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Not all email is created equal

I have been dealing with a client delivery issue at a major ISP recently. During the course of troubleshooting my client tested mail delivery using a personal email account. This client noticed that email was delivered promptly. He then asked me if it was possible to get the ISP to prioritize his bulk mail over personal email. The short answer is no, ISPs do prioritize one-to-one email over bulk email.
Answering the question for him crystallized some vague thoughts that ended up running through my head at the conference last week. During the conference, and similar email conferences, conference call and any discussion that involves senders and receivers, there is usually little discussion of end users.
End users. Those people who are recipients of the emails that senders send. Those people who are customers of the nreceiver ISPs. End users who are almost never involved in the conversation, but without whom there would not be a conversation. These are the people that really matter. These are who senders need to engage. These are who the receivers need to keep happy.
It is, in fact, the end users who want one-to-one email more than they want bulk mail. Even the best bulk mail is not as engaging as that email from your best friend, or the problem solving with a colleague, or the latest gossip. ISPs know this, and they do not prioritize bulk mail, no matter how well managed and how engaging, over one-to-one mail.

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Link Roundup

Why email marketers are hated. A group of Ontario spammers finds Ken Magill’s email address and spams him. Repeatedly.
New docs in e360 v. Spamhaus. The judge threw out the after-the-fact affidavit from e360, but did not grant Spamhaus’ motion for summary judgment. Looks like this might end up at trial after all.
Oral arguments in Zango v. Kaspersky. I have been following this a little because SamSpade for Windows was classified as malware by one vendor a long time ago.
New books on email marketing.
Anything interesting people have seen that I missed?

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MAAWG Senders

Last week at MAAWG a number of members asked me about signing up for the MAAWG senders’ list. I have instructions for how to do so. If you would like a copy, email me at laura-maawg at wordtothewise dotcom.
Note: ONLY MAAWG members are eligible for any of the discussion lists or working groups.

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Jon Leibowitz: New FTC chair

Jon Leibowitz is slated to be appointed the new chair of the FTC as reported by Bloomberg and CNet. This may mean tougher regulations online. In the past Mr. Leibowitz has advocated that online advertisers move to opt-in for website cookies. This may signal his intention to put more control in the hands of the consumer. According to Bloomberg, Mr. Leibowitz has also “advocated more aggressive enforcement by the FTC.” We may see more CAN SPAM prosecutions as a result.

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Soft bounces and rate limiting

What is your policy for handling soft bounces? What do you consider a soft bounce? What is the right thing to do about soft bounces?
The first step in talking about soft bounces is to define them. When I talk about soft bounces, I mean mail that has been rejected with a 4xx response during the SMTP transaction. As described by RFC5321, when a recipient MTA responds with a 4xx it is telling the sending MTA “Wait! I can’t take this mail right now. Come back a little later and try again.” The sending MTA will then continue to attempt to deliver the message until either it is delivered or until it hits the max delivery time, usually 3 – 5 days.
In a well behaved and RFC compliant MTA, messages that have reached the maximum time without delivery due to 4xx rejections will be converted to permanent rejections (5xx). With a correct MTA, this means too many emails in a row timing out shoud result in an email address being removed from future mailings.
For a number of reasons some ISPs, notably Yahoo, are using 4xx responses to slow down mail from some senders. Many senders treat this as a inconvenience and a frustration and try to figure out how to get around the rate limiting. The UK DMA published an article on soft bounces with the following words of wisdom.

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Brand name spam

I’ve been getting a lot more spam advertising name brand companies. Places like FTD Flowers, Seattle Coffee Direct, Wal-Mart, Jet Blue, Gevalia and VistaPrint seem to all be working with spammers. In some cases, I am getting the same email to different email addresses from different domains and different IP addresses.
I am sure, if asked, all the advertised companies would say they have no knowledge of spamming by their vendors. I’m sure they would say that their vendors tell them I opted in to the email and must have just forgotten. I am sure that this isn’t really spam.
Except it really is spam. Real companies with real brands do use the services of spammers. When caught they loudly protest their innocence and talk about rogue affiliates. In the best cases they will “fire” the affiliate and then look the other way when the affiliate signs back up.
Spam is sending mail to people who never requested it. Hiring someone to do it for you doesn’t mean you aren’t a spammer. With the economy tanking and companies trying to maximize their bottom line, more and more name brands seem to be jumping on the spam bandwagon. It is not an unexpected development, but it will mean more aggressive spam filtering and more difficult email delivery for everyone.

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Words of wisdom from the hallway

Sitting around talking with folks in the hallway. One ISP rep mentions “we think we have found another front company of theirs…”
My only comment was “If a company needs to create a front company…” We all just looked at each other and didn’t need to come up with the “then…”
Really, if a sender thinks they must establish front companies to get connectivity or get customers or get delivery… then this is an admission of guilt.

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Palpable ennui

Put any group of senders together and the conversation invariably turns to discussions of how to get email delivered to the Inbox. There is an underlying flavor to most of these conversations that is quite sad. Many senders seem to believe that the delivery of their email is outside of their control and that since the ISPs are difficult to reach that senders are stuck. The ennui is palpable.
I am here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth!
Senders are not passive victims of the evil ISPs. In 99% of cases, delivery problems are fully under the control of the sender.
Mail being deferred? Mail being blocked? Mail being delivered to the bulk folder? Senders do NOT NEED TO CALL THE ISP to fix most of these. Tickets do not need to be opened nor do personal contacts need to be employed. You can resolve the vast majority of problems with data you already have.

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Affiliate Liability

Eric Goldman published his notes on affiliate liability from his talk at SMX West. He mentions some cases where a company was sued under CAN SPAM. Unlike general legal statutes, where non-agents cannot create liability for a company, under CAN SPAM companies are liable for the actions of their advertisers. Despite this statutory difference, both the FTC and private litigants have had difficulty proving in court that the advertised company was liable for the activity of the affiliate.
Any company that is using affiliate marketing on the Internet needs to take a look at the article and the best practices defined by Eric.

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Gearing up for MAAWG

One of the nice bits of SF MAAWG is that I don’t actually have to get on a plane in order to get to the conference. Still there seems to be a very long list of “things to do” before heading up to the city.
If you’re going to be there, stop by and say Hi

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