Q&A: Laura Atkins on Monitoring E-mail Deliverability

Monitoring e-mail deliverability is critical to ensuring that our messages are being delivered. But because there are so many types of deliverability tools and services available—reputation monitors, content checkers, whitelists, feedback loop management—it can be tough to determine which ones to use.

We asked Laura Atkins, owner of Word to the Wise, a deliverability consultancy and services provider, for her suggestions.

E-mail Essentials: How does a marketer decide which services or tools it should subscribe to? Are some better suited to certain types of e-mail senders than to others?

Atkins: Every e-mail marketer should be signed up for feedback loops (FBLs). FBLs are provided for free by some ISPs. FBLs are tied into the ISP's internal e-mail reputation scores, and receiving copies of complaints about e-mails gives senders more direct feedback on their marketing program.  A system to count and process FBLs can be built in house. There is a standard FBL format called ARF (http://mipassoc.org/arf/http://wordtothewise.com/resources/arf.html) that is designed for automatic processing. Some ESPs have also taken our abuse desk software package, Abacus, and are using that to process FBLs.

Reputation monitors are useful if you want an overview of how your mailing program is perceived. Things like Sender Score.org and SenderBase are free and let senders monitor their reputation. The drawback is that the reputation score is only as good as the input data. Senderscore.org, run by ReturnPath, collects data from ReturnPath ISP customers but only reflects the sender's reputation at those ISPs. It is possible to have a bad reputation at a non-ReturnPath partner and have a perfect [Senderscore rating]. Monitoring these measurements is important. For very small senders, bookmarks can be set up and sites visited weekly to see how the score has changed. Larger senders can automate the process.

Content checkers are useful if a sender is using complicated HTML templates. Spammers have a habit of creating really bad HTML, and there are a lot of content-based filters that trigger on the HTML code that the recipient never sees.  Some of the content checkers also show you how the e-mail displays in various mail clients and Web browsers, and that can be helpful to check the correctness of the HTML.

The other thing available is delivery monitoring. This gives you the opportunity to see how the ISPs are deciding to filter your mail. These types of monitoring services are useful, as they let the sender know where mail is being delivered by default. These are not 100% accurate, as engaged recipients can override the ISP filtering decisions by putting the sender in their address book.

There are consultants that you can outsource the process of signing up for FBLs and ISP-sponsored whitelists to. Finally, there are commercial certification services like Return Path’s and Goodmail’s. These programs certify a mailing program, and those senders that comply with their standards are given preferential treatment at those ISPs partnered with the certification service. These services are good for some types of mail, transactional being the big one. Many companies with good practices and responsive audiences get very good inbox delivery without having to use a third-party certification, though.

E-mail Essentials: How does a marketer decide which services to purchase?

Atkins: Much of the decision is, currently, price based. Some of the commercial services are expensive and outside the budgets of small senders. I would prioritize things thusly:

1) Sign up for FBLs. I maintain a current list of available FBLs at http://wiki.wordtothewise.com/ISP_Summary_Information. For small senders, the FBL may be able to be processed by hand. Medium-size senders may need to develop some tools for processing ARF messages.

2) Check free reputation monitoring sites such as Sender Score and SenderBase to identify if there are any reputation problems.

3) Monitor delivery logs to identify if any ISP is blocking outright [5xx responses]. This will also show rate limiting [4xx responses], which often is the first sign of a problem at a specific ISP.

4) Set up dedicated accounts at major ISPs—Yahoo!, AOL, Gmail, and Hotmail—and add those accounts to every mailing. You can also talk to employees and determine if they have accounts at some of the for-pay ISPs and would be willing to designate one of their e-mail addresses for business use.

5) If the senders continue to have problems they can either hire a consultant to help them identify underlying issues causing delivery problems or go to a certification service.

E-mail Essentials: Are certain options better conducted in-house? Conversely, should certain services ideally be outsourced?

Atkins: There are two things I would suggest outsourcing if possible.  One is content checking. Keeping a content checker up to date, as well as maintaining older instances of the same filters, is time intensive. Outsource that if possible. Similarly, if you want to monitor how your e-mail appears in various e-mail clients, then that is easier to outsource than maintain dozens of different browsers and mail clients.

FBL processing works better in-house, as you will need your processor to have access to your internal database. If you need extensive mailbox monitoring, then you're better off outsourcing it, as the companies providing mailbox monitoring often have access to mailboxes that can be difficult to get a hold of.

E-mail Essentials: What should a marketer keep an eye out for when shopping for tools or service providers?

Atkins: Make sure the tool reports what you need from it and that you understand what is being measured. Also, watch out for companies that guarantee inbox placement. Only Goodmail has the contracts with ISPs that require the ISPs to put all Goodmail-certified mail into the inbox. In all other cases, they can't guarantee inbox placement.

E-mail Essentials: Are there any common mistakes to watch out for?

Atkins: The biggest mistake e-mail marketers make is thinking that technology will solve their delivery problems. While there are technical things that need to be done in order to get good delivery, recipient interest and engagement are really the trump card for inbox placement. Minor technical errors do not damage deliverability if recipients are engaged and want the mail being sent.