Q&A | Email Software

Q: Dear EmailKarma.net,

Right now I'm sending to Europe via send safe with a proxy service. I want to sent to the US via; msn, aol, yahoo.com and others. Is there any better software to send with than send safe? I'm trying to find software "light speed nexus"?

[Name Withheld]

A: Occasionally I receive questions I'd normally pass on and not answer but this one needs to be shared for the benefit of marketers everywhere.

The software your asking about is commonly used as a spam tool (or tools in this case), the whole idea of using "Proxies" to send email is just a awful idea. Many times they are blocked by ISPs before even getting mail out onto the Internet, think Spamhaus PBL. Blocking the commonly used mail port (Port 25) to prevent mail being sent by proxies is actually a highly recommended practise, drafted by members of MAAWG, to help ISPs prevent spam from originating from their networks. Many times these "Proxies" are actually created by virus infected PCs acting within a botnet.

I would recommend staying well away from both of these services, and other similar services, and finding a real Email Service Provider to work with. Supporting and using these types of tools only further supports the problems that legitimate marketers and services providers (both ISPs and ESPs) need to overcome everyday.

Q&A | Shared vs. Dedicated IPs for small lists

Q: Dear EmailKarma.net

I recently started helping out a start-up... They were doing all the email themselves but kept ending up in the spam folder. So they've asked me to help them get set up with an email provider that would have all the deliverability standards in place.

I was also hoping to get your take on the whole dedicated vs shared IP question? Does it make sense for them to start out on a shared IP and move to a dedicated IP when it makes sense?

Are there ways to check the reputation of an IP address (or pool of addresses) that we would share before we use it?

Thanks
~ Withheld ~

A:

I'd think a dedicated IP is the way to go - especially if you have good practices as they tend to perform better then shared IPs, for delivery metrics, opens, clicks and conversions.
The only concern I have is volume and long inactive periods between contacts, here is why;

Low and infrequent volumes sometime suffer on a dedicated IP because they never really generate a good mailing history do to the data sets available. Be aware of The possibility of collateral damage from these shared IPs. Working with a good ESP will help this as they tend to clean their network of bad actors to keep their network reputations high in order to achieve good delivery of their clients email.

As for moving, when there is an maintainable frequency of quality email that is being sent moving to a dedicated IP is recommended. Dedciated IPs allow you to develop your own reputation and effectively manage your own delivery fate.

Give them a scan with the free Habeas Reputation Check or SenderScore tools before you start to mail with them, some ESPs may be able to provide a similar reports if you ask for them. Ask specifically for the IPs you would be sending from to test this.

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Transactional Email That Markets Effectively

Original Posting in May 2008, issue of ThinData's Email Strategies.

Question:
As a national retailer, we send out large volumes of email to our customers to confirm purchases or account modifications that they have made while using our online store. We want to make sure that we are respectful of our customers while using these emails as an opportunity for promotion. Can you provide any recommendations – particularly since we plan to dramatically increase our use of email over the next few months?

Our Expert's Answer:
Your issue is one that every business that conducts commerce online needs to address.

There are two major types of email – commercial and transactional. Commercial email has one purpose: promotion of brand and/or products. In contrast, transactional-focused emails are far more complex. Most commonly, transactional emails are used to: welcome new registrants or customers, confirm transactions, provide notification of shipment and outline return policies. In short, this type of email supports a critical part of your relationship with customers – they provide confidence and build trust in your brand.

There are guidelines for transactional email that you should follow – because it demonstrates a respect for your customers and for reasons of complying with industry legislation (e.g. CAN-SPAM). Here are the key rules for transactional emails:

1. 80% of the content, imagery and space of a transactional email should serve to support a previous or pending transaction – rather than be promotional.
   
   
2. Marketing content should be below the fold – and clearly set apart from the transactional information.
   
   
3. Marketing offers presented should be somehow related to the transaction. For example, if the transaction is a purchase of an iPod, the marketing content could highlight relevant guarantees, product support or iPod accessories.
   
   
4. Use subject lines that clearly identify the email as transactional. For example, "Confirming Your Purchase of..."
   
   
5. If more than 20% of the email’s content, imagery or space is used for promotional purposes, you must include an “unsubscribe” option that will be honoured. Keep in-mind that if you do this, you run the risk of losing contact with a purchasing customer.

Follow these rules and your transactional emails will serve your brand and marketing objectives well.

Q&A | Is SPF2.0 Dead?

Q:
I've spoken with several folks and am still confused about whether or not SenderID is actually needed when sending to MSN/Hotmail.

What's the verdict? Is SenderID dead? Do spfv2 records need to be published? Is it sufficient to just publish SPF (v1) records when sending to MSN/Hotmail?

Sincerely confused on this one...

A:
I was intrigued by this question, as it was not something I had ever been told while working with the support teams at Hotmail, so I sent a note off to my contacts within Microsoft and got back the official word;

"In the majority of cases, using the SPF record will satisfy both SPF as well as SenderID verification within the Hotmail systems. Organizations that wish to publish a SenderID record are encouraged to do so. This second record will be used for SenderID validations, of the PRA domain only, and will take precedence over the classic SPF record."

Conclusions:

• SenderID is not dead - in fact it's still the one method used by Hotmail's authentication services.
• SPF (v1) implementations will continue to validate the MAIL FROM domain unless the sender has published a spf2.0/pra record.
• Publishing both records is not going to hurt your delivery to Hotmail.
• SPF is still being checked in the absence of SenderID - SPF is supported ongoing because most senders don't have just a 2.0 record yet.
• While only one records is sufficient, my recommendation continues to be publish both, as some other ISPs continue to pick one over the other.

Q&A | Help with RBL

Q: Hello EmailKarma.net

I am currently trying to contact someone at the FiveTenOptin block list. They are carrying this message for all of the IP addresses that we own:

Reports CNAME of [removed].com.bulk.blackholes.five-ten-sg.com.
TXT= "added 2007-05-30; unconfirmed mailing lists"

Do you know where I can find information on contacting them to get this message removed?

A:
Are you using a reputation monitoring service that is flagging this as an issue? In all honestly don't waste your time or energy on this list... Here is a graph showing the false positive stats on FiveTen, as tracked by DNSBL Resource. You'll see that they consistently block more ham then spam, and that only a few domains use them. It appears your being listed under the "bulk" flag for this list.

Description: Bulk mailers that don't require closed loop confirmed opt-in from all their customers.

The list is full of issues and for most people it is truly a non-issue (affecting only a tiny portion of your list) when it comes to delivery. Asking the domains that are using this to white list your mail or showing them the inaccuracies (DNSBL report) with this list are probably the best way to go forward with this. If your determined to try the contact page to reach them.

Good luck.

Q&A | Protecting users from fraud

I got asked a great question by a co-worker today...

"What have you seen other organizations doing to protect their users from fraud or phishing in emails?"

It got me thinking of all the different things I see when dealing with different organizations.

1. Yahoo!'s security seal is a good example of a service that lets you can create an avatar type icon hat is displayed on their login pages
2. Credit card companies may send the last 5 digits of your card in every email message.
3. Your phone company might send you your postal code or the last 4 digits of your phone number in each message to validate the relationship and validity of the message
4. Your bank or financial institution may ask you to populate a number of security questions/answers that are then randomly presented during your login.
5. PayPal's random number security key

While not all of these are email related, they could easily be applied to protect your users from fraud as part of your security planning process to protect your members.

What are you doing to protect your members? Care to share with us leave a comment or email us at contact.

Q&A | Setting up Authentication Records

Q:
Hello Email Karma,

Would you happen to have a link that specifically shows how to set up SPF2.0 records?

Thanks very much for your help.

A:
Thanks for your question.

SPF 2.0 (aka. Sender ID) is probably better known as Sender ID, and the full details are available directly from Microsoft's Sender ID Home Page. Microsoft also supplies a handy "Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard" tool for building your records correctly.

Regarding the setup of these records... Create a new TXT record in your DNS for the domain your setting up Sender ID for and add the results from the Wizard tool above. Your result should look something like this (depending on the network information of your email system):

email.example.com in TXT "a mx ip4:1.2.3.4 -all"

While I'm talking about Authentication, some other handy sites include;

• OpenSPF
• DKIM.org
• ESPC's Authentication testing tool

Hope these tools and suggestions help you out.

Do you have another tool you use for testing or a better suggestion on setting these records up - let us know, by leaving a comment or email us at contact.

Q&A | Not all complaints are created equal

Q: Dear EmailKarma,

Recently we had a member of our opt-in (we only send opt-in) mailing list complain about a message that we sent to them by posting a long article about it on their blog. After working with our ESP and investigating the acquisition of this address it was found that another member of their family had subscribed and used this address in the past.

What should we do about these types of complaints in the future?

Thanks,
[name withheld at request of sender]

A: Hello,

This appears to be a case of an individual user overreacting to your messages, because they were accessing an account shared with another individual in there household. This is occasionally seen when one individual subscribes and the other doesn’t realize of know about this (i.e. husband/wife, parent/child).

A few recommendations immediately come to mind reading the steps needed to correct this type of issue in the future;

• Build a program that will keep your users (even less engaged users) seeing your messages on a regular basis, those that fall off based on your business rules should be sunset correctly.
• Build personalization into these messages, starting with Dear "First Name", vs. Dear Valued Client, allows for instant recognition of the subscriber at a shared address.
• Add in footers with the individuals name, subscribed date and email address that reinforce the individual that subscribed to your list. This is also good for an individual that may forward one account to another (or a friend).
• Build an easy opt-out, requiring a password or membership number will also drive individuals like this to complain about your mail as they will generally not know the password on the account as it was created by another member of their household.
• Last but not least, be polite and honest when dealing with people like this. Explain how you got the email address, who subscribed it and when.

Hope this helps you avoid these types of issues in the future. Have any other tips for your fellow reader on avoiding these types of issues, leave a comment.

Making Your Privacy Policy Marketing-Friendly

This Q&A was originally posted in the ThinData Email Strategies newsletter:

Q:
As a National media firm, we have several different online initiatives and each has its own privacy requirements and related policies. We want to make sure that our privacy policy is strong from a marketing perspective as well as compliant from a legal perspective. Can you provide any recommendations – particularly since we plan to dramatically increase our focus on email?

Here is my answer:

You are wise to make your privacy policy marketing-friendly in addition to legally sound. Here are a few guidelines:

The Message. From a marketing perspective, your privacy policy should convey the messages that you:

- Are genuinely respectful of private information;
- Have processes in-place to protect private information; and
- Welcome inquiries about your privacy policies and procedures.

The Content. To convey these messages, at a minimum, answer the following:

- What private information you will track and collect
- How you will collect private information
- How you will use the private information you collect
- Whether you will share with, or sell private information to, anyone
- How you will store private information
- How and when you will update private information
- Who can be contacted if there are questions or concerns about how private information is being used

You should also include:

- Instructions for how to opt-out of email/subscriptions
- The date your privacy policy was last updated
- How people will be updated when privacy policies are changed

The Language. Make your policy clear and concise. If your policy is convoluted, you can inadvertently send the message that you are hiding something.

Other Sources. Make sure your online marketing privacy practices and initiatives reflect the rules set out in PIPEDA. Download The Marketer’s PIPEDA Checklists

Q&A | Follow up to comment on Y!

As I was writing a reply to the comment made by DJ on yesterday's post I realized I had a whole posts worth of stuff to say so I moved the reply to here. DJ asked three key questions:

What are you thoughts on Yahoo! in general?

I love Y! I have been using the same account at @yahoo.com for personal email for the last 10 (maybe more) years and with the latest spam filtering changes my daily spam load inbound has dropped to a handful each day (I might even go as low as a dozen a week). It's great to see an ISP, the size of Y!, participate and interact with groups like the Email Standards Project to ensure that they are able to render the messages being sent into there users, if only others would participate and listen with this same interest.

Do you see this as a potential issue going forward? An anomaly?

Most ISPs go through times like these, where Technology is being updated/tweaked or all together replaced. Yahoo is a big company with a huge network, small mistakes or changes can have a much larger then expected effect on the general public with network like this.

Do you envision Yahoo! having deliverability issues on and off in the future?

Just like any feature role out there can be issues, I wouldn't harp on Y! to much about this one as they worked quickly to fix the issue. When dealing with (potentially) thousands of mail servers no matter how fast you work to fix something its going to take time. Time to investigate, time to find a solution and time to implement that solution.

Q&A | Can one FBL notification address be used for multiple domains

Dear EmailKarma.net,

Q: We are currently setting up some new Feedback Loops (FBLs) with several ISPs and I'm looking for a best practice recommendation regarding our set-up within these systems.

Suppose I send mail from two different domains (user@news.example1.com and user@sub.example2.com), I give the ISP one email address for my FBL notifications to go to (abuse@example.com)? Does the ISP expect the notification email address to be on the same domain or IP as my mailing domains? What do you suggest?

Thanks,
Steve

A:
Hi Steve,

The sending domains should not matter when configuring your FBLs as they are generally IP based systems and not domain based. These systems look at registered IPs or Netblocks (/24) and a preconfigured (usually supplied by the requesting party) reporting address. In fact many ESPs have setups similar to this; where mail is sent from alias@subdomain.client.com but FBL data is set to FBLContact@esp.com, which is a global address configured to accept FBL data for the mail servers, IP addresses, used by their Email Marketing Platform.

Thanks for the question. Do you have a question for EmailKarma.net? Email them to contact.

Q&A | Preventing an Unexpected Spike in Email Bounces

Reposting this Q&A from ThinData's Email Strategies where I answer the question, "What do I do when an ISP discontinues a domain or migrates users from one domain to another?"

A subscriber asked:

We're a large media firm sending email to subscribers throughout Canada and the United States. I've heard recently that one of the largest US ISPs has discontinued sending messages to some email domains. What kind of impact will this have on my email marketing campaign? And, what can I do about it?

Our Expert's Answer (That's me):

Here's the scoop: One of the largest US ISPs is bringing into their system a large volume of email addresses that had formerly been distributed by another ISP. During the migration of these email domains, subscribers were encouraged to switch domains (similar to a few years ago when "@home" subscribers were prompted to actively change their addresses to "@rogers", "@shaw" and "@cogeco" – based on the appropriate local ISPs).

If you are sending emails to subscribers in the United States whose email domains were distributed through the originating ISP that have not been correctly updated, you will find a dramatic spike in your email bounce rates. Under these conditions, you can take the following steps now to reduce the impact on your email campaigns' success:

1. Work with your ISP or ESP to ensure that all of the relevant domains are removed from your mailings
2. Plan for an increase in telephone calls regarding missed email messages
3. Review your email campaign content to ensure that critical subscriber information can be accessed through another method (e.g. placed on your website)
4. Have your ISP or ESP quantify the increase in bounces attributable to this ISP's actions so that you can factor that information into key elements of your campaign, such as:

• Initial conversion goals
• Delivery analytics
• Testing schedule
• Related follow-up messages

Finally, ISPs across North America are constantly changing their practices and policies which in-turn will have a dramatic impact on your email campaigns. As a result, for all of your campaigns, include time and resources to review ISPs' evolving rules as well as verify and update email addresses.

Do you have anyother tips; please share them by sending an email to contact or leave a comment here

Q&A | Email Authentication

Q: Dear EmailKarma,

Where can I find the most updated information on how to properly set up SPF records, Domain Keys, and DKIM? Also, would you know what the exact difference is between Domain Keys and DKIM?

A: The best locations for SPF and Sender ID information are straight from the respective project web sites.

• OpenSPF
• Sender ID

When prepairing to launch authentication for these two services it best to;

• Have your mailserver list ready and researched, and use the record wizard (SPF, SID)
• Roll out with a "~all" flag to test your configuration
• Move to a "-all" flag once your testing is completed
• Publish these records for all of your domains, don't forget your corporate domain.

As for the difference between Domain Keys and DKIM the project site dkim.org provides a great FAQ answering this question.

Q&A | The possibality of collateral damage

Is there a possibality of collateral damage if the ESP I mail with has other clients with bad email reputaitons?

Will there be an impact on delivery if a sender with a bad reputation is on the same network as my server with a good reputation?

It is a possibility that your neighbour could cause you some pains along the way
if they are not tended to by your ESP. In many cases it depends on who is doing
the blocking and the number of bad actors on the same network.

The good news - for most ISPs they will notice the difference and act only on bad IPs. That is where your revers DNS is important - to show the distinct nature/sender on each IP.

Does this mean then that a unique sending IP address given to me by my ESP is not necessarily as "safe" as we might otherwise think?

Yes this is true, but new systems are being developed by the leading ISPs and
ESPs to help distinguish one sending entity from another. Systems like Domain
Keys (or Domain Keys Identified Mail) are able to distinguish the "sender"
reputation and begin the movement from IP reputation to a domain based
reputation system.

The possibility of collateral damage bounces is greatly reduced on an isolated IP address, especially when compared to that of a shared IP address.

How do escalating blocking systems work?

Systems like UCE Protect are a good example of an escalating block pattern.

Level 1 - Contains single IP addresses

Level 2 - Lists larger netblocks based on the number of listings in Level 1 (4 or more IPs in level 1 in the same network) with increasing size based on the total number of IPs listed.

Level 3 - Lists Networks with a lot of level 1 or 2 listings, possible listing an ASN (Multiple networks) of an ISP/ESP. (more then 100 IPs listed in Level 1)

For more on this discussion and others like this please join us on the Email Marketers Club.

Follow up | Email Formatting

After being asked about the differences in Items 3 and 4 from Wednesday's Post, Q&A | Email formatting, a few examples are needed to show how these were intended to be used.

Item 3 - Scrubbing services accounts

A Service account is an account that should be maintained by every domain as per the standards set by RFC 2142. These addresses are reserved for specific functions relating to the management of your domain, these should not be used for commercial email. Here are a few examples; Postmaster is used for general email or mail server issues, Webmaster is reserved for Web page errors, content and broken links.

Mailing to these types of addresses will eventually land you on a blacklists or in a worst case scenario, looking for a new hosting company... Which might be a problem as may ISPs and hosts participate in industry groups and may share data on bad behaviour.

Item 4 - Reviewing your list

These types of addresses [email, spam , junk] should be flagged for visual review. You might find that a small segment of these types of addresses are found in your list and the legitimacy can be decided on by a person that reviews the email…

Example: emailkarma+nospam@example.com might be something to flag for removal but emailkarma+goodemail@example.com might be something to keep on your list.

You should add additional criteria to this based on your needs, some mailers will not allow companyname@example.com to be added to there lists, or alais@alias.com to prevent potential fraudulent subscriptions.

Q&A | Email formatting

Hello EmailKarma,

Q: How you feel about email addresses formatted like this: www.alias@isp.com.
I don't think they should be collected/mailed to because I've seen too many of them bounce over the years.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

A: Address formatting is a very common issue with regards to data collection, some times being too strict hinders people converting and subscribing to your email program, other times forms are not strict enough and can be maliciously scripted and fed bad data.

Here are some tips to consider when reviewing address formatting:

1. AOL address must meet these criteria; 3 to 16 characters, no punctuation and cannot start with a number.
2. Hotmail, for example, only allows creation of email addresses using alphanumerics, dot (.), underscore and hyphen, and will not allow sending mail to any email address containing ! # $ % * / ? | ^ { } ` ~
3. Scrubbing any and all services account is also recommended, a list can be found here; RFC 2142: Mailbox names for common services, roles and functions. ex: postmaster@, abuse@.
4. Reviewing your list for names with the word spam, email or abuse is something to consider... Watch out for MissPamela thought, she might just want your email.
   
5. The Wikipedia has an excellent explanation on the makeup and formatting of an email address

As for the validity of www.alias@isp.com, 99 times out of 100 these will fail and bounce... Scrubbing these names, and those in item 3 above, from your mailing list before sending is recommended.

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Q&A | Are IP address portable?

Q: Hello EmailKarma,

Are IP address portable? If you are thinking of moving hosting facilities and have built your reputation on your IP address that is owned by a telecom company – how do you suggest handling this? If you can’t take your IP with you, how do you take your reputation with you? Any insight would be great.

Best,
Nancy

A: After doing some research and talking with some other delivery experts to get their opinions on this, here is what we are able to suggest.

IP addresses are only portable if you "own" them (were allocated them by ARIN or RIPE or whoever). To get IPs that you own and could move from one provider to another you would need to be using at least a /21 (approximately 2,000 IPs).

A few ISPs (Hotmail specifically) have said, that they are now able to transfer reputation between IPs if they are published in the same authentication records with the old ones and that you continue to send email from. After your reputation is established you remove the old from the record and keep the new ones in there while you use the new system or IPs.

There was also discussion about the benefits gained from the reputation of your Domain Key (or DKIM) selectors and mailing history, that allow you to move reputation based on these keys and the past performance associated to them. Basically if an authentication technique can be tied to a domain and the reputation is based on that domain, then reputation should be portable. The problem is that, most reputations systems are still evolving and many still focus on the IP address.

Early in September EmailKarma answered the question Whats the best way to build reputation on new IPs? Using these suggestions and migrating your mail from one Network paired with the information above will give you the best results for moving your reputation from one IP address to another.

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Special Thanks to Steve, Dennis, and Jeff for their insight and opinions

Q&A Follow-up on reputation building

EmailKarma received this comment today from Kelly over at Sitebrand regarding the post "Q&A | Whats the best way to build reputation on new IPs?"

Q: What is the effect of not ramping up an IP - say if you do not have the volume needed? Can it still be done on a smaller scale?

A: Hi Kelly,

Building reputation on smaller lists is sometimes a challenge due to their smaller volume or an infrequent mailing schedule. Not to say it wont happen, reputation can and will be built but for smaller operations, it may just take a little longer. The only true way to build reputation is to send email, other programs like Habeas' Safelist, or a well known ESP, will help you overcome many of these challenges or accelerate the reputation building process of a program.

What becomes more important for smaller lists is the quality and relevance of the messages that are being sent:

• Low number of inactive accounts
• Low number of spam complaints or spam traps
• Authentication and White listing
  
• Consistency of sending; meet your deadlines and send regularly

The effect on a reputation that is not built correctly or has turned in a negative way:

• Limits on number of message per connection/hour/day
• Junk/Spam folder delivery
• Grey listing or temporary rejections of IPs for predefined periods of time
  
• Mail blocking or blacklisting

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Q&A: CAN-SPAM and the email "From"

Q: Dear EmailKarma,

Is it always necessary to say the offer is an advertisement in the subject line or are you still compliant if you say “special offer from an advertiser” in the body of the email? Is it necessary to state it in both body and subject line?

Currently all our special offers have a generic ‘from’ address or "advertiser@newsletterdomain.com". I’m wondering what the best way is to display a ‘from’ address when you are a newsletter sending a special offer from an advertiser. Would we still be CAN-SPAM compliant if we use the advertiser’s name such as: CorpBrand@newsletterdomain.com, or adv.CorpBrand@newsletterdomain.com?

Thanks,
FromQ

A: Hello FromQ,

Please do not take this as legal advice only EmailKarma's interpretation. For legal interpretation of your specific case, EmailKarma recommends you engage your companies legal council for a full review of the messages your sending

A couple different questions here today.

First: Identifying messages as advertisements.

CAN-SPAM reads that a "clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation" is required only if the sender is lacking the affirmative concent of the individual that they are sending email to. Sec 5(a)(5)(A) (i) and 5(a)(5)(B)(A)(i). There is no guidance on the location of this notice only that it must be "Clear and Conspicuous" - Recommendation: Top/centre of the message body.

Second: The From Address.

Being as clear as possible with your from address is key to getting your message delivered. The ESPC released the following information showing how powerful your from address is when delivering to consumers:

80 percent decide whether to click on the “Report Spam” or “Junk” button without opening the actual message;

• 73% base the decision on “FROM”
• 69% base the decision on “SUBJECT”

Using easily recognizable from name will help with recognition and will generally help by lifting interaction with your messages, and reduce complaints from unrecognized messaging. Generally I recomend using your brand, where the consumer opted in (whenever possible) on the left side of the email and the left most part of your subject line.

Like this:

• From: CorpBrand@newsletterdomain.com
• Subject: CorpBrand newsletter

Hope this helps.

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Q&A | Whats the best way to build reputation on new IPs?

I saw this question posted to the Email Marketer's Club today and I could not help myself, I just had to answer it here.

Q: Whats the best way to build reputation on new IPs?

A: The best way to build reputation, or to repair a reputation, on an IP address is to send small amounts of email to the ISP your working to build reputation at. These numbers have varied across the ISPs but you can be safe by starting with a few thousand message a day (<5,ooo) after a couple of days or a week you should double this and then double again after another week. To build a proper reputation on an IP address between 50 and 100 thousand messages need to be sent and monitored by an ISP, approximately 3 business weeks mailing daily

ISPs measure the following;

1. Number of unknown users attempted
2. Number of spam/junk reports from recipients
3. Number of spam trap or long inactive (12+ months disabled) accounts that are being attempted
4. Number of concurrent connections attempted from one mail server.

Key items to note:

• Send relevant and permission based emails
• Send only to live addresses, remove invalid account immediately
• Monitor ISP feedback loops for high levels of user complaints
• Frequent mailings (daily) in smaller batches than less frequent and larger campaigns
• Authenticate your messages with SPF/Sender ID and DK(IM)

Do you have a question for EmailKarma? Email them to contact or leave a comment.