We’re iced in here in DC so I’ve been catching up with some industry news while camped in front of a heater and the TV. Best of the ESPs by Forrester Research. Congrats to ET and Responsys for coming out on top. The results, as reported by MediaPost, match reasonably well with my overall impressions of the industry (so they must be right!) Return Path is rolling out a new version of...
I did have the absolute best of intentions to finish the Ugly part of my series on “The Good, The Typical and the Ugly” while on the plane yesterday. But, as things sometimes go, it didn’t happen. Blogging will be light through Jan 4th as I’m actually taking some time to visit family, relax and recharge. When I get back I’ll have a post about the ugly end of senders...
Yesterday, I gave examples of good ESPs and the benefits that their customers receive from their high standards and standards enforcement. Today I’ll be talking about typical ESPs and the things they say and do. A few caveats before I get started. Most of these quotes are composite quotes. I am not quoting one particular person or ESP, rather, the statement is representative of a common...
There are a number of things that make a responsible ESP, including setting and enforcing standards higher than those set by the ISPs. One of the responsible ESPs is Mailchimp. (Full disclaimer, I do consult for Mailchimp.) This ESP focuses on businesses with small to medium sized lists. They screen new customers for source of permission as well as mail content. As well as putting a human in the...
In the theme of the ongoing discussions about ESPs and their role in the email ecosystem, I thought I’d present some examples of how different ESPs work. The good ESPs are those that set and enforce higher standards than the ISPs. They invest money and time in both proactive and reactive policy enforcement. On Monday I’ll talk about these standards, and the benefits of implementing...
Guest post by Chris Wheeler After reading Laura’s and Steve’s posts on the gap between the “senders” and “receivers” (both excellent reads I recommend if you haven’t already done so), it really made me think about why I do what I do and why I think (hopefully not being too narcissistic here) that I’m reasonably good at it. I was formally educated...
Neil Schwartzman reacts to yesterday’s link post.
Over the last month there have been a number of people sounding warnings about coming changes that ESPs are going to have to deal with. There has been mixed reaction from various people, many people who hear these predictions start arguing with the speaker. Some argue that our predictions are wrong, others argue that if our predictions are right then the senders will just start acting more like...
Number four of seven in our occasional series on why ESPs need, or don’t need, lots of IP addresses to send mail properly. I need multiple IP addresses per customer so that that customer can deliver mail in a timely manner Why this is right If your customer needs to deliver a message to 100,000 recipients within 30 minutes and 3% of them are at an ISP that only accepts 1000 emails per recipient...
For all of you that are asking “What do the ISPs want from us” Annalivia has posted a list of specifics that you can do to improve delivery.
RSS - Posts