ISPs and email: What to do about deliverability

in the industry, 10 to 20 per cent of legitimate, opted-in messages get
blocked too.

Neither marketers, email service providers (ESPs), ISPs, client-side
senders or users are happy with this situation, but how the problem can
be solved - and who should pay for it - remain thornier issues. In May,
Revolution reported how discussions between the Direct Marketing
Association (DMA) and the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA)
had stalled. Discussions have yet to restart.

Brian O'Sullivan, a member of the DMA's email marketing council,
outlines what happened: "There were no formal meetings between the DMA
and ISPA on email deliverability. We invited them to sit down with us
but, unfortunately, they didn't share our views. Even with
permission-based emails, up to 20 per cent are not delivered and when
you're talking about items such as bills, the consequences are
obvious."

No rules

When the discussions collapsed, there was talk that ISPA had snubbed the
DMA. Both sides go to great pains to deny this, but it's clear there are
some fundamental issues that were never cleared up. A spokesperson for
the ISPA told Revolution: "The DMA was putting forward suggestions with
no thought on who would pay or how they would be administered."

For its part, the DMA says talks never got as far as costings, and that
it would be marketers and ESPs who picked up the tab. The DMA has
several suggestions on how deliverability can be improved, and both the
DMA and ISPA told Revolution that they are happy to resume discussions.
So, what should they talk about? One key issue is the lack of consensus
among ISPs about what constitutes good and bad email practice.

"There are no hard and fast rules," says Richard Doerr, acting IT
director at The Daily Telegraph. "If there were, I'd be more than happy
to play by them, but you don't know the rules until you've broken them.
We send out 200,000 emails a day. We try to speak to all the major ISPs
to check they're not regarded as spam, but if something does need doing
it can be very hard work. You can end up talking to someone on a
helpdesk in another country and it's very hard to solve the
problem."

Valerie Bruce, e-business manager at Scottish Widows, adds: "At the
moment we're all in a trial-and-error situation, so we need guidance.
There are so many ISPs with different spam filters that some uniformity
would benefit the whole industry."

While they wait, Bruce advocates a back-to-basics approach for marketers
wanting to raise deliverability rates. She believes the most effective
way is to keep on top of sender lists by continually rechecking who has
agreed to accept what, but she concedes that it's a tough job. "We were
finding that we didn't have the time or the resources to stay on top of
the ISPs' requirements, so we outsourced our email services. This
ensured they weren't perceived as spam and were in the correct format
for the individual ISP." (See case study, p56.)

Bruce says a third party got non-delivered mail rates down to one per
cent, and declares: "We don't have any direct problem with ISPs because
we have someone to sort it out for us."

All well and good, but these systems don't come cheap. "We like to think
our daily newsletter list is clean," says The Daily Telegraph's
Doerr.

"But what we do get is requests from other areas of the business to send
out information, so we tend to use an outside bureau to clean up that
data. It's quite expensive, but the alternative is that you get
blacklisted."

The Daily Telegraph enlisted Ironport to manage its emails. Jason Steer,
security consultant at the email security specialist, explains: "We use
the bonded sender program, which is essentially a list of 'good' email
senders and is designed to take the financial incentive out of sending
spam. Legitimate senders who sign up put money into a trust fund. If
they get complaints, money is deducted from the fund and given to
charity."

This kind of 'whitelisting' has become popular with big-name providers
such as MSN, but the system has been criticised for not going far
enough.

Skip Fidura, managing director of Digital Impact, who also sits on the
Email Marketing Council's deliverability hub, says it's a good idea in
principle but fails to solve some of the fundamental problems. "You can
make a mistake and money is taken from your bond, but you're not told
who has complained. So, you can't remove them from your lists and you
can end up making the same mistake again."

German model

Both Fidura and the DMA's O'Sullivan suggest all sides in the UK debate
should look to the current proceedings in Germany. Earlier this year,
Germany's ISPA (FEDIMA) introduced a 'white-listing' system, which
Fidura says builds on the systems being operated by the big ISPs in the
UK.

Rather than just having lists of approved mailers, the German operation
is overseen by four people; two representing ISPs and two from Germany's
DMA. ESPs pay to join the scheme and a complaints threshold has been put
in place. As Fidura understands it, if senders breach the threshold
once, they get a warning; twice, they get a 48-hour ban, and three
times, a longer ban. If they make a fourth mistake, they're permanently
blacklisted.

Initial results should be presented to FEDIMA's email council before the
end of the year.

Doerr favours having a tangible forum for discussion. "We have five
million registered users on our site, so the spread of ISPs is huge," he
explains.

"We know we're never going to get 100 per cent agreement (from ISPs),
but if we had a warning that we were at risk of being blocked, so we
would have a chance to put our case and change things as necessary, that
would be an improvement. At the moment we're not even told when we are
being cut off."

An ISPA spokesperson says he wasn't aware of the whitelisting trial in
Germany, but was cautiously positive when told of the details: "It
sounds like a good place to start. In principle it's fine, but does
anyone know what the price tag is? How much are ESPs and marketers
willing to pay for this?" He adds that the permission aspect of emails
from whitelisted senders would have to be strict to satisfy ISPs: "Our
members would have to be satisfied that this is in their customers'
interest. Does it mean they're getting mail they don't want? Did they
mean to opt-in? It has to be remembered that direct marketers still make
mistakes and send out inappropriate material."

Derek Owen, director of marketing at Demon, says he can see both sides
of the deliverability debate. While it is his job to ensure high
deliverability rates for Demon's marketing, he concedes that spam is a
problem. "In an average week, I'm sent more than 1,000 emails, of which
only 90 are legitimate.

The current situation isn't perfect, but, generally, I don't get
anything blocked that I have given permission for."

Owen agrees with the DMA that whitelisting could be the answer, but
believes an independent third-party should watch over it. "We need
clarification. A body such as the DTI's communication commission should
take overall directorship."

Currently, the DMA does meet with the DTI's anti-spam group on a
regular, if ad-hoc, basis. Fidura says he's not averse to the government
body enlarging its role. As well as whitelisting, he has several other
suggestions for improving deliverability, such as a Royal Mail-style
set-up whereby marketers of approved emails would pay for a 'stamp',
guaranteeing their delivery.

Whatever meets with approval, Fidura makes it clear that, if and when
the DMA and ISPA do sit down around a table, he will go in with an open
mind. "There are a number of solutions in the works from ISPs and ESPs
in the US, involving proof of sender and, perhaps more significantly,
the reputation of sender systems. If they move quickly and are adopted
widely by the bigger names, they should be considered."

Owen accepts that the present situation is not ideal and says all sides
should act before technology exacerbates the situation. "In three years'
time, when 3G is properly in place, there will be many more media
channels. Now is the time to move."

Open doors

What is clear is that the DMA does want to get discussions under
way.

"Our position remains unchanged," says Fidura. "We understand that when
the previous communications ended, it was no snub from the ISPA. We also
understand the position of the ISPs. And it's in our interest to get the
right mail to the people who have asked for it."

According to its spokesperson, the ISPA's door is open. "When we stopped
talking, it wasn't a snub, just bad timing. If the DMA can create an
effective proposal, we'd like to sit down and talk about it." Whether
agreement can be reached on a workable, funded model remains to be seen,
but with all sides keen to take the debate forward, there's no time like
the present.

SCOTTISH WIDOWS OUTSOURCES EMAIL TO GUARANTEE DELIVERY

Couple hatred of spam with hundreds of ISPs and it's no surprise that
even legitimate, opted-in emails never arrive.

Valerie Bruce, e-business manager at Scottish Widows, says the firm
lacked the time and resources to stay on top of providers' requirements,
so it outsourced its email delivery to Premiere Global Services
(PGS).

As a result, Scottish Widows' non-delivery rates are now "down to less
than one per cent", she says. Whether marketers outsource their email
management or not, Bruce suggests they look at their own set-up.

It's often simple stuff that causes legitimate mails to be perceived as
pernicious, she says. "To apply for a mortgage you must be over 18, but
you have to be very careful how you put that in an email as it could be
seen as something else," she explains. There are a lot of big names
making mistakes.

She adds: "Some smaller organisations are more savvy and understand the
issues, whereas a lot of the larger players see email as an add-on to
traditional marketing."

PGS technical director Steve King, agrees: "Often, the big brands are
the worst offenders. There's a temptation to think that if they have a
big in-house development team, they can own and maintain everything.
Adding an email platform is often perceived as a zero-cost option, but
the damage a bad list of names should not be underestimated."

Alyn Hockey, director of research at Clearswift, which has several
banking clients, warns that anyone can get caught out. "Marketers need
to create systems that will get past spam filters, but spammers know all
the tricks.

A lot of problems occur when messages from legitimate senders are
actually spoof emails from spammers." He adds: "Even sender reputation
schemes, which can be referenced and are verifiable, are not foolproof.
Microsoft spends a fortune trying to prevent spam, yet it has received
complaints recently about sending out spam emails themselves."