What are some contest and event ideas for email deliverability?

Key findings

• Practical challenges: Contests can simulate real-world deliverability problems, such as configuring DNS records (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) for successful email delivery or troubleshooting authentication failures. This hands-on approach offers valuable learning.
• ISP interaction speed: Humorous contests could revolve around the speed of obtaining a remediation response from major ISPs like Microsoft or getting a Gmail support ticket resolved, highlighting common frustrations in the industry.
• Reputation management: Events can focus on the challenge of improving sender reputation, such as a PTR record update rally to demonstrate the process of reputation resets with certain providers.
• Educational engagement: Such activities transform abstract deliverability concepts into tangible challenges, making learning more interactive and memorable, as noted by Outfunnel, who emphasizes the importance of improving deliverability.

Key considerations

• Clear objectives: Each contest or event should have a clear learning objective related to improving email reputation and deliverability.
• Safety and ethics: Ensure contests don't encourage practices that could harm sender reputation or violate acceptable use policies. Emphasize ethical sending practices.
• Accessibility: Design events to be inclusive of various skill levels, perhaps with different tiers of challenges. Consider how these could integrate with deliverability guides for email marketers.
• Prize motivation: The prize should be appealing, whether it's recognition, a desirable tool, or even the humorous remediation response from an ISP.

Key opinions

• Humorous approaches: Many marketers find humor in the common frustrations of deliverability, suggesting contests around the speed of support ticket resolution or reputation resets from major ISPs.
• Hands-on challenges: There's a strong desire for practical, hands-on challenges, such as configuring a new domain for email delivery or solving DNS authentication puzzles.
• Team building potential: The proposed contest ideas are seen as potential team-building events, fostering camaraderie while tackling complex deliverability tasks.
• Engagement boost: Marketers recognize that interactive elements like quizzes and contests are great for boosting engagement within an email marketing context itself, as well as at events, according to Mailmodo.

Key considerations

• Relevance to daily tasks: Events should directly address or humorously reflect the real-world challenges marketers face, such as why emails fail.
• Actionable takeaways: Even fun contests should offer actionable insights or reinforce best practices for email deliverability testing.
• Mental health: Some marketers suggest that reframing frustrating experiences through humor can even offer mental health benefits.
• Audience participation: Encouraging recipients to share feedback and participate in polls or surveys can gather valuable insights and boost engagement, a key practice for email marketing for events.

Key opinions

• Authentication fundamentals: Experts consistently point to correct SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration as non-negotiable foundations for inbox placement, suggesting contests could test this knowledge.
• Reputation building: The importance of building and maintaining a positive sender reputation is a recurring theme, which could be challenged in scenarios where participants must improve a compromised reputation.
• List hygiene: Cleaning email lists and avoiding spam traps are crucial for long-term deliverability, making email validation tools and practices a valuable contest topic.
• Technical troubleshooting: Events that involve diagnosing complex deliverability issues or interpreting DMARC reports could be highly beneficial.

Key considerations

• Educational focus: Events should be structured to teach fundamental deliverability concepts and recommended resources to learn about email deliverability.
• Real-world scenarios: Simulations should accurately reflect common challenges, such as handling blocklist listings or dealing with specific ISP policies.
• Interactive learning: Beyond contests, events could include interactive workshops or live troubleshooting sessions to demonstrate problem-solving in real time.
• Expert guidance: Having seasoned deliverability experts present and provide feedback during these events can significantly enhance the learning experience, as highlighted by Mailjet, emphasizing best practices in email marketing.

Key findings

• Standard compliance: Documentation (like RFCs) defines core email protocols (e.g., DMARC, SPF, DKIM) that are essential for authentication and deliverability, which can form the basis of technical challenges.
• ISP guidelines: Major ISPs (Google, Microsoft) provide postmaster tools and guidelines for senders to monitor performance and improve inbox placement, offering concrete metrics for contest success.
• Regulatory requirements: Laws like the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. or GDPR in Europe dictate critical aspects of email marketing (e.g., opt-out mechanisms), providing compliance challenges for contests.
• Reputation signals: Documentation confirms that engagement, spam complaints, and invalid addresses are key signals for sender reputation, which could be measured in deliverability games.

Key considerations

• Accuracy: Contests involving technical standards should be meticulously accurate to ensure participants learn correct configurations for DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
• Up-to-date information: Email deliverability documentation evolves, so contests should reflect the latest guidelines, especially regarding Google Postmaster Tools and new ISP requirements.
• Practical application: Beyond theoretical knowledge, contests should challenge participants to apply documentation insights to solve practical problems.
• Reference access: Provide easy access to relevant documentation during contests to encourage participants to learn by consulting official sources, as emphasized by Bloomreach in their deliverability guide.