{"id":23267,"date":"2022-12-14T03:48:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T03:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/14\/ask-the-expert-jennifer-lantz\/"},"modified":"2022-12-14T03:48:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T03:48:55","slug":"ask-the-expert-jennifer-lantz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/14\/ask-the-expert-jennifer-lantz\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the Expert: Jennifer Lantz"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Countless myths abound in the world of email deliverability. That\u2019s why there\u2019s no one better to clear up these common misconceptions than the leading experts in the world of email. Every month, we\u2019ll bring you a Q&A with leaders from inbox providers, spam trap networks, antispam systems, and more in our new <\/span>Expert Series<\/span><\/i> blog.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In our fourth <\/span>Expert Series<\/span><\/i> blog, we chat with <\/span>Jennifer Lantz<\/span>. <\/span>Jennifer is a self-proclaimed email geek and Excel fan. She\u2019s a champion of industry best practices to fight abuse and help good senders navigate the often choppy waters of email delivery. Jennifer previously led the deliverability team at Zeta, managing client setups, authentication, troubleshooting, and ongoing strategy. She\u2019s now heading up industry relations and providing deliverability consulting at Kickbox<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s dive in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask the Expert Q&A<\/span><\/h2>\n

Q:<\/b> As a VP of Industry Relations at Kickbox, what does your role entail?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> Lots of fun stuff! I lead our consulting services, so I get to work with clients to review their programs, identify issues, and help them to resolve the issues. Also, I regularly contribute to our <\/span>Kickbox blog<\/span><\/a>. There, I get to write about my favorite topics, which is mostly deliverability, and things I\u2019ve learned and continue to learn as the industry evolves.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also attend conferences to present\/educate on deliverability and participate in working groups, such as Messaging, Malware, and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group or M3AAWG, to review the current abuse landscape and how the industry can work to combat it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> How does email validation work?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> Email validation is a great practice to help marketers maintain a healthy email database (opt-in emails only, please). It works by reviewing the quality and validity of each email address, including those currently on your list, just joining your email list, or haven\u2019t engaged with your brand for a while. <\/span><\/p>\n

Regularly verifying your email data can help marketers identify bad and low-quality emails that, over time or in high volumes, can start to impact deliverability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> How can email validation help improve your sender reputation?<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> A high bounce rate can influence a sender\u2019s reputation, especially if this is persistent and combined with negative engagement metrics, inactive emails, and poor-quality domains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, what\u2019s becoming a larger issue is that not all email service providers process bounces the same way or use the same bounce thresholds. This means having a good understanding of your list and each address\u2019 risk level can help senders decide which emails they want to keep sending mail to and which emails they want to pull.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Can you explain what an accept-all domain is?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A: <\/b>Great question. An accept-all domain accepts a message regardless of if the receiving address exists. This helps to deter bad actors from running dictionary attacks or scraping data or other information in hopes of identifying legitimate addresses that they may later sell to other parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Is there an ideal hard bounce rate that senders should aim to stay under?<\/span><\/h3>\n

A: <\/b>The line defining good and bad bounce rates varies by industry and stream. Take, for example, a welcome series, which trends higher with bounces, especially if the welcome incentive is an offer that doesn\u2019t drive loyalty. By monitoring your bounce rate over time, you find the variances in a stream and overall program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, when reviewing bounce rates for clients, I would dig into those with a total bounce rate higher than 3% (overall for the program) to see what was driving it and if it was due to soft bounces or hard bounces. If hard bounces near 5% and above, there\u2019s definitely a list-source issue, form compromise, or targeting concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Are there any financial benefits to running email validation during point of collection\/sign-up?<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> The biggest financial benefits come in 2 forms: retaining interested customers and a high-quality list.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The point of collection is a time when interest is high, and one could argue that\u2019s when validation is most necessary. And since marketers spend so much effort acquiring leads, to lose potential customers due to a simple typo would be a shame. Real-time validation helps you keep the prospects you connect with in your marketing funnel\u2014a tremendous benefit to your bottom line.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when someone accidentally enters an invalid email address, you have the opportunity to prompt them to enter a correct email address. Otherwise, you could lose a highly interested customer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Plus, it won\u2019t cost you to send to invalid or low-quality emails. And your sending reputation won\u2019t take hits due to email collection issues either.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> Can you explain the different types of validation and what benefits they each offer, e.g., real time versus bulk?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> Real-time checks on the validity of an email address occur at the point of collection, say through an online capture form. It\u2019s a great way to keep your database from collecting a list of low-quality lists. And it\u2019s a great start to protecting your forms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bulk (or email list verification), on the other hand, is typically when a sender looks at their historical list and wants to check on the status of the addresses they haven\u2019t sent mail to in a while. <\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing lists can churn around 30% a year, list verification is a great way to weed out churned addresses, so planning to mail to them (through a well-strategized path, of course) will keep the bounce rate at a minimum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> When an email address goes through validation, it\u2019ll return a result of deliverable, undeliverable, risky, or unknown. Can you describe each and what action you recommend based on the result?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A:<\/b> Sure thing. And you can find these in our <\/span>Kickbox docs<\/span><\/a> as well.<\/span><\/p>\n