In a recent article from Email Insider, Chad White makes some excellent points regarding often overlooked components to successful email programs. To sum it up, he points out that even if your campaign is profitable, it may not be reaching it’s full potential. He argues that many details are overlooked if the email campaign is simply making money. Things like analyzing metrics (open rates, click rates, unsub rates, complaints, etc), triggered messages that aren’t transactional (birthday, holiday) can help you avoid forgetting about an email once you’ve hit the send button.

It’s true, complacency can lead to cash, but being proactive can lead to even more. Having a good campaign is more than just ‘getting it done’, taking precautions (monitoring can-spam compliance, brand reputation and more) and learning from past campaigns can lead to an even more profitable email experience.

The eec has reported via Twitter that if you register for The Email Evolution Conference using code, “BEST”, you can save $200 off the regular pricing for the conference.
LashBack will be presenting a half day workshop to kick off the conference February 1st entitled, “Stay Compliant and Protect Your Reputation.”  James O’Brien will host the workshop, as four great legal minds weigh in on the state of domestic and international email compliance:

LashBack presents:

Susan Lyon:
Social Messaging Compliance

Frank Ioppolo:
Compliance as an Ad Network

Ivo Ivanov:
EU Email Compliance

Kavon Adli:
US Email Compliance

Join the LashBack team in Miami Beach and learn from many of the foremost experts in email marketing. Other sessions at the three day conference include: Integrating Social Media and Email,  and a full day workshop with ClickZ entitled What’s Working Now in Email. Click here for details.

Monday, LashBack client service managers began training clients on the 2010 release of LashBack services. The new and improved platform, set to officially launch on January 18th,  allows access to all LashBack services in one customizable platform with advanced features and multiple log in functionality. For example, users will now have the option to administrator level access In addition to the new user interface, new features have been added to both Email Compliance Monitor and BrandAlert. Your client service manager will contact you Later this quarter, LashBack is proud to announce the launch of a streamlined ListMonitor, a service which allows list owners to automatically see the volume, type, and frequency of offers being mailed to their email lists.

Here’s an overview of the improved functionality and feature additions by product:

UnsubMonitor now has faster response time when searching mail, sorting messages, and  resolving issues.

Email ComplianceMonitor now has increased system performance, centralized issue search, flexible sorting and grouping functionality, and additional searching options. The service now supports multiple logins and administrator and user levels and gives you the ability to export records for easier reporting.

BrandAlert now allows you to monitor 3-5 million messages each day with email alerts based on your redirects, redirect subdomains, and email content. You can now  perform individual email searches from  the last 45-90 days of our most recent archive of 250 million messages, or have the option to perform custom historic searches on our archive of nearly one billion data records. Improved system performance and indexing allows you to perform faster, more flexible searches.

ListMonitor, which will launched in an improved, streamlined format in Q1, enables insight into the volume, frequency and contents of what is being sent to your email lists. Whether you own or manage a list of email addresses, ListMonitor will give you simple visibility into who is mailing to your list by removing the burden of list seeding through automation. The service will allow you enforce sending expectations, protect the quality of your list, and maximize revenues.

If you missed LashBack’s live seminar last fall with Yahoo! and ReturnPath, it’s available on the Email Experience Council’s website here:

eec Live Seminar: The New Fundamentals: Email Compliance, Reputation and Deliverability

This four hour seminar is designed to explain in detail the new fundamentals and interdependence of the most important and sometimes most misunderstood concepts for successful email marketing: Compliance, Reputation and Deliverability. Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the eec, lays the foundation for this historic seminar bringing together three of email’s leading companies in their unique disciplines to answer email’s biggest questions.

The seminar is available free to all eec members. The eec is charging non-members $399 to download the content, but for the month of January you can receive $100 off eec membership by using registration code: GIFT.

You can also receive the content free by signing up for LashBack’s email newsletter here: http://www.lashback.com/ContactForm.aspx?Action=NewsletterSubscribe. The discount code will appear in the January newsletter.

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) is method of verifying that an email is tied to a specific organization or sender. Not only does the DKIM signature bind the email to the sender, it matches the signing domain name with the sender. In the past,  both IP addresses and domain names were used to identify the source of an email. However, this method is not the most reliable. Organizations and senders can change their domain names and obtain different IP addresses to send their email , thereby avoiding blacklists. DKIM, when used properly for authentication, eliminates the chance of a sender spoofing a domain name or IP address. ESPs can also overwrite the original senders DKIM signature with their own, thereby taking responsibility for the email.

The DKIM signature is added to the header field of an email message. By default, the signature contains a SHA-256 cryptographic hash value calculated based on the headers and body of the email message. When the email is sent, the receiving SMTP server uses the domain name field of the DKIM signature to perform a DNS look-up which  locates the domains public key. The public key is then used to decrypt the hash value in the header field, then immediately used to recalculate the hash value of the email message. If these two values match, the email is proven un-tampered with.

The domain name field (d=) is one of the most important aspects of the DKIM signature. However, an article written by J.D. Falk of ReturnPath looks at the other fields of the DKIM signature and how they affect deliverability. The version field (v=) must always equal 1 or the DKIM signature isn’t valid. The algorithm field (a=) determines which algorithm is used, and has no affect on deliverability. The canonicalization field (c=) determines the degree of minor changes  the email can have during transit  before it is rejected.

With a simple Canononicalization algorithm, any minor changes made to the email during transit will cause the DKIM signature verification to fail. With a relaxed algorithm, the changes will not affect the messages ability to be verified. This field does not have any affect on deliverability, unless the email message verification fails. The header (h=) field determines which header fields you are signing and does not have any affect on deliverabilty All of the signed header fields can be copied into the signature with the z= tag, which has no affect on deliverability. The selector (s=) field is a way to look up which key your using and has no affect on deliverabilty. The body length limit (l=) tag specifies how much of the message the signer is responsible for. This tag is controversial due to the fact that malware and other unwanted data can be in the unsigned portion. This could affect deliverability, and it is not recommended you use this field. The q= value must be “dns/txt”, the t= is the time the signature was created, and the x= is when it expires, none of which affect deliverabilty. The i=tag identifies users, even though it looks like an email address, and does not affect deliverability.

Even though a sender or organization is clearly identified with the DKIM signature, spoofing and illegitimate email can still occur. Marketers can still send large volumes of email, but their reputation can more easily be determined. If DKIM is implemented industry-wide, it forces senders to take responsibility for their brand’s legitimate email. Currently, the DKIM signature is optional and is not required for an organization to send email. However, the signature can be used to increase the reputation and trustworthiness of an organization. Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! have already adopted DKIM signatures, and many more ISPs are sure to follow.

The prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper has recently made the decision to shut down parliament for two months, killing 37 bills that have not received a royal assent. When parliament undergoes prorogation, the 37 bills that have not passed the final step of approval will be eradicated and will have to eventually re-enter parliament as new bills. An article by  Michael Giest reported that several of the bills killed off involved technology, including C-27 (anti-spam, electric commerce), C-46 (lawful access), C-58 (ISP child pornography reporting), and C-47 (lawful access).

Bill C-27 (anti-spam, electric commerce) was by far the most advanced. Not only does the bill provide a rule set for commercial messages, including an opt-out method, it prohibits the sending of commercial e-mail messages without the prior consent of the recipient. However,  the consent cannot be obtained through e-mail. It must be obtained through some other method such as personal contact with the recipient.  For example, businesses could not send an e-mail to recipients requesting permission to send more emails. One exception to the consent rule is when an “existing business relationship” has already been established between the recipient and the sender as defined by the bill. The bill also prohibits computer programs from being installed on any persons computer without expressed consent. Along with each computer program’s installation proposal, information must be provided  that clearly states its function, impact, and purpose.

How will this bill affect email marketing?  Right now it wont. The bill must wait until parliament reopens and must be resubmitted as if it was a new bill. If the bill is eventually passed, Canada would have a strict e-mail marketing laws comparable with Australian legislation, especially with the “opt-in” email consent requirement.