24 INFRASTRUCTURE DM News • E-Mail <strong>Marketing</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 2007 INFRASTRUCTURE Page 24 It starts with reputation, by J.F. Sullivan, Habeas Thinking beyond deliverability, by Ellen Siegel, Constant Contact Page 26 CAN-SPAM, four years on, by Jeremy Saibil, Campaigner Page 28 E-<strong>mail</strong> authentication: It’s time, by Al Iverson, ExactTarget How marketers can prevent spam complaints, by Ben Chestnut, MailChimp.com Page 30 Keep your e-<strong>mail</strong> safe from legal challenges, by Zafar Khan, RPost Questions and answers about sending reputation, by George Bilbrey, Return Path’s Sender Score Page 32 Spam finally has a definition, by Jordan Cohen, Epsilon Controlling messaging costs, by Barry Abel, Message Systems Infrastructure E-<strong>mail</strong> delivery is no longer just about whether or not you get in the inbox, as reputation systems and feedback loops have become commonplace. All e-<strong>mail</strong> marketers must be fluent in the issues of reputation, moni<strong>to</strong>ring, CAN-SPAM, authentication, preventing spam complaints, auditing e-<strong>mail</strong>s and ISP relations. It starts with reputation BY J.F. SULLIVAN Vendors are doing their best <strong>to</strong> get marketers <strong>to</strong> take seriously the issues of moni<strong>to</strong>ring and maintaining online reputation. Within the once-tiny industry of e-<strong>mail</strong> deliverability, there are now more companies springing up <strong>to</strong> give you a snap-shot of your online reputation than pho<strong>to</strong>graphers following Paris Hil<strong>to</strong>n. Why is that? In reality, much of what people refer <strong>to</strong> as J.F. Sullivan Habeas reputation is not new. It has existed for years, mostly in the form of anti-spam blacklist services. As anti-spam techniques became more complex and mature, the concepts of whitelists sprung up as a form of positive reputation. In more recent years, ISPs have also been developing their own metrics for reputation in the form of collected user complaints. This “feedback reputation” has been dangled over the heads of senders for years now, like a Sword of Damocles ready <strong>to</strong> slice and dice the <strong>mail</strong> of any sender flagged by the ISP’s users. A number of anti-spam content analysis vendors have also begun repositioning themselves as being in the business of helping senders enhance and improve their reputation through a variety of add-on <strong>to</strong>ols. Lest anyone wonder, we at Habeas confess that for the last several years we have been aggregating and maintaining a reputation data network. Our database contains reputation information on several million receiving systems and networks, allowing us <strong>to</strong> build a detailed picture of how senders are perceived by receivers around the world. If reputation is truly a lot of old processes wrapped in a trendy new name, why all the ESSENTIAL GUIDE sudden fuss? Simply put: Senders are beginning <strong>to</strong> lean more and more heavily on reputation data in order <strong>to</strong> make the kinds of delivery decisions that mean life or death for e-<strong>mail</strong> marketing campaigns. One of the events that crystallized the issue was Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will begin throttling the connections of new senders, not by whether they were on a whitelist, but solely by the established reputation of that sender. Microsoft’s assessment of senders’ reputations incorporates a number of fac<strong>to</strong>rs, including individual and aggregated views of sending volumes, complaint rates and a variety of technical and infrastructure characteristics, all measured and assessed over time. Why should you care about how ISPs view your e-<strong>mail</strong> reputation? It really boils down <strong>to</strong> whether you are interested in maintaining the relationships you enjoy <strong>to</strong>day with your cus<strong>to</strong>mers. In this new world of e-<strong>mail</strong> reputation, all the old rules apply with regard <strong>to</strong> message content and construction. But whereas you might have found blacklists, whitelists and other reputation information <strong>to</strong> be little more than an inconvenience or an annoyance in the past, the future is going <strong>to</strong> be very different. Your cus<strong>to</strong>mer relationships are going <strong>to</strong> start with that reputation, or your cus<strong>to</strong>mer relationships won’t be relationships at all. J.F. Sullivan is vice president of marketing at Habeas. You can reach him at jfsullivan@habeas.com. Thinking beyond deliverability BY ELLEN SIEGEL According <strong>to</strong> the December 2006 ESPC/Ipsos E-<strong>mail</strong> Survey, most consumers decide <strong>to</strong> delete e-<strong>mail</strong>s or report them as spam based on their “from” and “subject” lines, and nearly 80 percent do so without ever opening them. Hence it is critical for small businesses <strong>to</strong> understand the importance of reputation and trust if they want
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