Riding the E-mail Highway

What you need to know about whitelisting and certification

August 2007 By Dave Lewis

multipage

License and Proof of Insurance, Please

While qualification requirements for whitelisting and certification vary from service to service, there are some common themes. They are:

Customer Satisfaction. Low customer complaint rates are key for all whitelist and certification services, so managing those factors that contribute to complaints is crucial. For many, opt-in consent is a requirement, and they’ll go further in examining your data-capture and permission practices, such as your disclosure of intended use and notification processes. In some cases, you may be asked to substantiate permission in the event of customer complaints. Your privacy policy as well as handling of unsubscribe requests and complaints also may be scrutinized.

List Management. Most ISPs have requirements for effective bounce management. Maintaining low levels of “unknown users” is a key consideration.

Regulatory Compliance. Strict adherence to the Can Spam Act is a prerequisite. There must be no attempt to hide, forge or misrepresent the sender or deceive the recipient as to the e-mail’s intent. All e-mail must have valid, nonelectronic contact information for the sending organization. Plus, there must be a simple and obvious unsubscribe mechanism that works, and senders must honor all unsubscribe requests within the prescribed legal time frame.

E-mail Authentication. Many require that senders authenticate their e-mail using the protocol required by the receiving ISP, such as SPF, Sender ID or DKIM.

Sending Infrastructure. All ISPs require that the infrastructure used to send e-mail is well-maintained and operated in a responsible manner. This means that your e-mail servers connecting to the ISPs must have valid reverse DNS entries and be secured to prevent unauthorized use. Having static IP addresses also is a common requirement.

Get On the Ramp

Assuming you will qualify, your next two questions are: Should I apply for ISP whitelisting? Should I make the added investment in RSP certification?

The answer to the first question is easy. Yes, you should. It’s free. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just don’t expect to get a free ride. Being on a whitelist won’t prevent your e-mail from being blocked or routed to the junk folder if your complaint rate or practices deteriorate. However, whitelisting will identify you as a legitimate sender to the ISP and open an important channel of communication should an “accident” occur. Additionally, the qualification process itself will help you better understand the requirements of different ISPs and allow you to evaluate your own practices relative to their standards.

The answer to the second question about RSP certification is more involved. To start, you’ll want to examine your delivery rate and other key metrics—such as opens and clicks—after you’ve taken advantage of ISP whitelisting, looking for performance improvements. Since coverage and benefits vary, you’ll next want to review the distribution and performance of your list by ISP and compare that to what’s offered by the different RSPs. If you’ve got a solid reputation and a good delivery rate, you may find that the benefit is not so much in improved deliverability, but rather in better placement and image/link rendering that yields higher click and conversion rates. Also, some have better solutions for B-to-C mailers than B-to-B and vice versa. ROI testing is the final critical step. You want to be sure that the premium you pay for certification with a RSP actually pans out in terms of better bottom-line results.

As with e-mail authentication, whitelist and certification services are part of the new ecosystem for e-mail. These services help convey the reputation of senders, so once a sender’s identity is established through authentication, ISPs can do a better job of sorting the good e-mail from the bad and preserve the medium for legitimate communication and commerce.



Dave Lewis is vice president of market and product strategy for StrongMail Systems, a Redwood City, Calif. e-mail infrastructure software provider. Lewis actively is involved with the Email Experience Council and co-chairs the Email Sender & Provider Coalition working group responsible for ISP relations. He can be reached at (650) 421-4200.

• MORE ON
• ONLINE MARKETING