The biggest problem with email marketing in general and China email marketing in particular is, of course, spam. Most countries around the world have introduced laws and regulations designed to limit amount of spam by specifying requirements to emails and imposing various degrees of penalties for violators. For example, federal anti-spam legislation CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires proper opt-out link to be included in a promotional mail, valid “from” email and a clear “subject” line.

The Chinese equivalent anti-spam legislation is called “Regulations On Internet Email Services” and is, by far, more complex and severe compared to its US equivalent. This law applies to emails sent to all Chinese residents and, at least in theory, covers users who happened to receive emails while in Chinese territory.

Your China email marketing checklist

Here is the brief summary of the requirements to a promotional email according to the law:

Verifiable Permission.

Chinese law requires recipient’s explicit permission to be given in order to include an email to a mass mailing list. Unsubscribe or opt-out option is not enough. The permission has to be verifiable and stored indefinitely in case of an audit;

Word “Ad” in subject line.

Either English “Ad” for English language emails or the equivalent Chinese word for “advertisement” is required in the subject line;

Content requirements.

Chinese promotional email definition is much broader than the one of CAN-SPAM Act and includes all kinds of messages containing any type of advertisement;

Downloadable content requirements.

If a message contains any links to external content, such as a piece of software or an app, the law requires a written guarantee that they do not contain any spyware or anything that can facilitate hackers. It is not clear whether this applies to downloadable graphics such as images or thumbnail icons;

Content restrictions.

Article 57 of the Regulations on Telecommunications stipulates the content of the allowable email which is purposefully left quite vague. There are thousands of words and topics that are currently banned and the list is very dynamic.  Politically sensitive topics are the obvious examples as well as everything that is deemed obscene or pornographic. It’s a good idea to refer to the list of blacklisted keywords before starting your China email marketing campaign.

According to the law, the penalty goes from 10,000 yuan  and up to 30,000 yuan per email in case the violation involves “unlawful proceeds”. The law doesn’t specify what such “unlawful proceeds” might mean.

So, considering such tight restrictions and severe penalties, why would anyone even entertain the idea of mass email marketing campaign in China? Well, here is the upside: so far, there have been no known or, at least, reasonably high profile cases of the actual application of the law or prosecuting any offenders. In fact, the law does little to help with the major spam problem that exists today in Chinese internet space.

Obviously, one has to be aware of the legal aspect of email marketing in China and continue following common practices such as including unsubscribe links, acquiring and growing email mailing lists by legitimate means and, of course, staying away from sensitive topics. Violating such rules can have your domain blacklisted risking completely blocking your company’s access to users in China. One should keep in mind that the famous China’s Great Firewall is notoriously effective and you don’t want to find yourself on the other side of it one day.

Talk to us about your next China email marketing campaign.

The post China Email Marketing and Chinese Anti-Spam Laws first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post China Email Marketing and Chinese Anti-Spam Laws appeared first on Sampi.co.

In the second part we are going to look at each of the remaining communication channels:

Email

Email communication is one of the preferred ways to communicate with your customers in China, also being the most convenient method to maintain contact with your existing clients. While many Chinese may feel embarrassed of the low level of their oral English communication abilities, they would feel quite comfortable discussing the same issues in the written communication.

In fact, most business people in China today have a very decent level of written English making it preferable to direct phone calls. Email is a great way to follow up on meetings and provide more details after initial contact. Make sure to write your emails in plain language and avoid long sentences to keep it more readable.

Websites

Having a localized website is essential for promoting your business in China, a country with the estimated 400 million email users. Localization of your website requires a well planned effort with the most important aspect of it, translation, discussed in our previous post.

 92% of Chinese internet users use some sort of social media platform making it essential to maintain your presence there as well.

Having professionally designed, modern looking website may also set you apart from most Chinese based competitors that tend to have messy and cluttered sites. Remember, that your website is probably the first place an interested client will go to after meeting your for the first time.

Social Media

92% of Chinese internet users use some sort of social media platform making it essential to maintain your presence there as well. Sina Weibo, Chinese micro blogging platform and WeChat, mobile network, are by far the most popular of those services. The great thing about Weibo and WeChat is the ability to spread your message instantly and directly to your followers’ mobile devices.

Once you’ve setup your Weibo account, make sure to put its URL and QR code on your printed and digital marketing material and encourage your customers to connect (WeChat is different from Weibo in that way).

LinkedIn is currently not as popular in China as the alternative professional networks, we will review those services in subsequent posts.

Face-to-face meetings

Personal connection still rules in Chinese business environment. Taking time to personally visit your customers is one of the best investments you can make.

Insist on accompanying your sales people, your agent or distributor on their visits even if you don’t speak any Chinese. If you make a presentation, make sure that someone from your company, who knows the material, provides proper translation.

Phone calls

While phone calls can be of limited use if your clients have a difficulty understanding your English (or your accent) they still can be an efficient way to keep in touch with those who do speak it well enough. However, with the proliferation of instant messaging, where one can control his/her availability, calling someone’s cell phone directly may seem less considerate.

Great mobile instant messaging services, such as WeChat, could be a great way not only to communicate but also to spread your marketing message as well.

Post (Regular Mail)

Mailing printed material is one of the least efficient ways to communicate in modern times and China is no exception. In B2B marketing settings, mailing information by post is quickly losing its value and I’d advise to avoid it;

Relationship and Networking

Chinese guanxi remains important in Chinese business environment, although the whole concept can be alien to many foreigners. Guanxi refers to one’s network of personal relationships in a business context. The concept of guanxi also implies that business relationships can often transform into personal friendships, and indeed many Chinese business people consciously spend a great deal of time and energy nurturing such relationships. This can take the form of banqueting, evening entertainment or gift-giving – activities that can seem onerous and unnecessary to many Westerners.

As Matthew Harrison and Mark Hedley of B2B International write in their white paper: “Although such networking and relationship-building is clearly important to the sales process in China, there is a tendency among some commentators to overemphasize its importance when trying to penetrate the Chinese market.

As in any market, building strong relationships is extremely important to achieving market success, although guanxi is no substitute for a strong product offering or a trustworthy supplier. What Western companies sometimes have difficulty coming to terms with is the way in which this trust is gained, and the time it often takes to convince the customer that yours is the product or service that meets their needs. The overriding piece of advice for Western companies would be to understand the importance of establishing relationships when targeting Chinese companies, and to be prepared for the patience required for this.”

The post Targeting Chinese Companies: Part 2: Communication Channels first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Targeting Chinese Companies: Part 2: Communication Channels appeared first on Sampi.co.

Obviously, the content of an email marketing campaign in China is just as critical as its graphics and structure. Therefore, it is important to make sure that email’s content complies with the rules and regulations that may be different in China compared to other jurisdictions.

General rules about content for email marketing campaign in China

Headline is, by far, the most important part of an email. There is much better chance for a recipient to continue reading the email if the headline appears interesting or intriguing enough rather than generic and bland. Everything that follows afterwards should be presented in the order of decreasing level of importance.

When it comes to content of promotional emails, less is always more. Reducing the volume of text without sacrificing the impact is not something that is easily achievable. However, refining the content, simplifying the language and keeping the size to the minimum is well worth the effort.

The rules mentioned above are fairly universal and should be followed regardless of whether we are talking about email marketing campaign in China or for international audience. However, choosing the proper tone of the main text copy does require taking into account cultural specifics.

In the West, it is considered to be popular to use informal, light and often humorous language in many marketing emails. This does not often translate well for Chinese readers. Adopting a tone that is too informal may actually convey a message of low level of commitment or poor quality. Using a reasonably formal or neutral language is typically the best choice for most brands.

Straight translation of English copy into Chinese rarely works well. This is why it is recommended to use professional native copywriters for email marketing campaign in China. They will make sure that the language is appropriate, respectful and avoids cultural references that are not widely understood in China.

Subject line

Subject line is what email recipient sees the first. The general rule here is for the subject line not to appear “spammy”. Advertisers are constantly trying to come up with new ideas to “hook” the readers – from using intriguing questions to making outrageous claims in the subject lines.

Choosing the best performing subject line very much depends on the profile of both the business and the recipients. For example, a simple indication of what the message is about will do just fine for an existing mailing list of dedicated audience who are already familiar with the brand.

For new recipients of an unfamiliar message, making subject line appearing less generic typically works better.

There are different opinions of the effectiveness of using special characters and icons in the subject line – some find it catchy and interesting while others can be put off by them. On average, using icons in subject line increases open rate but, on the other hand, some email filters may classify it as spam.

Most EDM providers have an option to run A/B split tests on different versions of the subject line. This is an effective way to figure out whether using special characters is a good idea for a given audience.

Word “AD” in subject line

Chinese antispam regulation requires all promotional email to include word “AD” or equivalent in the subject line. Failure to do so may get you fined and/or cause your domain to get banned and become permanently inaccessible in China.

Here is an example of how it is supposed to appear in email marketing campaign in China:

Courtesy of Apple Inc.

Links to downloadable content

It is best to avoid links to downloadable content such as apps or software. If the email must have such links, advertisers should also include a disclaimer stating that the downloadable content does not include spyware, malware or any other unsafe content.

It is a good idea to have such written document ready to be presented upon request from China’s internet authorities.

What can and can’t be legally promoted in China

Before starting an email marketing campaign in China to promote a product or a service, it is critical to verify its local legal status. Currently, wide range of topics that are perfectly legal to advertise in other countries are either outright banned in China or fall into legal grey area. Of course, an experienced China focused EDM provider such as Mailigen, would be able to advise you on that, although it makes sense to check for any possible issues before investing in your Chinese marketing.

For example, promotion of gambling, including online type, is strictly prohibited in China (with the exception of special administrative region of Macau). Marketing of alcohol and tobacco products are also prohibited as well as any adult content.

One of the most recently banned items include so called cryptocurrency. Although, most bitcoins are presently mined in China, as of August 2016, Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine has recently stopped approving advertising of bitcoin. This is the first indication that bitcoin marketing is on the way to became illegal in China.

Finally, when promoting events, advertisers must be especially careful to make it very clear that those have nothing to do with politics or religion.

Blacklisted keywords

Including any of the blacklisted keywords in email marketing campaign can cause serious problems for advertisers. This is why it’s imperative to check the text against the list of currently blacklisted keywords which can be found in Wikipedia.

Politics is the most sensitive topic and, as mentioned before, should absolutely be avoided in any case. However, some “innocent” words could occasionally get blacklisted as well, especially if they inadvertently become euphemisms carrying a second meaning.

This is why the list of blacklisted keyword is fairly dynamic and grows over time, so what was all right yesterday, could get banned tomorrow.

Links to landing pages and social media

A promotional email can have a number of links. Most commonly, the primary link is the one of the CTA (call to action) that redirects readers to a landing page (LP). Considering the fact that most users in China use smartphones to read emails, it is very likely that they are also going to view LP inside their phone’s mobile browsers.

This is the reason to make sure that LP renders properly on a small mobile screen without the need for a visitor to zoom it out in order to read it. Responsive design for LPs is equally important as for the email template itself. Unfortunately this part is frequently overlooked by advertisers.

If the LP design is not suitable for a mobile browser due to poor rendering or slow loading time, click through rate (CTR) of the email campaign will be effectively wasted further down the sales funnel.

Social media links can provide an additional source of followers and should certainly be included at the footer of an email unless those links are the principal CTA. Keep in mind, however, the different nature of social media landscape in China: there is little point to include Facebook, Twitter or YouTube links as they won’t work in China anyway. Instead, consider including link to Weibo page and WeChat QR code.

When read on a desktop, a WeChat QR code can simply be scanned with a smartphone to follow a particular account. Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward for mobile users. In those cases, a reader has to be able to save QR code as a picture and then load it to WeChat in order to follow that particular account. This is quite cumbersome process for most users and unless they are really invested into finding your WeChat account, most would probably skip that step.

Hopefully, in the future, WeChat could offer an easier way to follow accounts directly from emails but, as of the time of this writing, we are not there yet.

The post Email Marketing Campaign in China, Part 2: Best Practices for Content Creation first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Email Marketing Campaign in China, Part 2: Best Practices for Content Creation appeared first on Sampi.co.

Main design elements to use with Chinese EDM campaign

Images

The best eye catching email designs often include an image at the top. This would be the first and most visible part of the email, therefore it should always have a purpose. In some cases, a logo would do too as long as it reinforces an already familiar brand.

Multiple marketing studies have long concluded that images with people (preferably attractive ones) are most effective. You should always think of what kind of mood the image conveys and whether it serves the right purpose before choosing the right one.

Another technical aspect to keep in mind is to setting a descriptive ALT tag to the image inside the HTML template in case the picture doesn’t load for whatever reason.

Since the large proportion of recipients in China would use smartphones to check their emails, it’s important to make sure that the details of the header picture are clearly visible once it has been shrunk to fit small screen. At the same time, it shouldn’t take more than half of the mobile device’s screen.

Overall picture size is another important consideration. Ideally, in order to load fast enough with relatively slow Chinese mobile networks, the images should not exceed 50 KB without loss of quality.

Headline

Headline can be set either above or below the header image and should be short and concise enough with as few words as possible. Fortunately, since Chinese language allows to pack more meaning in smaller space, it is often easier to accomplish than in English.

Headline copy doesn’t have to be totally descriptive but as long as it is interesting or intriguing enough, it would serve as a “hook” to a reader encouraging them to take a closer look at the content.

Headline is extremely, if not the most, important element of a promotional email. This is why it is always a good idea to run a few headline versions by native Chinese speakers to gather some feedback before settling on the best one.

Call to Action

Call to Action or CTA as it is often abbreviated is, perhaps, the next most important element after the headline. Since it has to stand out, CTAs are often designed as buttons.

Research shows that red and orange buttons attract most clicks, although they should still match the overall design as to not look too much out of place.

Last thing you want is for an email recipient to be confused about what to do with it, this is why CTA is so critical. Best email designs often use clever imagery that would direct attention to CTA at unconscious level. For example, a person in an image could be facing or pointing in the direction of a CTA button. Amazingly enough, such subtle tricks work quite well.

Another tip is to include two CTAs in Chinese EDM email template: one at the top and one at the bottom. The top one should work for people who get interested right away, so they wouldn’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom. However, the bottom placed CTA would be a more natural choice for those recipients who got engaged enough to read the entire content of the email.

Here is an example of an email template for one of our recent Chinese EDM campaigns that contains many of the right elements discussed above – header image, catchy headline and clear CTA button (courtesy of EssayShark.cn):

Main copy

We live under permanent information overload which causes us to constantly filter out information, both consciously and subconsciously. Nowadays, very few people possess enough patience to read long ads unless the content happens to be really important to them. In fact, very few people actually read emails rather than just scanning them.

This is why the shorter the main copy – the better the results your Chinese EDM campaign is going to deliver. Packing just enough content into ad copies that are as short as possible is an art in and of itself and it is something that is the absolute must for email marketing.

Ideally, the image, the headline, the copy and the CTA should appear “above the fold”, in other words, without having to scroll down the email. This can be quite challenging, especially in one column design for a smartphone. If it is not possible, consider showing at least the first and the most important paragraph at the top.

Mobile friendly design

As mentioned above, Chinese recipients would most likely read their emails on a phone. This is why it is important to make sure that the email renders properly with a smaller screen. It is most commonly achieved by responsive design which has become a de facto standard in web design nowadays.

In such designs, multi column emails are typically stretched into just one column. This is why you should make sure that the most important content, such as headline and CTA, appear at the top instead of being tucked down at the bottom.

Fortunately, larger screen smartphones are becoming more popular, easing some of the tight constraints in terms of space.

Note how the same email template renders on mobile with most of the important content showing above the fold in the same example from the same EssayShark campaign:

Colors

Color perception varies from culture to culture and Chinese have their own preferences that may not always align with those of the Westerners. We have a published a detailed article on color perception considerations in marketing design for Chinese market which discusses this concept in more details.

The colors that invoke similar reactions among Chinese and Westerners are:

1. Blue – is associated with high quality and trustworthiness;
2. Purple – reflects sophistication and high value;
3. Green – identifies with being pure and reliable.

Also, green in Chinese culture is not associated with “inexperience” as it is the case in Western subconscious perception. This makes the above colors the safest choices for email marketing in China although they may not be impactful enough.

If you want to pack more punch with your Chinese EDM, consider going with red and yellow – they are often considered more effective colors in China. Those colors have traditionally been associated with royalty and authority. Red in particular is the color of happiness, love and luck in China while for Westerners it is subconsciously associated with danger, fear and anger.

Black is also perceived as a positive color in China while white has been the traditional color of death and mourning.

Stay tuned for the part 2 where we will discuss the requirements for the content.

The post Chinese EDM Checklist, Part 1: Designing Emails That Work in China first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Chinese EDM Checklist, Part 1: Designing Emails That Work in China appeared first on Sampi.co.

The following presentation by Sampi Marketing was presented at Shanghai Entrepreneur organized by Entrepnr this month.

5 features of the most effective China email marketing strategy

Here are the five features to incorporate into your China email marketing strategy:

Instead of a sending out a typical email blast, you should invest in message diversification. It is best achieved through mailing list segmentation:

Here is the message diversification model. Top of the pyramid offers the best conversion rate on your message:

Most effective way to achieve message diversification is through marketing automation:

Here is view of the evolution of email marketing messages by Movable Ink:

Some of the features of dynamic/agile messages can boost campaign’s efficiency. Dedicated designs for mobile is one of them:

Another underutilized feature of dynamic/agile messages – interactive and rich media embedded in the content:

It is important to be able to deliver the message at the right time accross different time zones. This is achieved with the send out time optimization, standard feature of most email marketing platforms such as Mailigen:

Lastly, it is possible to monetize your mailing list. This option is not for everyone but something to be aware of:

Dynamically generated ads can be served with your China email marketing messages:

Here is the full presentation on Slideshare.

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The post 5 Features of Most Effective China Email Marketing Strategy appeared first on Sampi.co.

In this post, we would like to share the latest infographic by WebsiteBuilder.org featuring over a hundred facts about email marketing and why it works.

The facts in this extensive infographics is grouped by various categories such as “stats by type of emails”, “most used email marketing techniques”, “psychology of email recipient”. There is a special section on mobile emails stats and spam, insight into reasons why people choose to unsubscribe, email engagement figures and more.

Before embarking on your next email marketing campaign, make sure to check out this infographic.

119 Facts About Email Marketing

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In this blog, we have covered extensively many aspects on Chinese email marketing: from deliverability issues to legal requirements and best practices for email template designs.  

The numbers in Webpower’s infographic provide further insight into who are the biggest users of email marketing in China as well as average performance metrics by the industry.

Overall, the figures appear to be more or less in line in what marketers usually see in other markets. Those numbers can also be quite useful in figuring out ROI of email marketing campaigns targeting China.

There is also some data on SMS marketing in China, although not as detailed as with emails. It is a bit surprising to find out that SMS marketing is making a come back after facing legal challenges in the last few years.

According to the report, airlines, financial services and retail and the biggest users of SMS marketing in China, probably, in part, due to the higher cost compared to email marketing. Here is the rest of the data:

Infographic: Email and SMS Marketing in China

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The post Infographic: Email and SMS Marketing in China appeared first on Sampi.co.

Actually, emails have never enjoyed the same status in China as in the West because the country joined the internet revolution much later. Proliferation of messaging apps like QQ in the past and WeChat most recently, also offered much faster ways to communicate than emails. This, however doesn’t mean that emails are irrelevant, quite the opposite. Studies show that most adults check their email inbox, on average, 40 times a day and often do it first thing in the morning. Also, with the right tools, emails are easy to track and analyze, enabling gathering data to make the subsequent campaign even more effective.

Another consequence of the late adoption of emails in China is the fact that vast majority of personal emails are hosted on just a few domains of which about half are at QQ.com.

The biggest problem with email marketing in China (and with email marketing in general) is, of course, spam. Most countries around the world have introduced laws and regulations designed to limit amount of spam by specifying requirements to emails and imposing various degrees of penalties for violators. For example, federal anti-spam legislation CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires proper opt-out link to be included in a promotional mail, valid “from” email and a clear “subject” line.

Email marketing in China must also comply with complex China’s anti-spam regulations. Chinese law stipulates substantial penalties for unsolicited emails and non-compliance may result in your IP or domain getting blocked, making it inaccessible from the Mainland indefinitely.

Chinese anti-spam legislation of 2006 is called “Regulations on Internet Email Services” and is, by far, more complex and severe compared to its US equivalent. This law applies to emails sent to all Chinese residents and, at least in theory, covers users who happened to receive emails while in Chinese territory.

According to the law, the penalty goes from 10,000 yuan and up to 30,000 yuan per email in case the violation involves “unlawful proceeds”. The law doesn’t specify what such “unlawful proceeds” might mean.

So, considering such tight restrictions and severe penalties, why would anyone even entertain the idea of mass email marketing campaign in China? Well, here is the upside: so far, there have been no known or, at least, reasonably high profile cases of the actual application of the law or prosecuting any offenders. In fact, the law does little to help with the major spam problem that exists today in Chinese internet space.

Obviously, one has to be aware of the legal aspect of email marketing in China and continue following common practices such as including unsubscribe links, acquiring and growing email mailing lists by legitimate means and, of course, staying away from sensitive topics. Violating such rules can have your domain blacklisted risking completely blocking your company’s access to users in China. One should keep in mind that the famous China’s Great Firewall is notoriously effective and you don’t want to find yourself on the other side of it one day.

We have covered this regulation in details in the post on China Email Marketing and Chinese Anti-Spam Laws.

Here is the brief recap of the requirements for email marketing in China:

1. The sender must ensure to have a verifiable permission of the recipient;
2. Include word “Ad” in the subject line;
3. Comply with specific content requirements;
4. Comply with rules regulating downloadable content;

Article 57 of the Regulations on Telecommunications stipulates the content of the allowable email which is purposefully left quite vague. There are thousands of words and topics that are currently banned and the list is very dynamic. Politically sensitive topics are the obvious examples as well as everything that is deemed obscene or pornographic. It’s a good idea to refer to the list of blacklisted keywords before starting your China email marketing campaign.
Although all of that sounds quite complicated, the good news is that if you pick a reputable EDM (email direct marketing) provider with experience in Chinese market, you don’t have to worry about any of that. Such provider will also be able to ensure high rates of deliverability to most commonly used mailboxes in China: QQ.com, 163.com, 126.com, Sohu.com and Sina.com.

Unfortunately, most well-known EDM providers in Western market such as iContact, Mailchimp or ConstantContact, often experience problems delivering emails in China. This is why it is important to look for a provider such as Mailigen.com which focuses on Chinese EDM market and, ideally, can run campaigns from the servers that are located within the country.

Ability to connect directly to technical person at EDM provider is another important consideration in choosing the right provider. Unlike most other providers who offer purely DYI platform with only basic tech support, Mailigen.com has a dedicated delivery team that would work with clients directly and in English. Mailigen has been our primary EDM provider in China for a few years now and we highly recommend their service to our clients.

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I have gained experience working with Google Postmaster tools and I’m happy to share it with you.

How to get started?

Step-1: You will need the existing Google App or @gmail.com email, if you have it, go to Step-2, if you don’t – create it here.

Step-2: Log into your account and go to postmaster.google.com.

Step-3: Click on “+” icon to add your domain from which you are sending emails.

Step-4: You will be required to verify the ownership of your domain in one of two ways.
A – Adding TXT records in your domain DNS settings (similar to when you authenticate your domain with Mailigen).
B – Adding CNAME in your domain DNS settings.

Step-5: When given records in your domain DNS are added, click on verify.

Step-6: Finally click on your verified domain to see the results (if the tool shows “No data to display”, make sure that you are sending domain authenticated campaigns up to the order of hundreds).

How to understand each tool?

SpamRate – Shows the volume of spam complaints (abuse). Only emails authenticated by DKIM are eligible for spam complaint calculation. For the best email campaign results you should keep spam complaint rate below 0.1%

Example of High level domain reputation group spam rates (last 30 days).

IP reputation – Shows the reputation of IPs from which you send out emails. By clicking on a data point, you can display a sample of IP ranges from which your emails were sent.

Example of good engagement campaign sending IPs reputation (last 120 days).

Domain reputation – Shows the level of your domain reputation – critical factor in optimizing email campaign results.

Example of good engagement campaign sending group reputation (last 120 days).

Meaning of reputation levels and their effect on email campaign results:

Bad – a history of sending an enormously high volume of spam. Mail coming from this entity will almost always be rejected at SMTP or marked as spam.

Low – known to send a considerable volume of spam regularly. Mail from this sender will likely be marked as spam.

Medium/Fair – known to send good mail, but is prone to sending a low volume of spam intermittently. Most of the email from this entity will have a fair deliverability rate, except when there is a notable increase in spam levels.

High – has a good track record of a very low spam rate, and complies with Gmail’s sender guidelines. Mail will rarely be marked by the spam filter.

• Spam filtering is based on thousands of signals, and Domain & IP reputation are just two of them.
• If your domain reputation is lower than IP reputation, you should pay attention to email engagement and find out which part of your content is with low, bad deliverability in Google.

Feedback loop – Shows the volume of spam rate. You should keep spam rate below 0.5% to avoid Mailigen account suspension.

Example of campaign sending group that is enrolled in Google FBL where one sender got 0.7% spam rate for all his sendouts (last 7 days).

Authentication – Shows traffic that passed SPF, DKIM & DMARC, over all received traffic that attempted authentication.

Example of mailigen.com domain authenticated traffic rate (last 7days).

As an Email Delivery Expert, I recommend to use DMARC tools, like DMARCIAN , to monitor DMARC success rate & Email Fraud.

Encryption – Shows TLS encrypted traffic vs. all mail received from that domain (Mailigen sends out TLS encrypted emails).

Example of campaign sending domain group encrypted traffic rate (last 120 days).

Delivery errors – Shows rejected/temp-failed traffic vs all authenticated traffic coming from that domain, within a single graph.

Example of domain delivery error rate where the reason was – Dmarc policy of the sender domain (last 7 days).

Can I add other users who will be able to manage my domain reputation?

Yes, just click on manage users, then on “+” and add your domain manager @googlemail.com, @gmail.com or Google Apps email address!

When manager email is added, be sure to let them know. They will need to add your domain in their postmaster.google.com account!

Aleksandrs Vilums is System Analyst & Email Compliance of Mailigen, primary email marketing provider.

The post Using Google Postmaster Tools to Monitor and Improve Your Email Campaign Results first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Using Google Postmaster Tools to Monitor and Improve Your Email Campaign Results appeared first on Sampi.co.

It all starts with reputation. Is your domain reputation good? Do you use a good email list? Does your email template have good content? Do you have a successful subject line and sender name? Do you send your email campaigns from a good Email Service Provider (ESP) like Mailigen? If yes, then most of your emails will be delivered, not bounced, and email deliverability in China will be good.

At the end it’s all about engagement or how your recipients interact with your emails, improving or impairing your reputation. If you use purchased or rented lists or lists that are not compliant with Can-Spam act of 2013 or other guidelines, like Bulk Sender guideline by Google, then your campaign recipients will impair your reputation and next time your delivery and deliverability rates will be lower.

Engagement metrics, that improve your email deliverability in China

1. Opens. Good open rate gives a signal that your emails are expected and wanted. If your average campaign Open rate drops below 7%, you should:
   •  Send more email campaigns to recipients who opened your emails, using Mailigen segments activity-based filter (e.g. if you have 4% OR, send twice as many mails to last 3 month opens).
     
   • Send re-activation email campaigns for last 5 month zero opens (before you send re-activation campaign, make sure that the subject line, sender name and content in template are engage-able and with good deliverability).
   • Try to send campaigns for smaller segments, like one campaign for women and another for men.
   • Use Mailigen Time Match function to send emails based on subscriber’s time zone.
2. This is not spam (TINS). If your reputation dropped and some emails started to fall in the junk, improve your email deliverability in China by convincing your Chinese recipients to mark your messages as not spam. It can be a difficult task to ask for TINS, but there are ways to do it:
   • If you have a good relationship with your subscribers, ask them, e.g. through email or phone, to check your campaigns and mark them as not spam if they appear somewhere in the junk.
   • Send a welcome message with attractive content, asking to mark your emails as not spam and important.
3. Reply. When your recipients reply to your emails, it improves your deliverability score. But keep in mind:
   • You should avoid sending email campaigns with noreply@ email addresses.
   • You should send email campaigns from an email that is active and being read.
   • If a subscriber replies to your email with a sentence like “unsubscribe me from your newsletter”, it may affect your deliverability score. Make sure that your unsubscribe link is easily visible.
4. Mark as important. You have probably seen icons like star & marker in Gmail.com or flag in Outlook.com. In China, popular email boxes like QQ have a similar function. When email receivers click on these icons, it improves your email deliverability score.
   
5. Add to address book. This was important years ago and it still is. When recipients add your email to their address book, they have whitelisted it. Whitelisted senders have a good deliverability.
6. Categorize emails. If recipients categorize your emails, it gives a signal that the emails are good and they want to receive them.
7. Email forwarding. It indicates that content you’re sending is relevant to your subscribers and your subscribers email users.

Engagement metrics, that impair your email deliverability in China

1. Abuses. If the email receiver marks your message as spam or moves it to the Spam folder, it negatively affects your deliverability score. To reduce abuse rate:
   • Make sure that Chinese email recipients received the content they wanted and subscribed for.
   • Add permission reminder merge tag above your HTML template to remind recipients how they subscribed and why they received your Chinese email campaign.
   • Add additional unsubscribe link above your HTML template content.
     Keep your abuse rate low in a range of 0.1%-0.5%, that will help to avoid suspension of your account. You can check your Abuse Complaints in campaign reports bounce statistic section.
2. Unsubscribes. Unsubscribes also impair your deliverability in situations where the email receiver didn’t use your email unsubscribe link (There is an unsubscribe link below email in Outlook or near the sender name and email address in Gmail or QQ. The recipients can also use these links to unsubscribe from your email list.).
   
3. Deleted unread. These are emails that were deleted without opening. To limit deleted unread emails, send email messages that are expected, relevant and delivered at the right time. Do not send too many emails. Try to figure out what kind of email content, subject line and sender name recipients would like. Try to engage subscribers presenting the goods that they like. If subscribers open your emails and stay connected, they are waiting for something great.

Aleksandrs Vilums is System Analyst & Email Compliance of Mailigen, primary email marketing provider.

The post Email Marketing: Engagement Metrics And Email Deliverability in China first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post Email Marketing: Engagement Metrics And Email Deliverability in China appeared first on Sampi.co.