A Checklist to Improve B2B Email Deliverability.

ATLANTA -- Business-to-business (B2B) email marketing can generate leads and boost sales revenues. It is relatively low cost and easily personalized. The dark cloud in that silver lining, however, is deliverability.

B2B email marketing faces deliverability hurdles as daunting as its business-to-consumer counterparts. In fact, B2B deliverability issues are in many ways more complex. According to JupiterResearch, the average B2B delivery rate is 89 percent, excluding bounces. MarketingSherpa's Email Marketing Metrics Guide estimates that 14 percent of B2B emails are bounced. That means nearly one quarter of B2B marketing emails are never received.

"It's easy to see why deliverability is now a big concern among marketers," said Elaine O'Gorman, vice president of strategy for Silverpop. "Despite the low cost of email, when fully 25 percent of your prospects and customers aren't receiving your messages, overall campaign performance can be tremendously impacted by poor deliverability."

O'Gorman offered the following checklist to improve B2B delivery rates:

1. Configurations: Bad message configurations will lead to deliverability problems. If you suspect configuration problems are harming your sends, use a delivery service provider to audit your system.

2. IP Address: Poor list hygiene or frequent complaints can lead to permanent blocks over time. To identify trouble spots, conduct an audit of your IP address. If you find an insurmountable problem, change your IP. "Don't make a habit of switching IPs, though. You'll look like a spammer," O'Gorman warned.

3. Bounce Management: You must be able to accept inbound bounces quickly and take steps to remove bad addresses. Be sure to have an [e-mail] address set up to receive feedback from ISPs, and monitor it frequently.

4. Mail Regularly: "Churn isn't just for butter," O'Gorman said. "You should mail to everyone on your list at least once every 90 days."

5. Reduce Complaints: Ask for permission, be relevant and don't over mail. It's also wise to be extremely conservative with list rentals.

6. Test Content: Run outbound email through a content-evaluation system like SpamAssassin to ensure your messages won't be trapped in spam filters.

7. Brand!: Use your brand in the "from" line and use the same address consistently. Make sure your brand and logo are viewable in the preview pane.

8. Reputation/Authentication: If you haven't already, make plans to implement all three email authentication schemes -- SPF, SenderID and DomainKeys.

O'Gorman said a focus on regularly testing and evaluating delivery is important to improve the deliverability and effectiveness of B2B email campaigns.

About Silverpop

Silverpop is a leading provider of permission-based email marketing solutions, strategy and services, with offices throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. Best practices and white papers are available at www.silverpop.com.