What kind of mail do filters target?

All to often we think of filters as a linear scale. There’s blocking on one end, and there’s an inbox on the other. Every email falls somewhere on that line.
Makes sense, right? Bad mail is blocked, good mail goes to the inbox. The bulk folder exists for mail that’s not bad enough to block, but isn’t good enough to go to the inbox.
Once we get to that model, we can think of filters as just different tolerances for what is bad and good. Using the same model, we can see aggressive filters block more mail and send more mail to bulk, while letting less into the inbox. There are also permissive filters that block very little mail and send most mail to the inbox.
That’s a somewhat useful model, but it doesn’t really capture the full complexity of filters. There isn’t just good mail and bad mail. Mail isn’t simply solicited or unsolicited. Filters take into account any number of factors before deciding what to do with mail.

What kinds of factors?

There are five broad questions I think about when guiding clients through their email programs.

  • Is the mail safe?
  • Is the mail solicited?
  • Is the mail targeted?
  • Is the mail wanted?
  • Is the mail productive?

Different filters have different weights for the categories. Those weights explain why delivery can range so widely across domains and email providers.
Let’s look at each set of factors and talk about who might care more about those factors than others.

Is it safe?

Does the message contain malware, phishing, anything that could harm the recipient’s computer or the network as a whole? These filters are widespread and heavily weighted by most people. Safe doesn’t typically come into it for legitimate mail, but the filters are still there and still sniff at our mail.

Is it solicited?

Alternatively, did the user ask to receive mail from the sender? Many blocklists, including Spamhaus, specifically set out to block unsolicited email. They don’t really care about what the email is. They simply want to make sure that the recipients are receiving mail they asked for.
Confirmed opt-in is a way to ensure that mail is solicited. The folks behind many of the blocklists simply want users to receive mail they asked for. Senders who can demonstrate the mail is solicited get removed from the list.
At ISPs, solicited is somewhat important, but the signs of solicited mail overlap with signs of wanted mail. When ISPs measure unknown users and complaints, part of what they’re trying to determine is if the mail is solicited by their user.

Is it targeted?

Does the user understand why they’re receiving the mail? As a small business owner, I get a lot of targeted email. Random companies buy addresses and target me as someone who might want their service. The mail is targeted, so some filters, particularly those at ISPs, might not block or spam folder the mail.
But just because mail is targeted doesn’t mean the user wants it.

Is it wanted?

Does the user want the mail? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. The big webmail providers (Oath, Microsoft, Gmail) heavily weight wanted. They don’t care so much if the message is solicited or targeted, although both things will increase the likelihood that the mail is wanted. At these ISPs, filters really focus on signs that the user is engaged with the message as part of the delivery process. Wanted mail gets into the inbox, unwanted mail not so much.
But just because the mail is wanted doesn’t mean it will make it to the inbox.

Is it productive?

This filter only really comes into effect when we’re talking about mailing into businesses. Email is a tool for businesses and they often want employees to be working while at work. Even if an employee solicits and email a business might decide it’s not productive for the business and they block that source of email. Likewise, businesses will block targeted and wanted messages simply because they’re unproductive.

What’s it all mean?

Effectively addressing delivery problems means understanding why a message isn’t reaching the inbox. Improving engagement isn’t going to help senders reach employee mailboxes if the mail is unproductive. Better targeting won’t help if the block is due to the mail being unsolicited. Using confirmed opt-in won’t magically get malware into the inbox.
It used to be that deliverability recommendations would work across the range of filters. Mail that made it to the inbox at an ISP like Gmail was likely to make it into the inbox almost anywhere. But as Gmail (and Oath and Microsoft) focus more and more on custom delivery for every recipient, recommendations that work there aren’t always going to work elsewhere.
Reaching the inbox outside of webmail providers means taking a lot more into account than just if the recipient is engaged with your mail.

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July 2017: The month in email

August is here, and as usual, we’re discussing spam, permissions, bots, filters, delivery challenges, and best practices.

One of the things we see over and over again, both with marketers and with companies that send us email, is that permission is rarely binary — companies want a fair amount of wiggle room, or “implied permission” to send. There are plenty of examples of how companies try to dance around clear permissions, such as this opt form from a company we used to do business with. But there are lots of questions here: can you legitimately mail to addresses you haven’t interacted with in 5 years? 10 years? What’s the best way to re-engage, if at all?
We frequently get questions about how to address deliverability challenges, and I wrote up a post about some of the steps we take as we help our clients with this. These are short-term fixes; for long-term success, the most effective strategy is sending email that people want and expect. Engagement is always at the core of a sustainable email program.
We’ve also discussed the rise of B2B spam, and the ways in which marketing technologies contribute to the problem. B2B marketers struggle to use social and email channels appropriately to reach customers and prospects, but still need to be thoughtful about how they do it. I also wrote about some of the ways that marketing automation plugins facilitate spam and how companies should step up to address the problem. Here’s an example of what happens when the automation plugins go awry.
I wrote a few posts about domain management and the implications for security and fraud. The first was about how cousin domain names can set users up for phishing and fraud, and the second was a useful checklist for looking at your company’s domain management. We also looked at abuse across online communities, which is an increasing problem and one we’re very committed to fighting.
I also highlighted a few best practices this month: guidelines for choosing a new ESP and active buttons in the subject line for Gmail.
And finally, we celebrated the 80th birthday of the original SPAM. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably already know why unwanted email is called SPAM, but just in case, here’s a refresher….

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Parasites hurt email marketing

As a small business owner I am a ripe target for many companies. They buy my address from some lead generation firm, or they scrape it off LinkedIn, and they send me a message that pretends to be personalized but isn’t really.
“I looked at your website… we have a list of email addresses to sell you.”
“We offer cold calling services… can I set up a call with you?”
“I have scheduled a meeting tomorrow so I can tell you about our product that will solve all your technical issues and is also a floor wax.”
None of these emails are anything more than spam. They’re fake personalized. There’s no permission. On a good day they’ll have an opt out link. On a normal day they might include an actual name.
These are messages coming to an email address I’ve spent years trying to protect from getting onto mailing lists. I don’t do fishbowls, I’m careful about who I give my card to, I never use it to sign up for anything. And, still, that has all been for naught.
I don’t really blame the senders, I mean I do, they’re the ones that bought my address and then invested in business automation software that sends me regular emails trying to get me to give them a phone number. Or a contact for “the right person at your business to talk to about this great offer that will change your business.”
The real blame lies with the people who pretend that B2B spam is somehow not spam. Who have pivoted their businesses from selling consumer lists to business lists because permission doesn’t matter when it comes to businesses. The real blame lies with companies who sell “marketing automation software” that plugs into their Google Apps account and hijacks their reputation to get to the inbox. The real blame lies with list cleansing companies who sell list buyers a cleansing service that only hides the evidence of spamming.
There are so many parasites in the email space. They take time, energy and resources from large and small businesses, offering them services that seem good, but really are worthless.
The biologically interesting thing about parasites, though, is that they do better if they don’t overwhelm the host system. They have to stay small. They have to stay hidden. They have to not cause too much harm, otherwise the host system will fight back.
Email fights back too. Parasites will find it harder and harder to get mail delivered in any volume as the host system adapts to them. Already if I look in my junk folder, my filters are correctly flagging these messages as spam. And my filters see a very small portion of mail. Filtering companies and the business email hosting systems have a much broader view and much better defenses.
These emails annoy me, but I know that they are a short term problem.  As more and more businesses move to hosted services, like Google Apps and Office365 the permission rules are going to apply to business addresses as well as consumer addresses. The parasites selling products and services to small business owners can’t overwhelm email. The defenses will step in first.
 

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July 2015: The Month in Email

Once again, we reviewed some of the ways brands are trying (or might try) to improve engagement with customers. LinkedIn, who frequently top lists of unwanted-but-legitimate email, announced that they’ll be sending less mail. Josh wrote about giving subscribers options for both the type and frequency of messages, and about setting expectations for new subscribers. In each case, it’s about respecting that customers really want to engage with brands in the email channel, but don’t want the permission they’ve granted to be abused. I also wrote a brief post following up on our June discussion on purchased lists, and as you’d predict, I continue to discourage companies from mailing to these recipients.

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