The five guidelines included in this series should become watchwords for ezine emailers as they incur the risk and responsibility of sending newsletters or any other repetitive type of email.

Part 1 of 5: Treat Email as a True Risk and Cost Center

Part 2 of 5: Avoid Collateral Damage

Part 3 of 5: Use the Available (Legitimate) Tools and Tactics (M2M)

Part 4 of 5: Build Strong Relationships (H2H)

Part 5 of 5: Continuously Evaluate

Part 3 of 5

Use the Available (Legitimate) Tools and Tactics (M2M)

within your email sending system

One of the most basic systematic distinctions influencing email performance is between those barriers operating under human control, and those that are under machine control. Email senders today need to understand and work within this dicotomy. Remember:

* Human solutions (such as ISP relations) tend to work for human-run systems (H2H)

* Machine responses (such as sender authentication) tend to work for machine systems (M2M)

* Not understanding the differences between these types of systems tends to create at lot of frustration

Most of the systems that stop your email are automated. This means machines, not people, determine whether your email gets through. From client-side boxed software packages to ISP email profiling systems, it is usually the things that machines can see and measure that count the most.

Many ESPs rely almost exclusively on H2H "ISP relationships" at major recipient ISPs for delivery improvement. Email managers need to remember that only a few ISPs even offer such channels, and that a large portion of their email list addresses are at ISPs that don't. For those destinations, and just as importantly, for all of the outside monitoring systems that watch and record email flows, your technical (M2M) sending behavior is the primary determinant of your success.

This section addresses the machine-to-machine (M2M) communication universe - that strange virtual place where what people think and see counts for little, but where algorithms, rule sets, and thresholds control everything. Of course, people usually set those rules and thresholds, but once in place the machines do the sorting, filtering, and blocking. And they determine whether your recipients get your messages.

Email delivery and communications is your business, and your responsibility

Successful email communications programs actively use many types of M2M tools and tactics to overcome delivery barriers and to improve the level of recipient response. In fact, at a point in time where 22% of permission-based email from a wide spectrum of sources is being erroneously blocked, and with email response rates far below their historical highs, managers cannot afford to just accept the status quo. From HTML checkers to drop-box landing systems to sending profile control systems, email managers already use a range of M2M tools and resources first to map out their own email delivery situations, and then to take corrective action. Even at the most elementary level, investigation and remediation of sending errors or delivery failures can dramatically turn around difficult situations.

Senders can effectively use either internal or external solutions

With the right controls in place, outbound email programs can effectively use either (or both) internal or external sending resources. The goal is to cost-effectively access the expertise and capacity necessary to operate a sustainable system. To do this email managers first have to realistically evaluate their internal capabilities as well as the claims of potential Email Service Providers.

The key to this process is to ask the right questions! In an era dominated by delivery and sustainability problems, many managers still evaluate systems only on the basis of convenience or ease of use. Old ?broadcast? email systems that activate blocking and filtering systems routinely run unquestioned at both corporate and ESP data centers. Many ESP operations are being pushed into unfamiliar technical territory in an attempt to improve delivery performance. If you don't probe past the comforting superficialities your outcomes may be diminished.

More information on email sender tools and tactics can be found in the Email PhD Sending Signature Management section.

Upgrade and modernize your systems ? whether internal or external

Delivery tactics, drop-box testing, high granularity reporting, trends analysis all these are necessary features for email program control. If you still think that there is something simply called a ?bounce? (as opposed to a ?server level response message?) then you may be lacking sufficient data to influence your sending outcomes. There is a lot more to managing a successful sending process today than just pushing the ?send? button.

In line with these needs, new levels of control are now being built into many sending systems, from the MTA package through to the total messaging system. These can allow managers to avoid accidentally activating many routine volume and rate blocking traps. And virtually all system developers are now providing improved reporting and data integration. The use of controlled sending policies and scheduling can reduce your sending signature, and improve your reception and delivery at most major recipient ISPs.

The same level of expertise should be expected from external service providers. Presenting an easy to use interface, or good database integration features is important, but it is not sufficient. Investment and effort to control and improve email results, from ISP relations to technical delivery, is essential in a good ESP partner.

Good decisions are based on data

Senders have been subject to a litany of aphorisms about how to improve delivery. A few of these suggestions are entirely useless, and others may have only an extremely narrow field of effect. Effective email managers know that the only accurate way to tell what is really happening to your sends is to test and to collect data.

Many online publishers have a key metric that they like to use. Unfortunately, chances are that it has been corrupted by some type of sending barrier. Other senders still rely only on aggregate indicators of sending success, or worse, indicators that can simply tell you if your campaign succeeded or failed according to a measure other than delivery. This data, while better than nothing, does not provide the diagnostics and granularity needed to control and adapt your sending strategies. To control an email program today it is just as important to be able diagnose a problem as it is to simply report a result. Data collection at multiple levels is key to diagnosis.

Complete reporting systems should provide:

* detailed data from the Internet transmission level (server-to-server)

* data from monitored mailbox landing systems (filter/junk-bin)

* data from email-based actions (opens, click through)

* results measuring value created (such as purchases or requested recipient actions)

Each of these data sources addresses a portion of the delivery and response cycle, and only in aggregate can delivery and response problems be identified and addressed. Each measure also has characteristic sources of error (for example image blocking for opens rates), so it is the relationship between these data points that provides the most information for sender control. This data is almost always created from several different sources, and senders may need to build a customized system for integrating and displaying these results in a useful manner.

Integrated reporting data recorded over time allows senders to measure changes in system and recipient behavior, indicating at which level problems (or improvements) may be occurring. Changes in the pattern of these behaviors is very informative to email managers seeking to control their delivery profile.

More information on email data collection and analysis can be found in the Email PhD Data and Tracking section.

Copyright ? by Email Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

Tim Starzl is the chief editor of Email Ph.D., an informational Web site dedicated to improving email delivery for all permission-based senders. With years of experience in email sending system design, high volume sending, and high precision tracking systems Mr. Starzl provides practical working advice for a difficult and rapidly changing environment.