SFMC | Audience Targeting | List Inclusions and Exclusions

This classifies the data extension as being an automated data extension. This means that there is a process running in the background to refresh the data populating the data extension on a regular basis. When you submit a query request via the Workfront form, there is a question that asks if this list is for one-time use or for ongoing email sends. If "Ongoing (dynamic)" is selected, the data extension will be automated for you. The default cadence for the refresh is weekly. 

Think of it as a funnel. At the very top level, every email sent should exclude contacts who have opted out of all university email (univ_no-contact-email-standard_a). From there, work your way down the audience and message type. If it's a solicitation email (directly asking for a donation), it should always include UNIV - No Solicit - Email. Survey emails should always include UNIV - No Contact - Surveys - Email. All three of these high-level exclusions are found in the Colleges and Units > UNIV Standards > Excluded folder. For any email coming from a college or unit, that college or unit's no contact email exclusion should always be added as an exclusion. If it's an event email, the college or unit event no contact email exclusion should be used in addition to those previously mentioned. If the email is coming from a specific division, department or organization within the college or unit and there is a division/department/organization-level exclusion, that should also be applied, and so on. The more specific the sender and message type, the more exclusions you'll likely need to apply. 

Yes!* It is a best practice to only email those contacts who've engaged with at least 1 email from the university within the past year. The more engaged our audiences are, the better our sender reputation and deliverability (likelihood we make it into the inbox as opposed to the spam folder or getting blocked altogether). By avoiding sending to unengaged contacts, we have a better chance of keeping our email engagement high. To attempt to re-engage those contacts who do not open emails, we run what we call “hygiene” programs on a regular cadence. We send two re-engagement emails to those who haven't opened an email in 18+ months over a period of 2 weeks (anyone who opens the first doesn't receive the second), and opt them out if they still don't open within 2 weeks of receiving the final email.

*In September 2021 Apple launched iOS15, and with it, its new Mail Privacy Policy. MPP disables open tracking which means our opens are artificially inflated. ~32% of all email "opens" are actually generated from pixel fires from Apple's proxy server. So, some of the contacts who should be in our 12 month non-opener exclusion list are not getting pulled into it even if they didn't truly open (they just appear to have opened). That said, the 12 month non-opener exclusion list still does contain the majority of our non-openers and may still be used.

Yes! If you have multiple lists you need to combine to create your audience, you can add them all to your "Targeted" box when you're ready to send. It's not recommended to add more than 10 as that can be taxing on the system. Also, make sure the "De-duplicate subscribers" box remains checked (it should be checked by default) so that contacts who are in more than one of the lists you're targeting will only receive one email. 

Exception: Filtered data extensions cannot be stacked — only one may be used as your targeted list. 

No. The "Total Targeted" and "Total Excluded" counts shown in the respective boxes are just that; the total counts in the list or lists you've drag and dropped into those boxes. The Total Excluded count is not how many people will be removed upon send. Only contacts that appear in both the Targeted and the Excluded areas are excluded from the send. For example, if your Total Targeted count is 10,000 and your Total Excluded count is 800, but only 200 people in your exclusion list(s) are also on your targeted list(s), your final send count will be 9,800.

Everything we do as bulk email sender impacts how Ohio State is received in inboxes everywhere. Best practice in the email space is to consistently evaluate the quality and validity of email addresses and guide email marketers to only send to an engaged audience. This is often referenced as list hygiene in combination with deliverability. Below are a few more details about invalid email addresses.

SFMC

Within Salesforce Marketing Cloud there is processes to mark an email as not safe to send to (invalid). Some indicators of invalid email addresses are too many bounces, not allowing delivery to the inbox and specific domains that are risky or determined to be out of service. 

Inbox Providers

Inbox providers must protect their users. Part of the security in place for most inbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Apple, etc) is emails from some bulk senders may not reach the inbox due to filters and other indicators of risk. For example, when there is forwarding from one email address to another and the content is not a personal email but an email from another brand, the inbox provider sees this as a risk. That brand email is not coming from the original sender.  

Third party tools

The OMC email and automation team also uses a tool, Everest, an industry bulk email sender support tool. One option in the tool determines the validity of email addresses quality. Everest also supports reporting on our reputation as a bulk email sender, and the ability to reach the inbox (if we send to risky email addresses it impacts our sender score, like credit score). A few times a year we run the TAS email records through this tool to determine invalid email addresses to flag invalid email addresses. If a donor has multiple email addresses, they may not be using the one on record or the email address was determined to be a risky email address due to other factors.

When the constituent is in contact with someone in Advancement and provides a valid email address (or other contact detail), the record can be updated by submitting the details to TAS Biographic Updates.