I’m a lover of magic.  When illusions appear creative, bold, and clever, they seem worthy of being shared with everyone.  On the other hand, if it’s a trick that everyone knows—one that has been around for decades—the “magic” becomes cheap and hollow, unlikely to fool anyone. When it comes to the standardization of email metrics, the question arises: is this truly noteworthy, or simply another case of “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?”  Smoke and mirrors won’t work in this case; complete transparency is necessary to address this issue.  It’s time to put all of our cards on the table and examine various aspects of the argument surrounding standardization.

 

Independent email consultants Luke Glaser and John Caldwell, as co-chairs of the DMA/Email Experience Council’s Measurement Accuracy Roundtable, have marshaled a group of industry players to launch an email standardization project.  For what it’s worth, that project is gaining momentum and earning some serious ink within the industry.  This is not the same old dog and pony show we’ve seen in the past; these guys really have their act together.  Think of them as Siegfried and Roy of the email industry.  Their “S.A.M.E” project (Support Adoptions of Metrics for Email) has bent the ears of industry pundits, and their formula for encouraging ESPs to adopt the standards seems to be fooling everyone.  And in this context, deception is a good thing. Learn more about the S.A.M.E project here. 

 

Sleeveless in Seattle 

 

As with any new industry related project, many challenges surface, but without early adopters, we’d be left sleeveless, a nightmare for any magician.  Two ESPs, MassTransmit/EmailTransmit and AllWebMail have already committed to adopting the industry standard for metrics which was released by the DMA/eec in March 2010.  Since then, a dozen other high profile ESPs claim that they will allegedly adopt the standards in the next six months or so, including, but not limited to, BlueHornet, Silverpop, Blue Sky Factory, Bronto, SubscriberMail, and YesMail.  When you think about early adopters, companies like these help pave the road for the rest of the industry to benefit.  As interested ESPs begin to track the progress and milestones achieved by the S.A.M.E project, momentum will build and the benefits will galvanize the industry.

 

“Adoption is not just a semantics game,” says Stephanie Miller, Vice Chair of the DMA/eec and an active member of the Roundtable (her day job is at inbox deliverability solution provider Return Path).  “Marketers usually find out that there are no standards when they go to benchmark their performance, or when they change vendors and realize that all those numbers they’ve been betting their bonus on – they don’t mean what they thought they meant!

“It’s about time our industry stepped up and supported standard metrics just like any other direct marketing discipline,” she says.

 

Deliverability Will No Longer be a Selling Point for ESPs

 

Once the implementation of email standards leads to congruency across the industry, ESPs and marketers will find themselves on a level playing field.  This means marketers will spend more time searching for the right ESP, but once a match is made, marketers will be less likely to move from one ESP to another due to inconsistency in metrics.  This means attrition rates for switching ESPs will fall, which will direct ESPs to focus on supplementary services that will help customers achieve a higher ROI. Examples of such services include compelling creative copy and perhaps a monthly or quarterly SWOT analysis provided by the ESP to each marketer.  Higher performance of the channel benefits all of us.

 

S.A.M.E Project Goals

 

Once a magician takes his oath, he must never reveal his secrets.  However, if aspiring participants are willing to learn magic, they, too, can join the “magic club.”  ESPs face a similar choice.  They can remain on the outside looking in, simply observing the progression of the S.A.M.E project, or they can choose to be an active part of the club.  John and Luke’s first goal is 10-15% of the ESP market adopt the standards.

 

Nowadays, when an ESP reports on the “state of the industry,” they analyze metrics only of their own campaigns, like a magician who looks in the mirror and declares himself successful.  Industry standardization will introduce accountability to the industry, providing the digital marketing community with sterilized benchmarking and consistent reporting.  The spotlight now shines bright on Luke and John, along with other industry veterans and aspiring ESPs involved with the S.A.M.E project. It is their mission to deliver what the email industry yearns for: a final levitation act that will wow the crowd and inspire mass adoption.  They hope to prove that they are master magicians—if they perform their act well enough, even the skeptics will believe. 

 

Here’s How to Get Involved:

 

Marketers:  Send this article to your ESP and encourage them to adopt the standards.

ESPs:  Study the new standard definitions and set a goal for yourself to adopt them.  Be part of the program here:

 

Now, where did all the Rabbits go? J

 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

The recession has made citizens more attentive to scams, especially those that promise easy money or frighten people about the banking system.  This accelerates the already large regulatory agenda of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose role as a “civil prosecutor” includes regulating and enforcing protections from online offers, advertising and email marketing.  Congress is also stepping up, and two major initiatives around privacy protection and the role of the FTC are in active play.

Partnering with all of us in the email industry, and watching to make sure we self-regulate well, remains a key component of the FTC’s plans, says Lois Greisman, Director, Division of Marketing Practices for the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, who joined the second annual DMA/Email Experience Council legislative update webinar on May 19th.  “Our goal is to stop fraud and scams as quickly as possible, to shut down offenders, and, where appropriate, seize assets and reimburse consumers,” she said in the webinar.

The recording of the full event isfree for DMA/eec members: 

The US CAN SPAM Act of 2003, which regulates permission practices for email marketing, continues to be a key anti-fraud tool for the FTC.  Greisman noted several successes in prosecuting spammers and other deceptive practices and said enforcement continues to be a major priority.  “CAN SPAM has worked well to level the playing field among legitimate online marketers,” she said.  She also added that she was not aware of any active proposal by the FTC or Congress to expand or change the law.

However, there are two active proposals of new legislation that could have significant impact on email marketing and the email industry as a whole.

1. Online Privacy Protection Bill: 

A “Discussion Draft” of a bill to require notice and consent to any individual PRIOR to collecting or using personal information was released in early May in the US House of Representatives from Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA)and Cliff Stearns (R-FL).  Industry and consumer groups alike are not happy with the draft, including the DMA.  Although it may seem at first that the so-called Boucher Bill was just about online behavioral advertising conducted by large marketers; it turns out that it’s very broad and far-reaching on privacy and data security.   In the webinar, Jerry Cerasale, VP, Government Relations for the DMA, gave a very good overview of coverage, exceptions and terms of notice.  Basically, it impacts nearly all kinds of “first party” senders as well as any other company that has access to that data as a “third party.”  It proposes coverage of an extensive list of “unique and persistent” personal data on consumers.

“One potentially bad impact this could have on the email industry concerns the scope of covered data, including email address, IP address, and other unique, persistent identifiers,” says Tom Bartel, CIPP, vice president,  Receiver Services at Return Path, a panelist in the webinar.  “If the exceptions for transactional and operational purposes and for service providers are not effective and clear, this bill could interfere with many industry collaborations.  This includes IP-based reputation systems – data that determines if email messages reach the inbox or not.  It may also impact the operation of Feedback Loops provided to email senders by mailbox providers like Yahoo! and Hotmail.  These feedback loops are a key component in how the industry keeps bad actors out of the email ecosystem.”  

Both Representatives Boucher and Stearns have indicated a willingness to work with industry and have requested comments on the bill,  The DMA has already commented, Cerasale said.

2. Expansion of FTC Powers: 

Congress is also considering significantly expanding the powers of the FTC as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173).    There is not a corresponding bill in the Senate, although Cerasale said in the webinar that one may be introduced later this year.   

Part of the proposed regulation would give the FTC “unbridled authority” to create rules around “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” for many industry sectors.  Cerasale expressed concern about this, and said that more checks and balances are needed.  It is also unclear how this expansion will impact emerging technologies like social or mobile, he said.  

Another part of the proposed bill increases the FTC’s enforcement powers to seek civil penalties. “That may be helpful in catching spammers and other abusers of email marketing,” said Rick Buck, CIPP and VP, ISP Relations and Privacy at e-Dialog in the webinar.   “Marketers who feel they are exempt from prosecution because they are legal under CAN SPAM may be following the letter of the law, but not the spirit.  I encourage everyone to go beyond the legal requirements and aim to provide email experiences that are welcome and engaging to subscribers.”

The FTC’s Greisman said only that, “We welcome any support from Congress that helps the agency be more effective and efficient.”  There are some “tools that we lack which Congress may grant us the power to use,” she said.

A third element to this proposed legislation is on responsibility/liability of the delivery provider (broadcast vendor, ESP, MTA Vendor) if their clients do not follow CAN SPAM or other regulations.  “This aiding and abetting aspect is very concerning,” said Dennis Dayman, VP, Privacy & Online Security at Eloqua,another panelist in the webinar.   “Blurring the lines between purveyor and sender may place an undue penalty on others in the ‘chain of responsibility’ for all brands involved in online advertising or other online acquisition efforts, like third party email senders and publishers,” Dayman said.

Greisman also reported in the webinar that there is no significant update on the behavioral targeting protection guidelines that the FTC has had out for comment for over a year. “Nothing will happen without input from industry,” she said.  Since the mandate from the FTC has been, “self regulate or else,” the webinar panelists gave a number of suggestions for marketers to follow best practices, including:

1. Ensure transparency in disclosure and notice of permission and use of data
2. Be very clear about opt out vs. opt in.  CAN SPAM requires only an opt-out, but that is the “bare minimum,” Buck advises.
3. Update your Privacy policy and provide prominent links
4. Audit your data usage practices
5. Be clear on use of data in all web forms and at the point of collection/sign up.

Marketers and everyone in the email industry can support the FTC, Greisman said.  She suggests:

1. File a complaint. When those complaints are also referred by the DMA, they are particularly helpful, Greisman said.
2. Make sure your opt out mechanisms are working.  (E-dialog’s Buck recommends checking this at least annually, and preferably monthly.)
3. Be clear about the sender and the advertiser relationships.  (Return Path’s Bartel recommends first party senders consider “framing” the content from third parties or advertisers and clearly distinguish between editorial (original content) and advertising.)
4. Keep data clean, particularly around new sources.  (Eloqua’s Dayman also recommends care around affiliates’ use of data.)

The legislative update webinar was sponsored by Eloqua, E-Dialog and Return Path, with technology sponsor GoToMeeting. The recording of the full event is free for DMA/eec members.  More details on these and other legislative issues important to digital and direct marketers is in the DMA’s quarterly government affairs newsletter, Politically Direct.

Repost from my article at the EEC blog:

In what we believe to be the first collection of bounce codes in one public location, the Get Satisfaction site is now the official home to the eec’s Deliverability Roundtable bounce string project.  It is the culmination of many months worth of effort from industry veterans with experience in email deliverability and the technical aspects of sending and receiving email.  We decided to place it here since the site allows for dynamic updates as codes change in time and also provides a forum in which users can discuss deliverability issues and receive insight from folks in the industry. 

Why is this useful?
The most common form of communication for an ISP to communicate with a sender on a one-to-one ratio is a bounce message.  If an email is successfully handed off to an ISP, a success bounce is issued (250 ok).  However, if the message is not successfully handed off, an ISP will usually put pertinent information into a bounce message letting you know what the issue is and, in an ideal setting, what you need to do to avoid that bounce in the future.  The more failure bounces you collect, the less mail is getting through to your recipients.  If you’re concerned about the highest level of delivery penetration, you’ll review the bounce codes to spot trending and actionable items you can do to get your mail through to an ISP.  That’s where this site comes into play.  We’ve amassed a list of the following ISPs that have standard bounce codes you should be aware of.  If you see a bounce from one of them, you should check the Get Satisfaction site to see if more information is available. 

• Hotmail/Live
• Comcast
• ATT/BellSouth/SBC
• Yahoo
• AOL

Who should use it?
Anyone who has a responsibility around message delivery, most likely your IT or development team, will want to take a look at this.  Bounce messages are collected at the email server level so, unless your email application allows easy access to data in a useable format, you’ll need to have someone review the bounce messages at the server level to see the actual ISP message. 

How do I use it?
Let’s say you send out a mailing today.  After watching the initial delivery numbers, you see that Yahoo has taken a dip in delivery (meaning there’s a delta between the delivery numbers you’re seeing and what you usually expect).  Either by using the ESP’s delivery tools or by having someone on your team provide the information, you discover there’s an accumulation of the following bounce strings queuing up on your outbound email server. 

“451 Resources temporarily not available - Please try again later [#4.16.5]” 

You then go to the new bounce site and search for this string.  You should find the following match: 

“What does bounce code 451 Resources temporarily not available - Please try again later [#4.16.5] from Yahoo mean?” (check it out). 

After you click on the link, you see that this is a bounce message Yahoo! will serve up if their servers are over capacity and are pushing back on mail to allow them to catch up.  This is not a sender related bounce but rather a Yahoo! infrastructure one – all you can do is retry the message later and hope Yahoo! has some available cycles at that time (which you should be doing on most soft bounces anyway). 

See?  It’s that easy.  And in most cases there’s a link to the ISP’s postmaster page which will provide further information on what to do or context around why you’re receiving this bounce. 

How can you help?
There is no uniform standard amongst ISPs mandating that certain bounces be stated a certain way.  As such, you see a huge variety of bounce messages and what information an ISP will provide.  Also, as ISPs deem necessary, bounce codes change over time making existing ones outdated and adding new ones.  Please help the email community stay on top of the changes by contributing to the GetSatisfaction bounce project site when you see new bounce codes that aren’t listed or know one that’s already listed has changed.  By making this an industry effort, we can ensure all of us are up with the latest news.  Feel free to ask questions on the site as well.  We have a few deliverability folks monitoring it.

Who put this together?
The following folks were involved with this project and we extend our gratitude!

• Joshua Baer - Founder & CEO - OtherInbox/Chief Evangelist - Datran Media
• Dennis Dayman, VP, Privacy, Eloqua
• Michelle Eichner, VP, Pivotal Veracity and Co-Chair, Deliverability Roundtable
• Stephanie Miller - VP, Global Market Development - Return Path
• Jack Sinclair - Co-Founder, COO & CFO - Return Path and Co-Chair, Deliverability Roundtable
• Chris Wheeler - Director of Deliverability - Bronto Software
• and other members of the eec Deliverability Roundtable

Chris Wheeler
Director of Deliverability, Bronto Software

So as you know, I have been in the email business for quite sometime and continue to work on the security, privacy, and policy aspects of it...

Later this month in London, the DMA is putting on an event that will address consumers concerns about how marketing can be intrusive if not done properly, and perhaps most importantly how their information is being used. These impact upon online trust and confidence, which ultimately impact the growth of ecommerce and interactive marketing.

Some things that will be answered:

• what brands can do to win the hearts and minds of the consumers
• which delivery tools and tactics are essential for deliverability
• how authentication assists delivery and the steps to achieve it.

I will be tackling the authentication topics. So come see us!

http://www.dma.org.uk/content/Evt-Article.asp?id=4374

-Dennis
Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

I got an email from the DMA today to an email address that I've tried to unsubscribe many times (they add your email address to many different lists by default but then they only provide a link to unsubscribe from one at a time).

Can somebody explain to me what this form will do when both boxes are checked?