Why the Email Deliverability Platform Should Get All the Votes

Since all the talk these days seems to be political in nature, I've been thinking of ways to involve Deliverability in these conversations. We're getting closer and closer to the U.S. Republican and Democratic conventions. I thought why not come up with the “deliverability” platform?

It's about time that we lobby for some “rules” around what we do on a daily basis. Since, it's my article, I guess I am the presumptive nominee! It's time to lay out our platform that we think will carry deliverability to victory in November and December.

We should start with the biggest issues of the deliverability day, and let's come up with our solutions to those problems.

• An Email in Every Inbox – Let's start this right by pushing an email into every single inbox. We will do this with best practices, great list quality, and engaging content. The electorate can't help but to love us. We must play our part as senders in this equation by making sure that we are sending relevant emails. Nobody likes to get an email that has nothing to do with them. It's such a waste of time, and just makes people not want to read the next message from you. This is the number one mistake that senders make when sending email. There are too many emails, and most of them just don't apply to the recipient.


• The Environment – We will work to make sure that we're reducing emissions by only sending properly authenticated email. We will work to eliminate spammy looking email that uses a domain that doesn't match, and that everyone uses their DMARC record properly. We have definitely witnessed a period of “ISP Warming” as receivers like Gmail make it harder and harder to reach the inbox without proper authentication. You have to be who you say you are.


• Eliminate Taxes – Let's all agree that we're no linger going to be fooled by the “Certification Tax” that some of you have been paying on your email. There's no real benefit to certification that you can't achieve with solid best practices. Of course you are paying some ridiculous number to guarantee you nothing, make it harder to go through filters, and give you a “virtual benefit” at ISP's that have nothing to do with the program. Don't get fooled.


• Empower our Constituents – Our readers are already telling us what we need to know, some of us just aren't looking at the right numbers. If you look at the engagement numbers for individuals in your program, they tell you everything you need to know. Engaged customers are great customers, and ones who like to receive our email. Unengaged customers are also voting with their lack of action. Stop sending email to unengaged people right now. Take the pledge.

I think we have a good start here to a winning strategy. We're looking to carry these actions all the way through the end of the year and beyond. It is time to start thinking about getting ready for the holiday season right now. Following these tips, cutting out unengaged users, and determining just what it is that your customers want to see is the winning formula.

And oh yeah, download Email Deliverability: Guide for Modern Marketers. Think of it as the "running mate" to this post.