Finally we have reached the last part of the process – sending the emails! Wonderful, at least there is one easy step. Not quite …
This is probably one of the most involved steps – all the elements involved in the email campaign coming together, namely:
- Send optimization – The delivery engine needs to adapt to the delivery of emails based on the information ISPs are sending back. Do we need to retry a message or moderate the volume, so we don’t get greylisted?
- Authentication – The information available in emails goes much deeper than what is visible to an everyday user. Various sets of information are tied closely together by technologies like SPF, DKIM and DMARC that help authenticate the sender. The correct use of these authentication techniques could mean the difference between the Inbox and the junk folder.
- Reputation – Many factors influence your reputation with the ISP, so it’s important to get this right from the start – warm your IP’s, send at the correct rate for each phase of your reputation, adhere to anti-spam laws and keep constant track of your scores.
- Content filtering – Content reappears as an important factor from the previous design and testing phases. During sending, you want to make sure your content does not raise any flags. It is also not always the words you use, but rather the text to image ratio and other similar items.
- Deliverability – Deliverability is the most important and necessary factor that should be considered during the sending phase. See the deliverability checklist
Once your email has reached the inbox, reporting becomes key. Information extracted from the reports need to be fed back into the data management phase so the cycle can start again.
Conclusion
The strength of a digital customer communication tool is not just about sending out bulk email. It’s about understanding the medium, tracking each communication and making adjustments to future campaigns to ensure your goals are met.
You need to have experts in this space to help you along the way… You can also follow Linda on her social profiles:
Improve the customer experience with secure document delivery today
Linda Misauer
Vice President, Global Solutions at Striata, a Doxim company.
Linda Misauer is the Head of Global Solutions at Striata and is responsible for technical Research and Development, Operations and Project Management for global initiatives.
Linda previously led the Product Management of the Striata Application Platform before moving across to Striata North America as Chief Technical Officer (CTO). As Product Manager, her responsibilities included internal project management of the product development team, market research & product feature design, as well as the product lifecycle management and quality control. As CTO, Linda was responsible for all technical operations for North, Central and South America, including the Project Management, Support, Production and Data Engineering.
Linda has over 10 years of experience in the IT industry, ranging from video streaming solutions and website application development to electronic billing and messaging. Prior to joining Striata in 2002, Linda held the positions of Chief Information Officer at AfriCam, and was IT project manager at Dimension Data.
Linda studied at the University of Natal – Pietermaritzburg and holds a degree in BSc, Majoring in Computer Science and Economics. Linda also has a Diploma in Project Management.
Read more of Linda’s blog posts here or connect with her on the following social channels:
If you would like to subscribe to Linda’s future blog posts, then simply update your email preferences here.
You can also follow this series on Twitter: #ComplexityOfEmail
