Dear Laura, I read your blog post about CAN SPAM earlier this week, and there’s one thing that confuses me. You never mention that harvesting addresses is a violation. I’ve seen many other people, including lawyers, assert that harvesting addresses is a violation of CAN SPAM. Why did you leave that out? Signed, Hopeful maker of musubi Dear Hopeful, The idea that harvesting is, in and...
Ask Laura: Is the SmartScreen Filter Really Smart?
Dear Laura, Can you help me understand the Microsoft SmartScreen filter? I’m working on a new project and we’re not able to get to the inbox at Microsoft. Our SNDS/JMRP health is great, not a problem that we can see, but when we contact the support team we’re told we’re being flagged by SmartScreen. It seems impossible to try and find any information or ways to rectify this issue...
Ask Laura: Can you help me understand no auth / no entry?
Dear Laura, I’m a little confused by the term “no auth / no entry”. Gmail and other major receivers seem to be moving towards requiring authentication before they’ll even consider delivery. Does this just mean SPF and DKIM, or does this mean the much more stringent DMARC, as well? Thanks, No Shirt, No Shoes, No What Now? Shirtless & Shoeless, “No auth / no entry” is...
Ask Laura: Do I have to publish DMARC?
Dear Laura, I heard recently that both Gmail and Yahoo will require DMARC authentication in early 2016 or images will be automatically blocked. Is that correct? And if so, do you know when they will be requiring DMARC? A DMARC-Overwhelmed Admin Dear Overwhelmed, There are three things going on here, all of which are related to DMARC but are very different in how it affects mail delivery...
Ask Laura: Does changing ESPs hurt deliverability?
Dear Laura, We’re a small ESP and as we onboard new clients, we often hear them ask “Why did I get better open rates with our previous provider? There has to be something wrong with your platform!” As part of the onboarding process, we meet with new clients to provide best practices and let them know they are building a reputation with ISPs on new IPs. We talk about how algorithms are...
Ask Laura: Will our ESP kick us off for mailing purchasers?
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...
Ask Laura: Confused about Authentication
Dear Laura, I have a client moving from an external ESP to an internal system. They send approximately eight million messages per year, and these are primarily survey emails on behalf of their clients. We’ve had some conversations about authentication, and I’m trying to help them figure out if they just need DMARC or if they also need DKIM and SPF. It seems some ISPs prefer different methods, and...
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An Advice Column on Email Delivery When we work with brands and senders to improve email delivery, there are many questions that come up again and again. For 2016, we thought it might be interesting to answer some of those questions here on the blog so others can benefit from the information. Confused about delivery in general? Trying to keep up on changing policies and terminology? Need some...