Delivery readness for pick season and higth volume

1. Deliverability Readiness
for Peak Season and
High Volume

2. Email marketing is still considered the “king” of
digital marketing channels, adapting itself time
and time again to serve as the official workhorse
for many digital marketers. It’s no surprise that
email has a median ROI of 122% – over 4x
higher than other marketing formats, including
social media, direct mail, and paid search. With
95% of marketers rating email as “important” or
“very important” to their organization according
to DMA’s latest email tracker, the future of email
marketing has never been brighter.
As brands continue to invest in email, one of the
constant challenges facing marketers is managing
deliverability during peak season and high-volume
periods. Whether you are a retail brand focused
on the holidays, a sender who needs to mail
their full database, or another seasonal business,
navigating the dynamic landscape of deliverability
is crucial to drive sales and revenue with email.
If emails are not reaching your subscribers’ inbox,
it is a lost opportunity and wasted effort. The
practices and tactics implemented during these
crucial time periods can have lasting impacts far
beyond their sending periods.
In this guide, we’ll cover key topics to keep in
mind while preparing and navigating high-volume
and seasonal swings with email.

3. Contents
Data Hygiene and List Acquisition 2
Content, Formatting, and Branding 3
Volume and Frequency 4
Segmentation and Targeting 5
Monitoring, Reporting, and Escalations 6
Deliverability Readiness Checklist 7
Email Deliverability Services 8

4. marketing file, consider vetting the quality and validity of the
addresses with a list-cleansing vendor to remove known parked
domains or invalid addresses.
Bottom line, there are no shortcuts to building a quality list
organically. Positive deliverability begins and ends with clean
data and honest acquisition sources.
The cornerstone of any email marketer’s program is the quality
of email addresses joining your list. The tactics used to collect
and verify your email subscribers set the foundation for the
deliverability and reputation of your program.
Receiving explicit opt-­in permission from your subscribers is
paramount in building a healthy and clean list. List acquisition,
while often an easy strategy to implement, may lead to higher
bounces, blocks, or blacklistings. When preparing for a large-
volume send to your full database or send deeper into your
Data Hygiene and List Acquisition
Risk Associated with Subscriber Acquisition Sources
Experiencing a High Hard Bounce Rate?
Marketing Cloud senders can request their hard bounce policy to be set to 1-and-done in their Bounce Mail
Management settings at a business unit level. This will help cut down the rate of hard bounces hit consecutively
from the standard default Bounce Mail Management settings. Talk to your deliverability services consultant or
open up a Help & Training ticket to request this change.
More likely to be used by a blacklisted sender
How much more likely these sources are to be used by brands
that have been blacklisted in the past 12 months compared
to brands that haven’t been blacklisted during that time
2,034 respondents
Email list rental
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Co-registration
Purchased email list
Lead generation form for
e-books, reports, etc.
Promotion of sign-up via
direct mail, catalog, etc.
page 2
More likely to be used by a blocked sender
How much more likely these sources are to be used by brands
that have been blocked in the past 12 months compared
to brands that haven’t been blacklisted during that time
2,034 respondents
104.3%
46.8%
64.8%
57.4%
46.7%
38.9%
30.9%
33.3%
21.5%
31.3%

5. page 3
• Focus on spoiling your subscribers with personalization. Whether
incorporating a simple first name in dynamic emails based on past
purchases or tailoring email content based on other data points,
leveraging personalization in content will help you stand out in
the inbox.
• If sending a transactional send to your full database for
Terms Condition, Privacy Policy updates, or other legally
required notification, ensure content is simple, straightforward,
and clear.
• Plan, confirm, and test content and template strategy in advance.
Most brands plan their off­-peak season content one month out
and their peak season content only two months out.
Deepening on the use case, high-volume sending periods
are a great time to get into the spirit of a promotion and
incorporate new seasonal themes, emojis, and slick
subject lines to drive engagement. These are usually more
prevalent for retailers during the holidays, but can apply
to other seasonal business as well. What shouldn’t be
changed or modified during high-volume sending is your
brand consistency.
• Avoid changing branding and recognition anchors, including
your FROM authenticated domain name, IP address, or
completely new design templates. Your subscribers need
to be able to easily recognize your brand, and sender
reputation is tied to your domain name and IP address.
New infrastructure takes time to establish and can impact
your delivery and folder placement if it is implemented
during a high-volume sending period.
Content, Formatting, and Branding
85% of shoppers are more
likely to buy brands that offer
highly personalized content.
— Google
Content Planning Horizon
For Peak Season(s)
How far in advance does your company typically plan email
content for your peak season(s)?
1,819 respondents
For Off-Peak Season(s)
How far in advance does your company typically plan email
content for your off-peak season(s)?
1,844 respondents
60%
50%
40%
30%
35.8%
25.2%
21.2%
4.2%
12.0%
0.5%
14.8%
2.5%
53.3%
20%
10%
0%
1mo 2mo 3mo 4mo 5mo 6+ mo
1.5%
9.0%
19.9%

6. • Never more than double your historical peak volume per IP in a
single day. Sending emails is not instant messaging and requires
bandwidth constraints on both your sending MTA and receiving
ISP server.
• If you want to increase volume drastically, do so methodically to
those segments who are the most engaged and most likely to
appreciate the increase in messaging.
• Volatile sending patterns are a trigger for ISPs to flag you as being
suspicious. If you have plans to send 3x or more volume over the
holidays or on specific days, ramp up your IPs in steps to do so.
• General rule of thumb: One Salesforce Marketing Cloud IP can
handle upward of 3 million/day depending on reputation. Audit
the number of dedicated IPs you have in your sending pool to
determine the maximum volume you should be sending in a
24-hour period. If you should need more, contact your Sales
Executive and prepare in advance.
• Offer a preference center and let your subscribers customize and
dictate what emails they want to receive and how often. Including
options for your subscribers to down-­subscribe or opt ­out from
your holiday sends will help prevent subscriber fatigue, spam
complaints, or decrease in engagement.
It is no surprise that email volume and frequency continue to
break records each year. According to a study from Radicati
Group, in 2017, the total number of business and consumer
emails sent and received per day reached 269 billion and is
expected to continue to grow at an average annual rate of
4.4% over the next four years, reaching 319.6 billion by the
end of 2021.
For retailers, peak season culminates between Black Friday and
Cyber Monday of the holiday shopping season, with shoppers
flocking to digital commerce sites for early season bargains.
Marketing Cloud customers sent more than 3 billion messages
using Marketing Cloud on Black Friday in 2017, up 20% year
over year, and a total of 17.5 billion during Cyber Week.
As expected, shoppers were highly mobile-driven in 2017,
with mobile devices driving 60% of digital traffic and 41%
of all orders across Cyber Week.
Consistency is one of the most tried-and-true methods for
preferred inbox placement. With pressure to ensure they
meet annual sales goals, many marketers are pressed to send
more emails more often during the peak season. Here are
a few do’s, don’t’s, and considerations regarding volume
and frequency.
Volume and Frequency
page 4
FY18 Holiday Summary
Black Friday — 3.049 Billion
• 17% increase from FY17
Cyber Monday — 3.342 Billion
• 22% increase from FY17
Peak Hourly Volume
• 242 million
(8 hours 200 million/hour vs. 2 million/hour in FY17)
28% growth over weekend
Cyber Week Rolling
Tip ­
Avoid scheduling large sends at
the top and bottom of the hour.
ISPs receive a majority of volume
from marketers at these times,
which can cause server constraints.
Choose off-time intervals for faster
delivery and less deferrals.
0
11-21 11-22 11-23 11-24 11-25 11-26 11-27 11-28
1m
2m
3m
4m
7-day Average
2.2m
2.3m 2.6m
3m
3.3m
0.1m
1.8m
1.9m

7. Here are a few tips to consider in your segmenting and
targeting strategy.
1. Categorize or segment your active subscriber file into smaller
groups based on engagement, including opens or clicks. An
example would be new­-to-­file, 0­-30 day recent opens/clicks,
1­-3 month recent opens/clicks, 3-­6 month recent opens/clicks,
6-­12 month recent opens/clicks, 12+ months of no opens/clicks.
2. By understanding and defining segments based on engagement,
you can target and treat specific segments with unique offers
tailored to each group. Your most loyal and active subscribers
oftentimes are more receptive to additional volume and unique
offers whereas your unengaged subscribers might not be.
3. It’s best to front-load your most engaged subscribers and send
to them first. By doing so, you increase positive engagement and
reputation out of the gate, which will benefit you as you mail more
risky or inactive portions of your file.
4. Leverage Marketing Cloud features, including the in­app
throttle, burst sending, or catch and release if available, to
optimize high-volume send requests. Contact your AE for
more information.
5. Consider implementing auto re­-engagement triggers for
subscribers who are becoming inactive past six months.
This strategy will aid in salvaging any subscribers who may
become permanently inactive.
6. Re-­permission subscribers who have not opened or clicked an
email for 12+ months to solidify your target file in advance of
your high-volume period.
7. Remember that internet service providers measure subscriber
engagement with your brand based on email activity. Other
activity data points such as last login date, account activity,
past purchases, and so on are helpful in creating a subscriber
profile, but are irrelevant to ISPs in measuring engagement
with your emails.
An increase in volume and frequency or a need to send to your
extended database often entails targeting older, more
inactive subscribers within your list. Marketers often face the
need to add in older list or inactive subscriber segments into
their high-volume marketing strategy in an attempt to increase
reach. Even though targeting these inactive subscribers during
peak season can generate additional sales for retailers or may
be legally required from other use cases, the risk and impact
outweigh the reward if not approached correctly. Internet service
providers are aware of the on engagement of your subscribers
when making blocking and spam filtering decisions. Targeting
inactive subscribers often results in an increase in bounces,
spam complaints, lack of engagement, and blacklistings, and
can lead to deliverability issues that impact your loyal and active
subscribers as well.
According to a recent study from Campaign Monitor,
email list segmentation and individual email messaging
are the most effective personalization tactics for 56% and
54% respectively of marketing influencers.
Segmentation and Targeting
page 5
What are the most effective personalization
tactics used for email marketing purposes?
Email list segmentation
Individual email messaging
Behavior-triggered emails
Responsive email design
Social media integration
Individualized landing pages
Self-managed preference center
56%
54%
45%
31%
28%
27%
21%

8. page 6
• Account Send Summary – This allows you to see key performance
metrics from one specific campaign, or you can input a date
range to see detailed response metrics across several campaigns.
Items to look out for are high bounce rates, indicating mail is
being bounced and not delivered. An explanation of bounce
types can be found below for reference.
Measure twice, cut once” is an old proverb that is valuable in
relation to email deliverability. Deliverability is not a set-it-and-
forget-it type of strategy and can change at any moment.
Internet service providers are constantly updating filters,
and many large webmail providers use 1-to-1 subscriber
engagement in their filtering decisions.
Having visibility into your email deliverability allows you to
quickly measure the success and engagement of your
campaigns. Without it, marketers are flying blind. If
deliverability issues arise, having the right reports and tools
to quickly identify and remediate the problem is key
to resolution.
Here are a few standard Salesforce Marketing Cloud reports
that can be utilized to monitor your deliverability and track
performance through high-volume periods. Email reports can
be found in the Email Studio tab by selecting the “Tracking”
link on the top navigation panel, and then clicking the
“Reports” option.
• Email Performance by Domain – This report provides key
performance metrics and deliverability by your top 10 email
domains for a specific campaign. This report is helpful to
determine if a select internet service provider is blocking
or bouncing your mail.
• Holiday Tip – Are open rates considerably lower at one ISP
compared to other top 10 domains? If so, this is a strong
indication that mail is being delivered, but is automatically
being placed in the spam/bulk folder rather than the inbox.
Monitoring, Reporting, and Escalations
Bounce Type Definitions
Bounce Type Definitions
Escalations
If you are in need of support or
guidance on preparing for a
large-volume send or remediating
delivery issues, the best course
of action is to open a Help Training
support ticket, which will be
routed to our Deliverability
Operations team for assistance.
This team specializes in
deliverability-related inquiries and
can provide helpful information
and answers to your questions.
“
Bounce Type
Hard Bounce
Soft Bounce
Block Bounce
Technical Bounce
Unknown Bounce
Occurs when the email server rejects the email due to permanent conditions. Typically this
is when an email address is invalid or unknown.
Occurs when the email server rejects the email due to a seemingly temporary condition, such
as a full inbox. The system retries sending the email to the subscriber every 15 minutes for 72
hours, for up to 288 tries. Only after is the soft bounce recorded.
Occurs when the email server rejects the email due to a filter issue, spam policy, lack of
authentication, or reputation. These block bounces can be temporary or require remediation
and corrective changes to remove.
Occurs when the email server rejects the email due to technical errors, such as data format
or network error. Examples include ‘server too busy’ or ‘connection lost or timed out’.
Reserved for SMTP bounce codes returned from ISPs that cannot be classified by our bounce
processing engine. ISPs often have unique SMTP bounce codes, and sometimes they cannot
be classified and fall into the unknown category.
Definition and Action

9. page 7
Begin planning your peak season strategy and schedule well in
advance. Avoid the pressure, stress, and panic of trying to create
a strategy at the last minute.
Optimal deliverability starts and ends with clean data. Ensure
you are receiving explicit opt-­in permission directly from your
recipients for you to communicate with them via email.
Consider partnering with a list-­cleansing vendor to weed out
known invalid domains if you are sending to your full or
extended database.
Incorporate relevant themes and spirit into your content, but
avoid changing your sending IP address or authenticated FROM
domain name. New infrastructure requires time to set up and
become established, and ISPs are more cautious in accepting
and inboxing mail from unknown IPs and domains.
Begin to scale and ramp volume in advance of large sending
days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday or for other for
high-volume sending periods. Avoid volume spikes that can
cause your mail to be throttled or blocked.
Consider scheduling large-volume campaigns at off­-hour
times and throttling them across a few hours or days. By not
scheduling campaigns at the top or bottom of the hour, you
avoid competing with thousands of other marketers sending at
those same times and ISPs that struggle with server constraints.
Have you audited the number of IPs you have to send from
Marketing Cloud? A single IP can support upwards of 3 million
sends/day. Equip yourself with the right infrastructure to meet
your volume goals as your business scales.
Give your subscribers a choice in frequency and content they
receive with a preference center. Allow your customers to
opt ­down, opt ­out, and customize the frequency and types of
email they desire to receive. This will greatly improve your
engagement, complaint rates, and relevancy.
Your subscribers are not all the same. Personalize and
communicate with them leveraging the subscriber data you
have. Increase volume and frequency methodically; avoid a
one-size-fits-all approach.
Focus on targeting your active customer base. Priority seasonal
periods are not a time to pull in old lists or inactive subscribers.
The risks far outweigh the rewards in trying to increase the
reach of your seasonal marketing emails. Avoid the temptation.
Monitor, measure, report: Having visibility into your email
deliverability is key to measuring the success and delivery of
your campaigns. Create automated tracking reports within
Salesforce and define a strategy for if and when a deliverability
issue occurs.
Deliverability Readiness for Peak Season and
High Volume Checklist

10. page 8
Email Deliverability Services
Email is the cornerstone of digital marketing. It delivers your
key brand messages, helps nurture customer relationships,
and anchors your other digital initiatives. Yet, even with richer
customer data and sophisticated technology, many emails
don’t make it to inboxes. Managing IP reputations and making
sure your emails don’t get labeled as spam are only two of the
ongoing challenges in today’s complex tech environment.
As the challenges in navigating the email deliverability
landscape increase, making sure that your email programs
are successful can’t be left to chance.
Salesforce’s Deliverability Services is a comprehensive solution
that provides marketers the right mix of deliverability strategy,
monitoring, and remediation. Deliverability experts will help
ensure your messages are delivered and stay in people’s
inboxes. With strategic guidance and best-­in-­class practices,
you can maximize the value of email communications for
successful 1-to­-1 customer experiences.
Here are three benefits of working with us:
Optimization
We will provide ongoing analysis and data-driven insights
to monitor deliverability performance and maximize
inbox placement and engagement.
Resolution
We will provide hands-on expertise to quickly resolve
unexpected deliverability issues and provide strategic
guidance to avoid recurrence of deliverability issues.
Enhancement
We will regularly evaluate all aspects of your email
programs that impact deliverability, such as data collection,
list hygiene, and subscriber engagement, to help you
obtain optimal email performance and mitigate issues.
Achieve More with Email Studio Through:
• Deliverability Performance Reporting
and Monitoring
• IP Warm­up Onboarding
• Deliverability Audit Assessment
• ISP Remediation Services
• IP Usage and Strategy
• Advanced Deliverability
Enablement Workshops
Comprehensive Reporting
Strategic Delivery Guidance
Deliverability Risk Mitigation
Interested in partnering with
Deliverability Services during
the holiday season? Contact your
account executive to learn how our
team can ensure your subscribers
receive the marketing messages
you send straight into their inbox.

11. About the Author
Anthony Chiulli is a senior member of the
Salesforce Deliverability Services team, responsible
for the management and development of
go-to-market deliverability service offerings,
pre-sale support, and custom scoping requests.
With over seven years of email marketing and
deliverability experience, Anthony is recognized
for strengths in strategic thinking, enablement,
and thought leadership.