Mar
18
By Alex Rubin
Vice President of Business Development
Yahoo! Mail has been using the Return Path Certification whitelist as part of its filtering process for more than a year. So we're thrilled that our partners at Yahoo! Mail will begin automatically turning on images and links for our authenticated whitelist program members. Even better, this includes not only Yahoo! Mail webmail but also email hosted by Yahoo!, including BT Internet, Rogers, Bellsouth, SBC, and Rocketmail.
This is great news for the email universe for a couple of reasons: ...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Mar
16
Neil Schwartzman
Senior Director, Security Strategy, Receiver Services
McAfee just released their March 2010 spam report.
The good news: as a percentage of email, spam has remained flat.
The very bad news: Overall email volume is way up so the amount of spam has gone way up too. Translation: there is a lot more crap clogging up the system.
For large inbox providers a move toward systems that ...
Tell me moreCategories: Email Deliverability
Mar
12
By: Brian Westnedge
Regional Director, Channels
Next Wednesday, March 17, 2010 our own resident email education expert, Stephanie Miller, will be participating in a webinar with one of our valued ESP partners, WhatCounts. This important webinar will address five specific factors helping email marketers today dramatically increase deliverability and results from their email campaigns. As inboxes become flooded and the email marketing environment changes, it is always important for marketers to stay up to date on trends and modify strategies. If you are interested in attending this webinar, sign up today.
Tell me moreCategories: News
Mar
11
By Angela Baldonero
SVP, People
The email universe is vast and complicated and populated by a diverse group of stakeholders, some good and some bad. The bad guys are of course the spammers and other illegitimate senders who seek to defraud consumers with phishing, spoofing and other scams. Luckily there are a lot of good guys fighting back to protect email for everyone.
THE MISSION
Why is this so important? Email continues to be the most popular and widely used Internet technology by all age groups and any other demographic you can think of. Email is an essential communication tool for all businesses no matter the industry or product. And despite the advent of new technologies that predict the death of email, email will never die. In fact, it's the fuel that drives these new technologies. Did you know that email is engine that powers the world of social media and soon Google Wave? So keeping all aspects of the email universe running smoothly is a critically important task - and Return Path is proud to be at the center of it.
THE ASSIGNMENT
We're incredibly busy working on both sides of inbox by providing large-volume senders with the reputation services they need to achieve high inbox placement. Plus, we offer ISPs and other large receivers access to the data and tools they need to make faster, more accurate filtering decisions. As we work to improve and perfect our current product suite, we'll be introducing new products and services to make email even more powerful - and valuable. It's a lot of work providing senders and receivers with the best technology, data and services in the email universe so we're hiring!
ARE YOU READY?
Have you been working in the email industry for a while? For an ESP or an ISP or a marketer? Are you passionate about keeping the channel safe for consumers and legitimate businesses? Do you want to work with people who are just as passionate about email? Would you like to work for a company that was recently named one of the best places to work? If you can answer "yes" to any of these questions, we'd love to talk to you. Check out our careers page to learn more about open positions.
Categories: News
Mar
10
By Jeremy Goldsmith
Software Engineering Manager
Several months ago, Google released Google Wave, which was described as the next big thing in online communication. An online collaboration tool, it was heralded by techno-pundits as a replacement for email, instant messaging and social networking. Even Google hinted that the current mix of technologies that people use for online communication (email, instant messaging and social networking) is outdated and ready for a new paradigm. ...
Tell me moreCategories: News
Mar
03
Opt outs are always a bummer, but they are a part of email life. People have changing interests, jobs and lifestyles and your email may not longer be relevant to them. Better to have them move on than...
Tell me moreCategories: Response
Feb
25
By Matt Blumberg
CEO & Chairman
Gene Raitt, Chairman of the DMA, has launched a new blog today called DM Unplugged. It's not an official DMA property. Gene won't be the only contributor -- over time, other DMA board members (including me) and thought leaders in the direct and interactive marketing communities at large -- will contribute as well.
This is one small, though notable, development in a series of things the DMA is working on as it transforms itself. Look for some truly "unplugged" commentary on this blog about both things happening in the industry and transparent views into things happening at the DMA as well as invitations to contribute to the discussion on both.
Tell me moreCategories: News
by J.D. Falk
Director of Product Strategy, Receiver Services
Whitelists exist because spam filters exist. They are the exception policy, the safety valve. But beyond that simple truism, there are a lot of differences.
Because there's so much spam, filters have to rely on patterns derived from similarities between known spam messages. When a message matches the pattern, the filter notices and does something: reject it, put it in a spam folder, et cetera. Messages that don't match the pattern sail on through.
Similarly, if the message's source -- usually tracked by IP address -- matches the pattern, all messages from that source are noticed by the filter. This could be as specific as a single IP address, or could be a range of IP addresses. When a filter's pattern is broad, it catches a lot of spam. But it may also catch some non-spam messages; this is what's called a "false positive." To avoid those, you could (and probably will) improve the filters over time -- but by the time you find out, the damage is already done. In the meantime, you need a whitelist.
Most mail system administrators will whitelist their own network infrastructure; it's under their control (or under the control of someone nearby), so if any problems come up they can fix them. Also, it's generally a bad idea to block mail from your boss.
Next you'll want to whitelist companies and organizations you and your users frequently interact with. Do a quick mental inventory: how many is that? Did you remember your payroll company, your health insurance benefits broker, your local pizza delivery joint? What about the company your local pizza joint outsourced their email to -- how many other companies do does that company send for? Do they all deserve a free pass around your spam filters?
Pretty soon, managing exceptions to your filters becomes more complicated, more time-consuming, than managing the filters in the first place. And then the phone rings: some company you've never heard of, asking to be whitelisted so they can send their newsletter to a VP you've never even met -- but you've heard she thinks it's easy (and fun) to replace technical staff like you. Or maybe you work for an ISP, and the frat boy on the phone insists that hundreds of your users are just begging for this email. You can't call every single user in the middle of the night to ask if that's true. How do you decide?Tell me more
Categories: Email Deliverability
Feb
22
By Tom Bartel
VP Receiver and Certification Services
It's a new year - and if you are like me, you've read the many predictions about email for the year 2010. Initially we avoided jumping on the prediction bandwagon and instead released a report the trends that mattered most for email in 2009.
But, alas, we couldn't resist looking forward. As we head into March - it's too late for predictions, but not too late to underscore the imperative issues that face all of us in the email industry today. What trends will impact reputation and inbox placement rates? Regular interactions with our ISP partners give us unique insight into their issues and challenges and how they will influence email marketing in 2010.
Our Email Imperatives paper is an introduction to what will matter for email marketers this year. We're pleased to present this initial overview, and look forward to publishing more papers throughout the year - each paper to come taking a deeper dive into a particular imperative.
So, no lofty predictions here - just the straight story - what matters most for you for when navigating the choppy waters of email deliverability over the next 12 months.
Download the paper here.
Categories:
New York, NY - February 22, 2010 - Return Path, the leading email deliverability and reputation management company, today released its Email Delivery Imperatives guide outlining best practices for email senders in 2010. According to Return Path, email senders should be prepared to:
Categories: Email Deliverability | Press Releases
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