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Inbox Insights

Before you hit Send, it's good to know some basic terms

by Martin Lieberman, Constant Contact Managing Editor

Before an email is ever read by its recipients, it's already leaped more hurdles than an Olympic runner and checked off more requirements than a Navy test pilot.

Alright, so maybe the gauntlet isn't quite that demanding, but between the time when you hit the Send button and your recipient gets a "new mail" notification, a series of checkpoints ensures that emails -- be they marketing email newsletters or quick notes between friends -- are able to land safely in their intended inboxes.

This behind-the-scenes set of actions involves several elements and can make the difference between an opened email and an ignored one. To improve your messages' deliverability, familiarize yourself with the following terms and adjust your efforts accordingly.

Bounced Emails
One of the most common reasons emails cannot be delivered is that the email servers "bounce" the message back to the sender. There are many reasons for this, from the recipient's inbox being full to the sender entering an incorrect email address when he or she signed up for your mailing list.

Nonexistent email addresses can either be an issue on the sender's end (entering the wrong send-to address), or on the receiving end (the account may have been disabled or deleted). Regardless of why an address bounced, continuing to mail to it is a bad practice and is frowned upon by ISPs, which will hurt your reputation. The best way to minimize these occurrences is to examine your bounces for typos or old accounts regularly and remove them.

For the record, automatic responses (like the "out of office" replies that are sent when people go on vacation) technically are not bounces at all. The recipient has received your message, but is not there to read it. This generally corrects itself later when the person returns and the auto-reply feature is turned off.

CAN-SPAM and Email Content
Even if your email list is error-free, there can be other reasons why messages are bounced or are otherwise undeliverable -- this happens all the time, in fact, when your messages get snared by a spam filter.

Five years ago, the federal government passed the CAN-SPAM Act, which sought to define standards for sending commercial email messages. The act outlines many dos and don'ts that have since become second nature to savvy emailers and responsible businesses.

For example, the act prevents emailers from using misleading sender information or false or misleading subject lines. The act also requires marketers to put their postal address in the body of the email, use opt-in methods of signing up for the emails, and include opt-out or unsubscribe links in the message. (For more about the CAN-SPAM Act, click here.)

It's also worth noting that using certain taboo keywords (such as free, guarantee, credit card, etc.) will also get your email relegated to spam-land. The same is true if you use excessive punctuation or if your subject line is written in all-capital letters. Remembering these rules will keep the mail your users asked for from getting caught in the spam filters.

Authentication and Reputation
Having a great reputation isn't just important in business, politics, and high school -- it's extremely valuable in emailing, too.

Internet service providers (ISPs) can identify emailers by their IP addresses (a set of numbers that defines a computer's "location" on the Internet). To determine if a sender is a responsible emailer, the ISPs would authenticate a message by comparing information from the message headers to information published by the sender to verify it really came from them.

Essentially, authentication is a way for ISPs and other recipients to confirm a sender's identity. Think of it like your driver's license: authentication says who you are in a verifiable way, but it doesn't say anything about what your behavior is. In this context, your reputation is more like your driving record, and that's within your control.

It's worth noting that you can turn on email authentication within the Constant Contact product, in the "My Settings" area. This will help you to build your reputation as a responsible sender. (For more information about authentication, click here.)

Blocklists and Whitelists
Blocklists and whitelists work pretty much as their names suggest: block-listed emailers get blocked, while white-listed senders may go right through or simply be subjected to less filtering. Unfortunately, whitelists are rare and most of the time are privately maintained, which means you cannot request to get on them for all users of an ISP.

Regardless, the whitelist is where you want to be, and you can get there by doing everything right, plus one more thing -- getting into your recipient's address book. In your initial newsletter communication or welcome email, ask your customers to add your address to their contact list. That's one of the surest ways to make sure your email -- a message your customers asked to receive -- is delivered.

One important thing to remember is that Constant Contact has a deliverability rate that is greater than 97%, as verified by Return Path, which means that nearly all emails sent to valid addresses using Constant Contact are delivered to recipients' inboxes. By heeding CAN-SPAM requirements, monitoring your bounces, and utilizing these other recommendations, you will ensure your messages will continue to hit inboxes with ease.