I was digging through my closet today and found this hat. The hats were given out as chachka at a unique email industry meetup hosted by the Berkman Center at Harvard University on a very cold winter day in January, 2004. I think Trevor Hughes was responsible for the hats.

I believe this meeting was one of the first times that SPF, Sender-ID and Domain Keys were revealed publicly. I remember Hans Peter Brøndmo speaking about the vision of Project Lumos a lot of passionate debate about the future of email and the need for Authentication, Accreditation and Reputation systems.

My how far we've come! 6 years later SPF is gone, Sender-ID is predominantly used by Microsoft, and DKIM has been adopted by Google, Yahoo! and many others. Authentication is real. Return Path is the de-facto reputation system and also provides accreditation services along with Goodmail and others.

Back then all reputation was IP based. Now we're finally seeing significant movement towards domain based reputation authenticated with DKIM.

Did it "solve" the spam problem? Certainly not. I do think it has helped the overall ecosystem and it surely has made it easier for legitimate senders to get reliably email deliverability.

Were you at that meeting on the cold January day in 2004? What do you remember? What do you think about how far we've come?

What is with the month January this year? Seems that a few celebrity marriages have taken a turn for the worse and caused them to separate. I'm not trying to make fun of someone's misfortunes, but wow.

To make things more interesting in our terms of email, sometime this week a bunch of new buzz stirred up around Goodmail's and Yahoo! relationship. Are they breaking up? Taking a little break from each other? Who knows, but the chatter around the industry is that Goodmail has made phone calls or sent the below email to it's ESP partners and customers notifying then of such. You decide.

My viewpoint? I'm not so sold on this information just yet. Just doesn't make sense... UPDATED: as I think more about this, is it because Yahoo! doesn't see a big enough benefit over the hassle of keep up the infrastructure? Someone also said to me maybe the Goodmail stuff was in the way during the recent Yahoo! inbound outages? or caused it? is pay for email really worth it?

Effective February 1: There will be a reduction in privileges granted to CertifiedEmail messages sent to yahoo.com and other domains controlled by Yahoo:

1. The CertifiedEmail icon won’t be displayed for CertifiedEmail messages sent to these domains.
2. Delivery rates to Yahoo mailboxes will be very high but Goodmail can no longer assure delivery, as messages will be subject to filtering by Yahoo.
3. Images will be displayed for most CertifiedEmail messages but not for all.

We are in discussions with Yahoo and hope to restore full privileges to CertifiedEmail but there is no firm timeline for that at this time. We will advise on any developments as soon as we can.

Effective February 1: CertifiedEmail coverage will expand to include Verizon.net and all Mail.com mailboxes.

Goodmail remains committed to its CertifiedEmail platform, the only solution for senders, receivers and consumers who expect the highest level of security, best email practices and Inbox functionality. During 2010, CertifiedEmail will grow its ISP footprint and we will launch new exciting products.

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Service group via email at customerservice (AT) goodmailsystems.com

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

We're seeing reports at OtherInbox of spam emails sent to email lists that are hosted at iContact. Our users give each website a different email address so it's easy to see when they get abused. I received an email with the subject "Pharmacy Best Product Vicodin.Viagra!!!!!" to an email address that was only given to Shoeboxed.com (a great service that I love). 

Other users are reporting emails to other companies that have no affiliation to Shoeboxed - but the one common thread seems to be that they all use iContact. Another list that is hosted at iContact and seems to be stolen is eApps.com. We know of at least 8 different companies affected by this so far.

Marek Isalski did a great job documenting the breach here. 

There may be another explanation, so we've reached out to iContact on Twitter and are watching their blog for more info but so far they have not responded. Understandably, they are probably doing their own research before they make any announcements. (update: iContact has updated their blog acknowledging the issue but with few other details.)

Is your list hosted at iContact? Do you have any unique seeds on it? If so, leave a message in the comments and tell me if you received this same spam email.

Yahoo! is having some MTA connectivity problems, from the Postmaster Blog:

If you're seeing some queuing in your outbounds today when sending to Y! users,
we're currently experiencing low connectivity across our MTAs, which started
this morning. We're working to get things back to normal.

The SMTP error message being generated by the issue should be:

"420 Resources unavailable temporarily. Please try later <insert Y! MTA hostname>"


Our apologies for the inconvenience.

____________________

In addition to the 420s it appears as though 421s are increasing so expect to see a few flavors of message deferred in your logs.

Sincerely,

-Len Shneyder
Director of Partner Relations
& Industry Communications
www.pivotalveracity.com

RE-POSTED from Fresh Business Thinking

Email Health Checking

By Dennis Dayman, Chief Privacy and Deliverability Officer at Eloqua

The rapid pace at which email has developed means that criminals and spammers are constantly looking for new ways to make money and bypass the law. Consequently, email technology and regulators are being forced to keep up. In the past, the threats posed by spam were prevented using fairly basic measures that would block untargeted emails. Content filters were set up to protect inboxes from messages that contained certain keywords. 

For a while this worked, but despite the initial success, filters of this kind caused two main problems. First there are false positives, where legitimate companies, marketing a valid product, were limited in their outreach if one of their key terms was blocked by the spam filter. For example, Pfizer was unable to communicate material around the product Viagra, despite having a legitimate right to market its content. The other was around interfering with personal emails and the result of excessive filters placing emails from family and friends into spam folders....

--MORE--? Click here!

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

"Permission is not enough; list engagement list is the key to deliverability. ISPs have stated they’re measuring such things as viewing time."

"Over-mailing = complaints = negative reputation at ISPs. Diversify less critical messages using Social Media. Save the good stuff for email."

"Drop the noreply@. Gmail’s begun testing turning on images for senders who have received two replies from a user; other ISPs should follow."

"Let the customer drive. From the onset and through Preference Centers let them dictate how much and what sort of email they want to receive."

"Stop marketing, at least occasionally. Actual content is likely to score better as ISPs look at engagement and complaints when filtering."

"Test, test, test. Day of the week, time of day, and level of personalization and segmentation will all improve engagement and pay dividends."

"Authentication will continue to be a major factor. Senders who have not adopted DKIM as their auth method of choice should do so this year."

"Just like DKIM, domain-level reputation is on the rise. For portability’s sake, make the From: and Friendly From as consistent as possible."

"Even though engagement, DKIM, and domain-rep may be on the rise they’re not the only factors. IP-based reputation still matters -- a lot."

"ESPs can do many things but your content and frequency aren’t among them. What/when/how you mail is largely dependent on your deliverability."
 

- Scott Hardigree | Indiemark | @indiescott

REPOSTED from mad.co.uk

When email was first developed, it was primarily used as a channel to exchange research between universities, the government and to share military information with targeted parties. Today the landscape is quite different, and  email is now a fully-fledged method of communication. As is typical however, as its popularity has grown, so has its appeal to criminals. This has created both a challenge in terms of how to prevent this criminal activity, as well as an opportunity, particularly for marketing services companies who strive to support organisations that dispatch targeted emails as part of their marketing communications activities...

MORE? Click here: http://technologyweekly.mad.co.uk

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

The email industry's latest buyout happened a few days ago and we witnessed a highly reputable email monitoring and deliverability reputation company Pivotal Veracity agree to buyout terms from Unica, an Email Service Provider with  gunpowder. Unica is attempting to be a "one-stop shop" for marketers that utilize their suite of services and with the acquisition of Pivotal Veracity, Unica may have completed it’s mission of also providing email reputation and deliverability services to its core clients.

What amazes me about this transaction is that Pivotal Veracity was really making strides in becoming a thought-leader in this small field,  and was competing closely with archrival ReturnPath.  I believe the buyout could potentially alienate a number ESP's from eventually partnering with Pivotal Veracity.  As a result of the buyout, ESPs will be very cautious in their approach to working with Pivotal Veracity. However, this by no means diminishes Pivotal Veracity's tremendous accomplishment and a huge congratulations is in order to everyone associated with Pivotal Veracity including but not limited to Deirdre Baird, Michelle Eichner, Jordan Cohen and Len Schnyder.  It certainly looks like Pivotal Veracity accomplished their goal and executed on their exit strategy perfectly.  For many successful companies, "stage five" constitutes an exit strategy of some kind. This process usually happens after key executives and members of the board vote on such an initiative.  I just think that stage five might have come a bit early for Pivotal Veracity.

All evidence seems to show that the real winner in this transaction is ReturnPath.  ReturnPath no doubt also has an exit strategy, but they appear unwilling to divulge a strategy or partner with an ESP at this point, given their unique leadership position and respected voice in the industry.  Although Pivotal Veracity has many well spoken and thought provoking leaders on their staff, I think ReturnPath and their consummate staff are the real superheroes here.  From  Stephanie Miller, the passionate and relentless email advocate to the outspoken J.D. Falk, whose innate knowledge of email technology and deliverability illuminates us all.  Then, of course, there is the self-proclaimed spamfighter himself, Neil Schwartzman. Without a doubt, ReturnPath’s luminaries saturate the industry with reliable and balanced messaging every time.

Furthermore, with leading services in place that are more robust than ever (such as the latest from Sender Score outlined here by Spencer Kollas), and definitive plans in place for maximizing and monitoring domain reputation for senders, the future looks promising.  When you take emails bright future into account, it appears that  ReturnPath is poised for many quarters of strong growth.  I don’t want to sound like an analyst here, but I really think ReturnPath has what it takes to raise the bar for the entire email community and further develop its existing reputation services.

With these developments, ESPs will now will look to ReturnPath as the consummate leader in the email reputation monitoring space and see one fewer rival, one fewer choice to make.  Senders and ESPs will find that ReturnPath is the only high level and sovereign conduit for stellar email deliverability monitoring and reputation.  The allure of ReturnPath is its stout independent position in our space (a positon that only those in our space truly appreciate.) Certainly Matt Blumberg, George Bilbrey and their hardworking crew can now navigate the email reputation landscape exclusively.

At some point in the future, I’m sure ReturnPath also has an exit strategy in mind and that strategy is not for us to surmise. I would venture to guess that as the industry continues to mature and consolidate, ReturnPath may consider filing for an IPO, especially as we see continued consolidation in this space.   I think what matters most is to enjoy the exciting journey that ReturnPath is paving for our industry.  We now have two choices: we can either watch or we can help them build a company of which we can all be proud of. 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

Bounces in email marketing are inevitable, but I often wonder how many marketers in email truly watch their bounces on a regular and consistent basis.

Enter UBER email marketing geek like me. 

At Groupon where I work, our frequency is high and we send a tremendous amount of segmented email.  Some may think that managing and reacting to bounces in this type of environment seems like a daunting task.  One of the requirements that I have as professional is that I am fed a constant stream of information on all areas relating to running an email program.  I hate being caught off guard and want to know if there is a problem before anyone tells me that we have a problem.

I spoke to my ESP and told them of my requirement to be notified when we are having a bounce problem.  I specifically wanted to know if we were having any block bounce issues with my top domains so that I can be proactive in solving them.

They responded quickly and are now generating a bounce report every 3 hours (7 days a week) indicating all of my bounce rates across domains.  I scan almost every report as they come in looking for patterns or trends in the percentages and notify my ESP peeps if I see issues.

My point in all of this is that if you are the manager or director of an email program, this means you own the  whole shebang....bounces and all.  Don't rely on anyone but yourselves to manage the tough stuff like this.  Take control of your bounces, specifically those block bounces which can wreak havoc on your program if an early warning system is not in place.  Is every 3 hours overkill?  Perhaps, but in some programs it might be necessary especially if your program relies on email as its main source of revenue.

A fellow colleague and outstanding contributor of this great blog Dennis Dayman has had some posts centered around bounces and if you haven't read them, I encourage you to do so.

Long live email marketing.

Many of you will have heard the news already - AOL plans to layoff approximately 1,400 staff members in the next day or so, the process has already started in some locations... Grim news indeed.

But this could happen to any ISP, and in times like these it makes the importance of following the escalation and support process all that more important... Less bodies does not mean less work for people - in fact quite the opposite. The individuals that do end up making it past the latest round of layoffs and buyouts will now have a major increase in work load.

Here is what you can do to help the people that help you:

1. Review your mailing metrics before opening a ticket (bounces, low opens/clicks, etc...) and read the error codes being returned in your mail logs - generally the error codes will tell you what your issues are - see sample errors codes from AOL and Comcast. High bounces, low opens, poor coding can all easily be fixed on your own.
2. If your not able to resolve this alone and need help - Consider hiring an email delivery consultant to help you (I know several that are always looking for new clients). They have seen it all and can possibly identify and help resolve an issue you didn't even know you had.
3. Consultant not in the cards and your going to try it alone... Follow the escalation process detailed on the Postmaster pages for many ISPs, no postmaster page - then try sending an email to Postmaster@ISP. Word to the Wise has a great list to reference and bookmark. Be sure to include all the information you have when asking for help from an ISP - IPs, error codes, email samples (with headers), full contact information, trace routes, manual mail server connection tests. Confused yet? See #2
4. Possibly the most important part of this is Be patient and Understanding - The postmaster/abuse desk receiving your email is already working on a dozen other items ranging from; internal network abuse mitigation to bot nets to helping resolve false positive issues to name just a few of the things they are doing on a daily basis.
5. Give Respect, Get Respect - Give attitude, and you can wait at the bottom of the support queue. Don't flood the support queues with dozens of messages, most support systems work on a first in first out process - they will get to you when it's your turn.
   
   
6. Monitor your mail logs... as abuse desks get busier their ability to reply may decline, but you may see the issue suddenly resolve without receiving a confirmation message or without an explanation of the cause of the issue (this is frequently experienced now with some ISPs).

These are a few simple things that you can consider when looking at issue, and asking for help resolving these problems. Sound daunting and confusing... See #2 - it might just be the best thing you do this year to get your program back on track, even if your not currently experiencing any delivery issues.

Original Post on EmailKarma.net

Waltham, Mass. – January 13, 2010 - Unica Corporation (Nasdaq: UNCA), the recognized leader in marketing software solutions, today announced that it has acquired privately-held Pivotal Veracity, a leading provider of tools that enable companies to optimize the deliverability and reputation of their digital communications, for approximately $17.8 million in cash....

--Click here for MORE--

-Dennis
Eloqua 

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

(The Deliverability Forum is a series of interviews I hosted with industry leaders and luminaries over the past few months.  It came to closure last week and I have shared the final post with takeaways and highlights from the Bronto blog.)

It is with a bit of ennui that I must close this series.  Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the blog posts over the last few months and gave their uncensored opinions around what they find valuable, in need of change or what interesting developments are in the pipeline.  As we began, so we will end - you may not have direct access to these industry leaders but I hope the conversations I've shared have given you insight into the minds of those who have direct influence over the email industry from a sender's and receiver's perspective.  And thank you for the comments and readership thus far.

If you missed any of the blog posts, they are laid out below in chronological order with a high level summary of the post and my takeaways for you as a reader to glean from the interview.  Also, I've included a "definition" section at the bottom of this post if there are any acronyms that you might be uncertain about.  Please scroll down to access it.

The Players:

The FTC (post) describes in the US government's own voice how spam is regulated and counteracted.  Ethan Arenson, the FTC Spam Coordinator, spells out the very serious consequences of not being CAN-SPAM compliant and where to go for their exacting interpretation of what exactly is required of all commercial mailers.  It also shows the government's willingness to help curb the problem of unwanted email by enforcing industry standards such as authentication in a non-legal but best standard way.

My take: While most commercial emailers are compliant with the law (especially if using an ESP such as Bronto), it remains in your best interest to stay cognizant of the law and have someone you trust and can defer to when you're not sure if what you're doing is legal.  Also, the FTC regularly updates the Act's provisions so make sure to stay abreast of the latest rules that are voted in by the FTC commissioners.  We are talking about law here with real civil and criminal consequences if broken.  You don't want to find yourself being accused of a federal crime wherein ignorance of the law won't hold much water!

Pivotal Veracity's (post) President and CEO, Deidre Baird, explains the importance of both authentication and user engagement.  Pivotal Veracity is neither an ISP nor an ESP, but rather a deliverability intermediary services company with deep expertise around content and email disposition.  Also, Pivotal Veracity is a partner of Bronto.  As the interview mentions, without a conscious eye towards the emerging shift in ISP deliverability patterns, specifically around user engagement and authentication, you'll find your program in trouble.

My take: As AOL puts it, "send relevant email to people that want to receive it!"  Are you doing everything you can from an infrastructure standpoint to ensure your email doesn't attract negative hits when being scanned and determined for acceptance by the ISPs?  And, once delivered, is the email being received well by your recipients?  If you can't categorically answer in the affirmative to both of those questions, you have some major homework to do or else risk your mail being deemed irrelevant and sent off to the bulk folder or bounced back.  Both cost money.

Razorfish (post) chimed in from a email content and strategy perspective.  Whitney Hutchinson, Group Director, Strategy and Account Services, sums it up nicely by hitting on these key points: engage your recipients with appropriate creatives, have a holistic marketing approach for the relationship management and take into account the "stacking effect" which is a result of the newly emergent communication technologies available to market to recipients through.  Email is now one of many.

My take: While email is now just one piece in a wide breadth of technologies (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Wave, SMS, etc.), it is still the most important and most trusted conduit of content that recipients most engage with consistently over time.  It has proven itself as a reliable protocol, even older than the internet itself (history)!  But, recipients have become increasingly savvy with its adoption so making your content stand out amongst the sea of email users get is at the vanguard of a successful marketing program.

ReturnPath's (post) President, George Bilbrey, still believes email is the "killer" app.  ReturnPath, while not an email sender or receiver, hosts a suite of services ranging from ESP to ISP products and plays a significant role with its liaison relationship between both senders and receivers.  He poignantly breaks down the exacting metrics ISPs use to measure user engagement (i.e., open rates, click rates, spam complaints, panel votes, etc.) along with the idea of domain reputation.  ReturnPath is a partner of Bronto.

My take: Authenticate, watch your complaints and make sure your domain reputation is healthy.  Yahoo! and AOL have already moved over to using domain reputation as a determining factor for deliverability - so to even ignore those two at this point with their combined estimated 142.4 million unique inboxes is perilous.  ISPs are fighting off spam and user interpreted unwanted email; don't let your mail take on these smarmy characteristics.

Cloudmark (post) occupies a very distinct space in the email industry as being a provider of anti-phishing, spamming, virus and other threat vector services to ISPs only.  Jamie Tomasello, Abuse Operations Manager, posits that authentication doesn't actually imply good mail but rather mail that is verified as coming from the declared source.  Interestingly, she adds that user engagement is not a net positive measurement - you can have negative user engagement as well depending on what the user does with your mail that is perceived by the ISPs and companies such as hers when it's not wanted.  Permission is tantamount.

My take: Bronto and many other responsible ESPs require permission based marketing as the only source of email addresses senders can email to.  Why?  Because it shows the true intent of the recipient to actually want your email; they've taken an action that is clear and deliberate to let the sender know they want the email.  By assuming recipient desire and emailing recipients who haven't given permission is casting a large net that will cause deliverability issues.  Think about it.  When was the last time you marked an email as spam or deleted it when you didn't knowingly sign up for it?  That's what I thought.

LashBack (post) rounded up the series as the final contributor with James O’Brien, Director of Marketing.  LashBack is dedicated to monitoring unsubscribe requests, suppression list abuse and whether an unsubscribe mechanism exists.  This directly ties into CAN-SPAM compliancy as well as being inline with email marketing best practices - when a recipient communicates to you they don't want your email anymore, you should honor this request without question or judgment.  Also, LashBack is putting together the first Email Compliance Summit which should be highly anticipated by senders and ESPs who want to stay on the cutting edge of unsubscribe policy.

My take: With the unsubscribe mechanism being one of several ways a recipient can directly and easily communicate intent with the email sender (others being complaints lodged with the respective ISP or direct email to the sender's role accounts), it is a very useful metric to measure the impact your mail is having on recipients.  Are you sending too much?  Too frequently?  Not targeted enough?  It's the job of the marketer to find that sweet spot where relevancy, recency and frequency are met with the recipients to not drive them to unsubscribe from your mail.

Definitions:

• CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 is the law the federal US government enacted to combat spam and other unwanted and malicious email.

• FTC: Federal Trade Commission is the arm of the federal government in charge of enforcing and maintaining the CAN-SPAM Act.

• ISP: Internet Service Provider of which the largest B2C ISPs are Yahoo!, Hotmail/Live, Gmail and AOL.  Email provider or receiver.

• ESP:  Email Service Provider such as Bronto.  Email senders.

• SPF: Sender Policy Framework is a type of email authentication that is path based and validates the sending entity.

• DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail is a type of email authentication that is encryption based, validates the content of a message hasn't been tampered with while in transit and can be tied back to a sending domain.

I hope that the Deliverability Forum and this wrap up have helped you with your deliverability programs.  Still have questions?  Comment below and let's keep the conversation going.

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability at Bronto
@ChrisAWheeler

[Reposted from Return Path blog]

As 2010 begins and many head to the gym to fulfill New Year's resolutions, here at Return Path we'll be getting our workout strengthening our data! As the world's most comprehensive email reputation data source (collecting data from over 150 million mailboxes worldwide), we are dedicated to ensuring our reputation scores are accurate, current and thorough.

We know the email universe relies on our Sender Score. For anyone who sends email, it's the foremost measure of email reputation - a direct reflection on sending practices based on universal reputation metrics: user complaints, spam trap hits, unknown user counts, and more. For those receiving mail, Sender Score can be used to inform inbound email handling and assist with the Herculean task of separating good email from spam.

These are the reasons why we'll be integrating new and improved data sources into our Sender Score calculation. Though we constantly tune the underlying Sender Score data to ensure accuracy, we have some deeper changes (adding and removing data as well as tuning) that we are making in early January that we wanted to give everyone a heads up on.

When these releases are complete, we anticipate both coverage (total unique IPs scored) and accuracy to improve. We do expect an initial, minor drop in coverage, however as the changes roll out coverage should ultimately increase (well beyond what it is today).

What does this mean for those sending mail? If you are affected by the temporary drop in coverage, when you check your score on senderscore.org (or in Reputation Monitor in our monitoring suite if you're a client), you may see a question mark instead of a numeric value. Again, this will only be temporary. Otherwise, you may notice your score (0-100) has risen or dropped from the previous average, as our analytical models are automatically adjusting to this new, broader perspective. But there's no cause for alarm. It'll smooth out soon.

Generally speaking, not having a score or having a minor shift in your score will NOT affect your email deliverability. The ISPs who use the Sender Score in their filtering decisions have been fully informed of these enhancements. We've also taken steps to ensure that our Return Path Certification program and Reputation Network Blacklist will ignore any inconsistencies in the Score.

Thank you for your patience and support as we roll out these great improvements to the Sender Score. As we continue to fortify our reputation data, Sender Score will be more robust than ever and will continue to be an increasingly crucial factor in inbox placement rates.

Quick note this morning. SpamAssassin has notified the industry that a bug exists in their software.

What's the deal here you ask? Well it seems that SpamAssassin had a rule in their default installations YEARS ago that would catch any spam with the date 2010+. Yes, believe it or not, but spammers forged their dates to confuse filters at one time or another. 

Well, email HAS survived up to 2010 now and the rule was never updated. Any emails sent as of January 1, 2010 to servers running SpamAssassin before the fix was made available, and to any servers running SpamAssassin that have not implemented the fix, will experience a higher than normal SpamAssassin score. This will effect delivery for messages where the score increase is significant enough to put the email's score above a filtering threshold

A fix to this issue has been made available, but it may take some time for servers running SpamAssassin to make the necessary updates since administrators are the ones who have to make the fix happen.

Make sure you poke as many people about this.

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!