GoodMail, Bad Solution
There has been a lot of buzz in the national media lately about GoodMail’s Certified Email solution. Some are touting it as a solution to the spam problem. GoodMail is promoting it as the ultimate tool to ensure that your mail gets delivered at participating Internet Service Providers. The reality from my perspective is that GoodMail is a bad solution.
The Internet and e-mail have created a new era of connectedness and open communication standards. What GoodMail creates is artificial friction in a frictionless system. It is introducing an “e-mail postage stamp” where the cost of the stamp is a toll. E-mail works well because there are no tollbooths. Yes, arguably the openness has caused spam and other problems, but you don’t solve a crime spree by putting all the good guys in jail. The GoodMail solution focuses on taxing the good guys, those that are already doing the right thing. The bad guys (spammers) aren’t going to change their behavior.
Initially, the postage stamp concept was going to be the only way to ensure delivery into the inbox at several major ISPs—meaning you have to pay to play. You can have the cleanest list in the world, a list of people who want your message, and you may still not get delivered unless you agree to put money in the coffers of a private enterprise organization.
Consumers who have accounts at ISPs where mailers are being charged for delivery are already paying that ISP to have their mail delivered. They expect to receive what they request. Why should there be an added burden and profit made from the sender based on a consumer’s desire to receive an online promotion from a company they do business with, or a newsletter that they enjoy reading?
Let’s be honest. The objective here is not to protect the consumer from spam or phishing schemes. Several of the ISPs that are considering using GoodMail already do the best job in the industry of filtering out the garbage. The objective is profit, pure and simple. If not, some of the less expensive delivery solutions such as Bonded Sender would already be implemented. It is refreshing to know that once mailers learned about the plan and raised concerns, one major ISP (AOL) agreed to offer alternatives such as Bonded Sender as well as continuing their enhanced white list. Now I’m as much a capitalist as the next guy, and don’t deny anyone the right to a fair return. However, when that profit is a tax forced into the part of a system that is already working (i.e., enhanced whitelists), it makes little sense.
In the last year and a half, several good authentication schemes have also been introduced. Domain keys, SPF and Sender ID all will go a long way toward eliminating the problems that the postage stamp concept claims it is addressing. Every mailer incurs the same technical burden of implementation, but at no major added financial cost on a cost per piece basis.
The postage stamp concept is a burden on marketers who are already committed to doing e-mail the right way, sending relevant messages to subscribers who have asked to receive them, cleaning their lists of dead addresses and immediately removing the unsubscribes. If you are doing all this properly, your mail should be getting delivered today. If you are not doing all this, a postage stamp that gets your mail to the inbox may be a good thing, but in my mind, and by definition—you are a spammer.
Whether this concept takes off or not, the key to success in e-mail remains consistent. Here is a delivery checklist to make sure that your mail makes it to all of the ISPs.
*Mail from a clean, dedicated IP address. This should not be the same IP you use to send company e-mail.
*Use permission best practices. Give customers a choice to opt-in (this means no pre-checked boxes—a rule many direct marketers violate).
*Consider double opt-in. While it will decrease your list size a bit, you will have a very clean list.
*Immediately remove anyone who unsubscribes.
*If you use an e-mail service provider, ask them how they monitor delivery. If they don’t have a monitoring system in place, you might want to consider changing providers. You can also use the services of a company like Return Path to track delivery independently.
*Watch your message content. Content and subject lines can get your message blocked. Many of the major email service providers offer a service that lets you check the likelihood that a message will get flagged as spam.
*Keep your list clean. Prune the list of bounces. Many ISPs monitor bounce rate and excessive hard bounces are a big red flag.
*Make sure your email service provider is up on all the latest authentication technology and has implemented it. If you are mailing in-house, make sure your IT implementation team is up on this.
*Ask subscribers to add the address your e-mail is coming from to their personal white list. As long as all your mail is not being bounced by the ISP, this is the best way to get past all filtering.
The e-mail landscape is constantly shifting. It is critical that you or your email service provider is constantly apprised of these changes. It is also of utmost importance to develop email strategies and tactics that explore all options.
Jordan Ayan is CEO and founder of SubscriberMail LLC.
