Improve Email Deliverability

Overview:

Cesar Millan is the world-famous Dog Whisperer, an animal behavior expert who stars in National Geographic’s show of the same name. Cesar Millan, Inc. (CMI) teaches pet owners how to create healthier relationships with their dogs by showcasing Mr. Millan’s unique talents to educate, entertain, and offer personal empowerment through leadership skills. The company extends Mr. Millan’s reach to an international audience through DVDs, books, merchandise, and speaking tours, as well as alliances with key retail outlets, a television series, and specials. Digital marketing–and specifically email messaging–is an integral part of the company’s strategy for developing its relationships with customers and viewers.

Problem:

CMI noticed real problems regarding the poor delivery rate for email messages to a number of internet service providers (ISPs). The company was constantly getting complaints from its subscribers. Consumers claimed they hadn’t received Cesar Millan’s once-monthly newsletter or that they only received it sporadically.

As a result, subscribers were frustrated and the brand was suffering. The company’s overall delivery rate average was identified at only 81.29%, significantly below industry average. Management was disturbed because there was no obvious explanation as to why CMI’s email marketing messages were not being accepted by the ISPs. In order to resolve the problem, mobileStorm performed a thorough analysis of CMI’s email practices. By using the Delivery Audit service from mobileStorm, it became clear that the problems the client was experiencing were due to several underlying factors: policies, data management, and reputation. Some details:

• The client obtained email addresses, but the addresses were not verified. Sending a confirmation message or implementing a full double opt-in policy can eliminate many problems.
• The list contained addresses from unknown and outdated sources, some of which dated back to 2005. Because of this, the database had many inactive and/or invalid addresses.
• Old databases create the perfect climate for “spam traps,” which can ruin a sender’s reputation and cause delivery issues at ISPs. Despite the fact that the client eventually began to execute best practices, the contact list still contained addresses that were collected pre-implementation of best practices.
• mobileStorm’s internal logs indicated that the majority of email messages were being rejected by certain ISPs at a very high rate compared to other ISPs.

After gathering all of the details, mobileStorm devised a personalized strategy to resolve the problem.

Solution:

Since most of the contact email addresses in CMI’s database were obtained from unknown sources, and via less than optimal email marketing practices, mobileStorm worked out a plan to rehabilitate the list. To get back to solid footing, mobileStorm’s Delivery Team executed a “re-engagement campaign,” which is very effective in weeding out inactive accounts. The re-engagement campaign encompassed the following steps:

1. Identify all subscribers who had never opened or clicked on an email message.
2. Segment the data using certain specific time criteria. The lists were broken up into ten campaigns of 10,000 to 15,000 addresses each.
3. Once these subscribers were identified, the Delivery Team removed obvious non-engaged subscribers from the main list. A separate list was created which was used to send an email message asking subscribers to re-confirm their interest in receiving the client’s emails. This was done through a simple clickable link featured in the messages that asked subscribers to confirm their subscriptions. The message also informed subscribers that if they did not click on the link within a specific time frame, they would no longer receive newsletters from Cesar Millan.
4. The campaign was executed multiple times. Each time, subscribers were categorized based on results.
   • Inactive/bounced or did not respond in any way (no opens or clicks)
   • Not interested in receiving messages–opted out
   • Active and engaged with the brand–confirmed or interacted (did open or click)
5. At the end of the project, a final reconciliation was made to the main list. All confirmed users were added back in along with known good addresses. Suspect addresses, opt-outs, and non-respondents were removed.

As a result of the re-engagement project, CMI’s delivery showed extremely positive results during its next marketing campaign. Although the company at first had voiced concern about its contact list shrinking, CMI saw immediately the benefits of having a list of only committed subscribers. At present, the client continues to see high performance with a 99.7% delivery rate average.

Conclusion:

Acquisition practices are critical to the successful delivery of email messages. When it comes to your marketing database, it is not quantity but quality that counts. This program showed how obtaining subscribers and implementing best practices will cause marketers to generate a higher ROI. Furthermore, old and inactive addresses, which are often really spam traps, can seriously and negatively affect delivery in many ways.

For an example of Cesar’s newsletter go to http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/newsletter