Question

Topic: MProfs PRO Seminar Q&A

Email Deliverability Failure With Tom Sather

Posted by Anne Burkauskas, MProfs on 10/20/2010 at 12:08 PM ET 1000 Points
Welcome seminar attendees! Continue the conversation started during the Oct 21 MarketingProfs PRO seminar. This is the place to post your questions or comments for presenter Tom Sather and for each other.

To all other KHErs: You're welcome to participate in this discussion too! Seminar attendance is not required.

SEMINAR INFORMATION:
A No-Panic, 10 Step Self-Audit for Email Deliverability Failure--on Oct 21 at 12pm ET
https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/321
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by markg on 10/21/2010 at 1:35 PM Member
    I have a question not an answer. Where do I post that?
  • Posted by Valerie Witt on 10/21/2010 at 2:04 PM Moderator
    markg - please post your question here as an "Answer" or "Comment" (like your previous post). Just ignore the label. We're using this discussion thread for the back-and-forth with Tom. Sorry for the confusion!

    Val
  • Posted by markg on 10/21/2010 at 2:16 PM Accepted
    I'd like to use Postini as Tom talked about. However, it seems like a service companies subscribe to. How do I use it as a sender?
  • Posted on 10/21/2010 at 3:20 PM Accepted
    markg - you can subscribe to Postini here:

    https://www.google.com/postini/compare.html

    You can still use Postini as a sender since it can scan outbound mail for viruses as well as content filtering.

  • Posted on 10/21/2010 at 7:19 PM Accepted
    pdikeman - here are 12 items I would focus on. There are probably a lot more we could talk about but this is where I would start:

    1. Check your content against a variety of content filters like SpamAssassin and Outlook. Companies like Return Path offer tools for this, along with reasons for filtering.
    2. Use seed-list based monitoring to check delivery against the top ISPs/webmail providers/email receivers.
    3. Have a sound infrastructure. Some things to pay attention to are your connection and throughput settings, rDNS, authentication, message header details, bounce handling, and complaint handling. If you're using an ESP to send out mail, or are thinking to, check to see if they comply with all of these.
    4. Sign up for all available feedback loops and suppress complainers from future mailings.
    5. Promptly remove unknown users from your file.
    6. Sign up for SNDS (https://postmaster.live.com/snds/). SNDS is Microsoft's reporting tool that will tell you what your SmartScreen results are. SmartScreen is incorporated into Outlook and Exchange which is used primarily by B2B companies.
    7. Check your reptuation of your sending IP address at senderscore.org, senderbase.org, and trustedsource.org. This will give you an idea of how your mail is viewed by B2B filtering companies like Cloudmark, Brightmail and Postini.
    8. Permission is still key for B2B marketers. An opt-out permission level (opt-out is the permission level for list rental, list purchase, append, etc.) may result in high subscriber complaints which will cause a drop in your reputation score and increase filtering. If you do need to use a third party for email acquisition, make sure they are reputable!
    9. Remove all unknown user bounces from your file. If you're using an ESP, you should be set, but ask to make sure.
    10. Check your domains in the links of your emails against URL blacklists like URIBL and SURBL. Many filters cross check these lists and having a URL listed will usually mean your mail will be delivered to the junk/spam folder or outright blocked.
    11. Ask your senders to add your from address to their address book. This will act as a personal whitelist and ensure delivery.
    12. If you're still having delivery issues, I recommend consulting with your ESP or a deliverability vendor as they may have more specific advice on your issue.
  • Posted by markg on 10/22/2010 at 11:02 AM Accepted
    Tom, thanks for the reply. So I should signup for Postini as a company would? Then I send email to myself and it will then go through the Postini filtering and reporting?

    Thanks for the presentation. You brought up a number of issues that I have never considered.

    What services does your company provide?
  • Posted on 10/28/2010 at 12:13 PM Member
    @markg - I personally would only sign-up for Postini for inbound spam filtering if you have a problem with incoming spam. If you're looking to test your messages against Postini to see why they're getting flagged as spam, and then testing content changes to have it bypass Postini, I would recommend using some of the services that Return Path, my company, offers.

    Return Path has a variety of deliverability tools to help with your campaigns and B2B deliverability monitoring. Our Mailbox Monitor tool will help when testing deliverability. We have Postini addresses, as well as email addresses to over 200 different email providers, that you can mail to and then determine if your mail is being delivered to the inbox, spam folder, or blocked. Campaign Preview is our rendering and spam filtering product that will let you know how your messages render across dozens of different mail readers and webmail providers. It also shows you how you score against the most popular content filters out there, and it will tell you which key words tripped the filter which can aid in making changes to content. We also have a robust reputation network, called Reptutation Monitor, where data from dozens of major ISPs and webmail providers is fed so that you can see what your reputation looks like in the eyes of most email providers, as well as why your reputation looks good or bad.

    If you're interested in seeing a demo of how these tools can help you with your email marketing efforts, please email me at tom.sather@returnpath.net and I'd be happy to set something up.
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