From the archives: Mailing old addresses: 5 questions to ask first James asked the question on twitter: If you haven’t mailed an address in 5-10 yrs, would you include it in a re-engagement mail? A number of people responded that addresses that old should not be mailed. I think the answer is more complex than can be handled in 140 characters. Five to ten years is a very long time. Think about...
Happy 80th Birthday to SPAM
Not the kind we hate. The other kind. That’s best served over sushi rice.
80 years of SPAM
Searching for a new ESP?
250OK has compiled advice about what buyers should ask when looking at new ESPs. The advice from various folks is spot on. Changing ESPs is a big undertaking, bigger than most people expect. It’s not like changing vendors for other services. It is a process and most of the time moving creates a short term dip in deliverability. I have a lot of theories and speculation as to why, but the...
Engagement drives deliverability
Return Path released an white paper today offering the Secrets of Successful Senders. I don’t think any of my readers will be surprised that it boils down to identity, reputation, and engagement. Return Path treats these as separate things and I understand why they do. I think however, that the identity and reputation are supporting players to the overarching issue of engagement. When...
Summer 2017: Moving so fast
It’s been a busy summer so far! If you’ve been too busy to read the blog regularly, here’s an early summer wrap up of our posts from May and June. A small but significant part of our consulting practice is helping people with delivery crisis situations, such as figuring out what to do if you’re listed on Spamhaus or other block lists, or getting delisted at AT&T. People also ask very specific...
Reading between the lines
Reading between the lines an important skill in deliverability. Why? Over the last few years there’s been an increasing amount of collaboration between deliverability folks at ESPs and ISPs. This is great. It’s a vast improvement on how things were 10 years ago. However, there are still ongoing complaints from both sides. There probably always will be. And it’s not like a blog...
Delisting at ATT
ATT used to have a webform to use to request delisting. I’ve heard reports over the last few months that the form isn’t working. This week, the website hosting the form disappeared. I don’t know for sure, but this looks like this is either deliberate or there’s just no one in charge of the site and it got lost. ATT provides an email address for delisting, too...
FTC solicits CAN-SPAM feedback
The FTC (US Federal Trade Commission) is soliciting comments on CAN-SPAM legislation: A. General Issues 1. Is there a continuing need for the Rule? Why or why not? 2. What benefits has the Rule provided to consumers? What evidence supports the asserted benefits? 3. What modifications, if any, should be made to the Rule to increase its benefits to consumers? (a) What evidence supports the proposed...
DMARC doesn't fix Phishing
Not a new thing, but a nice example just popped up in my inbox on my phone. But FedEx solved their entire phishing problem when they published a strict p=reject DMARC record, right? This didn’t come from fedex.com. It came from another domain that looks vaguely like fedex.com – what that domain is doesn’t matter, as the domain it’s sent from isn’t displayed to...
Reaching targets, the wrong way
I’ve been increasingly annoyed by these drip automation campaigns. You know the ones I mean. Senders use some software to find some flimsy pretext to send a mail. Then there emails drop every few days. Sometimes this cycle goes on for months. Most of these messages violate CAN SPAM. It’s annoying. It’s illegal. It is spam. I can even opt out of most of these messages, they...