Why are deliverability issues more complex for pharma companies?

Pharma companies must balance strict regulatory compliance with deliverability best practices. Content can be keyword-sensitive, lists often require complex segmentation, and adherence to privacy regulations is paramount. These factors can influence how ISPs perceive your email traffic, sometimes leading to emails going to spam if not carefully managed.

Should a pharma company with low volume use a shared or dedicated IP in SFMC?

Shared IPs carry the risk of reputation damage from other senders. If you have low sending volumes (e.g., 5,000 emails/month for pharma), a dedicated IP can be challenging to warm up and maintain a good reputation on, as ISPs prefer consistent, high-volume sending to build trust. It's crucial to assess if your volume is sufficient to sustain a dedicated IP's reputation. You can also contact Salesforce to ask about being placed on a better shared IP. See why SFMC shared IPs have issues.

What are the biggest causes of deliverability issues when using Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Poor data quality, often from purchased or non-opt-in lists, is a primary cause. These lists contain invalid addresses and spam traps that severely damage your sender reputation. Additionally, inconsistent sending volumes, misconfigured authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and content that triggers spam filters (even if compliant) can contribute to deliverability problems.

Does Salesforce Marketing Cloud help with email authentication protocols?

Yes, Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides tools and guidance for email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) through its Sender Authentication Package (SAP). It's crucial to ensure these are correctly configured and regularly monitored. For more on this, check out our guide on DMARC, SPF, and DKIM .

What are the common deliverability issues for pharma companies using Salesforce Marketing Cloud? - Troubleshooting - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

For pharmaceutical companies, email marketing is a critical channel for communicating with healthcare professionals, patients, and other stakeholders. When these communications fail to reach the inbox, the consequences can be significant, impacting everything from patient adherence to market perception of new drugs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is a powerful platform, but it's not immune to deliverability challenges, especially when operating within the highly regulated pharma industry.

Many of the issues I encounter stem from a combination of platform-specific nuances and the unique demands of the pharmaceutical sector. It's not uncommon to see emails landing in the spam folder, or even being outright blocked, leading to low engagement rates well below expectations. This can be particularly frustrating when using a robust system like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is designed for high-volume, sophisticated campaigns.

Understanding these common issues is the first step toward building and maintaining a strong sender reputation, ensuring your crucial messages consistently reach their intended audience. It often requires a deeper dive into both the technical configuration within SFMC and the quality of your recipient data.

The unique landscape of pharma email marketing

Pharma companies operate under stringent regulatory guidelines, which often dictate how email communications can be managed. This adds a layer of complexity to email deliverability that isn't always present in other industries. Compliance requirements, particularly around data privacy and content approvals, can inadvertently affect sender practices if not carefully integrated into the email strategy.

For instance, the need for detailed record-keeping and often complex segmentation for different healthcare professional (HCP) groups or patient populations can lead to fragmented data, making list hygiene more challenging. If systems are disconnected, ensuring consistent data quality and managing consent across various touchpoints becomes a significant hurdle. This can directly impact deliverability best practices.

Another factor is the sensitive nature of pharmaceutical content. Emails often contain medical information, patient reminders, or drug updates that require careful wording to meet regulatory standards. However, overly technical jargon or specific keywords, while necessary for compliance, can sometimes trigger spam filters if not balanced with good email design and a strong sender reputation. It's a delicate balance that often requires careful monitoring and adjustment.

Common deliverability pitfalls with Salesforce Marketing Cloud

One of the most frequent issues I hear about with Salesforce Marketing Cloud relates to shared IP addresses. While SFMC offers robust infrastructure, shared IPs mean your sending reputation is tied to other users on the same IP. If one bad actor on that shared IP starts sending spam, it can quickly lead to that IP being placed on a blacklist or blocklist. This can result in your legitimate emails, including those for critical pharma communications, being routed directly to spam folders, particularly for major inbox providers like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook.

Shared IP addresses

Vulnerability to others: Your sender reputation is influenced by all users sharing the same IP address. Poor practices by other senders can harm your deliverability.
Difficult to control: You have limited control over the sending habits of other companies on the shared IP, making it hard to proactively manage reputation.

Dedicated IP addresses

Full control: Your sender reputation is solely dependent on your sending practices, allowing for more precise management.
IP warming required: Requires a careful IP warming process to build trust with inbox providers.

Another common pitfall in the pharma industry is the use of non-opt-in or purchased email lists. While the intent might be to reach a wide audience quickly, these lists are often riddled with invalid addresses, spam traps, and recipients who have no expectation of receiving your emails. Sending to such lists immediately damages your sender reputation, leading to high bounce rates, increased spam complaints, and ultimately, emails landing in the junk folder. This problem can override even the most sophisticated SFMC setup.

Strengthening your sender reputation and authentication

Beyond IP reputation, foundational email authentication protocols are paramount for deliverability. This includes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Salesforce Marketing Cloud facilitates the setup of these, often through its Sender Authentication Package (SAP), but proper configuration and ongoing monitoring are crucial. A misconfigured DMARC record, or DKIM failure, can lead to widespread rejections, regardless of your IP standing. These protocols signal to receiving mail servers that your emails are legitimate and haven't been tampered with.

DNS record example for DKIM in SFMC

When setting up DKIM for a sending domain in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, you'll typically configure a CNAME record in your DNS. This record points to a Salesforce-hosted domain, allowing SFMC to handle the DKIM signing for your emails. This is crucial for email authentication and establishing trust with recipient mail servers.

Example DKIM CNAME Record for SFMCDNS

Host Name: mcs._domainkey.yourdomain.com
Record Type: CNAME
Value: mcs._domainkey.sfmc.net

Regularly checking your Google Postmaster Tools (GPT) and other feedback loops (like Microsoft’s SNDS/JMRP, which can be tricky with shared IPs) is essential for diagnosing issues. These tools provide insights into your sender reputation, spam complaint rates, and authentication failures. If you're seeing persistent issues, it's often a sign that there's a problem with your list hygiene or how your emails are being perceived by ISPs. Sometimes, even with a dedicated IP, a low monthly volume (e.g., 5,000 sends for a pharma company) can make warming up the IP and maintaining reputation a challenge, as consistent volume is key for building trust with inbox providers.

Strategies for sustained inbox placement

To ensure long-term deliverability, especially in the sensitive pharma sector, proactive strategies are far more effective than reactive troubleshooting. Prioritizing list quality above all else is crucial. Regularly cleaning your lists to remove inactive subscribers, bounces, and potential spam traps will significantly improve your engagement metrics and reduce the likelihood of being flagged as spam. This can be supported by consistent monitoring through tools like blocklist monitoring.

Beyond cleaning, focus on acquiring subscribers through legitimate, permission-based methods. For pharma, this means clear opt-in processes, especially given the regulatory scrutiny. Furthermore, segmenting your audience and personalizing your content can boost engagement, which is a key signal to ISPs that your emails are valuable. Salesforce Marketing Cloud excels at segmentation, so leverage its capabilities to send highly relevant messages.

Aspect	Description	Impact on deliverability
List hygiene	Regularly remove inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and spam traps.	Reduces complaints, improves sender reputation, and avoids blocklists.
Content relevance	Tailor messages to specific segments, providing valuable and expected information.	Increases engagement (opens, clicks), signals positive intent to ISPs, and decreases spam complaints.
Authentication	Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, ideally with an SAP.	Verifies sender identity, builds trust, and prevents emails from being flagged as phishing or spoofing attempts.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Maintain meticulous list hygiene by regularly cleaning your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, especially in the pharma sector where data quality is paramount.

Prioritize consent-based list acquisition to ensure that every recipient has explicitly opted in to receive communications, reducing spam complaints.

Leverage Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s robust segmentation capabilities to send highly targeted and relevant content, increasing engagement and positive sender signals.

Implement and monitor all email authentication protocols: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, as these are fundamental to proving your email's legitimacy.

Common pitfalls

Using purchased or shared lists, which often contain spam traps and uninterested recipients, leading to immediate reputation damage and poor deliverability.

Ignoring feedback loop data and complaint rates, which are crucial indicators of recipient dissatisfaction and potential spam classification.

Neglecting IP warming protocols when moving to a new dedicated IP, resulting in major deliverability issues and blocks by ISPs.

Sending inconsistent email volumes, especially with a dedicated IP, which can make it difficult for ISPs to establish a consistent reputation for your sending address.

Expert tips

If you are on a shared IP with Salesforce Marketing Cloud and experiencing deliverability issues, negotiate for placement on a better-serviced shared IP, or consider a dedicated IP if your volume supports proper warming and maintenance.

Always check your Google Postmaster Tools data, specifically complaint rates, as high complaint rates are a strong indicator that list quality is the root cause of deliverability issues, regardless of the sending platform.

Understand that moving to a new IP is often a temporary solution if underlying issues like poor list quality persist, as problems can resurface cyclically.

For pharma companies with strict compliance needs, ensure your content strategy aligns with both regulatory requirements and email deliverability best practices to avoid spam filters.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says they often see deliverability problems with pharma clients when purchased lists are involved. While it might seem common practice, it doesn't magically improve delivery.

2024-10-25 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that if you are signing with DKIM properly and have Google Postmaster Tools set up, high complaint rates are a strong indicator that the client's list data is the problem, not the sending platform.

2024-10-25 - Email Geeks

Achieving inbox success in pharma

Navigating email deliverability challenges for pharma companies using Salesforce Marketing Cloud requires a multifaceted approach. It's not just about the platform, but also about the unique regulatory environment, the sensitivity of the content, and above all, the quality and permission of your audience data. By focusing on list hygiene, robust authentication, and continuous monitoring, pharma marketers can significantly improve their inbox placement rates and ensure their vital communications are received effectively, building trust and driving engagement in a highly specialized sector.