Command Email Best Practices

In Command, we now have Command Email which is the default service used by Keller Williams to send emails on your behalf from your KW Technology applications. Each user receives 5,000 email sends per month at no charge. Command Email is connected to SmartPlans, including custom SmartPlans, and Monthly Neighborhood Nurture. Additional applets will start using Command Email service to send your emails in the coming months. 

Follow these best practices to ensure you are getting the best performance for Command Email:

Type of Emails

From Command Email you can send 3 different types of emails:

1. Emails to generate Leads

• i.e Campaign emails 

2. Emails to nurture an existing relationship or related to a transaction 

• i.e emails sent from SmartPlans, Consumer, Opportunities 

3. Spam Emails 

• Email recipients can mark your emails as SPAM. The main reason that can trigger that complaint is unsolicited Email also known as junk mail. 
  
  

Sender Reputation

One of the most important assets in the email world is your reputation. If you do not have a good reputation tied to your domain and your IP address, your email will not reach your recipients’ inboxes. 

Due to its unique ability to push information to users, email has been overrun with spammers, triggering reactions upon spammers by the email service providers (ESP) such as Gmail, AOL, Yahoo and MSN/Hotmail. This is why, if your reputation is not impeccable, your emails get caught in the ESPs’ spam filters.

KW has made everything in terms of infrastructure and validations to establish a good sending reputation for Command Email domains, but it’s ultimately up to you to send emails appropriately: your actions play the biggest part in good deliverability and your individual reputation impacts the overall Command Email domains sender reputation.

There are 2 key metrics that impact your sender reputation in Command Email:

1. Bounced Emails

• Number of invalid or expired email addresses reported in Command Email Metrics report as “Bounced” 

2. Spam Emails

• Number of emails that you have sent that have been complained by recipients or marked as spam, reported in Command Email Metrics report as “Marked as Spam”.
  
  

Get proper permission

You should exercise best practices for contacts/lead collection and maintenance. Poor maintenance can result in low engagement, abuse complaints, and compliance issues. You can store contact email address information in Command, even for contacts who haven't consented to or signed up to receive email marketing content. However, sending emails to contacts that have not consented to receive email marketing content from you increases the number of contacts that can mark your emails as Spam.

There are 2 different type of mails that Command Email can send on your behalf:

1. Low Spam risk - Emails to nurture an existing relationship or related to a transaction: i.e emails sent from SmartPlans, Consumer, Opportunities The recipient is expecting emails from you

2. High Spam risk - Emails to generate Leads: i.e Marketing emails from Campaigns
The recipient is NOT expecting emails from you.
To manage the risk, confirm that your recipients are contacts that have provided you with their email information directly. 

Thresholds that put your account at-risk

Every Email Service Provider has thresholds for the percentage of emails that have been bounced or have been marked as Spam. Some ESPs allow around 5% bounce rate and .01% Spam rate while others may have slightly different thresholds. Keller Williams is still exploring what those thresholds might be for Command Email.