Digg It - Internet and Businesses Online

Introduction

There may be email delivery tips that everyone knows, but today I'm going to delve a little deeper and give you some more ideas on how to increase the number of emails that actually get delivered to your subscribers.

Is your domain's IP address blacklisted?

The first thing you

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

should check if you feel there's something suspicious about your deliverability rates is your domain's IP address against spam black list databases.

These databases store the I.P address of domains that have been known to spam. ISP's and email administrators can use this data to block further emails being sent from that dom

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

in. In some cases, someone may have used your IP address to send out spam emails, or your emails may have been reported as spam even though they weren't.

If you're unsure what your domain's IP address is, simply open up a command prompt in windows (start menu -> run -> cmd.exe) and type in ping www.domain.com. You should see

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

something like this:

Pinging www.domain.com [203.213.97.61] with 32 bytes of data:

Your IP address is contained inside the brackets (in this case the IP address is 203.213.97.61).

Once you've obtained your IP address you can start checking it against the different black list databases. I've supplied some of the more popul

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

r ones below:

www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml
www.spamhaus.org/sbl/
www.mail-abuse.com/cgi-bin/lookup
www.spambag.org/query.html

You can find a more comprehensive list by clicking on the link below:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/Blacklists/

I

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

f you're IP address isn't found on any of the lists, then great. If it is you can try to contact your ISP and find out if you can get a new IP address. You can also try contacting the owner of the blacklist site to get your IP address removed from their database.

Watch your attachments

Many people don't rea

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ize that the type of attachment you send with your email can cause different spam filters to block your email and even go so far as reporting your I.P to a black list database.

You should avoid using script or any type of attachment besides PDF. Many corporate mailboxes as well as virus filters block attachments that end in

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

.exe, .avi, .swf, .zip, etc.

Make sure your server is configured for reverse DNS lookup

Reverse DNS lookup, originally designed as a network troubleshooting tool, has become an import tool in the fight against spam. When an Internet mail server receives an email it receives an "SMTP" greeting. This SMTP gre

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ting is how the 2 servers communicate with each other when sending and receiving emails.

In this SMTP greeting, the sending server identifies itself as mail.domain.com with an IP address of 10.1.1.1 (for example). The receiving server can now do a reverse DNS lookup, to see if the IP address actually matches the domain name.

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

A lot of spam servers won't match and so the receiving server can mark this as one failed test on a list of many to indicate if the email is indeed spam or not.

Most reputable hosting companies should already have this configured, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If your server is not configured for reverse DNS lookup, then be v

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ry wary of sending legitimate bulk email from that server.

Don't send bulk emails using the BCC field

Some of us using our favorite email client (such as Microsoft Outlook) tend to send mass emails using the BCC field. That's okay if you're forwarding something of interest to your friends or co-workers, but

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

don't ever do this when sending your newsletters.

Using a BCC field is another trigger for spam filters that you want to stay away from. Instead, your email program should send just one email to one subscriber at a. Don't fall into the trap of thinking it's a good idea to send your newsletter to 200 subscribers using the "C

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

" and "BCC" fields.

Keep your lists as clean as possible

Honor all unsubscribe requests (your email marketing software should generate an unsubscribe link for all emails you send) and process bounced emails frequently. Sending to email addresses that have bounced repeatedly can result in a blacklisted IP ad

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

dress. You want to make sure that each bulk email you send does go out to legitimate, working email addresses.

You should also make sure your abuse@ and postmaster@ emails are valid and working. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has recommended these email addresses for complaint spam reporting and you may receive e

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ails from users or ISP's if they have a complaint or spam report about your mailings.

Let your subscribers know when your emails are coming

If you offer a subscription to your newsletter from your web site then tell each and every subscriber exactly when to expect your newsletter. For example:

"We send our

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

newsletter once a month, usually around the 20th, so make sure you keep an eye out for our next issue!"

Also, if someone has subscribed for your newsletter and only your newsletter, don't go sending them special offers and other unrelated emails unless you've told them to expect to receive them. For example:

"When you join

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

our mailing list we may occasionally send you special offers for our products and services, but don't worry - every email includes an unsubscribe link if you change your mind."

Use double opt-in lists

I've mentioned this in my previous article but once again to make your mailing list as clean as possible al

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ways use double opt-in strategies. That is, when someone signs up they should receive an email which contains a link they must click to verify that they do indeed want to be on your mailing list. This stops illegitimate email addresses from being added to your mailing list.

Let subscribers update their details
.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
>

If I switch jobs or change my email address, I should be able to come to your web site and change my newsletter subscription from me@oldjob.com to me@newjob.com using a simple "modify details" form. By allowing your subscribers to do this, you reduce the number of bounced emails and keep your subscribers active much longer
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
.

Conclusion Improving email deliverability is one of the toughest tasks for any email marketer. While this list is by no means complete it can dramatically help to improve your email deliverability and hopefully your click thru rate and bottom line. Until next time, best of luck in your e-marketing efforts

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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