Our expert, Spencer Kollas, outlines a strategy for maximizing email deliverability rates.

Question:
We struggle with deliverability rates with our email marketing programs. Can you tell us how to improve our odds?

Answer:
When I chat with email service providers about the issues they're dealing with, I'm consistently told that deliverability is the one they have to address most often with clients. Despite the fact that getting emails to their intended recipients is key for a successful marketing campaign, it seems that deliverability is still one of the least understood email marketing components.

Spencer Kollas, director of delivery services for StrongMail Systems, says there are five core components related to email deliverability that must be understood in order to ensure your email messages are successfully reaching your customers: reputation, sending characteristics, authentication, content and list management.

So, what is the best way to get started?

Kollas says you should start by asking yourself: "How do ISPs view my email?" This question will help define your reputation.

"Building and maintaining a positive reputation is key to making sure that receivers will trust your mail and will 'let your email in,'" Kollas says. "If you're building a new reputation on a new system, start slowly -- send to small segments of your list to make sure your emails are getting through. As you continue to see positive delivery rates, you can increase the percentage of your list you are mailing to until you reach full production."

Your sending characteristics, Kollas explains, are all about how your system is set up and how fast you are trying to send mail into an ISP.

"Because most ISPs have enabled block list and spam filtering features to keep out the bad and let in the good, your email solution should be equipped to keep you current on the latest throttling limits, bounce codes and other ISP rules, so you're always performing at maximum efficiency without jeopardizing your standing with the ISP," he says.

Next, Kollas says, you'll want to address authentication by making sure your emails are supporting the various forms of authentication protocols that receivers might require -- SPF, DomainKeys, DKIM. These authentication methods are used as a way for the ISPs to know that the email coming from the IP or domain is allowed to come from that location -- it is another format they use to help fight against spam and Phishing attacks.

"Once you have a positive reputation for your mailing system, you should test your content against the most common anti-spam software to make sure that it isn't going to cause any delivery issues," Kollas says. "Also, remember to follow best practices like a good HTML-to-text ratio, personalization of the content in the message and steering clear of commonly used spam words."

List management is the final area Kollas says to think about as this plays a large part with reputation. "Always promptly remove any address that bounces with a permanent type bounce code such as unknown user or invalid account," he warns. "These email addresses will not miraculously become active again, and by continuing to send to them you are only causing yourself more potential harm. The ISPs monitor this type of behavior and view the inability to remove permanent failures from your list as spam-like activity, which will result in blockage."

Another important aspect of list management, Kollas says, is making sure you have signed up for all possible feedback loops that are available and remove from your list immediately any recipients that complained.

While no single tactic will enable you to get 100 percent of your email delivered, focusing on each of the essential components of email deliverability that Kollas has outlined can go a long way to helping you reach that goal.

Good luck.

If anyone else has thoughts on the topic, please add them to comments below. And send me your questions -- yours might get featured in the next Dear Dawn!

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection.