Guidelines for Sending Overseas Mail (2)

In recent years, more and more Chinese companies have begun to go abroad and enter the international market. In the era of digitization, the communication and marketing of enterprises to customers and users are inseparable from message communication, especially for overseas markets where business and digitization are more mature. The communication between Chinese Internet companies and users mainly includes APP push, SMS, WeChat, official account, Weibo, telephone and email. Among them, e-mail, as a mature traditional communication method, has become increasingly stable in China, especially after the era of mobile Internet.

6. Mail content

Well-designed emails help build trust between the business and recipients, which can effectively increase recipient engagement. However, writing emails using HTML design is recognized by the industry as a pain and a tricky business. This is mainly because worldwide, large and small mail service providers have not kept pace with the times, making the rendering rules of mails incompatible with the latest HTML rules. Emails written using the latest HTML technology don't load correctly on all inbox providers, browsers, clients, and devices, there are too many syntax compatibility to consider, and it brings a lot of trouble to the design work.

>>>>Recipient's Scene

Because of e-mail code compatibility issues, businesses need to know how recipients view e-mail. What device, what client, what operating system. According to Litmus, the top three most popular email clients in March 2022 are Apple, Gmail and Outlook.

The most common environment for recipients to read emails is still a large proportion of recipients using web browsers (Apple system cannot track the specific environment due to Apple MPP privacy issues). Knowing the distribution of devices and clients widely used by recipients, you can test and optimize email rendering for these devices and clients.

Source: https://www.litmus.com/blog/email-client-market-share-march-2022

>>>>Email production specification

• Use Table Layout When designing emails, avoid using div tags and use table tags instead. Since most mail clients are not compatible with div tags, using the table tag is the best way to ensure that emails are displayed correctly in various email clients.
• The width is set to 600px , which can basically fit all ESP screen sizes. For example, some Webmails display the mail list on the left side, and only display the mail content on the right side of the screen, so the actual space will be much smaller. 600px, the safest size across email platforms.
• Pictures in emails In order to avoid too large email files, pictures in emails should use external link pictures as much as possible, use img tags, and remember to add title and alt attributes. In addition, some email clients will actively block pictures in unfamiliar emails (see the figure below), so avoid relying on pictures to design the overall structure of the email. Principle: Even if the picture is not displayed, the recipient can see the main content of the email at a glance.

• Use inline CSS Some email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) see external style sheets as a potential security threat and will block it, while some will replace the default tags and styles in their own system, so avoid using external styles Tables, use the style attribute to write inline CSS.
• Fonts use standard system fonts and avoid custom fonts. It is recommended to use independent attribute fields such as font-family, font-size, etc., because some clients do not support font shorthand.
• No JavaScript Simply put, scripts are not supported in emails and will be filtered directly by the client. So, just use HTML and CSS and avoid the hassle.
• No Flash Flash should be avoided in e-mail, there are other video elements: QuickTime, Windows Media, Java Applet, MPEG and HTML5 Video Streaming, etc., none of these will work in e-mail. Animated GIFs can be used, but some services will only show the first frame of the animation (do a test).

Tips: The recommended way to "insert a video" in an email, generate a video thumbnail or capture a screenshot of the player (must have a play button), link the image to the video on the website. Hmm... yes, this is recommended.

Using Media Queries Media queries can help businesses create responsive emails for mobile devices by styling emails based on the width of the recipient's device screen. The flash editor allows customers to independently set whether a line needs to be adapted to the mobile terminal, and provides the effect of email preview. (See below)

• The proportion of recipients in Dark Mode overseas markets is still quite large. According to the statistics of Litmus, 27.3% of emails are opened in Dark Mode. So, in Dark Mode, whether the email still looks good, this is something to pay attention to.

• The title of the email should be concise, 3-7 words are more appropriate. Studies have shown that after the email subject exceeds 15 characters, for each additional character, the recipient's engagement rate will drop by 0.03%. In addition, you can try to put emoji or hashtag in the email header, it will have unexpected effect.
  ......

There are a lot of details to consider when creating an email. Rather than fumbling around alone, use a third-party email authoring tool directly. SendCloud provides a drag-and-drop email creation tool, Flash Editor, which is free to use. Easily help you get all kinds of cumbersome specifications in email production, just move the mouse, and a beautiful email is completed. The flash editor also provides an email template market, which can be applied directly in one second, which is very convenient.

>>>>Mail Test

Test sending before the official sending is very necessary. Websites or apps can be published to fix bugs, but sent emails cannot be recalled, so be sure to test. In general, the following points should be paid attention to when testing:

• Type check: Check grammar, copywriting, spelling and other low-level errors;
• spam check: Check the elements that may be judged as spam, including the three major identity authentications of the sending domain name, words in the title or body that may be judged as spam, and whether there are suspicious links in the content of the email;
• display check: Test the effect of emails on different platforms and clients. As mentioned above, the email rendering rules of different service providers are different, and there may be strange differences in the display of emails on different clients.

Before each email sending task, there are control steps to check, which is indeed a headache. Therefore, there will be some third-party platforms to facilitate email testing, such as Litmus, Email on Acid, etc. SendCloud provides a drag-and-drop email creation tool, Flash Editor, and also includes email testing functions, especially the cross-platform and cross-mail client "inbox preview" function. Enterprises only need to select the platform to be tested and Client, you can quickly view the real email inbox snapshot.

Seven, recipient list management

For marketing activities in the Chinese market, the final destination is the WeChat QR code; in overseas markets, email is a common method of collection.

The way a business collects email plays an important role in its delivery rate. When implementing collection, there are two ways of single opt in and double opt in.

SOI (single opt in) : A single opt-in requires the user to enter their email address in the box only once. No confirmation is required, they become subscribers instantly.

DOI (double opt in) : Double opt-in involves two steps, the user first enters their email address in the box, after which they receive a confirmation email that they must open to confirm that they want to subscribe before they can become Subscribers, are added to the recipient list.

The difference between the two is that a single opt-in does not require confirmation, while a double opt-in does. According to statistics, only 80% of users will complete the second step of DOI confirmation. If you choose "double choice", you will lose 20% of users in vain, what is the point of doing this?

* "People may enter email addresses incorrectly."
"Even if they entered the correct email, they wouldn't use it very often because their only purpose was to download the freebie on the thank you page."
"Users who choose SOI are more likely to mark incoming mail as spam"*

Although the recipient list growth rate of enterprises using DOI will be slower, the indicators of misspellings, inactive mailboxes, unsubscribe rates and spam will also be lower, and recipients will be more willing to subscribe to products and subscribe. Strong, "quality" will be higher, in the long run, DOI is a quality-oriented choice.

According to a global poll by Litmus, 53.5% of email marketers prefer to join using SOI and 46.5% using DOI. Therefore, there is no right or wrong choice. Both single-choice and double-choice have their advantages. It depends on the stage and focus of the company when doing email marketing, as well as the actual indicators sent. SendCloud provides 5 ways for enterprises to subscribe to mailboxes, and supports setting SOI or DOI. Enterprises only need to fill in the relevant information and put the JS code into the website or APP to realize the function of mailbox subscription collection.

>>>>Unsubscribe link

Many recipients who want to unsubscribe, because they can't find the unsubscribe link, end up marking the email as spam. So, remember to put the unsubscribe link of the email in a very prominent place. One unsubscribe recipient vs one spam, the former has little impact on sender reputation, but the latter has a negative impact.

It should be noted that in addition to placing a conspicuous unsubscribe link at the head and tail of the email content, it is also necessary to add the List-Unsubscribe field to the email header.

The List-Unsubscribe X-Header was originally proposed by RFC 2369. It can write two unsubscribe methods in the format of WEB URL or Mailto on the mail header field. It is recommended to use these two methods at the same time.

 List-Unsubscribe: <https://sendcloud.net/list?cmd=unsub>
 <mailto:[e-mail]?subject=unsubscribe>

8. Privacy and Compliance in Overseas Markets

Global consumer data breaches have increased unabated in recent years, forcing many countries to enact stricter personal data protection regulations. This has brought many compliance and legal challenges to the overseas operations of Chinese companies.

It can be seen from the regulations issued by various countries that regulations are constantly providing more data control and protection to recipients, further constraining the way companies use data. For example, if a business is sending emails to recipients in the EU, businesses need to ensure that their sending practices are GDPR compliant.

CAN-SPAM In 2003, the US Congress passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM reduces the influx of unsolicited emails by limiting how commercial emails are sent and providing recipients with privacy and protection. The CAN-SPAM Act is still in effect today.

Under the Act, all businesses using email for commercial purposes must adhere to the following 7 elements:

• Do not use misleading or false information in email headers
• Don't use deceptive language in email headers
• Clearly and prominently identify the advertising message itself
• Notify recipients of your business location Tell recipients how to opt out of future mailings
• Unsubscribe requests are respected and processed immediately
• Understand what third parties or others are doing on behalf of your business

The core of the CAN-SPAM Act is to avoid deceiving recipients, to clearly communicate the purpose of the email to recipients, and to ensure that recipient preferences are respected. If a business sends commercial email, it must always comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation has been one of the hottest email-related topics of the past decade. If a business is in the EU or sending emails to EU citizens, it should put GDPR first in the sending specification. GDPR states 7 principles related to personal data: lawful, fair, transparent purpose, limit data, minimize accuracy, store, limit, integrity and confidentiality (security), accountability
The question at the heart of the GDPR: "Users must be explicitly asked to consent to the collection of their data" (the data here refers to PII data). Then, when enterprises collect mailboxes, they need to explicitly ask users and get their permission. Enterprises also need to record this process, which is very important.

PII(Personal Identifier Information). Personal data is any information relating to an individual, whether it relates to his or her private, professional or public life. It can be anything from a name, a home address, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer's IP address.

M3AAWG is a neutral organization established in 2004, the full name is: Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG), is the industry's joint efforts to combat bots, malware, spam, viruses, DoS attacks and other online attacks The largest industry association with more than 200 members worldwide. This organization frequently updates some best practices, provides advice and background information for the industry to improve messaging security and protect users, and guides the delivery norms and policies of emails, text messages, and other messages.

9. Summary

With the development of overseas business of many Chinese companies, it can be seen that many companies are beginning to adapt to the needs of users in overseas markets and actively develop their own email sending channels. SendCloud, as a team focused on the vertical industry of email sending, will be on call at any time to help companies achieve their email sending goals.

About SendCloud
SendCloud is a SaaS platform developed and operated by Wuhan Shanda Technology Co., Ltd. to provide customers with email and SMS sending services. Since the platform was launched in 2013, it has provided tens of thousands of enterprise customers with stable, efficient and secure email and SMS sending services and accurate and timely sending data reports. On March 9, 2022, Jiguang officially completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Wuhan SendCloud Technology Co., Ltd. (SendCloud). Since then, SendCloud has officially become a sub-brand of Jiguang.

About Aurora <br>Aurora Mobile (NASDAQ: JG), founded in 2011, is a leading customer interaction and marketing technology service provider in China. At the beginning of its establishment, Jiguang focused on providing stable and efficient message push services for enterprises. With its first-mover advantage, it has grown into a mobile message push service provider with a far leading market share. As enterprises continue to strengthen their demands for customer contact and marketing growth, Jiguang has proactively launched solutions such as message cloud and marketing cloud to help enterprises achieve multi-channel customer contact and interaction needs, as well as artificial intelligence and big data-driven solutions. The application of marketing technology to help the digital transformation of enterprises.