Dear Laura, We’re a small online retailer and email is a very important sales and communication channel for us. We do marketing and newsletters with Mailchimp, transaction confirmations with Bigcommerce, and a few other messages via Salesforce. Our volumes are relatively low, but we’re in an industry that can be a bit of a red flag for spam. We have a few different lists in Mailchimp. The...
Email in 2020
Late last year Litmus invited me to contribute to a whitepaper they were putting together about email in 2020. Today, they released Email Marketing in 2020. I am honored to be included in the list of experts that they chose. One of the things I find so so much fun in participating in this type of joint project is seeing what other people’s visions are. When Chad first contacted us, his...
Catching up from MAAWG SF
Had a great time a M3AAWG last week. So many familiar faces and a lot of new ones, too. I’ve got a lot of interesting stuff that I can share with readers over the next few days. One of the things I have received permission to share is the new Office 365 IP delisting link. I botched the first time I posted it, so I’m going to try again. Office 365 IP Delisting Page. Many thanks to the...
Getting unblocked at Outlook.com
It’s been a crazy week here at M3AAWG. I have a lot of stuff to blog about, but I think one of the really important things to get out is the new unblock request page at Outlook / Hotmail. Submit your IPs and it will be reviewed. (Apologies for the repeated bad links. I’m blaming con crud, lack of sleep and MSN/Hotmail/Office/Outlook for having so many domains I can’t keep them...
Security, backdoors and control.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control. Apple letter to customers Encryption is a way to keep private information private in the digital world...
Should you publish DMARC?
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about DMARC. Being at M3AAWG has increased that. Last night we were at dinner and heard from the next table “And they’re not even publishing DMARC!!!!” I know DMARC is the future. I know folks are going to have to start publishing DMARC records. I also know that the protocol is the future. I am also not sure that most companies are ready for...
Thoughts on Data Hygiene
One of the big deliverability vs. marketing arguments has to do with data hygiene and dropping inactive users. Marketers hate that deliverability people tell them to let subscribers go after a long time of no activity from the subscriber. Data hygiene is good. Email is not permanent and not forever, and the requirements for data hygiene in the email space are very different than the requirements...
Gmail showing authentication info
Yesterday Gmail announced on their blog they would be pushing out some new UI to users to show the authentication and encryption status of email. They are trying to make email safer. There are a number of blog posts on WttW for background and more information. TLS and Encryption Protect your email with TLS Cryptography and Email M3AAAWG Recommends TLS The short version is that TLS is encryption...
Q1 2016: Upcoming events
While we’re working on a Speaking Schedule page for my upcoming events, I’ll just update the blog. My schedule for Q1 and Q2 is coming together. M3AAWG 36: San Francisco, February 16 – 18th. I’ll be up on Monday afternoon. No official speaking at this one, just sitting in the audience and listening. But stop by and say hi! Email Evolution Conference: Hosted by the EEC, New...
AOL broken (again)
I am, apparently, still one of the top hits when you Google for AOL. When things break at AOL, this means I get lots of contacts, comments and even phone calls from people looking for help. I’m really not AOL support. (Really. I’m not. If you’re an AOL user I can’t help you log into your account. Please don’t call. Please don’t ask. Contact AOL directly.) BUT...