Delivery Rates Above 95%:

Transcription

1 Delivery Rates Above 95%: 16 Must Dos to Make It Happen Prepared by Silverpop

2 Delivery Rates Above 95%: 16 Must Dos to Make It Happen Introduction As an marketer, you face many challenges to building a strong and profitable program. These include: Crowded inboxes Securing your share of budgets and staffing Creating compelling content Testing and continuous improvement Implementing personalized and segmented campaigns Monitoring and analyzing program performance Increasing revenue and return-on-investment to demonstrate s value as a marketing channel What s missing? Deliverability getting the highest percentage of your messages delivered correctly to subscribers inboxes instead of bouncing back to you or getting filtered or blocked by an Internet service provider. Without strong deliverability rates, your marketing program is simply not operating efficiently or effectively. And yet, MarketSherpa reports that three out of 10 marketers don t even take the time to determine their delivery rates. 1 Certainly there are myriad obstacles your must circumvent in order to land in recipients inboxes. But looked at from the proper perspective, deliverability is an opportunity rather than an insurmountable challenge. Doing what it takes to get more delivered correctly will strengthen every aspect of your program, from subscriber acquisition to content and conversions, and will ultimately yield better ROI and revenue. This Silverpop white paper lays out the 16 Deliverability Must Dos that will give you measurable improvement in the number of messages delivered correctly to subscribers inboxes. You ll also find an explanation of basic concepts, a resource section and links to more information at the Silverpop Web site and from other deliverability authorities. Deliverability Foundations The high cost of missing the inbox Poor deliverability costs your company significant revenue from lost potential sales and from the money wasted to create content, build lists and send messages that never reach their intended audiences. Low deliverability stunts your program s growth or can even choke it off if you can t get messages delivered to your key destinations. And poor deliverability practices may result in all or a majority of your s being blocked not just a few. Certainly, some messages will always go astray. servers get overloaded and queue up messages or return them for later attempts, subscribers abandon mailboxes without unsubscribing or changing their addresses, or they mistakenly click the This Is Spam button in their clients. However, if you follow the best practices and must dos outlined in this guide, you can achieve regular delivery rates of 95 percent or higher substantially greater than average delivery rates of 83 percent that most marketers achieve. 2 There is no deliverability silver bullet To achieve high deliverability rates requires involvement and cooperation from a number of departments and personnel, including IT, your designer/ programmer, copywriter, service provider if you use one, database and list managers, people on the front lines collecting addresses, marketing and executive management. Fundamentally, however, deliverability is the responsibility of the marketing team or whoever is driving the program. No service provider can guarantee you a certain delivery rate. As you will see in the following guide, nearly all the factors driving delivery are in the control of the 1

3 team. Your ESP and outside deliverability services providers can offer tools and guidance, but it is up to marketers to follow best practices and continuously optimize their program. The 16 Deliverability Must Dos It may feel like an uphill battle when trying to get all your s to all of your recipients, but there are some simple steps that, when taken together, can produce dramatic improvements to your deliverability rates. With an estimated 20 percent of permission-based messages being blocked, 3 it s worth the effort to institute the following 16 steps toward better deliverability. 1. Minimize spam complaints As the top component of ISPs reputation and filtering algorithms, reducing or minimizing your spam complaint rate is deliverability job number one. While ISPs are not completely transparent and change their thresholds frequently, it is known that America Online, for example, currently recommends keeping spam complaints below one per 1,000 messages. So ignoring other factors, more than 10 complaints received on a mailing to 10,000 will likely cause your to be filtered or blocked. Following are some best practices to help minimize spam complaints: Only send to permission-based lists. Consider moving to confirmed opt-in if your spam complaint rates are consistently high. Encourage new subscribers to add your address to their address book. Avoid over aggressive language and spammy sounding-looking content such as very large fonts, big red letters anything that looks unprofessional and could be confused with a true spam . Don t over- . Stick to a frequency that you promised during the opt-in process or is consistent with what most recipients would expect. Don t send unexpected . If subscribers opted in to receive your Tips & Tricks newsletter, don t suddenly start sending them your pure product promotion s, unless they clearly requested them. Choose your sender/from name carefully. Use your most recognizable and expected brand as part of the name. Avoid exclamation points and aggressive subject lines. While this approach might get a few more people to open your , it can also prompt many to let you know their views of your messaging by hitting the spam button. Provide a preference update page to make it easy for subscribers to change their preferences, address, format, etc. Make it extremely easy to unsubscribe. If your spam complaint rates are very high, include an unsubscribe link at the top of your message, in addition to the footer. Be very transparent and include as much information as appropriate in the administrative area of the , including: the subscriber s address, date they opted in and how they were added to the list (point-of-purchase card, product registration, white paper download form, sweepstakes entry, etc.). 2. Manage expectations at the beginning of the subscriber relationship Maximizing your deliverability begins before you send out your first message and continues throughout the relationship. Be explicit about your program and privacy level at the opt-in. 2

4 Begin by obtaining explicit approval to send marketing messages. Never use a pre-checked opt-in box on your registration page or order form. According to the 2003 U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, a pre-checked box does not constitute explicit permission, or affirmative consent. Following are some additional tactics to get the relationship off on the right foot to help ensure consistent deliverability. State expectations up front and confirm them. Tell subscribers what kind of messages you send and how often you send them. Include a screenshot or link to a sample . If you allow subscribers to set their own preferences, confirm these on a thank-you page or in a follow-up . Ask subscribers to add your address to their contact lists or address books. These personal white lists are your fastest route to the inbox. Concentrate your efforts during the opt-in process and welcome messages, as fewer people are likely to do so later during your regular mailings. Link to your privacy policy. State your privacy policy in plain language on the sign-up page. Don t bury it inside a long list of terms and conditions. The more explicit your privacy policy, the more trustworthy you appear to subscribers and ISPs. 3. Validate addresses at opt-in Confirmed opt-in and double opt-in processes allow you to weed out spelling mistakes in either the user s name or the domain name before they have a chance to damage your deliverability. However, that doesn t help you acquire an address of someone who really does want your s but committed a typing mistake. Add validation code to your opt-in forms that detects domain misspellings, incomplete addresses and common mistakes and then alerts the user to correct it immediately. 4. Optimize design and HTML coding for delivery and rendering Spam filters will assess points against your if they detect faulty or nonstandard code, spammy content and a variety of other factors. If your message exceeds a specific point score (typically four points), the filter will route your message to the junk folder, block it or delay delivery. You can learn more about the type and variety of message elements that many corporations, ISPs and spam filters evaluate at SpamAssassin.org ( s that are improperly coded or designed will render poorly (particularly when images are blocked) and make your messages look untrustworthy and spam-like, increasing the chance of a spam complaint or unsubscribe. If you have access to message-checking tools such as those from Pivotal Veracity or Return Path, use them to check your templates and each message before distribution. Alternative steps you can take include: Run messages through an HTML validator and spam content checker. Make sure your template and messages are W3C compliant. View messages on different platforms and Web browsers. View messages in various clients and provider interfaces such as those from AOL, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail/Liv and Gmail. Check how messages render in preview panes and with images turned off. You may find it necessary to redesign your message templates from the ground up. Consider programming the by hand or using a clean HTML editor. Some of the more popular design programs will add dirty code to your s that can cause rendering issues. Remember to design for the preview pane, putting important information such as calls-to-action and text navigation at the top of your s. Also, 3

5 with an estimated 50 percent of consumers now having images blocked by default, you should reduce your reliance on images and use more HTML background colors, font colors/sizes and alt tags. Avoid single or multiple large issues if at all possible. Other design elements that can help improve deliverability include: Be careful with tables and use fixed widths. Improperly coded tables will expand when images are blocked and turn your into a visual disaster. Include an administration area that provides information and links for everything a subscriber needs to manage their relationship. Remove scripts and forms. Many ISPs and clients will either remove scripts from your message, block them from working or they simply won t work correctly. For example, a commonly reported problem is forms in Hotmail not passing the data through to a Web site. Test each message in a rendering and message-checker tool before each distribution. 5. Use a dedicated IP address Many ESPs and companies may share a single IP address across multiple senders or divisions of the company. Because ISPs monitor mail streams by IP address, sharing IPs is generally not a good idea. When you share an IP address with other senders and they deploy a bad practice intentionally or by accident your messages will be filtered or blocked by an ISP along with theirs. Similarly, various block lists may add the shared IP to their blacklists. Dedicated IPs cost more than shared IPs, but the additional costs ensure that you are in control of your sender reputation and are not affected by a bad apple client of your ESP. However, you may want to use a shared IP address if your volume is extremely low and/or very sporadic. This is because the ISPs now factor in the consistency of both volume and frequency of mailings from an IP. If they see inconsistency on an IP address, ISPs are likely to filter mail streams more aggressively. 6. Build your reputation gradually on a new IP address When the ISPs look at the mail stream coming from your new IP address, your previous sender reputation (good or bad) is not associated with it. As a result, most ISPs now prefer that senders build their reputation gradually on a new IP address typically over a period of three to four weeks. While each ISP is different, a general rule of thumb is to start sending a few thousand messages a day and then double the amount every four to seven days. Once the ISP has monitored 50, ,000 or so s over the period, you will have established your initial reputation. At that point, you should be able to scale up to higher volumes. During the ramp-up period, ISPs will be looking at several factors including: What Happens to Your s Number of concurrent connections attempted from one mail server Number of unknown users (hard bounces) attempted Number of old and inactive (disabled for 12-plus months) accounts being attempted Number of spam complaints from recipients While ISPs and corporate filters all handle suspected spam messages differently, they generally are handled one of four ways: Block it and return to sender with a message explaining the block Block it without returning or notifying the sender Route to the junk folder, often adding [SPAM] or similar notice to the subject line Return it to you with a request to remove the subscriber if he or she clicked the spam button via a feedback loop 7. Authenticate your messages with Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Sender ID and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) Authentication, certification and reputation are three parts of the puzzle that helps ISPs determine whether your s should be delivered, filtered to junk mail or blocked outright. Authentication involves placing a line of code in your DNS record (and DKIM also uses an encryption key). It tells an incoming server you are authorized to send from your IP address or, with DKIM, your domain. It is a widely accepted method of determining that a message is being sent by a good actor rather than filtering a suspected bad actor. 4

6 Currently it is a must to authenticate using SPF and Sender ID protocols, as many of the major ISPs are checking for these records. Later in 2008, it is expected that many will also check for DKIM. Typically, an ISP will put a correctly authenticated through a less stringent filtering process. But authentication does not guarantee that your will not be filtered or blocked. You must still minimize spam complaints and bounces and follow other deliverability best practices. If you haven t yet authenticated your s, work with your IT department and ESP to implement SPF and Sender ID records as soon as possible. Once these are established, then move to implement the more complex DKIM. 8. Set internal ground rules for list additions Explain to different groups and departments within your company what is and is not acceptable permission and list building approaches. All it takes is one questionable list uploaded to your database and your entire program may be blocked for a few days. For example, without an explicit opt-in process, addresses from trade shows and business cards should generally be sent a follow-up requesting the recipient opt-in (excluding true one-to-one s). Similarly, addresses obtained through a company acquisition or merger and sent from the acquiring brand should be re-opted in (for commercial messages). Work with your in-house or external legal counsel to establish the appropriate permission policies and gain management support. Then communicate these policies with all appropriate internal and external stakeholders (agencies, list brokers, etc.) and educate them on the implications of poor permission practices. Finally, as appropriate limit the ability to upload lists into the central database to the core team or designated personnel. 9. Perform regular list hygiene A dirty list is guaranteed to cause delivery problems, and is why good list hygiene is a cornerstone of high delivery rates. Elements of a dirty list may include addresses that: Have previously hard bounced Generated a spam complaint Unsubscribed but are still in the active database Are old and have never been ed to Were obtained without permission or have no relationship with your company Are likely spam-trap addresses Are outdated domains Have not opened or clicked in a few years Dirty mailing lists hurt your deliverability because ISPs will filter or block senders who mail repeatedly to bad addresses, either based on their own observations or via reports from real-time block lists (RBLs) who list names and IP addresses from senders they suspect of spamming. Action Steps: A. Remove all hard-bouncing addresses immediately. These are addresses that are permanent failures because they are invalid addresses or because the mailbox doesn t exist anymore. Most ESPs will automatically move hardbounced addresses into an inactive or suppressed list. B. Remove any address that generates a spam complaint. A spam complaint is simply an alternative to hitting the unsubscribe link for most recipients. Their expectation is that they will never receive another from you. If you are using an ESP, it should have feedback loops set up with all of the major ISPs, and typically all spam complaint addresses are then immediately removed or suppressed from your list. 5

7 C. Don t overdo bounce retries. Most marketing systems are set to retry bounces from one to three times over the course of about three days. Many systems will also not retry at all to certain ISPs such as AOL. However, many companies insist on retrying bounces several times, which can lead to blocking problems. The challenge is a simple fact of time and math. ISPs will monitor your IP mail stream during a window of 24 hours, for example. If during a particular time window the only s being sent are your bounce retries, to the ISP it looks like you are sending to 100 percent bad addresses. Such a ratio of bad addresses may then cause your regular mailings to be filtered or blocked. Work with your ESP to determine what is the right retry strategy for your situation. D. Reactivate inactive addresses. While not completely transparent, the ISPs have begun confirming or alluding to penalizing mailers for sending to inactive addresses. While you aren t likely to be blocked for having a high percentage of inactive addresses, your overall reputation score will almost certainly be negatively affected. To the ISPs, a high rate of inactive subscribers is a sign of poor list hygiene or irrelevant content. To minimize impact in this area it is important to regularly identify your inactive subscribers (e.g., anyone who has not opened or clicked in two years) and implement programs to re-engage them. At the extreme, you ll want to attempt to reopt them in to your program and remove anyone who doesn t. At minimum, you ll want to alter your messaging, frequency, offers, etc. in an attempt to reactivate those who have disengaged. E. Remove or suppress institutional addresses. Suppression means both removing these addresses and moving them to a separate do-not- database so that you can t r to them, even accidentally. R ing can lead to blacklisting and ISP blocks. It also violates the U.S. CAN-SPAM law against mailing to an unsubscribed address. Likely offenders are institutional addresses such as info@domain.com, support@domain.com, help@domain.com and any address with spam in it, such as nospam@domain.com or spammer@domain.com. 10. Comply with ISP message throttling limits While only a problem for very high-volume senders, it is important that marketers understand and comply with each ISP s message throttling limits. As a first step, understand how many addresses are in your database at each of the major ISPs and corporate domains. Secondly, if you use an ESP, work with its deliverability team to develop an approach for achieving your volume distribution goals without exceeding the limits at ISPs and corporate domains. 11. Manage and monitor your sender reputation While content issues can still cause delivery problems, your sender reputation has become the primary check that ISPs use when determining how to treat your . As such, it is critical that you maintain and monitor your sender reputation. Following are some reputation monitoring resources: Feedback loops. A service offered by many ISPs to notify a sender when users are reporting their as spam. Each ISP has a threshold that it watches for in regard to excessive complaints from their users. ISPs offering feedback loops include AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail/Liv , Outblaze, Road Runner, United Online and USA.net. Most ESPs provide the information as abuse or spam complaints within the message reports. Reputation service providers. Firms including Habeas, Pivotal Veracity and Return Path offer reputation-based scoring tools and services. Microsoft s Smart Network Data Services. Provides senders a summary of how their IP addresses look to Hotmail/Liv . Factors include number of messages attempted, number of mes- 6

8 sages accepted for delivery, filter status, spam traps hit and spam complaints. Lashback. A CAN-SPAM compliance monitor and resolution service that helps track third-party affiliates and your company s marketing messages for a variety of legal and contractual violations. 12. Use recognizable sender names and explicit subject lines Use your company or brand name in the friendly from or sender line never rely simply on the reply-to address. Make sure the sender/from name is one that is immediately recognizable by recipients and not the name of an unknown editor or cutesy newsletter name, for example. And since some services and clients may only display the from address, make sure you use a simple and easily recognizable address rather than some random combination of numbers and letters. Good examples include newsletters@company.com and specials@retailer.com. Avoid overly aggressive subject lines. What might work in direct mail may get you a high spam complaint rate in . Avoid all-caps, exclamation points and anything that has the appearance of being spammy. When appropriate, consider including branding in the subject line to increase immediate recognition by the recipient. 13. Send only relevant, wanted content While this sounds a little like your mom telling you to wash your hands before sitting down to dinner, it is a fundamental principle that many marketers ignore at their own peril. Never assume your subscribers will want to receive different content or newsletters just because they already subscribe to one of your programs. While the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act does not prohibit sending unsolicited commercial s, it s now a fact of life that spam complaints, ISP filtering systems and thirdparty blacklists have made sending non-permission-based s a losing proposition. Sending content or promotions that are outside of what most subscribers would expect is likely to drive your spam complaint rate higher. If you are a publisher or association, for example, and send offers or promotions from third-party advertisers, make sure those s are branded differently and subscribers are able to easily opt in or opt out of these s separately. Finally, sending personally relevant content is the best recipe for deliverability success. Four out of 10 consumers say they clicked the Report Spam button because the content they received was irrelevant. 4 With overloaded inboxes and multiple channels competing for their attention, and despite opting in to your list, consumers will report your s as spam if they simply become irrelevant over time. Mapping the Deliverability Ecosystem deliverability is a system of individual but interdependent components. Actions by one component can benefit or disrupt the entire ecosystem. Subscribers: This group has the ultimate say over what goes into their inboxes. They give and withdraw permission, report your messages as spam to their ISPs or third-party reporting services, act on your mailings or ignore them. Senders: You are here. When you observe best practices, from opt-in through messaging to opt-out and beyond, you will experience greater response from recipients and less interference from subscribers and ISPs. ISPs: Internet service providers decide whether to pass your mail through to the inbox, filter it to the junk folder or block it as spam. Corporate networks: A business-to-business component that lays another set of filters and servers over the standard delivery route and can be more restrictive than ISP filters. ESPs: service providers can offer tools, resources and expert assistance to improve delivery. Their infrastructure, including shared versus dedicated IP addresses, can hinder or help you consistently reach the inbox. Other senders: Both bad and good behavior by other senders affects you. You don t want to use the same tactics as spammers; at the same time, you should try to emulate the best practices of the clear market winners. White lists/blacklists: These third-party entities can either help you get into the inbox (white lists) or block you completely (blacklists), depending on your permission, data collection and sending practices. Spam filters: ISPs, corporate networks, recipients and ESPs use spam filters to detect likely indicators of spam. Even if your message is permission-based, you could set off filters and get blocked or filtered as spam. Authentication protocols: Authentication verifies your identity and right to send from your IP address. It can enhance your sender reputation and help distinguish your from spam or fraudulent . Reputation services: These third-party services monitor how ISPs, blacklist services and other components judge you as a sender and, when you follow best practices, they vouch for you as a trusted sender. Deliverability monitors: Also third-party services, these monitor your actual inbox performance. Using lists of seed addresses created specifically to track your placement, they report how many seed addresses got delivered to the inbox, routed to the junk folder or blocked. clients: The applications subscribers use to read your affect deliverability if they disable images or show only a portion of your message in the preview pane. Most clients also give users an easy way to report spam with a link or report as spam button in the interface. 7

9 To avoid becoming a nuisance to your subscribers, take these steps: Three Categories of Spam Filters Show a sample of your on the opt-in page so recipients can see what they are subscribing too in advance. Capture preferences from format to demographics and interests on sign-up so you can send targeted s. Explain the value proposition and what subscribers will receive on the opt-in page and reinforce it in the confirmation and initial welcome . Develop and deploy a full welcome program that onboards subscribers for the first few weeks or month with your best content and information. Develop a lifecycle program, with s sent based on each recipient s activities and stages of their relationship with you. Use a preference center to make it easy for subscribers to modify their profile and preferences. Survey subscribers, particularly those who have become less active, on what you can do to improve the value of your program. 14. Message frequency: not too much, not too little Because has such high potential ROI, many marketers and their internal stakeholders fall victim to the approach of, If it works, let s send more s. While this approach has proven quite successful for the direct mail industry for decades, because consumers and ISPs control the inbox, crossing the frequency line can wreak havoc on your deliverability rates. According to a JupiterResearch study, the second most-cited reason (40 percent) consumers unsubscribe is because s are sent too often. And because 32 percent don t trust the unsubscribe link and 26 percent unsubscribe by clicking the report spam button, this means your overmailing approach leads directly to an increase in spam complaints. Here are some approaches to frequency to maximize delivery, particularly if you are a retailer or e-commerce company: Move away from a batch and blast approach and send trigger and lifecycle based s based on customer preferences and actions. Offer frequency options during the opt-in process and as an alternative to unsubscribing. Monitor subscriber activity and consider mailing less to the inactive/less active subscribers who are most likely to file a spam complaint. Mail at least once per month. If you mail too infrequently, many subscribers will forget they opted in and hit the spam complaint button to get rid of your s quickly. Consistent mailing of lower volumes is also preferred by ISPs over infrequent large volume mailings. Monitor your unsubscribe and complaint rates closely. When these rates begin to increase significantly, you ve probably crossed the acceptable frequency point and should cut back. 15. Make it easy to unsubscribe 1. Content/keyword filters: These unsophisticated filters were among the first devised to trap unwanted and are programmed to search inbound messages for prohibited words or phrases. They also frequently caught legitimate that included the banned words or phrases. They can be deployed at the ISP, corporate network and end-user level. 2. Boolean filters: The next generation up from content filters. These run each message through a series of tests designed to predict how likely it could be spam. a Boolean filter looks for spammy words, phrases, formats, coding mistakes, image size compared to content size and total message size and assigns points every time it finds a match. A message that amasses too many points can get blocked, filtered or returned with the errors listed. 3. Server-level filters: These are most often found on ISP or corporate mail servers. They combine the spam-detecting content or Booleanstyle filters with reputation check and a blacklist of banned sending domains that are suspected of spamming. Unsubscribes can be a good thing. While this might sound counterintuitive, the alternative in the world is a recipient pressing the spam button. The major ISPs and providers control the inbox environment and have positioned the spam buttons front and center, making them easier to find than your unsubscribe link. Here are some tips for optimizing the unsubscribe process: Don t hide the unsubscribe link. Don t use tiny or grayed-out fonts, or bury it somewhere in the where it is hard to find. 8

10 Place the unsubscribe link clearly in your subscribe administration area of your . If you have a high spam complaint rate, you should consider placing an unsubscribe link at the top of your s. Be careful of euphemisms. People looking to opt out of your s will typically have little patience if you make them read and decipher long, convoluted sentences. If you offer change of address, preference updates, change of format, etc., clearly label those links as well. Create a combination preference center/unsubscribe page. The unsubscribe function should be simple and obvious, but also make it easy to change preferences on this page. Finally, include a short survey asking why recipients are unsubscribing and include a comments box. Actively monitor these responses and move to make changes in your program based on the feedback being received. 16. Monitor delivery-related reports and metrics Actively monitor your delivery rates for each distribution and look for problem areas and positive or negative trends. Is your spam complaint rate rising a sign of over-mailing? Did you have a spike in hard bounces a result of someone uploading an old list? Here are some delivery-related processes and metrics to monitor: Hard bounces Spam complaints Unsubscribes Blacklists you have been added to Inbox delivery rate by ISP (using a third-party service such as Pivotal Veracity) Where possible, examine these metrics by: ISP or domain Types of s including welcome, confirmation, transactional, announcements/alerts, newsletters, etc. Timing including seasons, holidays, time of day or week Source of address including opt-in form, trade show, point-of-purchase, sweepstakes, white paper download, etc. Opt-in approach. Were there incentives such as a free ipod drawing or just a straight opt-in? Content style and tone. Did you get more aggressive with your subject lines and calls to action? Frequency pattern. Did you go from four or five times a month to more than 10 during the holiday period? Permission level. Did you change your permission approach from an unchecked to pre-checked box or move from single or confirmed to double opt-in? While this may sound like a lot of effort to undertake, if you are having deliverability challenges, uncovering the specific reasons behind having high bounce, spam complaint and unsubscribe rates is critical to resolving your challenges. FOOTNOTES: 1. Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008, MarketingSherpa, Marketing Benchmark Survey, MarketingSherpa, Nov Calling Doctor Deliverability, Return Path, Feb Special Report: Spam Complainers Survey, MarketingSherpa and Q Interactive, Sept.-Nov

11 Appendices Links to Industry Resources 1. Deliverability Associations/Organizations: Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) - Authentication and Online Trust Organization (AOTA) - Messaging and Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) ISP Postmaster Pages: AOL: MSN/Hotmail: Yahoo!: Gmail: Juno/Netzero/UnitedOnline: RoadRunner: 3. ISP White Lists: Yahoo!: AOL: Hotmail/Windows Live Mail: 4. Silverpop: Best Practices: What We Offer: Deliverability Glossary Attachment: A file included in an message. Attachments in bulk messages often trigger spam filters and should either not be used or used sparingly. Authentication: This procedure involves placing a line of code in your DNS record, which verifies you as an authorized sender from your IP address. The major forms of authentication, each of which uses a different set of codes, are SPF, SenderID and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). Blacklist: (also referred to as blocklist) A list of domains or IP addresses that a blacklist operator has deemed to be sending spam messages and thus should be blocked. (Also see White list) Bounce (hard and soft): A message that is returned to the server that sent it. A bounced is usually classified as either a hard bounce, which indicates a permanent failure due to a non-existent address or a blocking condition by the receiver, or a soft bounce, indicating that there is a temporary failure due to a full mailbox or an unavailable server. Bounce Rate: Total number of failed (bounced) messages divided by total number of s sent. Certification/Accreditation: This is third-party approval of your practices that ISPs might use to decide how to handle your . Third-party approval can come from companies such as Habeas, TrustE and Goodmail that examine your entire program and determine whether you meet their standards. Many ISPs allow certified/accredited to pass through filters and attach an icon, viewable in the inbox, designed to boost subscriber trust. Commercial Message: Any message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. Source: Commerce Committee Report, CAN-SPAM Act of

12 Confirmed Opt In: In a confirmed opt-in process, you follow up an registration immediately with an message confirming that the person has opted in. No action is required on the new subscriber s part, as with double opt-in. However confirming the opt-in allows the person to unsubscribe if the message is in error, and it enables you to verify the validity of the address before it can damage your deliverability. Consent: The Senate Commerce Committee Report for the CAN-SPAM Act indicates that affirmative consent requires some active choice or selection by the recipient. Remaining passive, such as not unchecking a pre-checked box or other default Web form, is not sufficient. Source: Commerce Committee Report, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 Co-registration: The practice of giving visitors on other sites the option of signing up for your newsletter. Domain Name: A unique address identifying a site on the Internet. The domain name follows symbol in an address and is followed by.com,.net,.org or other designations. DNS Server: A computer used to look up domain names to find their IP addresses. Double Opt In: A two-step process that allows a user to join your mailing list. The user must initially sign up, and then respond to a follow-up (confirming by replying or clicking a link) prior to receiving any further . Client: A program used to send, retrieve, and read . Examples are Outlook or Eudora. Feedback Loop: The process by which the client (ISP) of the receiver forwards complaints of s marked as spam by recipients for removal by the sender. Usually treated by senders as an unsubscribe request. (Also see Spam Complaint) IP Address: A unique 32-bit number used to identify computers on the Internet. Example: ISP: Internet Service Provider (e.g., AOL or Earthlink) MIME: Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions. An extension of the original protocol that allows to contain non-text messages, such as pictures or files. Multipart: A content-type that allows to include multiple kinds of content, such as text, HTML and binary attachments. Opt In: The action a person takes when he or she actively and explicitly requests, by or other means, to receive communications. Opt Out: (also called unsubscribe) The action a person takes when he or she chooses not to receive communications. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act requires the use of an or Web-based mechanism by which people can ask to be removed reliably from an list. Reputation: A scoring system used by ISPs, spam filtering systems and others to rate your reputation as a sender. Reputation scoring algorithms used by ISPs are not transparent and are different among receivers, but most are based on some combination of spam complaint ratios, frequency, bounce rates, spam trap hits and other factors. Sender Line: (also called the from line) The section of the inbox that shows who sent an . Spam Complaint: The receipt of a complaint from a recipient who has identified the message as spam. (Also see Feedback Loop) Transactional/Relationship Message: An message that is primarily intended to facilitate, complete or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter in with the sender. Source: Commerce Committee Report, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 W3C Compliant: The designation for a Web page or template that was created and coded so that it complies with standards established by the World Wide Web Consortium White list: A list of good senders designated by an ISP or inbox provider, increasing chances that messages will be placed in the inbox versus being blocked or routed to junk or spam folders. Please contact us at 866-SILVPOP ( ) or info@silverpop.com Visit us at 11