Forgive my brevity today as I write this blog through a congested haze. My allergies are acting up and I think I broke the record for the most in-office sneezes in an hour… I lost count at 15, not kidding.

Time to Get Active

Anyway, I have been receiving a lot of concerned emails about priority or ‘smart’ inboxes that the major ISPs are employing to better service their customers. We know that if an inbox owner activates a Priority Inbox then the behaviors of the inbox change based on the owner’s behavior. An email campaign that always got into the inbox before may not have inbox privileges anymore if emails are not opened after a certain amount of unopened deliveries.

It is essential that your campaigns carry a message that is current and pertinent to the client’s needs and wants to result in an opened email. If you’re noticing fewer open rates, try sending more specific subject lines or even resend an opt-in request to make sure your subscribers are still engaged.

If your relationship with your recipients is an exceedingly good one you can even ask them to place you on their whitelist. If the user is amenable then they may register both your send address and your domain. Doing this ensures that your emails will avoid the junk box and cements your status as ‘priority’ mail. Of course, not all users are quite so kind…