A recent whitepaper from the e-mail marketing firm StrongMail, called Mastering Your Email Reputation: Seven Strategies for Improving Deliverability, provides tips to multichannel marketers looking to improve the effectiveness of their e-mail campaigns. Among others, the whitepaper lays out best practices to improve sender reputation to protect against e-mails being filtered or blocked by Internet service providers (ISPs), preventing them from reaching consumers’ inboxes. Here’s a look at the whitepaper’s seven strategies.

1. Maintain a clean list. Sending to bad addresses not only skews response rates, it’s a core metric ISPs use to determine sender reputation, the whitepaper notes. To maintain a clean list, consider the following tactics:

* Bounce management: Have a system in place to automatically process and categorize varying bounce codes. To implement this system effectively, capture all data streams, including asynchronous and synchronous bounces; interpret the data by processing bounce data and the varying bounce descriptions that come from each receiving domain; organize the data into logical categories, such as hard bounce, soft bounce, block and technical failure; take action based upon the data, including creating reports that address the causes of failures; and update your rules continually to keep up with the dynamic e-mail environment, which causes ISPs to periodically update bounce codes.

* List hygiene: To keep deliverability rates high, scrub your list regularly by running it against a register of known bad domains and role accounts; remove and/or correct bad domains by reviewing failure reports, identifying bad addresses, and evaluating whether they’re the result of a data capture problem or a nonexistent domain; remove distribution accounts simply by adding “info@*,” “sales@*” and other common addresses to your suppression list; remove inactive addresses (customers without any opens or clicks within a 12-month period); and use data checkers on your Web site to help ensure e-mail addresses are properly formatted before accepted into the database.

* Feedback loops: This tool enables you to stop sending e-mails to customers who’ve indicated they no longer wish to receive your communications. Popular feedback loops are offered by AOL, Comcast and Windows Live Hotmail.

* Spam traps: Take every precaution possible to avoid sending to a spam trap, including using a confirmed opt-in process for collecting e-mail addresses to prevent someone from inputting a spam trap address.

2. Adopt e-mail authentication. Authenticating your e-mail enables receiving domains, reputation service providers and other related entities to establish your identity and associate a reputation with it, the whitepaper says. Unauthenticated e-mails often are assigned negative points by spam filters, which can lead to your e-mail getting sent to the junk folder, the whitepaper adds. Currently, two forms of e-mail authentication are being used: IP/Path-based and Cryptographic.

3. Reduce complaint rates. Develop and implement a strategy to keep customers from hitting the “this is spam” button. This will positively affect your sender reputation and at the same time improve response rates and customer satisfaction, the whitepaper says. To accomplish this, send relevant messages, manage the frequency with which you contact your customers according to their wishes and strictly adhere to your company’s privacy policy.

4. Monitor your sender reputation. Take advantage of the following resources to assess your sender reputation:

* Blacklists/blocklists: Check regularly to make sure your domains and IP addresses aren’t listed on these lists used by ISPs and spam filtering providers. Some of the more popular lists include http://www.spamhaus.org, http://www.spamcop.net and http://www.mailabuse.org.

* SenderScore.org: This tool from reputation service provider Return Path evaluates your sender reputation. By creating a user account, you can enter your domain or IP address and receive a score based on compiled data from ISPs to help determine what kind of sender you are.

* Key performance indicators: Track your performance on metrics including complaints, unsubscribes and inbox delivery rates.

5. Avoid alliances with disreputable partners. Assess the sender reputation of any potential marketing partner the same way you would your own IPs and sending domains. A partner’s bad sending reputation can have a lasting negative affect on your e-mail campaigns, the whitepaper cautions. This includes posting a link to its site in your promotional e-mail, causing your message to be blocked as well.

6. Verify setup of commercial e-mail server. Check that your e-mail is being delivered by a commercial e-mail server that’s set up properly to guarantee it will be recognized correctly by receiving domains. Consider assigning separate IPs to your promotional and service-based e-mails, the whitepaper advises. Because marketing messages are sent in high volume and more likely to be miscategorized as spam by recipients, they’re more susceptible to reputation issues. By isolating your promotional e-mails from your transactional e-mails, you can better protect the reputation of this business-critical communication channel with your customers.

7. Ramp up new IPs slowly. ISPs are very cautious of allowing large amounts of e-mail into their systems from new, unrecognized IPs. To properly build your reputation on new IP addresses, throttle back the amount you send until you’ve established a positive sender reputation. E-mail smaller segments of your list, testing to make sure those e-mails are being delivered, including hard and soft bounces, and unknown user and complaint rates. Start with your most active customers to help reduce complaint rates. As you begin to see optimal delivery and complaint rates, gradually increase the percentage of your list until you get into full production.

The entire copy of the whitepaper can be accessed at www.strongmail.com/pdf/sm-wp-email-reputation.pdf.

A recent webinar from the e-commerce site search, navigation and merchandising solution provider Mercado, led by the company’s director of worldwide merchandising consulting, Michael Klein, provided several tips to help multichannel merchants prepare for their busiest time of the year, the holidays. Here are some takeaway pointers Klein doled out.

* Identify your top 20. This includes your top 20 products and keywords and the top 20 percent of your customers, Klein said. Then develop a promotional campaign around that top 20, with targeted e-mails and landing pages.

* Test and analyze keywords and null results. For null results, Klein advised offering product alternatives based on search keywords. For example, he suggested someone searching “orange Nike sneakers.” While you may not offer those type of sneakers — orange or possibly even Nike — if you sell sneakers, this person searching could be a potential customer.

* Determine a baseline strategy for the 80 of the “80/20” rule of marketing.

* Fine-tune product discovery with business rules.

* Place product offerings and the most important selling information above the fold to avoid scrolling.

* Use a “freshness factor.” Display only the newest products.

* Use search result-based triggers to push a particular product or brand, Klein said.

* Develop a product campaign that aligns your key products with a repeatable marketing event. Klein provided the example of a 12-day e-mail program focused on the “12 deals of Christmas.” Provide customers with a special offer on a product via e-mail for 12 straight days. Leverage the event with vendor partners to increase product margin or marketing support, Klein added.

* Use merchandising techniques such as results-based triggers to guarantee product or banner placement.

* Drive business on inventory levels, especially at the end of the holiday season, so you’re not forced to liquidate products after Dec. 25, Klein said.

* Use domain dictionaries for the search boxes on your Web site. This is helpful to pick up linguistics, synonyms and spelling corrections, Klein noted.

* Examine your Web analytics for the prior and current year, including your top 100 keywords.

* Use cross-sells to increase average order value. Prime examples Klein cited included iPod accessories, game-with-the-purchase-of-a-game console, extended service plans and warranties, and a scarf to match gloves.

* Include coupons within your e-mail campaigns. Take advantage of offers that target repeat purchases, such as a percentage off your next purchase, a percentage off for a friend or family purchase, among others, Klein said.

* Use your Web metrics to create auto-ranking formulas for product navigation trees and search terms.

It pays to add consumer reviews to your e-commerce Web site. Such was the finding of a recent survey from the market research firm Opinion Research Corp., an infoGroup company, where 61 percent of respondents said they consult online reviews, blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing new products or services, with search engines being the preferred method of conducting the research. The survey polled 736 consumers. Here are some more of its findings:

* 83 percent said online product evaluations and reviews had at least some level of influence on their purchasing decisions;

* 70 percent said they seek information online for a particular brand of goods and services, with travel/recreation/leisure at the top of the list of services most researched (82 percent), followed by electronic goods (80 percent); household products/services (66 percent); clothing, automotive (both at 55 percent); personal care (40 percent) and food (24 percent);

* while the majority of respondents said they sought out online reviews, only 32 percent reported posting their own online feedback on product or service experiences;

* 38 percent said they first consult online product or service reviews when they begin their shopping research;

* 27 percent consult the Internet when they’re trying to decide between two or three products or services; and

* 21 percent said they use online product or service reviews at the narrowing down stage to confirm that they’re buying the right product or service.

For more information, go to http://www.opinionresearch.com.

In the upcoming September issue of Catalog Success, our cover story spotlights Hodges Badge Co., a Portsmouth, R.I.-based B-to-B cataloger of ribbons, rosettes, medals and more. As a sneak preview to that article, here’s a portion of Senior Associate Editor Joe Keenan’s interview with Rick Hodges, president of Hodges Badge, on myriad topics that aren’t addressed in the print edition. Be sure to see the full article coming out next week, which contains a fresh look at how Hodges Badge has used a catalog format change, a new creative approach and some experienced talent to spur growth in its 89th year of business.

Catalog Success: What is Hodges’ sales breakdown by channel?
Rick Hodges: Seventy percent of the orders are still coming over the telephone; the Web site accounts for a little more than 10 percent, and about 7 percent of people are e-mailing their orders in. And like everybody else in the industry, we have huge problems tying back. It’s not really the abandoned shopping carts, because we think we’ve got a good handle on the abandoned cart. It’s how many of the people who are calling us on the telephone did the bulk of their research on the Web site before they picked up the phone?

Anecdotally, I think it’s high. It used to take us an average of two calls to get an order. We’re down to just over one. In the old days, the thing you heard from the call-center reps was, “All I ever get is questions.” Now they [customers] seem to be getting their questions answered online, or in the catalog, before they call. But we’re not mailing vastly higher numbers of catalogs, so my guess is they’re getting them [answers to their questions] online. We’re somewhere around 300 visits a day online, with the average visitor looking at almost 17 pages and hanging around for seven-and-a-half minutes. So I don’t know how those compare with industry statistics, but if I can get anybody to look at 16 pages on my site before they leave, I think they’re fairly interested.

CS: You then still attribute the majority of your sales to the catalog?
RH: Yes. If I look at the top revenue sources using Google Analytics, 35 percent of the revenue is coming from people who accessed our site directly; 33 percent is coming through Google organic search, and when I do the tracking back on that, most of them are going to Google and typing in “Hodges Badge,” “Hodges Badges,” “Hodges Ribbons,” “Hodges Badge Company,” “Hodges Badge Co.,” “Hodges Awards.” They seem to know what they’re looking for. Pay per click is 8 percent, so not a huge portion of the revenue. People seem to know what they want.

That’s what’s weird about this business. If I send you a catalog and you’re not holding an event, the chance of you ordering a ribbon is essentially zero. That’s not like if somebody sends you another clothing catalog and you flip through it and go, “Hey, that shirt’s pretty cool. Maybe I could use one of those.” Either people have an absolute need for our product, or they have absolutely no need for our product.

That’s always been the difficulty in sourcing lists. There’s no list of people who recently decided to hold an athletic event. The list that we mail that performs the best for us is all the people who ordered from us last year, who haven’t ordered this year, but it’s at least 45 days before their event. We send them a catalog and a letter that says, “Hey, you ordered from us last year. We thought maybe you could use a copy of the catalog.” That performs better than anything else we mail.

CS: What role does the catalog play in your overall marketing efforts?
RH: The catalog is still very much front and center … because of our difficulty in knowing ahead of time who’s going to be having the event and who that person is who’s going online. Like most other catalog companies, I assume, we’re tying to do that multichannel mix. To make sure the Web site is there, make sure we’re easily searched for what we feel are the appropriate terms, and yet still get the catalog out there and have it be the lead thing to get in people’s hands.

CS: What are the top business challenges for Hodges Badge for the rest of this year and into next year?
RH: Dealing with all the inflationary pressures in the marketplace. Continuing to deliver a quality product at a quality price. A small amount of what we get is coming out of China — some of our medals. That’s the extent of what’s coming from offshore. All of our ribbon is coming from U.S. suppliers; most of the metals are coming out of Providence, R.I.

That’s a market that has gotten better for us with the increase in the cost of fuel, because we now can compete more effectively with product that’s got such a long pipeline coming from China. But yeah, we face the same pressures everybody else is facing — our electricity rates just went up 21.7 percent. I don’t know what we’re going to see for bids when we look at next year’s printing costs. I’m sure they’re going to be up. Everybody wants a raise.