Beginning in January, Yahoo will join an impressive number of ESPs and email filtering services in using Return Path’s Sender Score Certified whitelisting program to give inbox preference to reputable mailers.  The Return Path whitelist is already utilized by many of the biggest names in email including Windows Live Hotmail, Time Warner, Spam Assasin, Iron Port and Cloudmark, affecting the deliverability to over 1.2 billion inboxes worldwide and growing.

Yahoo adopting Sender Score Certified has positive implications for legitimate email marketers who are already Sender Score Certified, as it will begin to improve their deliverability in Yahoo mail inboxes.  It also means caring about email reputation as a marketer has never been more important.  As more and more ESPs adopt strict, uniform standards for the mail that reaches their customer inboxes, getting a handle on your reputation as a sender could mean the difference between sink or swim. Mailers can apply to become Sender Score Certified at the Return Path site.

As I sit here looking at my inbox I wonder why I get Pamper’s, AARP, and Viagra based emails? I am a 37 year old single guy. Is there an email psychic out there that knows that I want these things? I don’t want any of these advertisements. What I do like to see are deals on computer products, health food items, and local events. I like to see messages that are directed toward my personal interests. Not some blind attempt to get my attention. It never works!

How did I get on these lists of annoying mailings? It was my own fault! I bought a phone through a website and hurryingly hit submit before I noticed a box checked allowing partners and affiliates to send me unsolicited email. Read the fine details. I have tried to unsubscribe without success. Now advertisements are sent to me blindly. This all being said, it seems that advertisers and publishers would want their mailings to reach their target audience. It would drive click through sales and increase deliverability. The current system is broken.

~MOE

As an email analyst, I found it hard to believe that there is an actual benefit in text based email.  When you review thousands of emails a day, flashy or creative websites seem to stick in your mind more than text based email.  Researching this further, I didn’t know that HTML mail will get twice the response as text based email.  I also didn’t realize that 30% of people who receive email are unable to receive HTML email.  In text based email, You see more of a relationship being developed through the email to drive the customer to cut and paste that URL to actually get to the site and see what the email is all about.  Then, that hit is where the flashy email might come and draw the consumer in even further. 

Security and bandwidth issues are definite bonuses with text based emails.  Personally, I wouldn’t go through the trouble to cut and paste a URL just to see what a company is trying to sell me.  After doing a little research, I think that it is a quality way to get into the inbox but probably not the best as far as response.  People are lazy and so am I.  Give me hyperlinks and colorful images to catch my eye (If you want my money).

~Reerun

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has issued a position statement that includes privacy and data security guidelines for marketers.  The document, titled Email Data Management Best Practices, emphasizes the importance of sending only to consumers who have opted in to commercial messages.  It also recommends that companies not transfer consumer permission to other companies, giving them the right to mail, without referencing the transfer of permission in the emails of the new company. 

The IAB, in releasing this statement, hopes following these specific email best practices will allow email marketers to increase deliverability, gain the trust of both consumers and advertisers, and encourage responsible actions by all involved in the email ecosystem. LashBack advocates and encourages all who send commercial mail to download this guide to improve best practices and ultimately, performance.

LashBack will be sponsoring this month’s Gateway Interactive Marketing Association event at the Monarch Restaurant in Maplewood. The topic will be E-mail Marketing- The What, Why, How, When You Should Send an Email.

Expert panelists will be discussing be speaking about all aspects of email marketing programs, including testing, reporting, segmenting, demo data, and CAN-SPAM. A panelist from LashBack will discuss how to protect email reputation and improve deliverability through email compliance and best practices. Hope to see you there!

When:
Wednesday, October 15, 6-9 p.m.
6-7 Networking - Eats and Drinks
7-8 Presentation
8-9 More Networking

Where:
Monarch Restaurant
7401 Manchester Rd.
Maplewood, MO 63143

Email Compliance: The Foundation of Reputation and Deliverability

“Learn the Process, Use the Tools, Get the Answers”

Date: November 3, 2008

Time: 1pm-5pm (refreshments will be provided)

Location: eec/DMA Seminar Center, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, 13th Floor, New York, NY.

This seminar is part of a ground-breaking series of email compliance-focused events. This specific seminar will cover LashBack and UnsubCentral processes and deliverables within a framework of educating participants as to the need for comprehensive compliance processes as a foundation to successful email marketing and email reputation protection.

Participants will learn the 10 guidelines of CAN-SPAM compliance with drill down on unsubscribe compliance, unsubscribe processes including suppression list best practices, the new FTC unsubscribe rule, and compliance’s overall impact on reputation and deliverability.

Speakers:

To register at the DMA website, click here.

Mailing to suppression files has been a problem since the inception of the CAN-SPAM Act. However, a more insidious issue that LashBack has seen recently is the rise in opt-in fraud. Email addresses are being harvested from suppression files and signed up directly on opt-in sites with false identification information. In response, LashBack has launched a new beta service called DataSource Validator.

The beta service, available to all LashBack clients, allows for submission of an MD5 Hash of opt-in email addresses and their respective opt-in IPs. DataSource Validator checks files for our list of seed email addresses which should never be opted in. In addition, it cross-checks against any IPs that have attempted to opt-in our seeds in the past. The goal of the new service is to alert marketers when they are receiving bad data from a particular opt-in source and allow them to take appropriate action.

LashBack has since rolled out the API to support batch processing of a lead file for lead source validation. Consequently, instead of having to submit each address line by line to inspect it for a suspicious opt-in IP, our clients can now submit entire lead files to be checked for bad data. In addition to being able to access this function programatically, clients can also process leads manually from existing UnsubMonitor accounts.

We urge any clients collecting new data to try this service. Bad data from opt-in fraud is costing marketers payouts for false opt-ins and resulting in higher complaint rates from consumers who have had their addresses fraudulently opted in. To pinpoint the origins of fraudulent data sources that may be tarnishing your list, please view our newest white paper entitled DataSource Validator.

LashBack client Publishers Clearing House(PCH) has embraced the service in an effort to monitor the quality of their lists to proactively promote collaborative compliance and report fraudulent data, protecting consumers and advertisers alike. Sal Tripi, PCH Director of Operations stated, “PCH is eternally vigilant of our brand, our consumer and our advertising customer’s experience with us. When this recent problem surfaced, we knew we had to act fast. Our advertisers and internal marketing partners expect quality. We knew this threat was real based on an alert from LashBack.” Read the full PCH press release on DataSource Validator here.

Melinda Krueger of MediaPost’s Email Insider recently did an informative post entitled Unsub Rates on the Rise. In it, she gives plausible reasons for the concern in the online marketing industry that unsubscribe rates are at an all time high right now. Included in the post are six ways to reduce unsubscribes.

One reason that Krueger lists for the rise in unsubscribes is the strengthening of CAN-SPAM. Consumers are no longer as worried that unsubscribing might subject them to more spam. In addition, smart phones make emails harder to read on the go, which gives people incentive to reduce the amount of mail coming into the inbox. As competition increases and consumers streamline their inboxes, providing value and using email best practices will be the only way to avoid the dreaded unsubscribe.

View a free one-hour on-demand email reputation management webinar featuring experts from LashBack, Habeas and Publishers Clearing House as they discuss:

-The competitive advantage of online compliance and reputation management in any economy-especially in an economic downturn.

-How to analyze, improve and manage email and Web operations with email reputation management strategies and tools.

-Case studies, best practices and tips you can leverage immediately for your business or clients

Register for the webinar and receive access to a new whitepaper, “Exponential ROI: How You Can Achieve It with Email Reputation Management

To promote email compliance proccesses, LashBack and BlueHornet are teaming up to offer a free interactive seminar at the Lifecycle Messaging Email Conference. The pre-conference seminar will take place September 30, 2008, at the Coronado Island Resort in San Diego, CA. The CAN-SPAM Compliance, Reputation and Deliverability Lifecycle Seminar is from 2-4 p.m. with a cocktail reception following from 6-8 p.m. Listen to case studies and email “war stories”, and learn how to utilize best practices in interactive marketing in order to avoid becoming a statistic.

You Bring the Questions, We Bring the Experts:

Linda Goodman, leading CAN-SPAM and online compliance attorney, presents her top case studies to give real life perspective on actual compliance problems.

James O’Brien, LashBack’s Director of Marketing, outlines the ten guidelines to CAN-SPAM compliance- how to stay out of trouble and in compliance with federal laws.

Michele Eichner of Pivotal Veracity discusses the impact compliance issues can have on your email reputation.

Tim Marusich, VP and General Manager of BlueHornet shares tips on how your email service provider can help you get back on track and stay there.

The three day Lifecycle Messaging Email Conference in San Diego is geared toward conscientious email marketers looking to improve email campaign performance. Often the first step in improving long-term campaign performance is ensuring compliant sending behavior. The relationship between reputation and deliverability is as strong as ever. Hope to see you in San Diego!

Register for the seminar and learn more about the Lifecycle Messaging Email Conference below:

Email Compliance Seminar Free Registration

Lifecycle Messaging Email Conference