Emailhead

Most email-sending IPs Have Bad Reputation

The reputations of 97 out of 100 email-sending IP addresses are bad enough that email providers would likely block their messages, according to an email study.

A mere 0.9 percent of IP addresses score high enough to ensure that emails they send would likely be delivered, according to a study by email deliverability services firm Return Path, Directmag.com reports (via MarketingVox). Luckily, most commercial marketers' IP addresses are within that 0.9 percent. However, their "Sender Score," as monitored by Return Path, tends to be closer to the borderline 70 than the highest-level 100.

Return Path uses six criteria (e.g., complaint rates, email volume sent, unknown-user rates) to assign each address a 1-100 score. Senders with scores above 70 would likely have their email delivered; those below 30 likely wouldn't. The highest-scoring IP addresses tend to be corporate accounts that don't send much email and don't spam.

"Most marketers are between 60 and 80," George Bilbrey, general manager of Return Path's delivery assurance solutions unit, is quoted as saying. "Most marketers are in the gray area. The question is: How gray are you and how can you get yourself to a lighter shade of gray?" The answer lies more in reputation and less in email content, he says.

Email Open Rates Double with Authenticity Icons

Email messages marked with an icon indicating its authenticity are twice as likely, on average, to be opened than unmarked messages, according to research from email identification company Iconix, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox). Emails from online auction companies, which are frequent targets of phishing attacks, benefited most, with the open rate increasing 404 percent.

Open rates least affected were for online retail emails (a 40 percent increase) and those regarding news/information services (a 26 percent increase).

Open rates increased significantly for e-cards (192 percent), travel services (189 percent), social networks (115 percent), and dating sites (107 percent); phishing-susceptible financial institutions' and online payment services' open rates increased 70 percent and 68 percent, respectively.

Don't Piss Off the Customer

Good Email Insider article today that discusses the shift from simple systems centered on the "authentication" of email marketers' IP addresses to an email marketer's "reputation" now being the chief determinant of whether their emails will get through.

My favorite common sense opinion in the article comes from George Bilbrey, general manager of deliverability services for Return Path: "In the end, if you treat your customer right, you'll have a good reputation." And the requirements are pretty simple, he went on: "If you're using authentication and sender ID, and you keep your complaints low and you're not getting spam traffic queries... you'll be okay... Anyone who is using authentication and has developed a good reputation will have their mail delivered."

That about sums it up. We can complicate the issue with other declarations: ask for permission, authenticate, don’t send too many emails, give customers something of value, etc. But here’s the Business 101 point of view: don’t piss off your customers.

AOL Adopts Goodmail, 15 ESPs Follow

Goodmail Systems on Monday announced that 15 major email service providers have agreed to use its email accreditation service after AOL quietly launched Goodmail's CertifiedEmail last week after months of controversy, DM News reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner.com). More are likely to get on the bandwagon since 15 of the 25 major players, such as Epsilon Interactive and ExactTarget, have already signed up.

The ESPs that have signed up to offer Goodmail's CertifiedEmail to their corporate customers include BlueStreak, Acxiom Digital, e-Dialog, Epsilon Interactive, ExactTarget, Exmplar, Harte-Hanks Postfuture, Premiere Global Services, Responsys, Silverpop, SmartDM, TailoredMail, Yesmail, Whatcounts, and Zustek.

Those ESPs account for 50 billion email messages a year, according to John Ouren, SVP of sales and business development for Goodmail. "We've got what we estimate to be 70 percent of the leading full-service providers. And in terms of the top 25, we're in discussions with everyone else," he said.

The CertifiedEmail system consists of two components. First, an accreditation and reputation monitoring service validates that senders are legitimate corporations managing the best opt-in email practices with the lowest consumer complaint rates. Second, approved senders have their messages individually stamped with a unique cryptographically secure token that ensures consumers that the messages are from the represented sender.

Return Path Bows 'Sender Score,' Hopes to Improve Deliverability

Return Path has launched a reputation management product for email marketers that gives companies a "credit score" - based on data from email receivers that is then analyzed by the company's proprietary technology - for their email campaigns, in order to help in their deliverability efforts, writes DM News (via MediaBuyerPlanner.com).

"Delivery has long been about reputation. If you have a good one, your email gets delivered. If not, the inbox can be an extremely hard destination to reach. Trouble is, figuring out your email reputation has been hard to do - until now," writes George Bilbrey, vp and gm delivery assurance solutions for Return Path.

Sender Score looks at 60 data points including complaint rates, unknown user rates, security practices, identity stability and unsubscribe function from several major ISPs and filtering companies.

Deliverability remains a huge challenge, with 82 percent of marketers saying e-mail deliverability is a problem for them, according to a study released Thursday by EmailLabs, BtoB reports.

AOL Blocks CertifiedEmail Critics' Emails

AOL on Thursday apparently began bouncing emails containing the "Dearaol.com" URL - which is for a petition against AOL's controversial certified-email program - according to nonprofit MoveOn.org (as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation), CNET reports (via MarketingVox). Dearaol.com contains an open letter and a petition that calls on people to protest what it calls an "email tax" being imposed by AOL.

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said late Thursday that AOL emails containing "Dearaol.com" would be delivered as normal. He said a software glitch had "affected dozens of web links in messages," including Dearaol.com.

That site was set up by a coalition against AOL's adoption of GoodMail's CertifiedEmail, which allows requires marketers to pay in order to circumvent spam filters and ensure delivery of their email messages.

E-Mailers Cool Down on Goodmail, Lawmakers Heat Up

Though the controversy over AOL’s use of Goodmail CertifiedEmail has subsided in the e-mail industry, nonprofit and advocacy groups — as well as a state lawmaker in California — continue to express concerns, DMNews reports.

The latest opposition came last week from California state Sen. Dean Florez, who called for a closer look at the program.

“It seems to me that AOL is setting a horrible precedent here,” said Florez, a Democrat. “The whole idea of Net Neutrality gets wiped away, and we are left with an Internet of haves and have-nots.”

Florez told DM News that he wants Yahoo and AOL technical experts to explain how Goodmail and its fees will work at a March 28 hearing. He also wants AOL to explain the program before it rolls out in April. Yahoo plans to implement a CertifiedEmail program in a few months as well.

Worried about Deliverability? Test to AOL, Yahoo & Hotmail Accounts

When it comes to deliverability, here's something you can do to make sure your emails get through. Set up accounts with the major ISPs such as AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail. Before you send out your email, send a test of the blast to these accounts. Send it the same way you plan to send the blast - same subject line, from address, etc. If they don't get through, it could be due to a number of factors including content, design, and how you send the emails - is the delivery vendor reputable and does it put a lot of resources towards ISP relations?

Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL remain as the predominant delivery channels for opt-in commercial email communications, according to a study by Lyris. Twenty-six percent of American Internet users are receiving opt-in commercial emails via Yahoo, 21 percent via Hotmail, and 13 percent via AOL. In contrast, only 8 percent of American Internet users are receiving opt-in commercial emails via their work email accounts.