Permission-based e-mail makes it to U.S. inboxes about 75% of the time, according to the latest quarterly deliverability study by Lyris.
However, contrary to many marketers’ likely knee-jerk reactions, the low delivery numbers are not a result of Internet service providers mistakenly trashing permission-based mail.
They’re the result of too many marketers still failing to grasp the relationship aspect of e-mail marketing.
User complaint rates are the No. 1 gauge Internet service providers use to determine whether or not incoming e-mail is spam. As a result, even though a mailer’s list is 100% “opted in,” its e-mail may be treated as spam simply because recipients perceive it that way.
However, many marketers are looking for quick fixes to their deliverability issues, such as changing words in subject lines, according to Stefan Pollard, director of consulting services at EmailLabs.
“I spend a lot of time working with marketers who haven’t taken the opportunity to keep a clean list and who haven’t necessarily identified all the practices around sending wanted and relevant e-mail,” he said. “They think a checked box on a form somewhere gives them a right to market, and when they generate excessive complaints for any one of a number of reasons, they blame the ISPs for making false positives.”
To ISPs, spam is simply e-mail their subscribers don’t want, said Pollard. “It’s that simple,” he said. “Marketers have to stop thinking they have a ‘right’ to send messages.”
AIM.com had the highest delivery rate with 97% of permission-based mail getting delivered, according to Lyris.
Also, Roadrunner, SoCal, Verizon, USA, Compuserve, Iwon, AOL, Juno, Mac and Netzero all had delivery rates of above 80%, according to Lyris.
ISPs diverting legitimate messages into users’ junk folders are also still a problem, according to Lyris, with XO Concentric leading the pack by sending 56% of permission-based e-mail to bulk folders.
SBC Global and Bell South junked 30% of permission-based e-mail and Yahoo junked 26% MSN Network, Gmail and Hotmail junked 18%, according to Lyris.
In another development, Spamassassin has begun giving bad scores to e-mail with inaccurate Sender Policy Framework authentication records, according to Lyris.
As a result, e-mail with inaccurate SPF records is far more likely to be treated as spam by the inbox providers using Spamassassin, said Pollard.
“This is the first time we’ve seen SPF checks start to creep into content filter tests, which means that receivers are starting to verify that a sender’s SPF authentication record is accurate,” said Pollard. “This is new. And the good news is that it’s an easy fix for marketers – in fact, it’s completely in the sender’s power to make sure the records are accurate at all times. Don’t assume it’s the responsibility of your system administrator. If you’re responsible for the email program, you need to realize the importance and test it yourself.”
Fairly, or unfairly, e-mail with no SPF records does not get a bad Spamassassin score, according to Pollard. However, authenticating servers is simply the right thing to do, he said.
