The way you manage email communications with your customers is known as your email programme. Several factors can influence the success or failure of your email programme; these factors may seem confusing or mysterious at first. However, by understanding how email delivery works and following certain best practices, you can increase the chances of your emails successfully reaching your customers' inboxes.
For a user in your cloud to be considered contactable, they must meet one of the following conditions:
Their last login date on the platform is less than 12 months ago.
The interaction date in clicks and views in a campaign is less than 12 months.
There are several metrics that help measure the success of your email programme. The main ones are detailed below:
Bounces
Complaints
Message Quality
A bounce occurs when an email cannot be delivered to the intended recipient. There are two types of bounces:
Hard Bounces: These happen when an email cannot be delivered due to a permanent issue, such as a non-existent email address.
Soft Bounces: These occur when a temporary problem prevents email delivery, for example, if the recipient’s inbox is full or the receiving server is temporarily unavailable.
Amazon SES handles soft bounces by attempting to resend the emails over a defined period. It is essential to monitor the number of hard bounces in your email programme and remove any addresses that generate them from your recipient lists. A high rate of hard bounces can negatively impact your email deliverability.
Keep your hard bounce rate below 5%. The fewer hard bounces you have, the more likely email providers are to regard your messages as legitimate and valuable.
Do not rent or buy email lists. These often contain invalid addresses that increase your hard bounce rate, and may also include spam traps.
Keep your list updated. If you haven’t contacted your recipients in a long time, try validating their data through other means (e.g., website activity or purchase history).
Send a win-back email. If you’re unsure of your contacts' status, consider sending a message asking if they still want to receive your emails. Remove those who do not respond.
When you receive bounces, follow these rules:
Immediately remove any email address that generates a hard bounce.
Ensure the email address receiving bounce notifications is able to receive emails.
Avoid using an externally hosted email address for bounce notifications. Otherwise, they may end up in the spam folder.
A complaint occurs when a recipient marks your email as spam. If you receive too many complaints, email providers may assume you're sending spam, negatively affecting your deliverability and sender reputation.
Some email platforms notify senders when a user files a complaint—this is known as a "feedback loop". Amazon SES automatically forwards complaints from providers that offer this feature.
Keep your complaint rate below 0.1%.
If a customer complains about a marketing email, stop sending them this type of message immediately. If you're sending other types of messages (notifications or transactional), you may continue if appropriate.
If you have an old list, send a welcome message reminding recipients who you are and why you're contacting them.
When you receive complaints, follow these rules:
Ensure the email address receiving complaint notifications is able to receive emails.
Prevent complaint notifications from being marked as spam by your email provider.
Use identifiers in emails to track which addresses made complaints and remove them from your list.
Content filters scan emails for attributes that might indicate spam or malicious intent. Amazon SES uses content filtering technologies to detect and block emails containing malware before they are sent.
Avoid using link shorteners. Some email providers block shortened URLs as they are commonly used by malicious senders.
Ensure all links in your email work correctly.
Include links to your privacy policy and terms of use. This helps build trust with recipients.
If you send emails frequently (e.g., "daily deals"), make sure the content is varied and relevant.
In Amazon SES, your sender reputation reflects the perceived credibility of your domain by email providers and spam filters. A good reputation improves the chances of your emails reaching recipients' inboxes.
Use subdomains for different types of communication. For example, use marketing.example.com for marketing messages and orders.example.com for transactional emails.
Avoid using free email provider addresses (like name@hotmail.com) for sending large volumes of email.
Do not use addresses like no-reply@example.com. This gives the impression that you do not wish to receive replies or engage with customers.
Set up SPF and SenderID to confirm that emails are genuinely sent from your domain.
Use DKIM to ensure that email content has not been modified during transit.
Test your authentication by sending emails to personal accounts at providers like Gmail or Hotmail.
Implement a double opt-in strategy. Send a confirmation email when users subscribe.
Validate email addresses in web forms to prevent typos.
Avoid sending emails to generic addresses such as postmaster@ or abuse@, as these are often used to monitor spam.
Familiarise yourself with email marketing and anti-spam laws in the countries you’re sending messages to. You can check relevant regulations on Wikipedia.
Consult a legal advisor to ensure compliance with current laws and regulations.