Podbox Expert Interview Series

Last month I did an interview with Podbox about email, deliverability and how I became an email expert (breaking things, lots of breaking things… and having to pick up the pieces and fix them…)
Check out the interview over on their website.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about history and longevity. Next year will mark 10 years of the Word to the Wise blog and 20 years of me entering the anti-spam / deliverability space. That’s a lot of time. When I first started fighting spam it was really about my mailbox and getting rid of the junk I was receiving. At the time, a lot of people thought it was silly to spend so much effort fighting spam.
But as time as gone on, email spam and fraud became a big deal. Criminals realized they could use spam to further their gains at the expense of people. Spam is a network problem. Spam is a danger.
Personally, I’ve moved away from fighting spam. I’m now working more on making and keeping email a useful tool. Yes, that does include commercial email. Yes, it does include bulk email. Helping people get the mail they want in their inbox is a part of keeping the email ecosystem healthy. It’s the part I can do and the part I am good at.
Seeing email become such an important part of commerce, communication and modern life has been a journey. I look forward to seeing where the next 20 years takes us.
 

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The truth matters.

bullhornCall within the next 10 minutes…
Consumers with last names starting with O – Z can call tomorrow…
Only 5 seats left at this price!
 
All of these are common marketing techniques designed to prompt consumers to buy. It’s not a new idea, create a sense of urgency and people are more likely to buy.
I think some marketers are so used to making outrageous claims to support their marketing goals, that it doesn’t occur to them that the truth matters to some people.
There’s almost no better way to get me to send in a spam complaint than to send me an email with a claim about how I opted in.
Example:

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Laura's Speaking Events early 2016

My speaking schedule is coming together for Q1 and Q2 this year.
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Email Evolution Conference. March 30 – April 1. New Orleans, LA. I’ll be participating on the “All You Ever Wanted to Know about Deliverability (But Were Afraid to Ask)” panel Friday Morning. The other panelists are Chris Arrendale, Alyssa Nahatis and Matthew Vernhout. This panel should be quite a bit of fun, as we all know each other and have collaborated in the past. I’m looking forward to it. Come prepared with questions!
Salesforce Connections. May 10 – 12. Atlanta, GA. Another panel on deliverability, this time with Mickey Chandler from SFMC and Melinda Plemel from ReturnPath. We’ll each bet giving our 3 best tips to improve deliverability and then be taking questions from the audience. We have all been around a long time, in fact Mickey used to work for me at MAPS back in 2000. We’re all ready to answer those questions you’ve always had but never known who to ask.
Email Innovations Summit. May 17 – 19. Las Vegas, NV.  Not a panel! I’ll be speaking about the technical things happening around email that will affect sending, marketing and deliverability. If you ever wanted to know how to talk to the technical folks this is the session to come to. I’ll be explaining some of the terminology and teaching attendees what they need to care about and what they just need to know exists. Register with my code (SPKATK) and save 15%.

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Ugg, a spammer.

I’ve written before about how there is some (I’m sure lovely) woman in the UK who has been connected to my email address. I get a lot of mail for her. Mostly spam. She doesn’t seem to be using the address, but I regularly get mail addressed to MRS. LAURA CORBISHLEY (all caps, always). Typically these messages are advertising various UK stores and products. Sometimes they’re mortgage offers. A few have been sweepstakes only open to UK residents.
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I generally forward these spams off to various blocklists with the note it’s my “UK spamtrap” and they take whatever actions seem appropriate to them.
2016-03-21_14-33-39Today, though, I got my first US spam to Mrs. Laura Corbishly. From a Yesmail customer called sanuk.com. I’m getting a website error (they get smacked for spamming already?) but a little research tells me this is shoe company that owns a bunch of brands, including Ugg.
Yes, Ugg a Spammer. They even even have a disclaimer at the bottom of the email telling me they’re a spammer!
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Not so much, no. It appears, though, that the data brokers selling Mrs. Corbishley’s name connected to my email address have figured out that no one ever actually acts on any of their UK offers. So now they’re selling into the US market in hopes that they might entice a purchase?
On a purely nosy level, I’d love to know who was selling the address. First off, I’d love to know where they got this info in the first place. Secondly, what horrible database are they using that keeps name data in all caps? (When I get email to this trap I think they’re shouting at me, as if I’m the one who is wrong about my name. Maybe they think if they yell at me loud enough will I decide I really am the happy wife of Mr. Corbishley of Swindon, UK. )
I do tell clients that it’s useful to remind customers that they signed up for mail, especially if they haven’t mailed for a while. So I know not every email with a “you opted in” reminder is spam, but I only notice those things when I haven’t opted in. It’s something I mostly gloss over if I really did opt-in. I wonder if this is how other folks react to “you opted in” notices, too.
I do recommend the reminder be much more specific than “you opted in at our website.” Give the user a date, a time, something that isn’t just something any company can, and many do, make up.
 
 

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