6. Accreditation/Certification
Daniels ii also found that only 17% of email marketers are using a paid accreditation service. If you are following reputation best practices in your email creation and design, take it a step further and become a certified sender. Accreditation and certification is a third party verification that confirms the origin of the message and validates that you follow email best practices. ISPs have proof that you are a safe sender and your messages bypass filters and are delivered to the inbox, many times with images enabled.
Services, such as Return Path Certification viii and Goodmail CertifiedEmail ix, offer certification based on stringent requirements regarding your email marketing practices and policies. You can’t buy your way into a certification program, you must meet the strict requirements, that include:
- Following a permission-based list acquisition strategy
- Having published authentication records
- Proving your complaint levels are below industry standards
- Having a well maintained infrastructure
- Following best practices for list maintenance and bounce management
- Having strong security networks
- Complying with CAN-SPAM rules, including an unsubscribe on all email communications
- Already having an established, high-standing reputation
Following these six steps will ensure your reputation remains positive and your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes intact. For more information, read Listrak’s white papers “Essential Email Marketing Deliverability Guide” and “How Reputation Impacts Deliverability,” or contact Listrak’s deliverability experts to learn how we can help you put a deliverability success plan in place for 2010.
End Notes
i Symantec’s monthly “State of Spam” report is an up-to-date central source highlighting major spam events and trends. The information used in this paper is from Report #35.
ii Forrester Research is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. David Daniels, vice president and principal analyst of Forrester Research, is a leading expert on email marketing, customer segmentation strategies, and marketing optimization tactics. In his report “Six Steps to Improving Email Deliverability, Daniels discusses why email marketers are struggling to reach the inbox and offers advice on how to resolve those issues.
iii Turkey Hill Dairy is a food manufacturing company. You can read Listrak’s case study on Turkey Hill’s deliverability audit here:
/university/Turkey-Hill-Case-Study/.
iv DKIM provides a method for validating a domain name identity that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication. The DKIM.org website is hosted by Mutual Internet Practices Association (MIPA).
v SPF fights return-path address forgery and makes it easier to identify spoofs. More information can be found at http://old.openspf.org/index.html.
vi The Sender ID Framework is an e-mail authentication technology protocol that helps address the problem of spoofing and phishing. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/default.mspx.
vii The Direct Marketing Association provides a free email authentication help center offering the DMA/Return Path Reputation Registry, checklists, preparation worksheets, and how-to guides. It is available at http://www.dmaresponsibility.org/EmailAuthentication/.
viii Return Path helps some of the world’s most successful companies use email more effectively. The Return Path Certified program will help you reach 1.3 billion inboxes. Learn more at http://www.returnpath.net/commercialsender/certification/.
ix Goodmail Systems is the creator of CertifiedEmail, the industry’s standard class of email. CertifiedEmail provides a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Learn more at http://www.goodmailsystems.com/products/certified-email/.
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