ArchiveJanuary 2018

January 31, 2018

Microsoft using the List-Unsubscribe header

By laura

3 Min read

9 comments

31January

An interesting observation from Brian Curry about how Microsoft is using the List Unsubscribe header in their interface. The short version is that Microsoft is only supporting mailto: links. They’re ignoring any List-Unsubscribe links that are a URL. Here are some screenshots.  When the sender is using a List-Unsubscribe <; header, Microsoft states that there is no information on how to...

January 29, 2018

AOL MX Change update

By laura

1 Min read

1 comment

29January

The AOL postmaster team posted some information about the upcoming MX transition on their blog. [S]tarting this week, the majority of AOL’s MX records will point to [OATH’s] new combined servers. This should be transparent to any sender as those servers will operate in simple pass-through mode. This means senders with established FBLs will continue to receive them from our AOL mail...

January 25, 2018

Collecting email addresses

By laura

3 Min read

1 comment

25January

One of the primary ways to collect email addresses is from website visitors, and it’s actually a pretty good way to collect addresses. One of the more popular, and effective, techniques is through a pop-up window, asking for an address. Users need to provide an address or click a “no thanks” link or close the window. I’ve noticed, though, that many companies drop something...

January 24, 2018

Social media connections are not opt-ins

By laura

3 Min read

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24January

It seems silly to have to say this, but connecting on social media is not permission to add an address to your newsletter or mailing list or prospecting list or spam list. Back in 2016, I wrote: [Scraping addresses from LinkedIn] is really rude. Just because someone accepted your contact request on LinkedIn, doesn’t mean they want to be added to any mailing lists you may have. Let’s be honest...

January 23, 2018

Still with the Microsoft problems

By laura

4 Min read

1 comment

23January

We took a quick trip to Dublin last week. I had every intention of blogging while on the trip, but… oops. I did get to meet with some clients, and had a great dinner while discussing email and delivery. Coming back, I see a lot of folks still reporting delivery problems to Microsoft properties. I’ve been operating under the assumption this was temporary as kinks were worked out after...

January 18, 2018

AOL Changes

By steve

2 Min read

14 comments

18January

We’ve known for a while that AOL email infrastructure is going to be merging with Yahoo’s, but apparently it’s happening sooner than anyone expected. The MXes for aol.com will be migrated to Yahoo infrastructure around February 1st. Reading between the lines I expect that this isn’t a flag day, and much of the rest of the AOL email infrastructure will be in use for a while...

January 15, 2018

Tempo

By steve

1 Min read

2 comments

15January

When we say that you might just be sending too much email and fatiguing or annoying the recipient into unsubscribing or hitting spam, this is the sort of thing we mean. Three emails (to the same email address) in four minutes might be a bit much. If you can’t combine the content you want to send into a single personalized email, maybe spread deliveries out a bit? Or even not send all of it...

January 12, 2018

Filters evolving

By laura

3 Min read

2 comments

12January

I started writing this blog post while sitting on a conference call with a bunch of senders discussing some industry wide problems folks are having with delivery. Of course the issue of Microsoft comes up. A lot of senders are struggling with reaching the inbox there and no one has any real, clear guidance on how to resolve it. And the MS employees who regularly answer questions and help folks...

January 11, 2018

That's not how you do it…

By laura

3 Min read

1 comment

11January

Got an email this morning from a company advertising their newest webinar “The Two Pillars of Effective Large-Scale Email: Security and Deliverability.” The message came to a tagged address, so clearly I’d given them one at some point. But I didn’t recognize the name or company or anything. I did a search to seen when I may have interacted with this company in the past...

January 9, 2018

Oh, Microsoft

By laura

4 Min read

2 comments

09January

Things have been a little unsettled at Microsoft webmail properties over the last few months. A number of ESPs reported significantly increased deferrals from Microsoft properties starting sometime late in November. Others saw reduced open rates across their customer base starting in late October. More recently, people are noticing higher complaint rates as well as an increase in mail being...