As we all know, deliverability is a critical component for email marketing success.  If your subscribers never see your message because it’s blocked or sent to the spam folder, they are unable to take an action.  A 2009 benchmark study conducted by Return Path found that nearly 20% of permission-based email messages never reach the intended recipient.  They are bounced back, delivered to the spam folder, or even worse, accepted by the ISP and not delivered to the inbox or spam folder (silent filtering).  I’m sure this statistic gets a lot of marketers pretty steamed, and after speaking to some of my clients about this study, I started to wonder:  Is permission to send someone an email really enough?

The Definition of Spam Is Changing

Over the past year, email professionals have witnessed a fundamental shift in the way ISPs and email providers accept and filter incoming mail.  Today, the focus is on delivering email that subscribers want, rather than just blocking unsolicited or malicious messages as evident by the upcoming changes to Hotmail.  To accommodate this new model of filtering, ISPs are utilizing more data about subscriber response when determining inbox eligibility.  In addition to the traditional metrics of spam complaints and unknown users, ISPs incorporate open and click data, time spent viewing an email, and deleting without opening when calculating sender reputation.

With this increase in filtering intelligence, the definition of spam has now changed.  From an ISP perspective, spam has become any email message determined to be unwanted by the end user, regardless of whether or not the email sender obtained opt-in consent.  Even if your list is double opt-in, if the majority of your subscribers are not positively engaged with your brand, you run the risk of being filtered by the ISPs.

Focus On Customer Value

So as a permission-based marketer, how do you avoid having your mail misclassified by the ISPs?  First, it is important to develop a program that provides ongoing value to your subscribers.  Leverage customer data and history to send relevant messages at the right time and stay away from the batch and blast mentality where one email fits all.  In addition, a welcome series, original content newsletters, and ongoing transactional messages are a great way to reinforce your brand and increase positive engagement from subscribers.

Bottom line, if you focus on what your subscribers want out of your email program, then deliverability and revenue usually take care of themselves.