How could a major online retailer go from a 0.69% bounce rate to almost 50% in just two days?

Footwear etc. was at the top of their email game. They are a recognized, award-winning leader in email marketing practices, yet they still face tough competition from other online retailers. Despite their innovation in the email arena, they didn’t have the best practices to regularly assess their email deliverability and monitor their online sending reputation. They thought all was well until they discovered their emails were getting blocked by major ISP Comcast.

The Source of the Problem

The problem originated in April 2009 when Footwear etc. sent out the same email two days apart. That caused an alarm at Comcast and was the start of the problem. Comcast started blocking the email because it had spam characteristics. Initially, overall click-throughs and open rates were down, but not enough to cause concern since Comcast only makes up 6.58% of the domain names emailed by Footwear etc. Even by July 2009, when Comcast was blocking every Footwear etc. email, it only meant a 7% decrease in deliverability, which wouldn’t necessarily tell you a major ISP was blocking your emails, unless you had the tools to find out.

The Role of Email Deliverability Tools

While Footwear etc.’s email marketing application provided deliverability statistics, those stats didn’t tell the whole story, so Footwear etc. was unaware of the problem. Then a subscriber called to say they weren’t getting any emails. And the questions started. Eventually, Footwear etc. turned to ClickMail for help.

Using ClickMail’s deliverability expertise, Pivotal Veracity’s in-depth assessment tools, and GoodMail’s certification process, we identified and fixed the problem. Then, using these same tools and expertise, we provided an in-depth assessment of and report on Footwear’s deliverability—both what they were doing right and where there was room to improve.

For more insights on email marketing best practices, check out our comprehensive guide on subscriber engagement.

Published On: July 7th, 2020Categories: Email deliverability

About the Author: LaRock

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