This document explains how you can maximize delivery and acceptance of your email marketing messages while using Lead Liaison. Start by reviewing the checklist in Section 1 and make sure each item is addressed. Each of the following Sections describes the items in the checklist in more detail. By reading this document you will learn three cornerstones of email marketing; 1) how to get the best email deliverability, 2) how to manage subscribers and messages for maximum acceptance and 3) how to grow your subscriber base.

"The Goal of Email Marketing and Lead Nurturing is Quality, Not Quantity"
-- Lead Liaison

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Table of Contents

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Things for you to do:

• Send your initial lists to clean lists (people you know well who won't hit the spam button)
• Use lead nurturing to send relevant content based on roles, actions and interests
• Only send to old database contacts once you develop a good reputation
• Consider using a different but related domain for sending emails
• Setup SenderID and SPF
• Setup postmaster@ and abuse@ email addresses
• Avoid buying, renting or borrowing lists from 3^rd parties
• Check the integrity of your contact lists before and after an upload
• Create great marketing content
• Segment your marketing content into smaller chunks vs. sending "clusters"
• Get people's permission before adding them to an email marketing track
• Embed a "Safely Unsubscribe" and "Privacy Policy" link at the bottom of your messages
• Do not be too aggressive with your email communications especially at first (think dating)
• Use auto-responders that cross promote
• Use an active email address as your reply-to email address
• Make the unsubscribe process easier than the subscribe process
• Use your colors and logo in your content so your recipients recognize you
• Don't include too many images (<=4) in your messages
• Keep your messages small (< 37K Bytes)
• Follow CAN-SPAM Act requirements

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Things to do with Lead Liaison's support:

• Setup DKIM/DomainKeys
• Send from a dedicated IP address, not a shared IP address
• Start by warming up your IP address and sending a small amount (<1,000) of messages
• Process hard and soft bounce emails and test
• Check blacklist records occasionally to make sure your dedicated IP address is not on any lists
• Make sure you tag your contacts with a lead source
• Segment current and future contacts by building Lead Liaison Target Lists
• Build several landing pages and web forms to increase lead capture and build subscribers
• Keep web form fields simple
• Send a text representation with your html email
• Monitor feedback loops and resolve spam complaints
• Avoid using spam-like words ("free") in your messages

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How to Get the Best Email Deliverability

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Sender ID/SPF prevents other people/servers from pretending to be you. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is similar to DomainKeys/DKIM since it validates you as the sender; however, the implementation is different from DomainKeys/DKIM. SPF works by publishing what is called a "reverse MX" record to tell the internet what machines are allowed to send mail from the domain.
Sender ID and SPF are different. Both validate email sender addresses using similar methods, publish records in DNS and use the same syntax for their policy records. They are different in what they validate and the layer of the email system they check.
Sender ID and SPF is configured outside of Lead Liaison and should be done by your company. The setup requires changing your DNS record. You can check where your DNS is hosted here: http://whois.domaintools.com/http://whois.domaintools.com/ and possibly enlist support from your DNS host to help you change the record.
There are wizard's to help configure SPF and Sender ID available here:

• SPF: http://www.openspf.org/http://www.openspf.org/
• Sender ID: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/

Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind when configuring your Sender ID / SPF record to work with Lead Liaison:

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Ensure your dedicated IP address is not listed on any RBL (real-time black lists). You can do this by checking http://www.mxtoolbox.com/Su/SuperTool.aspxhttp://www.mxtoolbox.com/Su%3Cdiv%20class=

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perTool.aspx" class="external-link" rel="nofollow"linktype="raw" wikidestination="http://www.mxtoolbox.com/Su

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Monitor Feedback Loops

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1. DKIM.org: Source: http://www.dkim.org/info/dkim-faq.htmlhttp://www.dkim.org/info/dkim-faq.html
2. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKIMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DKIM
3. Port25 Solutions, Inc.: Port25-Whitepaper-Authentication.pdf
4. Sender Policy Framework: http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/How_does_it_workhttp://www.openspf.org/FAQ/How_does_it_work, http://www.openspf.org/SPF_vs_Sender_IDhttp://www.openspf.org/SPF_vs_Sender_ID