summer meltdown: what to do when your members are on vacation

Summer Meltdown: What to Do When Your Members are on Vacation

www.highroadsolution.com

Your Presenter:Jenny Lassi has been affiliated with HighRoad Solution for 8 years first as a client and then as an employee. With experience handling deployments and deliverability for a wide range of clients with optimized recipient engagement top-of-mind, Jenny routinely trouble shoots deliverability issues from ISP level filtering to email client level filtering (email Forensics as she refers to them). She also consults with clients on authentication, content, content strategy, email preference center management & other deliverability optimization tactics.


Today’s Content• Summertime woes of trying to reach the

vacationing member• Bounce/Invalid email handling• Email validation analysis• Permission campaign strategy & best

practices• Key Takeaways


Summertime sadness…?Or go with the flow?


Engagement Opens/Clicks


Average Open Rates•Q1 32%•Q2 31% •Q3 27%•Q4 27%


Engagement Metrics for Q3 contribute to your ability to reach an inbox in Q4.

What can get in your way now?


Batch & Blast MentalityAnd

Dag Gone Bounces!


Average Volume Rates•Q1 Highest Volume•Q2 Slightly Lower than Q1•Q3 Slightly Lower than Q2•Q4 Lowest Volume


Average Bounce Rates•Q1 2.64%•Q2 2.57 %•Q3 1.9%•Q4 2.85%


Depending on the way recipient email servers handle Auto-Reply/Out of Office messages could be adding to your bounces even if it was inboxed as well!


Invalid eMail Address Handling

1. 1-Hard Bounce2. 3-Consecutive Soft Bounces of

a Particular Bounce Type


The absolute earliest a subscriber can be flagged as permanent invalid due to OOO bounces (or any soft bounces for that matter) is eleven days.This assumes messages are sent to them exactly on the sixth and eleventh day following the first OOO bounce. If the gap between messages sent to them is greater, then the process will take longer.


What’s with the bounce?

1. Email address no longer exists (Hard Bounce)2. Lack of Authentication3. Blacklists4. IP Reputation5. Filter thresholds met then all other traffic deferred6. Changes on recipient email server filter software7. Recipient email server not available temporarily8. OOO messages getting bounce codes


Getting to the Root of the Bounce1. Set up DKIM/Sender ID if you haven’t already2. Make sure email address is correct in the system and your

AMS/CRM3. Review bounce code/reason from Bounce Logs4. Reach out to abuse@ AND

[email protected] to request to whitelist the IP address of your email platform account/HighRoad account and your domain ideally within 48-hours of the sent message

mailto:[email protected]


Pay Close Attention to “Other” Bounces


Why, what is the difference?1. A bounce in the “Other” category will never

invalidate a subscriber 2. The system will attempt to deliver any future

message to the subscriber3. “Other” will not typically resolve themselves over

time without deliberate action on your part


“Other” Bounces

Start the conversation with the blocking domain:

Reach out to abuse@ AND [email protected] to request to whitelist the IP address of your email platform account/HighRoad account and your domain ideally within 48-hours of the sent message



Getting to the Root of the Invalid1. Isolate Temp/Perm Invalids2. Subscriber Analysis3. Bounce Log Review4. Data Hygiene Analysis5. Data Collection


Invalid Export Analysis

The bounce column indicates the present count of either soft or hard bounces the subscriber has experienced.

The invalid column indicates whether the subscriber is permanently invalid (2), temporarily invalid (1), or not invalid (0).


Invalid Forensics1. Look up subscriber history to see the last message

sent that bounced2. Get to the root of the invalid by reviewing bounce

code/reason from Bounce Logs from that specific send


Invalid Forensics

Run all platform invalids through an Email Validation Service to see which invalids are true invalids or which are valid email addresses that you’re unable to deliver to.


Email Validation Report

A quick report can be run to determine if the email addresses that are invalid in your email database are true invalids because they don’t exist or if there might be other factors at the root of the invalid.


Bucketize Results


True InvalidsTurn true invalids into an opportunity to reach out to constituents personally and strengthen your relationship.

If you can’t get through with a primary email or secondary email, try direct mail. It still works!


Invalid False Positives

Are you getting bounced, blocked and beat up?


Invalid False Positives

Start the conversation with the blocking domain:

Reach out to abuse@ AND [email protected] to request to whitelist the IP address of your email platform account/HighRoad account and your domain ideally within 48-hours of the sent message



How do you re-validate an invalid?1. You can look up each subscriber 1 by 1 and revalidate

from their Subscriber Profile2. Delete invalid subscribers from the system and re-

import (Note: you will lose Message History in this process for many platforms)

Once again…ONLY AFTER you get to the root of the issue should you un-flag the

record as invalid.


Re-Validate Single Record


BULK Re-Validate

1. Export File2. Delete3. Re-Import


Once Re-Validated…Measure again.

How soon should you measure?

Was the root issue resolved?

If not, back to the drawing board!


Permission CampaignA strategic touch-point or series of touch-points with the goal of subscriber engagement or conversion


When should I permission?If you initiate 1 permission campaign per year, start it mid-May to early-July. This will help prepare you for Q4.

If you initiate 2 re-permission campaigns per year, start the first in mid-February and again in June.


Why should I send a Permission campaign in Q3?

Subscribers who do not engage with your emails cost you money and decrease open/click rate statistics.

This will hurt you in Q4 when ISPs make inbox algorithms more restrictive in preparation for higher email volumes for back-to-school and holidays.


Permission Anatomy


Permission CTACTA Motivation:• Combine RP with

Offer• RP with Emotional

Appeal• RP with Time

Sensitive Response


Grow Your Member Relationship


Rejuvenate & Grow

By going with the flow, you will not only strengthen the

relationship with your members, but will annoy them much less


Grow with eFlow


Key Takeaways…


Q3 Simple Strategy• Use segmentation of your audience that factor in recipient

engagement with your emails• Instead of suppressing non-engaged in past 180-days, get

more restrictive at 120-days• Review Bounce Logs within 48-hours of deployment to

address “Other” bounces (Spam Block, Mail Block, Timeouts)• Do NOT under any circumstances purchase a list and send to

it from your email platform• Run a Validation Report on subscribers, scrub invalids, re-

validate valid email addresses and deploy a permission campaign


Q4 Simple Strategy• Use segmentation of your audience that factor in recipient

engagement with your emails• Instead of suppressing non-engaged in past 120-days, get more

restrictive at 90-days• Review Bounce Logs within 48-hours of deployment to address

“Other” bounces (Spam Block, Mail Block, Timeouts)• Do NOT under any circumstances purchase a list and send to it

from your email platform• Scrub permission campaign declines from email database and

suppress non-responders in Q4• This is not a time to batch and blast email to caste widest net as

it will bite you in the bum


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Thank you for participating in the Summer Meltdown: What to Do

When Your Members are on Vacation Webinar!

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summer meltdown: what to do when your members are on vacation

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