Brad Gurley, director of deliverability at WhatCounts, reviews the recent ReturnPath benchmark report, how it will affect your holiday emails, and what inboxing best practices you need to know and apply year-round. He also spends time answering questions about getting your email into the inbox.

1. DON’T BE A DELIVERABILITY GRINCH! TIPS FOR HOLIDAY SENDING

2. TWEET! 2
Follow us on Twitter:
@WhatCounts
Today’s hashtag: #DeliveryGrinch

3. TODAY’S SPEAKER 3
BRAD GURLEY
Director of Deliverability, WhatCounts
Email: bgurley@whatcounts.com
Twitter: @DeliveryCounts

4. Holiday Email by the Numbers 4

5. Since 2009, holiday e-commerce revenue has increased by 60%.
5

6. 6
2013 - $46.5 billion 10% over 2012

7. 7
Typically, nearly 30% of annual email volume is sent during the holiday season

8. 2014 Inbox Placement Benchmarks 8

9. Between May 2013 and April 2014, Return Path sampled nearly 500 million emails to identify trends in inbox placement.
9
83% made it to the inbox
6% went to the spam folder
11% never got to the recipient at all

10. During Q4 2013, inbox placement rates – quite unexpectedly – held steady.
Source: Return Path 10

11. 11
Image courtesy 20th Century Fox
No, this does not signal a holiday email free-for-all.

12. Holiday 2014: Holiday Harder 12

13. Mobile is key.
Mobile devices generated over 50% of all email opens during 2013 holiday season.
In 2013, 29% of all orders were placed on mobile devices – a 50% increase.
13

14. 14
Responsive design?
Mobile-First Messages

15. $ or % off are most popular promotions, but often don’t increase response rates.
15
Stand out!
Holiday themes
Interactive content

16. Industries that foster engagement and relationships see highest inbox rates.
Banks, insurers, and retailers saw above average inbox placement, driven by large national brands.
Media, entertainment, tech, and software saw the lowest inbox rates in the study.
16
Relationships rule.

17. Outdated and unengaged subscribers can destroy your inbox delivery rates.
17
Keep it clean.
Contacts who haven’t opened or clicked in a year are overstaying their welcome.

18. To a sender, Gmail delivery can feel like a nightmare…
But having your mail delivered to the Promotions tab is not as scary as you think.
18
Hello, I’m Gmail.

19. Gmail was most likely of all mailbox providers to deliver mail to the Inbox – via the Promotions tab. 19
Image courtesy of Macy’s
Read rates in the Promotions tab were very similar to the Primary tab.

20. Google’s Inbox app and web interface are likely to have minimal impact this holiday season.
20

21. QUESTIONS? 21

22. REACH OUT TO US 22
3630 Peachtree Road, NE Suite 900 Atlanta, GA 30326
1-866-804-0076
www.whatcounts.com
Twitter: @whatcounts
@DeliveryCounts
bgurley@whatcounts.com

23. THANKS FOR ATTENDING! 23