Is it apparent what you'll be receiving? Or how often?  If not during sign-up, is that information (or the ability to adjust it) conveyed in a welcome message?

Next time, I'll focus more on this from the Marketer's perspective.  In the mean-time, if you're looking to evaluate your program or need help making improvements, give us a call.  We'd love to help.

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about my participation in this year's Movember fund raising event, so I wanted to post an update.  At two weeks in, we now have 23 members on our team.  And I'm proud to say that one of those teammates is Delivra's own Kyle Holmes.

The holidays are fast approaching.  I don't know about you, but this year has absolutely flown by for me. I'm now in full-on Christmas shopping mode.  If you're like many of my friends, you're now asking "Seriously? Already?" Yes, I'm totally serious. But the only reason I'm busy with Christmas shopping this early is because I have a bit of an abbreviated time-line.  The gifts need to be purchased, wrapped and ready for transport by Thanksgiving. 

You see, several years ago, Christmas gift-giving for my family had become... well... dull.  And a chore at that.  It was, as one friend in a similar situation put it "like trading fifty dollar bills". It came down to: 1) My parents and siblings all live comfortably, so finding things that someone needs or wants but doesn't have is difficult.  2) There are no grandchildren, so there's no real "toy shopping". 3) We don't spend enough time together to have a good idea of each others particular tastes, and I don't want to get something that someone already has only to turn around and return or exchange it. So, it became --more or less-- a meeting to exchange gift cards.

But then, something wonderful happened.  My parents suggested we find someone who would really appreciate the gifts. We decided to adopt a family through the Salvation Army.  It was very simple and has been incredibly rewarding. Mom worked with the local unit to find a family with children who needed help for one reason or another.  We were able to be selective, which gave an opportunity to find a family with the same number of people as us, so we each had someone to buy for.  The Salvation Army does all of the vetting and collection of information like clothing sizes, toy wish list, favorite colors... etc. 

And now our Christmas spending has meaning.  And we all look for ways to maximize what we're spending.  I just have to have them ready to drop off with my parents at Thanksgiving so that they can coordinate delivery to the family. The pile of boxes gets bigger every year, which is always exciting.  We're now up to sponsoring 3 families, so I can't wait to see what it looks like this year. What makes this even better is I now have several friends who have started something similar, so it is spreading.

If you're bored or not engaged with what you're doing, sometimes you have to shake it up and think outside of your current framework. The same can be said for your email program.  If you're not getting the results you want, experiment with something different.  Make a change.  Look at it from a different perspective. Then watch closely and see how it is working.  With experimentation and monitoring, you can turn a negative into a positive.  And hopefully it will be rewarding enough that others will follow your lead.

Thank you for letting me share my experiences.  If you have questions about how to adopt a family at Christmas, let me know. If you're looking to make some changes in your email program, let us know that as well.  We have a gift for that kind of thing.

Stealing a quote from their website: "During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men."

Prostate cancer awareness is an important topic for me. It has affected the lives of family and friends alike (and statistically, it has likely affected someone you know as well.)

But it's not the fund raising aspect of Movember that pulled me in.  It's a great, real-world example of viral marketing.  Thousands of men world wide, who wouldn't normally grow a moustache, do so to help a cause.  As a result, friends and coworkers ask "what's up with that?"  This opens the door to start a conversation about a topic that can be difficult to have under different conditions.  And I've found exactly that.  Men young and old who might do anything to avoid a clinical discussion of prostate (and other cancers affecting men) seem much more receptive to the discussion when it starts off on a light note.

The local chapter (and the team I'm on) is full of several of my close friends, many of whom are well below the the recommended screening age, yet they're all passionate about spreading the word.  Movember provides a platform for teams to coordinate fundraising, but this team (both Mo-bros and Mo-sistas) hosts several events throughout the month, often with the participation of local health organizations providing information and free tests.

So, while I've pledged my support in the past, I've decided to join the team this year.  I hope you'll take the time to check it out and help spread the word.  And if you'd like to help out in another way or have questions, let me know.  I'll be posting regular updates to my page.

I recently wrote a piece talking about some of the changes I've seen during my time here at Delivra.  One thing that hasn't changed during my time here is my email address.  My work email has remained constant for these past 8+ years.  

With the recent passing of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I find myself in a reflective state of mind.
I started my career at Delivra in April of 2003, in a small, shared office suite.  My desk had seen better days, and was set up in the windowless room which also functioned as the break room.  I remember wondering "what the heck is that smell?" every time someone would leave my area.  I soon figured out that it was the mini-fridge.  When someone would grab a soda, they wouldn't be in there long enough to notice the musty smell, but a few seconds after they closed the door, it would waft over to my desk.  That was a simple fix. A quick wipe-down with disinfectant wipes did the trick.

My computer at the time was connected to the only printer in the office, which was set up locally but shared with others in the company.  This meant, whenever someone initiated a print job, a pop-up would interrupt whatever I was doing.  That was frustrating, but also easily fixed with the addition of an inexpensive network printer.

But the one thing I look back on in amazement was how we were handling feedback loops at that time.   Every time a complaint came in from a user clicking the SPAM button in their ISP's email client, it came directly to me.  I had to open it, and either click the unsubscribe link in the original email, or look up the recipient in our system and change their status to unsubscribed (which always reminds me of this comic strip).

That was not an easy fix.  Our platform at the time had no provision for handling those automatically.

Thankfully, our volume at that time was low enough that it wasn't a tremendous burden.  I operated this way for months before we were able to implement a process which would parse the headers and instantly handle the complaint.

But I'm glad I had that experience, because it helped me (a complete newcomer to the ESP world) understand more about the differences between a good campaign and a bad one.  I started to see patterns between those campaigns generating high complaints and those that didn't.  I saw high volume clients who spent a lot of time crafting their campaigns and making sure their permission practices were solid, and generated very few complaints.  In contrast, I found high complaints often resulting from small campaigns sent by organizations who had sent to an old list, not identified their brand very well, or any number of things I quickly realized were outside of Email Marketing Best Practices.  

I still have access to all of the feedback loop complaints (because our Abuse Desk must handle anything that does not conform to standard formats), and it's hard to believe how we've grown.  Between constantly adding new feedback loops and the constant (incredible) growth in our sending volume, there is no way we could manually handle everything that comes in.  The automatic processing has also helped us better monitor and watch for patterns, enabling us to more quickly respond (be it a client that needs additional training or someone up to no good.)

As for the office, the improvements have been just as astonishing as our growth.  I'm proud and honored to be a part of such a great company.

I recently wrote about my visit to The Comedy Cellar, and how running a successful email marketing program can be similar to doing stand-up comedy.  But the performances that night weren't the only part of the evening that reminded me of a valuable lesson:

If you truly want to engage your audience, it helps to know something about them... and be respectful.

After the show, my party and I weren't quite ready to call it an evening and made the decision to check out The Olive Tree, which sits directly above the Comedy Cellar.  It's a charming little place, with slate for the tables and bar surfaces, allowing patrons to doodle or write on with supplied chalk.  Beers are reasonably priced (by NYC standards) and you never know who is going to walk-in.

After a couple of pints, I see my friend's eyes go wide in the direction of the front door.  I turned around to see Tracy Morgan enter with a small group, greet a few other comics and take a seat at a booth.  Now, I'm a big fan of Morgan (specifically his work on  "30 Rock") but everything about his body language said "don't bother me".  So we just observed from afar.

The women in the booth next to ours noticed our excitement at his entrance and --in a thick Brazilian accent-- one asked "Who IS that?"  We explained, referencing "30 Rock" and "SNL".  Neither seemed to register.

"I'm going to talk to him." she announced, before standing up, walking to his booth and sitting down.

Somewhere short of 2 minutes later, she returned, stating "He is NOT a nice man!"  I asked what she meant by that, and she explained it with "Well, he wouldn't even look at me or talk to me."  Somehow I avoided laughing and asked her to continue.  "I mean, he was rude! Normally, people are very interested in me and want to know all about me, like where I'm from. He didn't ask anything about me."  After venting for a while longer, she and the rest of her table left.

Around that time, in walked my favorite comedian, Dave Attel.   I knew he was on the bill for the two shows that followed ours, but the lineup wasn't available at the time that I made my reservations.  He sat for a while, looking over some papers, then disappeared down the stairs to do his set.

A little while later, Attel returned and sat at a table.  I made the decision to walk over and say hello.  He was jotting down some notes in a notebook, so I decided to be brief.  "Hi. I don't want to interrupt but just wanted to tell you I really enjoy your act.  I've seen you 4 times, beginning about 10 years ago in Kansas City for New Years Eve, and every time I laughed until it hurt.  I really miss (the Comedy Central show he hosted) 'Insomniac.'"

He looked up, then stood up, put out his hand to shake and said (I'm paraphrasing because I was a bit star struck) "You know, I love hearing that kind of thing.  It's good to know that people enjoy the show."  He asked a couple questions about where in KC, and if that's where I'm from.  Upon finding I am from Indianapolis, he mentioned getting on the Bob & Tom show and that he hoped to make it out this summer.  I asked if he'd mind a photo together and he agreed.  I was thrilled.  Then he asked if we'd seen his set tonight.  I explained that we had hoped to, but that the reservations were for the earlier show.  To my delight, he said, "Well, come down.  I'll have them let you in."  We accepted his offer, and were shown to a few seats that are kept in reserve by the bar.  His material was great as always, and when the waitress came by she asked "What can I get you? Dave's buying."  It was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.

And all I could think of was how completely opposite my encounter was to that of the woman at the next booth earlier.  We were both approaching a celebrity that we'd never met, but knowledge and respect made a big difference in how we were received.

I see marketers make a similar mistake all the time.  Be respectful.  Your subscribers are the celebrities in this case.  If they're going to bother to look at you, you're going to need to show that you know who they are.  Sending offers that aren't relevant or not establishing (or abusing) their permission is more likely to get you ignored or deleted (or worse.)  Delivra offers the tools to collect feedback, analyze your subscriber data and help you send more targeted messages.  And we're always glad to help if you have questions.

Kris Dougherty | Operations & Deliverability

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to visit my favorite comedy club (The Comedy Cellar in NYC) and had a blast (as usual).

Stand up comedians have always amazed me. The process of developing and refining a routine is fun to watch. If you've ever seen the movie "Comedian" about Jerry Seinfeld's return to stand-up, you know what I mean.

And the Comedy Cellar is a great place to witness it first-hand. It's a well-known club, so there are up-and-comers who have already gone out and tried their material out in smaller venues, but there is a good mix of big-name comedians who live close-by and may walk in to try out their new stuff.

The process reminds me of good email marketing practices. A comedian has to deliver value in the form of making his audience laugh. And a key to that is listening and incorporating the feedback that they're getting back.

One act on the bill the night I was there (Anthony Jeselnik) was preparing for the upcoming Comedy Central roast of Donald Trump. Toward the end of his routine, he ran through some of the jokes he's planning to use. At one point, after a big laugh, he stopped and made a note to himself, telling the crowd, "Maybe I need to open with that one." I won't give the joke away, but I will be watching and hoping he does.

A marketer who isn't paying attention to which mailing and/or links are generating the most inquiry, is missing an opportunity to improve their future sends.

A good comedian is clued into what is on people's minds. If you're still making jokes about Tiger Woods' affair, rather than, "Tiger's blood", you're not staying up-to-date (though I realize that my reference to Tiger's blood is probably already passe, which is one good reason for me to stick to my day job).

Making sure your emails are delivering new and desired information will keep your audience engaged and looking forward to your next email. If you continue to send the same old thing, without delivering value, you'll find your audience seeking out what they're looking for elsewhere.

Good comedians often ask questions. Whether they're targeted specifically at the front-row folks ("How long have you two been together?") or at the audience in general ("Anyone here from Europe?") they're an excellent way to get/keep the crowd engaged.

And the questions, while often targeted as a seguay to an already planned joke, can result in a new, fresh direction or new joke.

In email, this could be as simple as asking for more information at the time of sign-up, or regular surveys asking "How relevant was this article?".  Treating your subscribers as one large, homogeneous group (or assuming that your audience hasn't changed over time) can mean missing out on great opportunities to connect, or sending information that is meaningless.

I also noticed that the other acts weren't cloistered away in sound-proof rooms while not performing. They're watching each other, seeing what works and what doesn't. They're picking up on how people are reacting to others and using that to help determine the direction of their own set. Is this topic going to be taboo? Does this crowd need more explanation or are they sharp? Marketers who aren't staying abreast of what others in their industry are doing can find their programs out-of-date. Sign up for competitors' mailings. Are they making use of video, or social sharing? If so, and you're not, you might want to step it up. Does your template still look like it did 5 years ago but the competition is fresh and slick? Check with our design team about creating a new one.

Timing and cadence are crucial to stand-up. Refining an act means figuring out when to give some time for the joke to sink in and when to circle back on a punchline. You want to figure out which jokes work together and in what order. Or even when what started as an unintended stammer broke the joke up in a newer, funnier version.
Do your mailings do better if sent on a specific day of the week? Does the time of day make a difference? Are you sending too often? Or do your subscribers want to hear from you more often? If you're not testing you could be off the mark.

If you want to do more, and are looking for help, let us know. We're here all week. And don't forget to tip your waitress.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

PS: I mentioned the movie "Comedian" earlier, and it still has my all-time favorite trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi995033369/.

Shortly after the new year began, Delivra began noticing higher than usual percentages of Verizon.net addresses bouncing.

This was not across-the-board, and definitely varied in severity from client to client (and often, varied significantly between segments).

The bounce message was always the same: "550 4.2.1 mailbox temporarily disabled: x@verizon.net" (where x was the username portion of the intended recipient's email address.)

The reason for this is that Verizon moved a number of their clients over to Frontier Communications in 13 states (listed below).

States affected:

• Arizona
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oregon
• South Carolina
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• as well as portions of California bordering Arizona, Nevada and Oregon

The process started in July, and affected users were given 6 months (and several notices) to move their information over to their new address. During that period, Verizon was forwarding email sent to the old Verizon address automatically to the new address. This stopped on 12/31/2010, and the old address is now considered dead (thus the error received in the bounce message).

As such, the addresses returning these bounces will be moved to "held" status as part of our normal list hygiene process. Delivra recommends making sure you have a prominently displayed sign-up or profile form to allow those recipients affected by this change to keep receiving your messages.  If you're not sure how to do this, let us know and we can help.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

Wednesday night as I was driving (finishing up some last -minute shopping) I tuned into a local radio show hosted by Indianapolis businessman, Denny Smith. I don't listen to the show religiously, but am always glad when I do. Denny has a really down to earth, common-sense approach to the subject matter being discussed, and despite the show's title ("Everything Money") the guests and topics often stray far from finances.

That evening, he had two guests from the Miriam Bender Achievement Center. Doctors Nancy O'dell and Patricia Cook were discussing Dr. Bender's research on Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflux (STNR) and how lack of (or improper) crawling as an infant can result in retained STNR.

You see, STNR should be a short - lived reflex to help a baby learn to get up off the ground onto his/her hands and knees. If not allowed to develop properly, the retention of this reflex can mean (among other things) discomfort in seated positions, poor hand/eye coordination, and as the doctors on the show contend, ADD/ADHD. I found it all fascinating, but I'm a nerd like that.

I'm sure by now you're asking, "but what does any of this have to do with email?" It doesn't, really. But it made me think about the importance of learning to crawl before walking. I've heard that phrase before, and had never really given it much thought. I know many parents who absolutely could not wait for their child to start walking. Doing things at an early age is often seen as a sign of high intelligence. That may be so, but as Dr. Bender's studies found, there's benefit to those stages that come before walking (and can cause problems if they're skipped).

And that got me thinking about how it relates to email. It's not uncommon for me to see marketers that screw things up because they started their email marketing program at the wrong stage, or perhaps put too much emphasis on list growth and not enough on setting expectations or developing their plan. I see things like pre-checked "opt-in" boxes (on a chance to win an iPod or form to download a whitepaper), paragraphs about sending third-party offers buried in privacy policies, and email - appends from customer or membership data as standing too early.

On the other hand, some of the most successful email programs I've seen are the ones that I've watched grow over time. They've worked out the kinks while the list was small, figuring out what their recipients want/don't want before directing their focus to growth. By starting their email marketing journey by  focusing on setting expectations, developing an email marketing plan, or engaging their audience, they saw better results and were then able to concentrate on expanding their reach.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

You don't have to be an email marketer to know that the holidays are fast approaching. Many retailers have had their Christmas decorations out in full-force since before Halloween. Those of you who know my love of Halloween can guess how I react to that, but I do understand the desire to get as much out of your marketing efforts as possible this time of year.

Every year, I see email volume and frequency start increasing earlier and earlier. Competition to get your offers into the hands of your subscribers while they're planning their holiday purchases is fierce. While you may touch recipients once a month or weekly, you may decide that, during the next 6 weeks, doubling or tripling your current rate will help keep your product/service/cause on people's minds during the holiday rush. If so, I have one piece of advice: set the right expectations.

I'm always a big proponent of setting expectations at the time of opt-in. With that said, it's possible that expectations either weren't set or have changed since they signed up. So what can you do if you want to increase your frequency without killing the golden goose?

Alert your subscribers of the coming increase. Zappos is one retailer who recently sent out a mailing to their subscribers letting them know that their offers would be coming more often through the holidays. This gave their readers a heads-up for what to expect in terms of frequency (when the increase would start and how often offers would be sent), along with the well-worded explanation of why they're doing it (along with some of the additional benefits that are part of this special program). Putting this information in subscribers' hands can help reduce the number of complaints generated by inbox overload.

Allow your subscribers to opt-up or down for the additional emails. Providing your recipients the ability to set their own preferences for offers they want helps to make sure you're putting your offers into the hands of those most receptive to them. Allowing recipients the ability to opt-out of the additional holiday offers but continue to receive the emails at the frequency they're accustomed to can go a long way toward reducing list fatigue and making your readers feel engaged and less like they're "just a number" to you.

If you are looking to ramp up your marketing efforts through the holidays, and are looking for some help, give us a call. We're glad to help.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

Neil Berman recently used the analogy of a wedding to explain the importance of planning your marketing efforts, but it got me thinking how much email marketing is like a relationship.

Imagine your prospective recipient's first visit to your site as the first date.  Perhaps a friend set her up (through a personal recommendation or link from a trusted site), or she used a dating service (you showed up in a Google search).

You begin spending time together, getting to know one another (through browsing and analytics). One click leads to another, and before you know it, you're popping the question ("Would you do me the honor of becoming my subscriber?")

She says yes. The wedding is set and when the Priest/Rabbi/Judge asks "Do you..?" (in the form of a confirmation email), she says "I do!" (by clicking the link.)

You embark on your honeymoon (in the form of a Welcome message). You're staring into each others eyes and laying out the future (setting expectations, collecting more info, adjusting preferences).

What follows is the marriage.  Everything has built to this point, and it is important that both parties are active and engaged and honest.  For example, if one of you has stopped communicating, that's not good, and could likely lead to the eventual breakdown of the relationship.

From the sender's perspective, a silent recipient (no longer opening, clicking, buying...) could be due to a number of reasons:
"I need a break" - are you sending too often?
"I'm just not that into you anymore" - content not relevant?
"We never talk" - is your email getting blocked?
"There's someone else" - in a crowded inbox, someone else is more relevant?
"You never listen" - not honoring recipient's preferences?
"I didn't know what I was getting into" - signup form unclear/misleading?
"I've changed, you haven't" - Is your information timely and up-to-date?

While I don't want to trivialize the complexity of human relationships, I do want to emphasize the importance of planning your email marketing efforts beyond just getting people to sign up.  You want a relationship that is going to last.  Make sure you're paying attention to the signals and responding to them.  Try something different.  Make your subscribers feel special. If you have a group that's gone quiet on you and you are looking to re-connect, let us know.  We can help identify where to focus and provide some tips for campaigns to revive the relationship.

Oh, and I can't leave this whole analogy without going through the signs that it is indeed over:
A hard bounce is coming home and finding her closet empty.
An unsubscribe request is a "Dear John" letter.
An abuse complaint is a restraining order.

Kris Dougherty | Operations

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sad to see that Google has halted the development on their Wave product.

I saw it as a bold re-imagining of email.  Wave was originally introduced to me as "what email would look like if it was developed today" and that's exactly how I saw it - a more collaborative tool designed around sharing beyond simple forwarding.  Those you chose to share a wave with were now part of the conversation, not just recipients.

The problem, as I see it, is that email DOES already exist and has been such an effective and easy to use tool, that people weren't ready to replace it.  Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the like satisfy the need to share (and often overshare).

I understand the low adoption that Google cites as the reason to stop development.  I tried pretty hard to get friends to sign up, and the few that did couldn't understand why they needed a separate account from their existing Gmail address.  I found the interface confusing (especially for a Google product) and always hoped it would just become a part of Gmail (perhaps a separate box for My Waves).  Having yet another app open all day just didn't seem logical.

I had mixed feelings when Google introduced the ability to get email updates when a wave was updated.  On one hand, I no longer needed to keep it open all the time.  But it meant that the tool that was created to replace email now admitted that it was reliant on it.

I still have hope that there is a team of mavericks working on it as a business tool.  I think it has a place along side the rest of the apps.  I can see geographically separated project teams using it very effectively to keep everyone up to date on various tasks.

I'm curious, were any of you using Wave regularly or in interesting ways?  I'd love to hear about it.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

I often hear from marketers asking  how to protect various aspects of their recipient lists(s) from others in their organization who are looking to do something they know isn't right.  The questions normally come on the acquisition end ("They're convinced buying a list is a good idea, what should I say?") but sometimes, it goes the other direction, and the marketer is dealing with higher-ups who think it is a good idea to sell their list to a third party.

These requests for help are full of exasperation as the marketer can't seem to overcome the "but they'll pay us a lot of money" argument that they're getting from the other side.

One such conversation recently came from a marketer that has been running a very successful, yet small mailing list of dedicated subscribers.  His superiors had been approached by someone wanting to market their list.  He knew this was a bad idea.  He knew that it was a betrayal of the trust he had worked to build. He knew it could have repercussions, but didn't know specifically how.

Every time he objected to the idea, it was met with a "but this is like free money" response.  The executives gung-ho about it had been approached by a third party interested in marketing to their audience.  They saw it as an opportunity to take an asset of theirs (their list of email addresses) and turn it into a revenue source.

"So, this company wants you to send out ads for them?" I asked.

"No, they would buy the list and send the mailings out themselves." was the reply.

And that instantly put a bad taste in my mouth.  At that point, I asked some questions about how the list was grown, what expectations were set at the time of opt-in, what this third party is sending, what's to keep them from selling them to others...

"Yeah," he said "I've gone over all of that with them. It's directly in conflict with what our subscribers agreed to when they signed up.  We told them we'd only be sending updates about our products and services, but the executives aren't concerned with that.  They say that this  third party will make sure no one would know the addresses came from us."

I've heard that before and I'd sure like to see the guarantee that goes along with that statement.  As we talked, I mentioned the possibility of subscribers who have created unique addresses.  Suddenly, he perked up.  "You mean someone might have an address that they only use to receive emails from us?" You betcha.  And if they suddenly start receiving email at that address from others, they're not going to be very pleased with you.  In the recipients eyes, either you sold them out, or you didn't secure the information they gave you. Either way, you ruin your relationship with them and potentially generate some really bad publicity for your company.

I'd like to think that people will do the right thing regardless of whether they think they'll get caught, but sometimes they can get distracted.  I was glad I was able to help this marketer make the case not to sell and he was glad to know someone had his back.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

I've become a bit of a crossword nut lately.  Recently, I just don't feel right if I haven't finished the puzzle in the paper by the time I'm done with my coffee. I'm not looking for hidden instructions (a la "Burn Notice"), but sometimes there appears to be a theme.  I do use a pen, not a pencil, so I'm pretty careful if a question could have more than one answer.

So the other day the 7-letter question at 118 across jumped out at me.

The answer wasn't "banners".

The answer wasn't "network" or "twitter".

It was:

Would I have figured that out as easily if I didn't work in the industry?  Likely, yes.  I have watched email become more and more important and accepted as a marketing channel, and rightfully so.  Done right, email is an incredibly powerful tool for communicating with and engaging customers.

So, if you're puzzled by how to get the most out of your marketing efforts, give us a call at 866-915-9465. We're here to help.

Oddly enough, the next day's puzzle had the following 4-letter question:

"_____ Kristofferson"

I'll let you figure it out.  Maybe someone is trying to talk to me.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

I read a question from a marketer recently who was asking if he should include a text message in addition to the HTML messages that he is sending and it made me realize that some of the things I take for granted aren't necessarily common knowledge. The shortest answer to the question is "yes." In general, HTML-only emails are seen by receiving systems as more "spammy", so creating your message with both a text and HTML message (and letting the receiving system decide which to display) can help your deliverability.

You'll also want to make sure that your text version is not too different from your HTML version. Don't say one thing in the text version and another in the HTML. Also, keep them close to the same size. The more closely the messages match, the more friendly the emails will be treated.

So, does Delivra provide the tools to do this? Yes. By default, Delivra will create a basic text component to your message when you import the HTML message you have created or uploaded to Content. Automatically included are:

• A link to an online version
• Your postal address associated with your list
• A valid unsubscribe mechanism for your mailings.

You have the ability to modify that to include any other text relevant to your mailing.

But did you know that you can create your content for text-only recipients at the same time you create your HTML content? Our Development Team built a beautifully simple (in terms of use) feature which allows you to not only save your text content along with the HTML, but to parse your HTML into text with the click of a button. And, if there is something that you wish to add (perhaps there was some text shown as an image that didn't make it into the text version) you can modify it before saving.

If you have any questions about using this or any other feature, let us know.  We're here to help.

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations

Email authentication can be a difficult, foreign concept to understand, but an important one for those that are sending or intend to start sending email campaigns.  Fortunately, the Email Experience Council has recently released a great resource that explains what email authentication is, how various ISPs use the authentication method, why email authentication should be a concern for you, and much more!

Here is a brief excerpt of the EEC Email Authentication Whitepaper:

“Email authentication is a methodology that verifies the identity of the email sender to protect that sender’s brand name and establish an online reputation that ISPs can as another data point to make decisions about how to handle the email you send.  With over 95% of all email sent categorized as spam, an email sender needs every edge available to be classified properly and foil the bad guys.”

Read more of the EEC Email Authentication Whitepaper: What You Need to Know & Why it’s So Important.

If, after reading the provided information, you still have questions feel free to contact us.  We’d be glad to help!

Kris Dougherty | Director of Operations