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Major ISPs like AOL and Yahoo are doing what they can to make sure that their users don’t get spam. Of course they block a lot of legitimate email as well.
One solution that is growing in popularity is the idea of email certification. In other words, a system that could verify that you, the sender, are who you say you are, and that your email gets delivered and maybe even stand out in the inbox a little.
Goodmail Systems is working with ISPs to bring this kind of certification to marketers who meet strict standards for best email practices and low complaint rates. It’s kind of like a Good Housekeeping seal of approval for email.
- The following is a list of benefits reported by Goodmail
- 100% deliverability
- Images and links automatically enabled
- Blue ribbon image next to your mail in the inbox
I won’t try to explain how it works, but it does involve an accreditation process to qualify. (Here’s a diagram of how it works.)
- And now for some further reading
- SenderID - Microsoft’s e-mail authentication technology protocol
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) - provides a method for validating a domain name identity that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication.
- Static IP vs Shared IP - Good (but technical) article on the technical aspects of sharing a mail server IP address - if you swim in a pond with lots of people you can’t really control what’s in the water.
Reporting this live from the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit
Comments
This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at Feb 25, 08 | 11:19 am and is filed under email marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Certified email will kill many small businesses that do not use the same SMTP server as their domain. Many businesses, especially home based, use their ISP’s SMTP server which is rarely the host of their DNS(Domain).
Pat - you bring up a good point and that’s why this is such a tough issue. I don’t know that certified email will be the only way that people send, it’s really just another measure to help deliverability for senders who mail a lot.
E-mail certification by an independent, third-party organization which determines if your e-mail efforts conform to a standard of which they typically maintain—OK, this is a good thing.
But, certification is not a replacement for poor e-mail list hygiene and e-mail marketing practices. I cannot emphasize enough the greater importance list owners need to put on managing their lists to a higher standard.
Most list owners think that list management is the easy part and they are dead wrong. This is where the problems start.
John Bradley Jackson
Author: First, Best, or Different