There is a growing subculture emerging in the Email Industry.   This narrow subculture is built around the role of the Email Deliverability consultant.  These email folk heroes often hold “silver bullets” that dramatically alleviate problems caused by poor email deliverability.  Whether it’s resolving sender reputation issues, aligning sectors of your email program to meet legal compliance, or ensuring that all technical considerations are met, these masked magicians with assistants named Tonto can help.

There seems to be a critical knowledge gap that needs to be addressed.  Often the requests to hire an industry “folk hero” (consultant) originate from a marketer who wants to fully optimize the organization’s email program.  Factors that optimize programs include, but are not limited to, list quality and data collection, increased open rates, better ROI tracking, and achieving optimal inbox placement rates.  As much as marketers might want an optimized program, they often do not fully recognize the technology challenges of getting email delivered to achieve these desired results.   When that happens, for certain organizations, it’s time for The Email Deliverability Consultant: Email’s Lone Ranger.

A Marksman who gets his hands Dirty

Depending on the scope of the project, these consultants offer a wide range of deliverability services, including, but not limited to a deep understanding of list quality and data collection, email authentication best practices, setting up FBLs, bounce handling and infrastructure.  Consultants also commonly help with sourcing, installing and configuring optimal specs for both commercial and open source MTAs.  Frequently, the scope of the project grows into in-depth consulting on email engagement, response or retention campaigns or designing strategies that integrate complimentary marketing channels such as mobile platforms and social media.

Masters of Disguise

As we know, consulting by nature is a feast or famine type career.  And often, email deliverability consultants are positioned in precarious situations and exploited by bad actors.  Suspect senders often pump consultants for information on where to find responsive email lists or, even worse, ask about revealing key contacts at Yahoo, or other ISPs.  Deliverability consultants’ clients largely come from referrals and word-of-mouth.  That said, they live by a strict moral code of conduct, because they sometimes face important ethical decisions; at times, they must choose between a paycheck and literally firing a client. 

The Audit Process

The Audit Process is a “state of play” snapshot of the deliverability climate within the organization.

Usually, deliverability consultants will require answers to a set of detailed questions  and an analysis of overall infrastructure (technical setup) before any type of contract is in place.  During the audit, clients may seed consultants on different types of emails (marketing, transactional, etc) where they could begin reporting on items such as blacklist status, reputation, authentication tests, content, and inbox placement rates, etc. Consultants will then try to identify trends within the email list, such as attrition rates, opens, clicks, and sign up rates.   Some feedback is then given to the client, but deliverability consultants generally need to access additional data, such as bounce handling, FBL monitoring, send rates, and identifying email streams.

Contracts

A typical contract is somewhere between 30-90 days, with ongoing support in place.  However, most organizations are likely to add to the scope of services and have other goals in mind beyond deliverability.  These days, organizations that have prevalent stakeholders will go to great lengths to gain an edge over their competitors.  So, in many cases, an ongoing contract can grow out of the original short-term agreement.

The behemoths in our industry are companies like ReturnPath , Pivotal Veracity (Unica) and Goodmail which is widely known for certified inbox placement.  These companies collaborate extensively with established ESPs and large enterprises.  However, below I’ve listed a few other respected industry resources, the majority of which have over a decade of email deliverability experience.   Each has experience with organizations that range in size from ESP startups to F500 corporations.

In their work as Email’s Lone Rangers, these consultants can most often revive a company’s deliverability afflictions, so that key members of the organization can hop back in the saddle without too much damage done to its sender reputation. 

This article was inspired by:

· Jaren Angerbauer, DeliveryVision

· Andrew Bonar,Emailexpert

· Micky Chandler, Whizardries

· Greg Kraios, Den of Deliverability

· Laura and Steve Atkins, Word to the Wise

 

"Hi-yo, Silver, away!"

 

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani

We are always looking for new technologies and industry partners that support our commitment to delivering a high quality experience to Hotmail customers. To this end, before committing to a certain technology or provider we conduct rigorous testing and pilot programs to ensure that our internal standards are met. Until that bar is met, we have no partnership announcements to make.

Current and future partners who represent senders of high quality can expect improved and or preferred delivery including enabled links and graphics as well as bypassing content filters. However, Hotmail will always reserve the right to deny mail based on user feedback of perceived quality issues. Hotmail might introduce UI elements or badges intended to imply sender quality – these will be applied very selectively based on the quality and security of the mail. Any such badge will be generic and not specific to any single industry partner.

John Scarrow
Microsoft General Manager - Safety Services

This morning a tweet came across the wire announcing that Goodmail will begin offering Certified Email services to all Microsoft Mailboxes starting on or around February 17th. This should be good news in light of the service changes for Certified Email at Yahoo! announced on January 29th.

Goodmail announced the start date of the Certified Email program at Hotmail/MSN to all of their clients today; what was previously rumor has manifested into a fact with a start date. According to Wikipedia Hotmail users number 270 Million as of 2008 which will represent a significant increase in the number of people receiving and using certified email on a day to day basis.

The adoption of Certified Email at Hotmail/MSN will guarantee inbox placement and enable links and images for marketers using the service. The inclusion and rendering of the Certified Email icon will most likely take place later this summer but in the mean time marketers utilizing Goodmail’s CE will begin to see immediate privileges when sending to Microsoft domains.

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

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!

Repost from Pivotal IQ Blog

Yesterday, Goodmail announced that it launched the industry’s first 3rd party domain-based whitelist, called CertifiedDomain. We had a couple of questions for the Goodmail team and here’s what we found out, straight from the source:

1. Authentication Required. Before looking up a domain on CertifiedDomain, a receiver must confirm the message was indeed sent from the domain it purports to. Goodmail is agnostic as to what authentication method is used. It could be DKIM, Sender ID Framework, SPF, DomainKeys, or anything else.
2. Goodmail’s Whitelist is Publicly Available for ISP Use. The basic CertifiedDomain list is publicly available to anyone on the planet and can be used by receivers (ISPs and businesses) to help them in their email filtering. These receivers are not required to ask for Goodmail’s prior permission or even inform them that they are consulting the CertifiedDomain list. Goodmail says it expects the basic list to be used extremely widely. Goodmail also says that a more comprehensive list is licensed to ISPs, but the company does not publicize these agreements. Not all ISPs who accept CertifiedEmail have the technology to filter incoming messages based on domains yet, but ultimately Goodmail expects all its ISP partners to consult the CertifiedDomain list. It also anticipates that not partners such as enterprise networks/B2B etc will consult with the new whitelist. 
3. You CAN Get Booted Off the List. If Goodmail’s get data from its partners or other evidence showing a domain is no longer worthy of being listed, Goodmail will remove the domain from the list. Goodmail says it might publish a specific AUP for CertifiedDomain, but until it does, adherence to the existing CertifiedEmail AUP is recommended. 
4. Image Blocking Benefits are the ISPs’ Prerogative. At this stage, Goodmail is not aware of any ISP that intends to turn on images solely because of the inclusion of a domain on a whitelist, but says it is likely that ISPs which selectively turn images on will consider the inclusion of a domain on the CertifiedDomain list as a positive input to this message-by-message decision. Each ISP will set its own policy and will assign its own weight to the inclusion of a domain on the CertifiedDomain list. 
5. Fee Structure. There’s a onetime accreditation fee but, as specified in the Terms & Conditions document for CertifiedDomain, Goodmail might charge an annual renewal fee and might introduce other fees in the future.
6. CertifiedDomain Can’t Help You if Your Connection is Dropped. The first line of defense of all ISPs is blocking at the IP address level (refusing a connection), and CertifiedDomain won’t help there. CertifiedDomain is helpful only once a message has been accepted and authenticated by the ISP, when the ISP is looking for multiple inputs to its filtering algorithm.
7. rDNS and WHOis Not Required, But Recommended. Goodmail doesn’t impose such technical requirements as a precondition to being listed on CertifiedDomain. However, an ISP sophisticated enough to validate the authentication of incoming messages and to consult the CertifiedDomain list is also likely to perform such checks and to use the results of these checks as yet another set of inputs to their algorithm.

Cheers!

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

So, what are the benefits to a solid domain-based reputation?  What are the ramifications of a suspect domain? Will an ESP still send for me if my domain reputation is less than stellar? How will the actions of my subscribers influence my deliverability?  Is my domain portable? 

The dawn of domain-based reputation is upon us and legitimate senders everywhere are celebrating, albeit soberly.   In a recent Pivotal Veracity report, many leading ISPs have begun to employ domain-based reputation as an effective technique of measuring a sender’s reputation by computing assorted spam-related variables and, perhaps more importantly, subscriber engagement actions.

As Chris Wheeler eloquently breaks it down for us here, ISPs currently base a user’s reputation at the IP level and have only recently begun to show that email authentication as an enabler for domain reputation, along with positive subscriber actions, will increase deliverability to the inbox.  Domain based reputation is a boon for the deliverability landscape and is rife with opportunity for ISPs, ESPs, reputation services, and marketers alike.

If and when ISPs choose to compute your sending reputation, this computation will become your domain score.  For now, let’s call it The Domain Reputation Index (DRI).   This index will essentially be a quick reference to show how ESPs and reputation organizations will track your deliverability and subscriber engagement. Simply put, the DRI will become part of your domain DNA.

Domain Portability: A Boon for Marketers and ESPs  

For example, marketers who have a high DRI index (relative to industry benchmarks) will be able to leverage this score, and (assuming their domain name is portable) essentially have ESPs clamoring for their business. When a switch by a marketer occurs, ESPs will naturally gravitate toward DRI, much like a client with a good credit score who intends to find the best interest rate possible on a mortgage.  

In a recent comment on a Clickz article, Jim Fenton comments that  “Portability is but one of the advantages of domain-based reputation, but the extent to which reputation is portable between ESPs depends on how the respective ESPs work.  Some ESPs send as, for example, newsletter.brandname.com, which would be portable if brandname decided to switch. But others send as brandname.espname.com, which would not be portable. The extent to which the brand wants to be portable needs to be considered when choosing ESPs.” 

ESPs, on the other hand, have much to gain from the DRI windfall.  Properly managed, ESPs can manage preconditions to their clients that meet or exceed better than average DRI scores.  ESPs also have the ability to dictate the level of portability for domains.  This decision is ultimately that of the domain owner, but ESPs may help influence new customer adoption of the portable domains by offering “portability” as a standard or premium service.  The rising popularity of domain portability raises an important question: Should all domains be portable?

Furthermore, ESPs that have large domain sets (many clients) will have a “front row seat” to look into their senders’ DRI, and will  prescribe methods for developing a higher reputation score.  Clients of ESPs will adhere to stricter policy controls dictated by ISPs, knowing that their DRI is at risk if they continue to send suspect mail. DRI is also in danger when recipient engagement metrics fall below industry benchmarks.   When suspect senders realize that their DRI is below average and ISPs have shown them little mercy on delivering to the inbox, suspect senders will have no choice but to proactively engage or seize operations with ESPs.  The dilemma for ESPs is whether or not to maintain a relationship with marginal senders who are well paying, conscientious clients. Each ESP will have to decide where to draw the line on this type of client..   ESPs who stay vigilant will have the most to gain.

 It’s 1849 for Reputation Services

The Domain-Reputation Index (DRI) may be governed by independent 3^rd party entities who will aggregate data of millions of domains.  Companies that could represent such an index may include, but are not limited to, Pivotal Veracity, ReturnPath, GoodMail,  Email Data Source, ESPC, and others.  I did not mention DNS because that system is taxed already.  All of these companies may consider entering into the attractive DRI market, and establishing benchmark DRI thresholds that define, good, bad, and marginal sending behavior.  Among the various other reputation tools in their arsenal would be the ability to certify and publish millions of DRI domain records for the email industry.  Such a collection of records would cause these companies to become the most trusted throughout the industry.  

Think of the big three credit reporting agencies, and then compare them to these email reputation-based organizations.  These entities will have rich warehouses of deliverability and engagement data that will span many verticals and benchmarks.  We’re already seeing traces of this with the latest Pivotal Veracity report on your email engagement index, which is based on multiple sources that are aggregated monthly across authenticated domains.  These reputation agencies will develop a hierarchy of domain reputation building blocks and become a trusted resource as leading advocates for legitimate senders.   

As the email technology and deliverability landscape evolves in a direction that prioritizes individual consumer engagement, marketers must create more relevant communications than ever before to ensure they get into the inbox, creating better ROI.  Certainly, a deliverability index is imminent, whether we call it a DRI, or another name.  Organizations such as Pivotal Veracity, ReturnPath, EEC, MAAWG, CAUCE, or ESPC should begin to consider forming governing bodies focused on Domain Reputation.  The development of the domain reputation index is beneficial to the continued development of  legitimate senders. 

It’s truly going to be interesting to see how the ISPs choose to develop a moniker for the concept of Domain Reputation.  Hopefully, this blog has answered some questions about the need for the domain reputation index in the email industry.  In theory, there are lots of advantages; however, the advent of DRI also gives rise to many more challenging questions.  How will domain-squatting or “domain look-alike” have an effect on DRI?  Do you limit the number of domains a corporate entity would require?  One would think that an effective DRI would exist by rolling up these “sets of domains” for larger corporate entities and developing “one” corporate DRI.  What would that entail? What about domain limits or regulation?  

Also, there is disagreement about whether or not we need further regulation by limiting how many domains a corporate entity would have, given the versatility and the importance on branding.  Since a registry (which currently assigns and maintains domains) does not have the necessary systems in place to measure the use of a domain, what body, (government, or non-government) would be the likely prevailing body? 

 

All of these questions will need to be pondered as the use of domain reputation in the email industry continues to unfold.  Undoubtedly, there will be bumps in the road along the way that need to be worked out.  Nevertheless, it is important to support the continuing development of the domain reputation index because, in the end, your reputation is all that you really have.

Fred Tabsharani

Port25 Solutions, Inc.

@tabsharani