A Marketer's Guide to the 4 ISP's

A Marketer's Guide to the "Big Four" ISPs

Matt RausenbergerSr. Director, Deliverability ConsultingReturn Path, [email protected]

eec Co-ChairDeliverability & Compliance Roundtable

PSVillage Co-ChairDenver Chapter

mailto:[email protected]

We Will Cover:→ Common Truths about Email & Receivers→ Compare/Contrast ISPsReputation Spam FilteringFeedback LoopsEngagementInfrastructurePrioritized deliveryPartners

→ Best Practices

A Few Common Truths About Email and Receivers

7. ISPs have a tough time sorting the good, the bad, and the ugly email

Common Truths About

Email and Receivers

6. ISPs will mediate with senders if subscribers are engaged and vocal about your email deliver (Detailed Info is needed to support your case)

5. Batch and blast is a thing of the past

4. Engagement is important

3. ISPs put a heavy weight on a sender’s IP reputation

2. 99 / 100 deliverability issues are the sender’s problem

1. ISPs are focused on providing a great email experience to mailbox users

Reputation FactorsList HygieneInfrastructure

Content Engagement

IP Permanence

Complaints

#1 ISP with 350 million active users / 1 billion mailboxesHoTMaiL launched in 1996; acquired by Microsoft in 19978 billion emails per day for all domains

#2 ISP with 280 million users / 320 million with its partnersY! launched in 1995 but email came later

#3 ISP with 193 million usersLaunched beta 2004 and general public in 2007Fastest growing ISP

#4 ISP in size Email launched in early 90’sGlobal presence is about half that of the top three ISPs

Fun Facts

Spam Filtering

Patented SmartScreen anti-spam filtering technology

Panel data (Active Users)

Junk or Not Junk Votes

URL Content Filtering

Spam Guard Technology

All Aspects of Reputation

Heavy Emphasis on URL Content and User Complaints (Trusted Voter Community)

Engagement

Domain and IP Consideration

Home-grown, learned system

“This is Spam” vs. “This is not Spam” Votes

Domain and IP Consideration

Home-grown

Focus mainly on IP

“This is Spam” vs. “This is not Spam” Votes

Invalid recipients or Unknown Users

Engagement

Keep Complaints to a Minimum

BestPractice

Methods to Reduce Complaints

Set expectations

Respect unsubscribe requests

Be recognizable

Send relevant content

Analyze complaint data

Feedback LoopsSet industry standard for FBL application

Junk e-Mail Reporting Program (JMRP)

FBL’s by individual domain (requires DKIM)

No FBLsList Unsubscribe

Panel Data Shapes their FiltersHow active subscribers are with the mailConsiderations for Mail Placement (Inbox vs. Junk Folder)

Trusted Voter CommunityIn-house solution, coupled with a 3rd Party Filters

“This is Spam” vs. “This is not Spam” VotesPriority Inbox

Analyzed engagement for a long period of timeSimilar to Yahoo!Engagement Trumps Complaints

Engagement

Understand Engagement

BestPractice

Maintain Your List

Spam Traps

Complaints

Inactives

Win-back

Acquisition

BestPractice

Import Address

Book

Consistent Hygiene Review your data collection

processes and modify if necessary Use Confirmed Opt-In Segment new subscribers on IPs Monitor unknown user rate Grow your list organically Review your internal bounce

categorization routine Monitor sending logs Monitor Blacklists

Sender IDDKIM look up when SID does not passThrottles mail from new IPs

Reviews both DKIM and SPFMax of 20 messages per SMTP connectionreject if open relay or open proxies

SPF, DKIM and DomainKeysFrom matches d= in DKIM recordShared IPs should sign DKIM w/ Unique domain

Both DKIM and SPF is best practiceDKIM will help maintain reputation across IPsFail of both SPF and DKIM = Spam folder

Sending Requirements & Authentication

Utilize a Solid Sending Infrastructure

BestPractice

Maintain Sending Permanence

Best Practice

BestPractice

Sending ReputationTools

Microsoft SNDS

AOL Reputation Check Tool

Return Path Sender Score

Gmail List-Unsubscribe Link Enabled

Prioritized DeliveryNo internal WhitelistReturn Path’s Email Certification Program

Yahoo offers an internal WhitelistReturn Path’s Email Certification Program

No WhitelistPriority Inbox

Partners

Partners

Sympatico (Bell Canada)

Partners


AT&T (BellSouth, SBC, Ameritech)VerizonRogers, BT, TNZ, and Nokia

Partners



ig.br virginmedia.com sify.com

Partners



ig.br virginmedia.com sify.com

CompuServeNetscape

Return Pathwww.returnpath.net

Deliverability.comwww.deliverability.com

Word to the Wiseblog.wordtothewise.com

Al Iversonblog.exacttarget.com/blog.php/al-iverson

Deliverability Blogs

http://www.returnpath.net/

http://www.deliverability.com/

http://blog.wordtothewise.com/

http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog.php/al-iverson




A Marketer's Guide to the 4 ISP's

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