How Publishers Clearing House Improved its Open and Clickthrough Rates

How PCH Drives Clickthroughs
The myth of email is that the CAN-SPAM legislation would reduce the volume of email consumers receive. The reality is that consumers are receiving more email than ever, and 90 percent of that email is junk. For PCH, therefore, maintaining a clean sender reputation is critical. Here are some of the ways PCH keeps a clean sender reputation, despite being a high-volume email marketer:

• PCH has a compliance department whose sole job is to monitor sender reputation. The team looks at deliverability rates, complaint rates and volume on a campaign-level basis. Contrary to popular opinion, PCH views its compliance team as a revenue-generating opportunity, said Glantz, noting that it can decrease liability, protect its brand and increase campaign-level metrics such as deliverability and profit.
• Scrubs its email list at least every 90 days, sometimes 30 days. This includes checking for invalid or nonexistent accounts, duplicate addresses, and spam trap hits (i.e., old or abandoned email addresses used by internet service providers to trap spammers).
• Has partnered with email reputation services provider Return Path to find out its sender score.

PCH doesn't rely on the typical acquisition sources that many other email marketers do, namely third-party providers, banner ads and list rentals. A strong network of email partners help PCH update its list with fresh names. But it does its homework to make sure all of its partners are legitimate.