A New Era in Email Marketing - The Email Optimization Consultant (EOC)

There's a new breed of marketer being born. The Email Optimization Consultant. While many of us have been busy with the plethora of marketing products and services that we offer, two of the biggest ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are making drastic changes to the way email is being handled. The new industry buzzword is Trusted Email.

Based on everything I've been reading and researching, the following is a checklist of Trusted Email protocols that the EOC should be familiar with. In addition, assistance in setting this up for the client will set you apart from the others. Understanding and being able to implement the following protocols will give you the edge over the competition. So, here's the roundup...

  1. Protected by SPFSPF - Sender Policy Framework
    http://www.openspf.org/

    What is SPF? SPF (Sender Policy Framework) fights return-path address forgery and makes it easier to identify spoofs. Domain owners identify sending mail servers in DNS. SMTP receivers verify the envelope sender address against this information, and can distinguish authentic messages from forgeries before any message data is transmitted.

  2. Yahoo! MailYahoo! DomainKeys
    http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys

    DomainKeys is a technology proposal that can bring black and white back to this decision process by giving email providers a mechanism for verifying both the domain of each email sender and the integrity of the messages sent (i.e,. that they were not altered during transit). And, once the domain can be verified, it can be compared to the domain used by the sender in the From: field of the message to detect forgeries. If it's a forgery, then it's spam or fraud, and it can be dropped without impact to the user. If it's not a forgery, then the domain is known, and a persistent reputation profile can be established for that sending domain that can be tied into anti-spam policy systems, shared between service providers, and even exposed to the user.

  3. AOL PostmasterAOL Whitelist
    http://postmaster.aol.com/whitelist/

    The AOL Whitelist is designed to help America Online work with organizations and individuals who send out solicited bulk email.

  4. Goodmail SystemsGoodmail CertifiedMail
    http://www.goodmailsystems.com/

    The Goodmail Systems CertifiedEmail service offers legitimate, accredited senders the opportunity to assure their messages are reliably delivered and presented to consumers as authentic and safe to open.

    Goodmail CertifiedMailThe CertifiedEmail service is available to reputable, responsible organizations for a small per-message fee.

    AOL and Yahoo! have partnered with Goodmail Systems to provide a safe and reliable class of email - the CertifiedEmail service.

  5. Bonded Sender ProgramBonded Sender Program
    http://www.bondedsender.com/

    The Bonded Sender™ Program ensures that messages from Bonded Senders get delivered to Hotmail, MSN, RoadRunner, and over 34,000 ISPs, corporations and universities (representing over 240 million mailboxes).

    The Bonded Sender™ Program is currently preventing half a million legitimate messages a day from accidentally being sent to the bulk folder.

  6. Habeas for SendersHabeas for Senders
    http://www.habeas.com/

    Get your mail delivered to the inbox, not the spam folder. Over 60,000 email gateways at ISPs and businesses worldwide recognize and process Habeas email every day.

    Habeas will work on your behalf with all major ISPs, such as AOL, Yahoo! and MSN/Hotmail, to get your email delivered today.

  7. Institute for Spam and Internet Public PolicyISIPP - Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy
    http://www.isipp.com/

    The Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) is dedicated to providing analysis, information, and consulting on industry issues relating to public policies and processes regarding spam, email, and the Internet.

    ISIPP also provides a widely used email senders accreditation service, and organizes and sponsors industry forums such as email management roundtables, email deliverability summits, and Internet law conferences.

Yes, it has gotten to the point where email is now a major marketing issue. Particularly for those who use AOL, Yahoo!, MSN Hotmail and other large ISPs (Internet Service Providers). It won't be long before the other majors adopt the Goodmail or similar Trusted Email programs.

Does this concern you? Are you prepared to assist your clients in managing their email and developing a Trusted Email environment?

Have I missed any others? They appear to be cropping up rather quickly. I would imagine the hot new stocks will be Trusted Email providers. Goodmail appears to have a strong following so far.

WebmasterWorld Home Page Topic - EOC - Email Optimization Consultant
2006-04-06 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/11450.htm

AOL CertifiedMail

AOL and Yahoo! have partnered with Goodmail Systems to bring you a safe and reliable class of email - the CertifiedEmail service - to help protect their members from unsolicited email, fraud and phishing. This service will be available to AOL in March 2006 and Yahoo! in Q2 2006.

As of 2006-03-01, AOL have now implemented very strict procedures when sending email to @aol.com accounts.

You currently have two options:

  1. AOL Whitelist
    http://postmaster.aol.com/whitelist/

    AOL uses SPF for maintaining the Whitelist.
    AOL will begin using SPF records to maintain our whitelist in the near future. It is best for all organizations on AOL's whitelist to begin listing and maintaining (up to date) their SPF records so AOL can maintain accurate and up-to-date whitelisting of that domain's IP addresses. We will provide additional information in conjunction with our whitelist information pages.

  2. Goodmail CertifiedMailAOL CertifiedEmail Program (Goodmail Accreditation)
    http://postmaster.aol.com/whitelist/certifiedemail.html

If you want guaranteed delivery of your mail to @aol.com accounts, you will need to pay.

How Much Will It Cost?

The Goodmail CertifiedMail Accreditation application processing fee is regularly $399.00. A special charter price of $199.00 will apply to all applications submitted by July 31, 2006. The accreditation application fee is non-refundable. Please review the Accreditation Criteria before beginning your application.

"Goodmail Systems is currently running a Charter program for CertifiedEmail and is open for limited enrollment for highly qualified senders. Token costs for the Charter program period are free for a period of three to six months depending how early a sender is accredited and signs.

After the free token period expires you can take advantage of token rates as low as $.0025 (to partner inbox providers).

As a side note, there has been some confusion about the need for small and medium sized senders to adopt CertifiedEmail immediately. There will be no degradation in the privileges received by these senders today that will require the immediate adoption of CertifiedEmail to retain those benefits.

We anticipate the CertifiedEmail program to be available for broad commercial availability for senders of all sizes in late 2006 or early 2007. We would suggest that senders interested in the benefits above go through the following steps."

WebmasterWorld Home Page Topic - AOL CertifiedMail
2006-04-06 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/11447.htm

 

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