Are We Putting Too Much Focus on Deliverability?

I was reading this post over on the Deliverability blog in which Andrew Kordek interviews Exact Target's Morgan Stewart. This particular paragraph got me thinking:

So what is wrong with email? I mean what are the biggest problems that are facing the email industry today? Morgan’s answer is simple and yet so relevant.

First, he thinks that there is a pervasive print mentality in the industry. I could not agree more with him in that email is not direct mail.

Second, he believes that there is too much focus on deliverability, that while deliverability is a crucial part of email marketing, the share of voice in the email space is disproportionate to the detriment of his last point. Morgan believes that email is too siloed in most organizations because we still have trouble communicating the value of email to the C-Suite.

Is the share of voice that deliverability gets in the email space really disproportionate? I'm not entirely sure. True, there is a lot of talk about deliverability in the industry. But a lot of the conversation is actually more about the (database) marketing side than about the technical side of things.

Deliverability is more often than not used as a stick to force email marketers to keep in line:

• if you don't send relevant messages, then readers will mark your emails as spam and as a result your messages will get blocked
• if you don't practice good database hygiene, ISPs will think that you are a spammer and your messages will get blocked
• ...

What we are really saying is that email marketers need to be good database marketers. Email is not digital direct mail, agreed, but it IS digital direct marketing. And successful direct marketers need to also be good database marketers. Ultimately, applying good database marketing principles to email (together with having the right technical things in place of course) is instrumental to good email deliverability.

In Q4 last year I overheard someone saying: "in this economy, we won't be able to get more budget for email marketing, but we will be able to  get more budget for database marketing". Maybe the email industry should play the database marketing card in a smarter way so that we can get the attention of the C-Level executives?

What do you think?

Comments

[Jordan Cohen]

I'd equate this to Maslow's hierarchy of need. Deliverability is very low in the hierarchy (like safety, food, and shelter). Marketers aspire to do more but until they can be assured that that their messages are fully delivered (with images) they cannot worry about being marketers; they must be technicians.

CertifiedEmail liberates marketers to do their best work for their brands without worrying about the plumbing of email. The separate pipeline to the inbox that we’ve developed at Goodmail has established a platform of perfect deliverability that allows senders to “set it and forget it” when it comes to deliverability and focus squarely on being great marketers.

In fact, one of the key findings from a recent survey of 202 email marketers we conducted with Jupiter/Forrester was:

“The restoration of trust and certainty of message delivery provides email marketers with time-saving bandwidth benefits. The removal of these items as significant challenges provides marketers with more opportunities to focus on improving their email programs overall — and more time to think about and employ the tactics and technology that empower relevancy. “

David Daniels (the author of the report) had good reason to come to this conclusion – the survey showed that Certified senders were more likely to adopt tools and tactics that improve relevancy like dynamic content and segmentation, and generated an average of $3.3 million more in annual email-driven profit than their non-Certified peers.

[Derek Edwards]

As someone who talks to a lot of people that are ESP shopping I can say that there is definitely the wrong focus or should I say, perception, of deliverability. A lot of ESP's are actually at fault because we try to brag about 99%+ rates as if we're the ticket to the inbox when we're really just a crucial link in the equation.

So, yes, there is too much talk about deliverability - the wrong talk! The "print mentality" is here to stay for quite some time.

- Derek

[DJ Waldow]

Tamara -

Great discussion here. I am actually sitting at MAAWG right now. As you can imagine...much talk about deliverability, but more from the "prevent spam / stop the bad guys" angle...

In trying not to repeat what others have said, I'll add that I'm hopeful for the day when deliverability will not be seen as a differentiator from the ESP perspective. As many of our peers in the ESP space will attest to, we often here from clients that they are leaving their current vendor b/c they want "better deliverability."

Part of the challenge I think we face in the email ecosystem is to educate prospects and clients that they control much of their own deliverablity. IMHO, this will happen as the industry really begins to use domain authentication instead of just IP reputation. When a marketer's reputation begins to follow them from ESP to ESP...

Just some thoughts.

dj
@djwaldow

[Anne Mitchell]

Are we putting too much focus on deliverability? I think that's asking slightly the wrong question. The question should be "Should we *have* to be putting so much focus on email deliverability", and the answer to that is "no".

But currently we do have to focus on deliverability. To de-emphasize deliverability (such as to instead focus more on response rates and less on delivereability) is to ignore the issues underpinning email deliverability problems. Those issues are more often than not rooted in sub-par mailing practices, poor content choices and, sometimes, outright spamming.

Primarily, deliverability issues exist because senders still do not use best practices (many use "as good as I have to" or "as bad as I can get away with" practices - we always love hearing "we are CAN-SPAM compliant" because that tells us right away that the sender is *not* using best practices - they are only doing what they feel they must to stay just on this side of the law).

Or, a sender may be using best practices, but they don't believe us when we tell them that it doesn't mean they can send whatever content they like; even if it *should* mean that, it doesn't.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to focus on deliverability, but until the issues which have created this focus on deliverability are resolved, then the focus on deliverability will remain.

Indeed, our email accreditation customers - and I'm sure those of George's Return Path as well - are always relieved to *not* have to focus on deliverability any more (as we do that for them), so that they can turn their attention back to other things such as creating great content, and running their company.

Anne

Anne P. Mitchell, Esq
CEO/President
Institute for Social Internet Public Policy
http://www.ISIPP.com 
Member, Cal. Bar Cyberspace Law Committee
Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School of SJ
Author, "The Email Deliverability Handbook"
Email Accreditation: http://www.SuretyMail.com/

[Stephanie]

Love this debate, Tamara, good for you.

There is not nearly enough focus on deliverability, because deliverability is all about creating great subscriber experiences. And frankly, most email marketing is a terrible subscriber experience.

You can't talk about deliverability without talking about relevance and segmentation and list hygiene. It's so foundational, we run the risk of making it generic.

There can't be enough talk about deliverability. It's the essence of email marketing: creating and nurturing custom (database-driven) experiences with our customers and prospects.

Thanks!
Stephanie

[Corey Arashiro]

Tamera, I think you hit the nail on the head. The majority of the voice about deliverability has historically been around getting the message into the inbox and while this is paramount, the real power lies in applying those deliverability metrics to the data I already know about my subscribers; to personalize the message to each individual. The traditional view of deliverability statistics speak to only the quality of list-acquisition strategy, and the hygiene processes established to make sure we are sending to legitimate subscribers and not spamming. The true power behind relational email marketing is blending those deliverability events with the data managed in the database to allow marketers to get the right message, to the right people at the right time. Imagine the ROI of when I give you what I know you like, when I know you want it … I would relate to the message and engage in that communication every time.

So is there to much focus on deliverability? - I say only in the context in which it has traditionally being viewed. If I can use opens, and clicks to determine client engagement trends, then improve the relevancy of my message to a better target audience … conversion achieved. Inbox deliverability will take care of itself as I eliminate ineffective list-growth strategies and focus on building a relationship with my clients.

[Jake Holman]

The problem I see with Deliverability is the same problem I see with SEO. For the most part, it seems to be a backward engineering exercise, a guessing game formed from the little information we get from ISPs and Spam Filters.

We will never get to 100% deliverability, it's not going to happen. Not only this, but we actually lack the tools anyway to get complete oversight on what the deliverability is. Sure, we can make guesses based on bounces, opens and clicks over multiple ISPs but the fact is you can never take more than an educated guess as to what's happening with each and every one of your emails once they're been fired out.

That's my thoughts at least. I do still agree with Tamara that there should be some focus on it; but ultimately it should not be at the expense of the message or the list itself.

[Tamara Gielen]

I agree with you George. What I am wondering about is whether you can expect the average marketer to learn all about the technical side of deliverability. Especially those for whom email marketing is only part of their job.

As Bill McCloskey said at a conference I attended last year in the Netherlands: you can hire someone to help you with your deliverability challenges, there are plenty of deliverability experts out there... As a marketer you should put the bulk of your focus on optimizing the message and maintaining good database hygiene.

Don't get me wrong here: I do think that marketers should be made aware that their messages don't all make it to the inbox, I just don't think you can expect them to become experts in the matter.

It's an interesting conversation to have. Keep the comments coming!

[George Bilbrey]

Are we putting too much focus on deliverability?

Yes, we are: The world should work differently. There should be clear standards for inbox placement. We should be able to track exactly how changes to behavior are linked to inbox placement.

No we are not: That world doesn't exist yet. It's not clear enough what the standard are. Deliverability is really important. Messages that don't make it into the inbox cannot drive the desired result. We should all spend more time taking the quantitative discipline that we use for optimized opens, clicks and conversions and apply it to determining which complaint rates, unknown user rates will be acceptable to ISPs. They typical formulaic response that we need to create relevant, targeted messaging is correct. However, it's not enough.

[Steven Woods]

Absolutely - I have been in many conversations with people who seem to be equating "deliverability" with "actual recipient interest". That is a dangerous mistake to make.

Yes, deliverability is important, as the message has to arrive in the inbox, but without successfully getting a message to a person about a topic they are interested in, they will tune out.

Focusing on "emotional unsubscribes" is much more important than fine tuning deliverability (once you have the key elements of good deliverability in place).

Great topic again Tamara, much enjoyed.

Steve

[getintheinbox]

If you can't get in the inbox what is the point in sending an email at all, as no-one will read get to it?