Guidelines for deciphering deliverability dilemmas
There are various reasons as to why an e-mail address will be blocked or timed out. Factors that are involved with deliverability are the actual message content, the subject line, the IP address that is sending the e-mail and the rate at which the e-mail is being sent.

The simplest way to improve deliverability is to ask your e-mail recipients to add you to their white list or address book. This step is important because an increasing number of ISPs block all e-mail messages that aren't approved, by the recipients, in advance. Getting your from address added to your recipients’ address books or personal white lists is an important step in getting your e-mails into the in box rather than the spam, trash, or quarantine folders.

To make sure that the recipients add you, place a sentence toward the beginning of the e-mail message explaining how to add your from address into their address book. This is something that you can include in each message you send out just to remind people to take this simple step.

Personalization is also a great way to get more people to open your messages. Generally, people like to see subject lines that contain their name or other information that is relevant to them. In order to use the personalization features, your e-mail lists will need to contain fields with information other than e-mail addresses.

For example, they would have to contain at least a first name field, if not a last name field, as well. It’s best to keep in mind that the subject line and from address are the first things a recipient will see—make sure that the subject line stands out and attracts the people you are trying to reach.

For message content and subject lines, try to stay away from keywords that are more prone to being sent to the spam folder, such as:

Overusing or using all capital letters and overusing punctuation will also send your e-mail to the spam folder. Instead of using one of the above phrases, we recommend phrases like “information you requested,” or “save up to 25%.” By using these phrases it is less likely to get your messages blocked.

Our Simplicity e-mail marketing software actually contains a “content check” feature that will aid in achieving better deliverability.

1. This feature can be located by clicking the e-mail marketing tab at the top of Simplicity.
2. Then click on the “view messages” button on the left hand side of the screen.
3. Click on any message that is displayed, and wait for it to load.
4. After your message is loaded, and just above the message you will see a button that says “content check.”
5. After you press the button, your message will receive a score, and we recommend that you try to keep the score below a three.

Another thing you can try is to separate the blocked and timed out e-mail addresses into a list of their own. It is rather simple to do this with Simplicity—start by clicking on the “e-mail marketing tab."

1. Under “lists,” click on the “view lists” link in the left navigation menu.
2. Select a list name, and a list of e-mail addresses will be loaded onto the screen.
3. After you list appears, click on the “actions” button at the top, and mouse over “filter by” menu option.
4. A drop down menu will appear, select “blocked” from the drop down box, and a list of   blocked e-mail addresses will be loaded.
5. Click on the “actions” button and select “export.”
6. Click the “download range” button to download the list to your computer.
7. Delete the blocked e-mail addresses from the list by clicking the “delete” button, and select “delete all blocked e-mails.”

You can then re-upload the list to your Simplicity e-mail marketing account, and call that your block list. It’s a good idea to use this list from time to time to see if some e-mail addresses become good depending on a different message. The strategy here is to have a list of good e-mails that you can use as your main go to list when sending out a campaign, and then periodically retry your blocked list of e-mail addresses.

To help reduce the rate of e-mails that bounce back, there are a few other simple tactics to use in order to reduce the amount of blocked e-mail addresses. If you have the time, you can call the telephone numbers associated with the blocked addresses to find out if the contact person has changed or if there has been turnover in their staff. One last thing you can do is include subscription management links in your e-mail marketing messages, and encourage the recipient to update their information if and when it changes.