For those of you who have read the intro of our Email Deliverability Handbook, you know […]
SMTP codes can be so confusing, especially those SMTP response codes and SMTP error codes like the dreaded SMTP error 550. These are often returned in bounced email, such as "550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable" or "550 5 2 1 mail from refused spam site." They are in response to SMTP commands that have 'gone wrong' between your email server that sent the email, and the receiving email server that is unable to deliver it (or refuses to deliver it) for some reason. But what exactly do they mean? Why should you care and what should you do? And why do we say that SMTP error 550 is dreaded?
We are often asked by volume email senders just why we urge people to use confirmed opt-in (or "double opt-in") whenever possible. After all, they know that they are being ethical and only adding to their mailing lists people whom they believe really want their mailings. Why should they have to go through the added "hassle" of using confirmed opt-in? Here's why.
It's always nice when an independent third-party study substantiates what we've been saying all along. In this case, a study by Harris Interactive on behalf of Merkle (the database marketing people) has found that between 73 to 75% of people hit "unsubscribe" because either they feel that they are getting email from you too often, or that it is not relevant, or both.
I recently had the pleasure of working with journalist Karen Bannen, on an article that she was doing for BtoB Online. Karen interviewed both myself and R. Dave Lewis for the piece, in which she distilled down to their essence 5 ways to improve your email deliverability.
It's important not to confuse email marketing best practices, and email best practices in general, with email "common practices".
In fact, this can be a very dangerous, slippery slope on which to pin your email deliverability and indeed your email reputation. In fact at one point in time there was a meme going around suggesting exactly that, that it's "important to follow email marketing common practices." No, no, NO! To suggest that best practices aren't really best practices, but only 'common practices', reduces them to "not necessarily required" practices.
