Welcome to the SAP Emarsys Email Deliverability Team!
Hi! My name is Steve Henderson and I lead the amazing Deliverability team within Emarsys. The Deliverability team are a global set of experts in email sending technology, strategy, and compliance. With these articles our aim is to:
- Show how email sending works from a technical and practical perspective.
- Demystify jargon, technical terms, and misconceptions.
- Explain Good practice guidance, backed-up with practical tips.
- And provide you with information to help you hit the inbox, reach your customers, and generate the very best results from your marketing campaigns.
Here is a short introduction to the SAP Emarsys Email Deliverability team, and cover a few deliverability terms and concepts.
The SAP Emarsys Email Deliverability Team
The Deliverability team are global team of experts in email technology, strategy, and compliance.
I feel the best way to explain who we are and what we do is to share our team Mission Statement and Value Messages. These explain what we aim to achieve every day:
Team Mission Statement
Team Values
What is "Deliverability"
Deliverability relates to the process of getting emails from the sending platform to the intended recipients. The reason that "deliverability" exists as a concept is of course because there is an awful lot of malicious email traffic that inbox providers have to identify and suppress. Legitimate senders must differentiate themselves from the malicious email traffic in order to get the emails delivered. This process can sometimes be quite difficult.
Email inbox filters
The first thing to understand is that there are multiple factors that determine how an email provider handles your emails. The following elements determine if your emails will be blocked at the door or accepted; determine your delivery speed; and determine how accepted emails are categorised into the inbox, junk folder, and other folders, such as the Gmail Promotion Tab
Over the deliverability series, we will go into each of these elements in detail
Recipient Trust
The second thing to mention in this first introductory post is that this may look complicated. My job is to show you that it isn't. In fact I would go as far as to say this:
“Deliverability isn’t about technology. Deliverability is about trust.”
Yes, technology matters. And clever technology solutions can help you reach the inbox. But the primary factor determining your success is sender reputation - which is generated by your recipients' interactions with your emails. Positive interaction requires trust.
The DMA Consumer Tracker each year shows that the main reason why people open or ignore emails is recognition and trust of the sender. Consumer trust in senders comes down to emails being relevant, timely, interesting, valuable, wanted, and expected. Marketers' strategy and use of data and technology are key to success.
This is why this series will not just focus on the techie stuff, but also practical tips to help you avoid issues, overcome issues, and generate great results.