Archive2007

Experience as a recipient

One of the challenges of my job is to separate my personal feelings and experiences related to email marketing and spam from my advice to clients. I am here to make your delivery better, not to make everyone use email marketing the way that makes me the most comfortable. That being said, I get a lot of spam across my various email addresses. If I have an extra few minutes I’ll sometimes...

Changes at AOL Postmaster desk

The recent layoffs at AOL did affect the AOL Postmaster desk, and information I have received is that there was significant loss. As a result of the staff decrease, some changes have been made to the whitelisting and FBL processes. In order for a FBL to be approved it must meet the new FBL guidelines. In a nutshell, anyone wanting to get a FBL from AOL must meet ONE of the following criteria. The...

Do it yourself mail systems

Through my position here at Word to the Wise I’ve interacted with dozens of companies over the years. Some companies outsource the mechanics of email sending to email service providers, others buy a software or MTA solution from one of the many vendors out there. For both these groups delivery problems are usually issues with permission or user expectations. Technically there are few...

Slow Server

Sorry about the slowness, this server is the same one that is hosting thewholeinternet.wordtothewise.com and it got posted to digg today.
If the traffic storm keeps up for more than a day or two we’ll make other arrangements for the blog.

Consent does not mean confusing your recipients

Cam Beck on Marketing Prefs has a post today about presenting users with confusing choices in an opt-in process. Bank of America followed the letter of the law, but they did so with a method that can only be described as misleading since people typically don’t read those sorts of messages, and the action required to opt out changes from one email message to the next within the same form. I’ve...

What metrics are you measuring?

Marketers measure a lot of metrics about the email they send. But are they measuring the right metrics? Mark Brownlow talks about how marketers may not always know what their measuring. He also links to Email Insider where the Email Diva talks about what metrics can be measured. More importantly, she points out that asking questions and determining what you want out of your email marketing...

ISPs like boxes of meat

On the heels of JDs post about building relationships with ISPs, many of our Abacus customers and our ISP contacts have been commenting that boxes of meat are always welcome.
Please, remember to send them boxes of meat.
Meat may not get your email delivered, but it will make the ISPs remember you fondly.

The key to inbox delivery: make your email relevant.

Following on from previous posts here, here and here, JD Falk discusses ways to get your email into the inbox. Tactics that will actually improve your deliverability, yet have no bearing on what the ISP staff thinks about you: Sending mail that your recipients actually want Keeping your list clean (such that you don’t send unwanted mail) Using good data sources (such that you don’t...

Blacklisted on FiveTen: no big deal

Al posted an analysis on DNSBL Resource about the effectiveness of the FiveTen blacklist. He says: Analysis of the raw data suggests to me that Fiveten’s poor (high) false positive rates is primarily due to Fiveten’s listing of “bulk mailers that don’t require closed loop confirmation opt-in from all their customers.” As a result, Fiveten has thousands of senders listed that...

Viral Marketing by email

Matt talks about a new marketing report from the ThinData Newsletter. The Newsletter offers the following recommendations on using viral marketing as part of your next email campaign. State Your Purpose. Be very clear about your intentions with your viral program and about what you plan to do with the email addresses that you will be collecting. Respect Personal Information. Keep in-mind that the...

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