Feb
07
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
It's official. AOL will keep its organic Enhanced Whitelist, clarifying that is not planning on replacing it with Goodmail's email stamp program. Goodmail will now be ONE way, not the only way, to reach AOL inboxes. Charles Stiles, the postmaster for AOL, confirmed this earlier today on the phone with me, and I announced the news on CNBC's Power Lunch.
This is a huge win for all companies who strive to do email the right way, earning the solid reputations that drive deliverability and response rates. Paying for inbox reach is akin to only having paid search engine marketing - it works for some business models, not others; some consumers like paid ads, some...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Feb
06
By: George Bilbrey
GM of Delivery Assurance
Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is; the tree is the real thing.
~Abraham Lincoln
In email, Character is Reputation. And, while reputation has become the latest buzz word in the email industry, often it is difficult for marketers to find the road to an improved reputation with so many catchphrases clouding the space. The truth is, every marketer who sends email has a reputation, whether they know it or not, whether they actively manage it or not. That reputation dictates if their email reaches the inbox.
There are no shortcuts. You can't just publish SPF records and stop. You can't just pay more to get unwelcome email through (at least we hope things never get to that point, despite AOL's Goodmail announcement this week)...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Feb
03
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
The introduction of the email stamp model by Goodmail is a radical departure from the current email ecosystem. While I'm all for change and believe the spam problem is still real, I don't think stamps are the answer. Rich Gingras of Goodmail, who I have a tremedous amount of respect for, has laid out some of his arguments for this plan here in the DMNews blog. I'll respond to those arguments as well as add some others in this posting.
It seems that Rich's main argument in favor of stamps is that whitelists don't work. While he clearly does understand ISPs (he used to work at one), he doesn't seem to understand the world of publishers and marketers. His solution is fundamentally hostile to the way they do business ....
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
There's been a lot of noise this week since the news broke about AOL and Goodmail, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to change the direction of the dialog a little bit.
First, there are two main issues here, and I think it's healthy to separate them and address them separately. One issue is the merits of an email stamp system like the one Goodmail is proposing, relative to other methods of improving and ensuring email deliverability. The second issue -- and the one that got me started earlier this week - is the question of AOL making usage of Goodmail stamps a mandatory event, replacing its enhanced whitelist. To really separate the issues, this posting will tackle the second question, and the next posting will tackle the first question.
I have reached out to Charles Stiles this morning to try to clarify AOL's position ...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Jan
30
By: Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
Remember the old email hoax about Hillary Clinton pushing for email taxation? When we first heard AOL's plans for Goodmail today, we thought maybe the hoax had re-surfaced and a few industry reporters got hooked by it. But alas, this tax plan seems to be true.
AOL has long held the leading standard in email whitelisting. Every email sender who cares about delivery has tried to keep their email reputation high so that they could earn placement on AOL's coveted Enhanced Whitelist. Now, AOL may be saying that those standards don't matter...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Jan
25
By: George Bilbrey
GM of Delivery Assurance
We've had a few questions about IronPort's announcement this week regarding its new reputation scoring for URLs, what it means for the world of reputation checks, and what it means for marketers.
There seems to be another announcement on reputation services weekly these days. What marketers need to know is this: you have a reputation, and that reputation matters. The more data you can get on your reputation as it relates to how email receivers...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Jan
24
By: Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
As pointed out in The Register this week, it's now been exactly two years since Bill Gates declared that Microsoft would eliminate spam in two years.
Hmmm. Let's think about that. Filters do keep getting better, which Gates predicted. But challenge/response filtering seems to be dead in the water, and the notion that we're all going to pay for email stamps...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Jan
22
By: Tom Sather; ISP and Deliverability Consultant and
Stephanie Miller; VP of Strategic Solutions
This is a common question from email marketers. The bad news is that nearly every effective direct marketing word can be found on these lists. The good news is that It isn't really about a list of words per se, it's how the filters see a constantly evolving combinations of words get used that trigger the filters.
We always suggest that clients write great marketing copy for their offer, marketing goals, brand and audience, and then test their creative for current triggers using our Campaign Preview and Spam Filter Monitor tools. Often, the flagged words include...
Categories: Email Deliverability
Dec
21
By: Tom Bartel
Chief Privacy Officer
Just in time for the Holidays comes the FTC's "Effectiveness and Enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act" report to Congress.
Believe it or not it has been two full years since Can Spam was enacted. Part of the law was a requirement that the FTC issue a report on Can Spam's effect on the spam problem after two years. That time has come...
Categories: Email Deliverability
By: Leslie Price
Senior Product Manager;
Accreditation Services
As part of the Return Path team, I frequently do a review of a client's mailing practices by signing up as a user to their services. I create an account that is only used for that sender alone so that I can monitor their mailing practices and their use of my email address.
One such client had worked very diligently for 6 months to improve their internal practices, but after that period of time, they decided to "share" my email address. I don't know the specifics of whether my address was sold, shared with a partner or affiliate, or brokered. But whatever the arrangement, after the address was "shared", I received...
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