Keeping the World Safe for Email (part two)

By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman

In my last post, we discussed Return Path's role in keeping the world safe for email marketing and I ended with a very important question - how can we help consumers trust email more?

To foster reliability and trustworthiness we have to first improve email's credibility from an operational and strategic perspective. When you send email, it has to get there. And when it gets there it has to be relevant. That is how you build trust and loyalty; by delivering what a person wants on time and as expected. Whether you are a marketer who uses email to build revenue and relationships or a consumer who uses email to make connections to people, places or things, you are entitled to get what you asked for, and perhaps paid for.

The fact is that it is not okay for wanted email to get lost in the shuffle, no matter what the rationale behind it. UPS makes a pack and ship promise and Verizon guarantees a reliable network (and by the way, how annoyed are we when cell phone networks drop calls?). Why shouldn't you as a consumer expect the same level of service and reliability from your inbox? And it is not just about deliverability, either. From acquisition to inbox, it is primarily about giving the people what they want from those that mean no harm.

It is our job as marketers, ISPs and ESPs to help with the email evolution and make it a more reliable application that connects people around the globe with trusted information that consumers want to receive. Like with credit cards and identity theft, there are tools and services in place to help safeguard email. We will separate the good guys (legitimate marketers) from the bad guys (spammers and phishers), improve consumer confidence in email, and confirm the viability and profitability of the channel as a core marketing tool. Although we look at the email universe through different eyes, the fact remains that we have a common goal - to keep the world safe for email.

Join us in the coming months as we continue this dialogue on spearheading email's evolution in 2008 and beyond.