Email marketing is not powered by good intentions or even permission alone.  It’s powered by data. Hit “send” and there is no guarantee that messages will reach the inbox and earn a response. Instead, messages are filtered based on a score for every marketer or publisher. That score is based on a data trail that is continuously measured by the ISPs like T-Online, Yahoo!, Orange and Gmail.

Frequency, volume, permission standard, relevancy, list quality – all these factors contribute to an overall sender reputation (link: http://www.senderscore.org).  A high sender reputation means your messages are more likely to reach the inbox. A low score will force messages to junk or bulk, or even missing altogether.

Why does well-intentioned and even permission-based email marketing get filtered as spam?  Mostly because it’s not relevant to subscribers. Relevancy and value are more important in email marketing than in other channels. There is a penalty in email marketing that doesn’t exist in other channels – complaints. Complaints are counted every time someone clicks the report spam button. That feedback mechanism means that messages will be blocked for all subscribers if even a small number of subscribers complain.

Marketers must know the rules of engagement around inbox placement. Too many of us get complacent – until we find out in a panic that all our messages are blocked by Orange or Yahoo! and our revenue drops dramatically. By then, it’s very hard and time consuming to course correct.

Be sure you know what your inbox placement rate actually is. It’s not the same as your bounce rate, typically reported as “delivered” by your email broadcast vendor or ESP.  Inbox placement (or inbox deliverability) is a different number and reflects what percentage actually reaches the inbox. 

1. Revenue equals subscriber interest.   It’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security by the seemingly unquenchable revenue generated by the email channel.  However, take a hard look at your file. Most purchases are made by only a portion. That means a lot of other unsatisfied subscribers and missed revenue.  Even simple segmentation (e.g.: post purchase, pre-renewal, prospect status) goes a long way toward engaging the rest of the file – and earning higher revenue overall.
2. Permission-based marketing messages are delivered to the inbox.  Actually, Return Path’s Global Email Deliverability Benchmark report (link:  http://www.returnpath.net/blog/2010/02/more-of-the-same.php) found that 11% of legitimate commercial email never reaches the inbox in the United Kingdom, with 15% in Europe and 20% in North America.   Permission is not enough.  Senders must track and improve the key metrics that affect email deliverability like complaints, unknown users and file responsiveness.
3. My ESP handles inbox placement for me.    Sorry, but marketers must own their own sender reputation. A good email broadcast vendor will maintain a solid infrastructure and help you authenticate, track complaints and manage bounces properly. But no vendor controls your data sourcing, frequency or content strategy – all of which contribute to sender reputation.  Make sure you have the data you need to actively manage and optimize inbox deliverability.

There is nothing more important in email marketing than reaching the inbox. It’s the first line of opportunity. Fortunately, it’s also very easy to optimize.  Respect your subscribers, send what you promised and no more, be valuable and helpful, and maintain a solid infrastructure.  These are the same things you are doing to optimize response.  All you need to do is also monitor inbox placement and use that data to improve subscriber experience.