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Email in 2020

Late last year Litmus invited me to contribute to a whitepaper they were putting together about email in 2020. Today, they released Email Marketing in 2020. I am honored to be included in the list of experts that they chose.
One of the things I find so so much fun in participating in this type of joint project is seeing what other people’s visions are. When Chad first contacted us, his request was very simple. He wanted 400-ish words on what we thought would change. We all approached it from our own perspectives. The final document really touches on a wide range of changes and gives an bright and rosy view of the future of email.
It’s hard to imagine I’ve had email for more than 25 years. It’s become such a fundamental and critical part of my life. I mean, sure I’m an email professional but it’s more than that. Some of my best friends I met over email. I’ve gotten multiple jobs based on my presence on email discussion lists. Steve and I met around email. One of the fun bits of M³AAWG is that I get to see friends I first met almost 20 years ago over email.
Email has really changed in the last decade. It is now a critical part of daily life for many people. Even social networking would be nowhere without an email address. Email really is the key to the digital kingdom. That’s not going to change.
Email being the key to the digital kingdom is a challenge. It lets nefarious people into our homes and into our lives and into our computers. A lot of very smart people are working on how to make email safer for us. I think it will be much safer in 2020, through the hard work and dedication of a lot of people.
I strongly encourage you to download the Email Marketing in 2020 white paper from Litmus. There is a lot of insight. It will be fun to see how much of what was said becomes reality.

Catching up from MAAWG SF

Had a great time a M³AAWG last week. So many familiar faces and a lot of new ones, too. I’ve got a lot of interesting stuff that I can share with readers over the next few days.
One of the things I have received permission to share is the new Office 365 IP delisting link. I botched the first time I posted it, so I’m going to try again. Office 365 IP Delisting Page. Many thanks to the Microsoft guys for getting this together for people.
While I’m talking about Microsoft, there is a bit of a problem with folks signing up with their FBL. Some people are finding that the process gets stuck and FBLs aren’t enabled. MS is aware of the issue and they are working on fixing it. As I know more I’ll share.
Unsurprisingly, authentication was a big topic of conversation, both in the hallways and in the sessions. There were some strong opinions stated. I think, though, that we’re pretty clear that we’re going to get to a more authenticated world. But we have some different opinions on how and how fast that’s going to happen.

Getting unblocked at Outlook.com

It’s been a crazy week here at M³AAWG. I have a lot of stuff to blog about, but I think one of the really important things to get out is the new unblock request page at Outlook / Hotmail.
https://sender.office.com
Submit your IPs and it will be reviewed.
(Apologies for the repeated bad links. I’m blaming con crud, lack of sleep and MSN/Hotmail/Office/Outlook for having so many domains I can’t keep them straight. I have finally gotten it right and tested it.)

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control. Apple letter to customers
Read More

Should you publish DMARC?

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about DMARC. Being at M³AAWG has increased that. Last night we were at dinner and heard from the next table “And they’re not even publishing DMARC!!!!”
I know DMARC is the future. I know folks are going to have to start publishing DMARC records. I also know that the protocol is the future. I am also not sure that most companies are ready for DMARC.
So lets take a step back and talk about DMARC, what it is and why I’m still a little hesitant to jump on the PUBLISH DMARC NOW!! bandwagon.

M3AAWG 36 – San Francisco

So many familiar faces. So many new faces.
This is my one M3AAWG this year and I’m so excited to be here. The organization has really grown and changed over the 10 years we’ve been a member. It’s only getting better and better.
I’ll be tweeting from public sessions (and probably tweeting random things that occur to me as I’m here) using the #m3aawg36 tag.

Ask Laura: Confused about Authentication

Thoughts on Data Hygiene

One of the big deliverability vs. marketing arguments has to do with data hygiene and dropping inactive users. Marketers hate that deliverability people tell them to let subscribers go after a long time of no activity from the subscriber.
Data hygiene is good. Email is not permanent and not forever, and the requirements for data hygiene in the email space are very different than the requirements in the postal mail space. There is no such thing as “dear occupant” in email. I mean, you can sent to occupant, but the occupant can then hit the this is spam button. Too many emails to “occupant” and mail goes to bulk instead of the inbox. These are real risks.
With that being said, there are a lot of things to consider when putting together a data hygiene program. You’re looking to remove people who are no longer interested in your brand as much as they are no longer interested in your mail. You’re trying to suss out who might have abandoned the email address you have for them. It’s complicated.
I’ve worked with a lot of clients over the years to implement data hygiene programs. Sometimes those programs were to deal with a bulk foldering issue. Other times clients have been trying to address a SBL listing. Still other clients were just looking for better control over their email and delivery. In all cases, my goal is to identify and classify their recipients into 3 groups: addresses we know are good, addresses we know are bad, and then addresses we don’t know about.
Good addresses get mailed. Bad addresses get dumped. The challenging bit is what do we do with the unknown addresses? That’s when we start looking at other data the client may have. Purchases? Website visits? What do we have to work with and what else do we know about the people behind the addresses. Once we’ve looked at the data we design a program to take the addresses we don’t know about and drop them into either the good or the bad bucket. How we do that really depends on the specifics of the company, their program and their data. But we’ve had good success overall.
There’s been a lot of discussion on hygiene this week, after Mailchimp published a blog post looking at the value of inactive subscribers. They found something that I don’t find very surprising, based on my observations across hundreds of clients over the years.

Gmail showing authentication info

Yesterday Gmail announced on their blog they would be pushing out some new UI to users to show the authentication and encryption status of email. They are trying to make email safer.
There are a number of blog posts on WttW for background and more information.

Q1 2016: Upcoming events

While we’re working on a Speaking Schedule page for my upcoming events, I’ll just update the blog. My schedule for Q1 and Q2 is coming together.
M³AAWG 36: San Francisco, February 16 – 18th. I’ll be up on Monday afternoon. No official speaking at this one, just sitting in the audience and listening. But stop by and say hi!
Email Evolution Conference: Hosted by the EEC, New Orleans, March 30 – April 1. I’ll be on the panel Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Email (But Were Afraid To Ask) with some of my favorite colleagues.
Email Innovations Conference: Las Vegas, May 18 – 19th. Understanding Your IT Department: What Non-Technical Brand Managers Need To Know about Email Security, DMARC, ISP’s and Delivery.