9 Things Isps Really Want Email Senders to Know

9 Things ISPs Really Want Email Senders to Know

BY STEVE DILLE What We Learned at the Email Conference

There’s nothing more valuable than assembling some serious industry brain- same distance or temperature or volume of water, but each uses different units. power in one room for a good give-and-take around immediate and future One doesn’t invalidate the other, hence the philosophical nature of the construct. challenges, and over the past few months we’ve had the chance to get up close Likewise, the different ways of measuring engagement, it was pointed out by one and personal with three — three, count ‘em! — panels that brought members of panelist, adds up more to “a set of philosophical principles than a secret sauce.” ISP brain trusts together. So, what exactly comprises that set of principles? What follows isn’t meant to be In past years, the Internet Service Providers Panel, hosted by SparkPost and an exhaustive guide to ISP relations for email senders, but rather a set of actions Message Systems at our Insight conference, has made for some lively give-and- or knowledge points shared by email experts from some of the world’s largest take, so nobody should have been surprised that the session at Insight 2014 ISPs. These are things senders can take action on right now to help improve wasn’t any different, with Google, Microsoft, AOL, Comcast and Synacor on hand. their deliverability and keep ISP relationships on a steady course. The Keynote Panel Discussion at The Email Evolution Conference, #EEC15, was just as animated, with key anti-abuse personnel on hand from Comcast, Microsoft, AOL and Google. Most of these organizations were represented at the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit also, which took place in Las Vegas in February 2015. 1 Learn to read and understand positive signals.

One of the major disconnects between senders and receivers that has become Maybe the most important takeaway for attendees at these sessions was evident over the years is the idea that engagement is a single measure under- that senders need to gain an understanding of the signals that ISPs read stood by both senders and ISPs on the receiver side. Quite the contrary, senders as good vs. bad. When a mailbox provider sees a subscriber do any of the are not privy to the metrics that receivers see and receivers don’t have access to following, it’s a signal that the recipient values messages from that sender, sender data. This dynamic shined through all of the email industry events listed which reinforces that sender’s reputation with the ISP. above. Each session saw an emphasis on illuminating ISPs’ approach to engage- • Opening an email ment, and how it stacks up against the objectives and POVs of senders. Each • Adding a sender to the address book side has a different set of concerns and metrics: for ISPs that includes complaints, • Moving a message to a specific folder (filing) deletes and spam designations, while for marketers it’s opens. • Rescuing a message from the spam folder This fundamental dichotomy might best be represented by the relationship • Replying to a message between the metric system vs. the English system of measurement. Both are valid (well one’s more practical than the other), both are capable of measuring the

2 2 Learn to read and understand negative signals. 4 The definition of spam is a moving target for ISPs.

Thankfully there are more positive signals that inform engagement at a Separating graymail from truly heinous spam is never a simple task for mailbox provider than negative signals. But understand that when your ISPs, because individuals have idiosyncratic attitudes about what com- recipients do any of the following, ISPs take notice. prises spam. What complicates it is how recipient behavior is inconsistent: what’s offensive on Monday morning might be the same email we’re • Deleting a message without opening it devouring Monday night. Understand that as recipient attitudes to your • Marking a message as spam messages shift, so will the ways in which ISPs handle them. • Reporting phishing

One thing to consider regarding negative indicators: the use of “do not 5 You need to care more about encryption. reply” email addresses ([email protected]) can be problematic. Senders will often send machine-triggered emails for transactional or Panelists were all-in on this: it’s no longer just the financial industry that notification purposes from a “do not reply” address as a way of letting should care about TLS/SSL. In fact, all senders should look at encryption the recipient know that there is not a monitored inbox for that address. as the new baseline, rather than non-encryption. Spammers are on top In other words, if you respond to that email, it’s not going to be received of any latest advances almost instantly, and are often well ahead of some and read by a human. However, given that replying to emails is a posi- ISPs and senders. So, end-to-end encryption is essential when some tive signal that will ultimately improve a sender’s engagement, leading shrewd but nasty people are dead-set on intercepting your email. to better reputation and finally deliverability, it would be worthwhile to encourage recipients to respond rather than discourage them. 6 Segment, segment, segment.

Use different streams to handle different functions, especially marketing It’s a reputation game. 3 versus transactional, and when targeting different audiences. Doing so It was reiterated with emphasis by many ISPs: since they’re acting as guards against having an issue in one of your programs affecting how an proxies for recipients, ISPs put huge weight on sender reputation. So one ISP regards the rest. of the best ways for senders to reach the inbox is to be consistent and pre- dictable, and observe each ISP’s published best practices. Running a tight 7 Making IP changes? Share that information! ship on authentication — say, via scrupulous SPF records and well-policed domains — is critical for maintaining that good rep. Being spoofed by If you’re a sender adding new streams for new customers, or migrating spammers who managed to hijack one of your IPs is a recipe for having existing customers, that means you’ll need to make IP changes. That also your legit emails junked. means ISPs won’t recognize you or your customers as the same upright, utterly legit entities you’ve always been — unless you contact them to clue them in on your moves.

3 ISP POSTMASTER SERVICES Make it easier to unsubscribe. 8 AOL: postmaster.info.aol.com In the long run, making it very easy for recipients to unsubscribe is AT&T: att.com/esupport/postmaster not just a service to users, but helps you the email marketer, also. BlueTie: postmaster.bluetie.com Shedding disinterested users only increases your overall open rates Charter: charter.net/support/internet/charter-postmaster-services and sender reputation. Comcast: postmaster.comcast.net Cox: postmaster.cox.net 9 Read the policies, follow best practices, EarthLink: support.earthlink.net and “talk to us” about your needs. Gmail: gmail.com/postmaster Hotmail /Outlook.com: postmaster.live.com ISPs clearly state their policies and lay out best practices — usually on Rackspace: fbl.apps.rackspace.com dedicated Postmaster Support pages on their websites — and they work Roadrunner / Time Warner Cable: postmaster.rr.com at creating dialogue between receivers and senders to maximize deliver- USA.net: postmaster.usa.net ability, benefitting everybody involved…except the spammers. If you have Yahoo: help.yahoo.com/kb/postmaster questions about how a particular ISP is handling your traffic, don’t hesitate to reach out and connect with them via email or online. It’s in their interest COMPOSITE BLOCKING LIST that you know how best to get your messages to the inbox. The Composite Blocking List (CBL) is a DNS-based Blackhole List of suspected email spam-sending computer infections. abuseat.org

DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM BLACKLISTS More Resources: Also known as DNSBL’s or DNS Blacklists, the Domain Name System Blacklists are spam-blocking lists that allow a website administrator to block messages from specific systems that have a history of sending spam. dnsbl.info Senders can find many helpful resources online to help protect and improve their reputations, and maintain good relations with ISPs and inbox providers. SURBL

RETURN PATH SURBLs are lists of web sites, or more technically, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) hosts, that have appeared in unsolicited messages. Unlike most lists, Return Path operates in the center of the information landscape and partners SURBLs are not lists of message senders. surbl.org with a wide variety of companies to help make email more effective, safe, and profitable. returnpath.net SPAMHAUS

TREND MICRO EMAIL REPUTATION SERVICES The Spamhaus Project is responsible for compiling several widely used anti-spam lists. Many ISPs use these lists to reduce the amount of spam they accept. IP reputation lookup service. ers.trendmicro.com spamhaus.org

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