Session Presentation

1. A Marketer's Guide to the
"Big Four" ISPs

2. Matt Rausenberger
Sr. Director, Deliverability Consulting
Return Path, Inc.
matt.rausenberger@returnpath.net
eec Co-Chair
Deliverability & Compliance Roundtable
PSVillage Co-Chair
Denver Chapter

4. A Few Common Truths About
Email and Receivers

5. 1. ISPs are focused on providing a great
email experience to mailbox users
Common Truths 2. 99 / 100 deliverability issues are the
sender’s problem
About
3. ISPs put a heavy weight on a
Email and sender’s IP reputation
Receivers 4. Engagement is important
5. Batch and blast is a thing of the past
6. ISPs will mediate with senders if
subscribers are engaged and vocal
about your email deliver (Detailed
Info is needed to support your case)
7. ISPs have a tough time sorting the
good, the bad, and the ugly email

6. Reputation Factors
Infrastructure IP Permanence List Hygiene
Content Complaints Engagement

7. Fun Facts
#1 ISP with 350 million active users / 1 billion mailboxes
HoTMaiL launched in 1996; acquired by Microsoft in 1997
8 billion emails per day for all domains
#2 ISP with 280 million users / 320 million with its partners
Y! launched in 1995 but email came later
#3 ISP with 193 million users
Launched beta 2004 and general public in 2007
Fastest growing ISP
#4 ISP in size
Email launched in early 90’s
Global presence is about half that of the top three ISPs

8. Spam Filtering
Patented Spam Guard Home-grown, Home-grown
SmartScreen Technology learned system
Focus mainly on
anti-spam
All Aspects of “This is Spam” IP
filtering
Reputation vs. “This is not
technology “This is Spam” vs.
Spam” Votes
Heavy Emphasis “This is not Spam”
Panel data
on URL Content Domain and IP Votes
(Active Users)
and User Consideration
Complaints Invalid recipients
Junk or Not
(Trusted Voter or Unknown Users
Junk Votes
Community) Engagement
URL Content
Filtering Engagement
Domain and IP
Consideration

9. Keep Complaints
to a Minimum
Best
Practice

10. Methods to Reduce Complaints
 Set expectations
 Respect unsubscribe
requests
 Be recognizable
 Send relevant content
 Analyze complaint
data

11. Junk e-Mail
Reporting
Program (JMRP)
FBL’s by individual
domain
(requires DKIM)
No FBLs
List Unsubscribe
Feedback Loops
Set industry
standard for FBL
application

12. Engagement
Panel Data Shapes their Filters
How active subscribers are with the mail
Considerations for Mail Placement (Inbox vs. Junk Folder)
Trusted Voter Community
In-house solution, coupled with a 3rd Party Filters
“This is Spam” vs. “This is not Spam” Votes
Priority Inbox
Analyzed engagement for a long period of time
Similar to Yahoo!
Engagement Trumps Complaints

13. Understand
Engagement
Best
Practice

14. Best
Practice
Import
Address
Book
Maintain Your List

15. Consistent Hygiene
 Review your data collection
processes and modify if necessary
 Use Confirmed Opt-In
 Segment new subscribers on IPs
 Monitor unknown user rate
 Grow your list organically
 Review your internal bounce
categorization routine
 Monitor sending logs
 Monitor Blacklists

16. Sending Requirements & Authentication
Sender ID
DKIM look up when SID does not pass
Throttles mail from new IPs
Reviews both DKIM and SPF
Max of 20 messages per SMTP connection
reject if open relay or open proxies
SPF, DKIM and DomainKeys
From matches d= in DKIM record
Shared IPs should sign DKIM w/ Unique domain
Both DKIM and SPF is best practice
DKIM will help maintain reputation across IPs
Fail of both SPF and DKIM = Spam folder

17. Best
Practice
Utilize a
Solid Sending
Infrastructure

18. Best
Best
Practice
Practice
Maintain Sending Permanence

19. Sending Reputation
Tools
Microsoft SNDS
AOL Reputation Check Tool
Gmail List-Unsubscribe Link Enabled
Return Path Sender Score

20. Prioritized Delivery
No internal Whitelist
Return Path’s Email Certification Program
Yahoo offers an internal Whitelist
Return Path’s Email Certification Program
No Whitelist
Priority Inbox
AOL Standard Whitelist
AOL Enhanced Whitelist

21. Partners

22. Partners
Sympatico (Bell Canada)

23. Partners
Sympatico (Bell Canada)
AT&T (BellSouth, SBC, Ameritech)
Verizon
Rogers, BT, TNZ, and Nokia

24. Partners
Sympatico (Bell Canada)
AT&T (BellSouth, SBC, Ameritech)
Verizon
Rogers, BT, TNZ, and Nokia
ig.br
virginmedia.com
sify.com

25. Partners
Sympatico (Bell Canada)
AT&T (BellSouth, SBC, Ameritech)
Verizon
Rogers, BT, TNZ, and Nokia
ig.br
virginmedia.com
sify.com
CompuServe
Netscape

26. Deliverability Blogs
Return Path
www.returnpath.net
Deliverability.com
www.deliverability.com
Word to the Wise
blog.wordtothewise.com
Al Iverson
blog.exacttarget.com/blog.php/al-iverson

28. © 2011 Return Path, Inc.
www.returnpath.net |
Confidential, do not reproduce