Email Delivery Kit Ver2

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EMAIL DELIVERABILITY KIT

EMAIL DELIVERABILITY KIT:

YOUR GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL EMAIL MARKETING ADS & CAMPAIGNS TO YOUR Your Guide to DISTRIBUTORS Successful Customer

Communication

www.identityedge.net Contact: brian@identityedge.net 914-245-5115

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Email Campaigning has evolved to the point unless you doing it every day you will never keep up If you use are email as a marketing tool in your business, then you’re well aware of how much the industry has with the ever vigorus changing environment of it. changed and also how rapidly it changes. The unspoken

rules constantly change, email inboxes become smarter, The question is why? The rules changed because SPAM emails make up and SPAM filters are increasingly stringent.

50% of the USA’s daily volume. Inside most SPAM are malware and all sorts of nasty stuff costing businesses billions. Reality...EVERY email sent has to This Email Deliverability Kit will provide you with some get by at least three levels of spam traps. Those are: The Routing Servers key guidelines, tips, and practices you can put in place which are super smart; desktop programs like Norton 360; and email clients today to improve your deliverability, engagement, and like MS Outlook, Google or Apple. overall email list health.

Transi tio marke ning from tr ad tin is criti g to digital m itional ca a Promo l for Supplie rketing r tional Produ s in the cts Ind ustry

So your emails get defeated too when you don’t abide by those rules.

Unless you’re in the business of email marketing, it’s All emails have the potential to be spam. And that’s where emailing REPUTATION becomes so important. That’s how spam traps rate Suppliers. And environment of email marketing. And if you do manage we know that you don’t think you are a spammer because you use Constant to inform yourself, the rules you learned three months Contact...well guess again. According to the rules you can be.

Bottom line: If you do manage to inform yourself of the latest change in Since you’ve signed up to receive this free kit, we’ll be the rules you learned three months ago...those rule are probably completepushing occasional updates to give you the latest and ly different now. greatest tips to maximizing your deliverability scores and how to avoid that dreaded SPAM folder.

For example, SOOOO many Suppliers in the Promotional Products Industry use Constant Contact. Its cheap, but Constant Contact lulls you into believLet’s in...the best platform for email marketing. But that’s not true; ing dive they are there is a formula for sending emails and using one platform isn’t it. Plus, Suppliers still need to know, and be aware of email’s constantly changing rules, because Constant Contact cannot insure your emails get through.

Here’s the truth: Email boxes have become smarter (Outlook and Googe have their own SPAM filters) and in general all SPAM filters are increasingly stringent...because they are looking at your both content AND who’s send-ing the email for you.

Believe what you want, but there are key guidelines, tips and practices you must put into place to get your emails delivered which will engage your Distributors.

Believing you 1 can do it might be wasting money. www.identityedge.net

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In December 2019 the Promotional Products Marketplace was forever changed by the onslaught of Covid. Many of the most important traditional ways Suppliers traded with Distributors went away. GONE were the PPAI, ASI, EME, SAACDV and all other land-based trade shows. Like a light swtich everything changed to a digital format.

When that happened it presented the biggest argument FOR AN ALL DIGITAL Promotional Products Industry.

It really should be a natural evolution because the digital world operates 100% of the time without interruption or succumbing to virsuses. Plus the efficiencies of the internet make it perfect for our industry.

Think back...our industry has migrated from the 1980’s where we used faxes for invoicing, proofs, etc. We marketed via an expensive mix of trade shows ($5,000) for a fully burdened 10x10 booth along big expenses with Sage, ESP, and dozens of other industry marketing tools. When Sage & ESP started selling clicks, they made a fortune. There are a hundred types of marketing tools Suppliers used...based on what they could afford. Most of the industry even stopped printing catalogs because its MORE EFFICIENT for Distributors to have them as a PDF. There’s never been a time in the promotional products industry’s history when one marketing tool/channel has so overwhelmingly stood out as the best way to reach your Distributors with your products and have two-way communication than there is now with email campaigns. ESP had it day, but it too is losing to email marketing. Between ESP & Sage there are only 10,000 Distributors using those services.

Here’s a little published or known fact: Email campaigning has surpassed the combined hit rates of ESP and Sage. Email marketing clicks have surpassed the number of leads generated at all of the PPAI, ASI or other road shows in a year. Email marketing is the king in promo products.

We’re not making this stuff up. Overnite--and due to Covid--email marketing became the go-to marketing tool.

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#1 KEEP IT REAL DOs Make sure that your From Name, From Address, and Reply To Address all match .(e.g.

And John makeDoe sure -that you do put complete contact info- signed on the bottom...including phone. john@mycompany.com off as John) Ask for people to reply directly to your marketing emails Email Service Providers (ESPs) track this and reward your IP address with higher engagement rates across the board.

AND when someone replies to you, make sure to respond back. ESPs watch this too.

Encourage conversation - aside from replying, encourage your audience to join the conversation on your social media channels or other mediums of engagement.

DON’Ts NEVERyour EVERsignature send an email with DO NOT REPLY or graphics Keep clear of aicons/symbols emailJohn) address. Makes your Distributors believe you do not (e.g. want to connect with them.

Automatically opting people in to your marketing emails. Make it clear that if they make a purchase they may be opted into marketing emails, better yet, give them the option to opt-out beforehand.

Bombard your list with sales emails. Deliver real and Use common sense and give your Distributors they needof to80% makenon-sales sales... valuable content.

Keep it what to a minimum and that includes ancontent.

End User Sell Sheet with every email content/20% sales you send!

Emails under 200 words have the best response rate.

This may not be reasonable to longer newsletters, but try to shorten for better email response.

Only capitalize when necessary, not for emphasis. SPAM flags will go up for improper use of capitalization.

Always include Plain Text HTML in your emails. This ensures that users who have settings to “only show Plain Text HTML” actually receive an email from you. Otherwise what they receive will be blank.

Alt. Text for Images. Including an image title and text description will ensure that you bypass email filters. Some users have the settings to not load images on open, and text will show up in its place.

FUN FACT: Gmail will automatically add a sender to your contacts if you respond at least twice to an email.

JPG is better than PNG. Using the “best” quality images (PNG) will slow down email load time.

#2 KEEP IT CLEAN Images - Keep your images to a maximum of 20% of the email in terms of space. Spammers use images to hide their content from ESPs. Today, ESPs think that you have something to hide if your email is text heavy and will flag it as spam.

Length - Limit your emails to 6 paragraphs and make sure they are a minimum of 2. If you need to deliver more content than that, insert a “read more” hyperlink bringing them to the full content on your blog or social media page.

www.identityedge.net www.automateddreams.com

Buzzwords - See list at the end. These are words that are used so often by marketers, that ESPs have flagged them as marketing emails. The more you use, the more your SPAM score goes up. And if you think you’re clever in purposely misspelling a word, or being creative with it, the negative effect will double.

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#3 SILENT KILLERS Affiliate Swipe Copy - If you are using the same copy and directing people to the same page as other affiliate partners, ESPs will associate you with them. If one of those partners has a particularly high SPAM score or abuses their list, then your email deliverability will be directly affected.

Rewrite any and all affiliate copy to increase your deliverability and separate yourself from toxic mailers.

Raw URLs - Just don’t do it. Using Raw URL links will jack up your spam score. Instead, you can hyperlink your text to safeguard your deliverability. Also, avoid placing a link more than 3 times in an email to keep your SPAM score down.

Don’t use redirect links in emails - ESPs will think that you are hiding something bad, and will keep you out of the inbox.

Don’t use link shortening software (e.g. bit.ly) Spammers initially used these to bypass SPAM safeguards, but now it’s caught up with them.

Bounced Emails - Hard bounces (when an email is no longer valid) and soft bounces (when an inbox is full) can drag down your deliverability if you continually send to the same email addresses that come back as bounces.

Unsubscribe them if your CRM doesn’t automatically do it for you. We recommend Ontraport, which does it automatically.

We help you with bounced emails that Constant Contact and other services like Mailchimp don’t help you with. In most cases this is where those services DON’T catch and remove those emails.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES One Call to Action in your emails will always be the ones with the highest response rate. Don’t ask users to do too many things in one email, it’s most likely that they will do nothing at all.

Drive traffic to your website from emails. The more referring traffic you receive the better it is for SEO.

On your welcome email, let users know how they can whitelist your email.

Don’t purchase email lists and stay away from letting other people opt-in their friends for marketing emails.

This WILL increase your block and unsubscribe rate and drag down your email efforts across the board.

www.identityedge.net

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#4 LIST OF BUZZWORDS & PHRASES THAT WILL DRAG YOU DOWN

Burns, Rachel. 8 Aug. 2019, https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/spam-words.

EXAGGERATED CLAIMS AND PROMISES #1

Fast cash

Incredible deal

100% more

Financial freedom

Lower rates

100% free

Free access

Lowest price

100% satisfied

Free consultation

Make money

Additional income

Free gift

Million dollars

Be your own boss

Free hosting

Miracle

Best price

Free info

Money back

Big bucks

Free investment

Once in a lifetime

Billion

Free membership

One time

Cash bonus

Free money

Pennies a day

Cents on the dollar

Free preview

Potential earnings

Consolidate debt

Free quote

Prize

Double your cash

Free trial

Promise

Double your income

Full refund

Pure profit

Earn extra cash

Get out of debt

Risk-free

Earn money

Get paid

Satisfaction guaranteed

Eliminate bad credit

Giveaway

Save big money

Extra cash

Guaranteed

Save up to

Extra income

Increase sales

Special promotion

Expect to earn

Increase traffic

WORDS THAT CREATE UNNECESSARY URGENCY AND PRESSURE Act now

Important information regarding

Urgent

Apply now

Information you requested

What are you waiting for?

Become a member

Instant

While supplies last

Call now

Limited time

Will not believe your eyes

Click below

New customers only

Winner

Click here

Order now

Winning

Get it now

Please read

You are a winner

Do it today

See for yourself

You have been selected

Don’t delete

Sign up free

Exclusive deal

Take action

Get started now

This won’t last

www.automateddreams.com

THERE ARE OVER 400 SPAM WORDS AND SUPPLIERS USE THEM REGULARLY

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WORDS THAT LOOK LIKE SHADY, SPAMMY, OR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR Bulk email

No catch

Requires initial investment

Buy direct

No cost

Social security number

Cancel at any time

No credit check

This isn’t a scam

Check or money order

No fees

This isn’t junk

Congratulations

No gimmick

This isn’t spam

Confidentiality

No hidden costs

Undisclosed

Cures

No hidden fees

Unsecured credit

Dear friend

No interest

Unsecured debt

Direct email

No investment

Unsolicited

Direct marketing

No obligation

Valium

Hidden charges

No purchase necessary

Viagra

Human growth hormone

No questions asked

Vicodin

Internet marketing

No strings attached

We hate spam

Lose weight

Not junk

Weight loss

Mass email

Notspam

Xanax

Meet singles

Obligation

Multi-level marketing

Passwords

WORDS THAT ARE JARGON OR LEGALESE (AND EVERYTHING ELSE) Accept credit cards

Debt

Pre-approved

Ad

Discount

Quote

All new

Fantastic

Rates

As seen on

In accordance with laws

Refinance

Bargain

Income

Removal

Beneficiary

Investment

Reserves the right

Billing

Join millions

Score

Bonus

Lifetime

Search engine

Cards accepted

Loans

Sent in compliance

Cash

Luxury

Subject to…

Certified

Marketing solution

Terms and conditions

Cheap

Message contains

Trial

Claims

Mortgage rates

Unlimited

Clearance

Name brand

Warranty

Compare rates

Offer

Web traffic

Credit card offers

Online marketing

Work from home

Deal

Opt in

www.automateddreams.com

5www.identityedge.net

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SUBJECT LINES: Here are just a handful of the 1,000+ plus daily email Subject Lines that come from Suppliers--as you can see--taken from a recent email send.

What’s important to note is there is little or no regard in many cases to following ANY of the email sending guidelines for Subject Lines.

ANY Supplier that uses the word FREE in their Subject Line is just asking to be put into spam folders. Plus creativity in the Subject Line is so critical. Does any single Subject Line below make a stand out statement? Not one really jumps out at Distributors to say OPEN ME! Every email sent today should have some sort of a Call-to-Action statement. Without a Call-to-Action statement you’re just waving at the Distributor as they go by your email instead of engaging them!

Think about how critical a need this is...because getting the Distributor to open your email and ACT ON IT...is your ultimate goal. Not only so the open rate is higher but also because all of the below Subject Lines are just making uninteresting statements. What’s in it for the Distributor to open any of those emails? Not much.

Talk to us...we can get you writing the best Subject Lines while avoiding more than 400 spam keywords.

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