GDPR Part 2: Privacy Boogaloo

GDPR Part 2: Privacy Boogaloo

by Zack Aab Comment Closed
Not up on GDPR Compliance? Read Part 1 here. Now that GDPR has been around for more than a year and the fires are mostly put out, we’ve had a chance to take stock of how the email industry is adjusting to GDPR. Trendline deliverability consultants work with all kinds of senders, who have all kinds of different email programs and compliance needs. We’ve noticed a common thread among the various senders to whom GDPR applies. They have an explicit opt-in for each user and nothing else. It turns out that the majority of senders we encounter don’t realize that there’s more to GDPR than simply getting an opt-in–a lot more! Many senders don’t realize that GDPR isn’t even an email law; it’s a data and privacy law, and the opt-in requirement is simply a consequence of the strict rules for the who, what, when, where, why, and how of handling personal data. Senders need to stop thinking of themselves solely as...
Read More
Why are My Sign-Up Verification Emails Going to Spam?

Why are My Sign-Up Verification Emails Going to Spam?

by Zack Aab Comment Closed
It’s every email marketer’s worst nightmare: despite all your hard work, your emails are landing in the spam folder. This problem is particularly painful when you’re trying to send simple confirmation emails to your users. Although spam folders serve an important purpose, they can wreak havoc for honest email marketers. If you’re landing in the spam folder, don’t worry. The reality is that everyone faces deliverability problems at some point. Your spam folder woes could be due to three potential culprits. Thankfully, this incredibly common problem has many easy remedies. Problem #1: Authentication DKIM DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an authentication method that proves the identity of the DKIM domain. It also proves whether or not an email was intercepted and tampered with in transmission. Spammers have been known to intercept important transactional emails. During the interception, they replace the content with their spam message. Spammers then resend the email in the hopes that it will be delivered as if it’s from the original...
Read More
GDPR Regulation 2018: What You Should Know

GDPR Regulation 2018: What You Should Know

by Zack AabNo Comments
Is your company ready for the GDPR regulation in May 2018? The General Data Protection Regulation is a unifying standard of protection for data within the European Union. On an individual level, it allows customers to have more control over how their personal data is used. On a larger scale, the enactment of the GDPR simplifies data protection within international business. Most companies are preparing for GDPR’s enactment. For example, in 2017, a PwC study found that 92% of those surveyed considered compliance with the GDPR to be a top priority on the privacy agenda for their companies.   GDPR was adopted April of 2016 but will not be enforced until May 25 of 2018. It requires companies to get explicit consent for how they use consumer’s data. GDPR affects all those within the EU and any organization or company using personal data from members within the EU.  The EU defines this personal data as “any information relating to an individual, whether it relates to his...
Read More
How to Choose the Best ESP for your Email Deliverability Check

How to Choose the Best ESP for your Email Deliverability Check

by Zack AabNo Comments
Choosing the best ESP (Email Service Provider) can feel like shopping for a car; a ton of conflicting recommendations, a thousand different models, and a lot of excessive features that seem neat in the showroom, but won’t ever be used on the road. Similar to this, in marketing, it’s important to be organized and have a clear goal. Check your email deliverability first. This means identifying your needs and your nice-to-haves first, while also knowing the difference between the two. First, answer these questions: What’s my budget? This means you also need to know your email ROI, or at least your target ROI. There are a lot of options, so knowing how much you are willing to spend can help you narrow down the field. What does your buyer’s journey/nurture/conversion look like? Tracking your metrics is critical to a successful email program, so identify the data you’ll need before you get started. What’s your sending volume? You need to know if a shared or dedicated IP is right for you....
Read More
Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work?

Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work?

by Zack AabNo Comments
Guts of a Mail Server: What is it and how does it work? What's a Mail Server? “What exactly is a mail server?” Considering how widely-used email is, and how technical it gets, this is not a question you should be embarrassed to ask. So, what is a mail server, then? A mail server is a dedicated computer with a static IP address that your mail client (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) talks to via SMTP and either POP3 or IMAP, and which uses a special program to route, receive, and store messages. That’s all simple enough but not exactly what you want to know. To understand what makes a mail server special, let's break it down: An Inventory: A physical server A good computer on a robust network switch with a high-bandwidth Internet connection and a static IP address. An MTA The MTA, or mail transfer agent, is the program that turns your words into something ready to travel the Internet. It accepts messages...
Read More
Guide to Determining If You’re Using Your Unsubscribe Page Correctly

Guide to Determining If You’re Using Your Unsubscribe Page Correctly

by Zack Aab Comment Closed
Guide to Determining If You’re Using Your Unsubscribe Page Correctly A good unsubscribe page makes it easy to unsubscribe, but hard to want to. Things to Know It is better to get an unsubscribe than a spam complaint An unsubscribe page is a landing page We know you don’t want people to unsubscribe from your brand. That’s why you may have thought it’d be clever to make it a maze for your users to unsubscribe. A lot of people think this tactic will make the other person impatient and forget about it, but they don’t. Your average user is going to get irritated and mark you as spam because the button is easy to find. Why is this bad? If the ratio of spam complaints to clicks gets too high, ISPs will filter your messages to the spam folder and may even block you. Your complaint rate should always stay below .03% with a target rate of below .01%. The goal isn’t to keep as many subscribers...
Read More
Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce: What’s the Difference?

Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce: What’s the Difference?

by Zack Aab Comment Closed
Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce: What's the Difference? A bounce is from an email being rejected by a recipient’s mail server. However, there are several different reasons why your emails could be bouncing. It could range from the recipient’s mailbox being full, to the domain name not existing. So what differentiates them? One is permanent and the other is not. It is highly suggested to pay attention to your bounce logs as your deliverability reputation can be impacted. The lighter of the two, a soft bounce, is an email that reached the recipient’s mail server but bounced back before it made it to the recipient. Soft bounces could be caused by a recipient’s mailbox being full, the email server being offline or rate-limiting the number of messages it receives, or the message itself being too large. A soft bounce should be retried for up to 72 hours for one campaign, and then suppressed for that campaign. If a contact soft bounces for multiple campaigns,...
Read More