MindComet

Mark “Not Spam” = Positive IP Reputation?

So I’m an avid user of Netflix.  I usually go through about 6 DVDs every two weeks or so.  Their email notifications are exceptional in their on-time delivery and are always accurate to the order of my queue.  These message always land in my Yahoo! inbox without fail.

This past week, they’ve seemingly had some issues on their side as notifications were not released upon the return of a specific DVD and with which DVD you should expect to receive next.  There’s a message on their main page explaining the issue and they also emailed their entire database about the issue.  But unlike their notification emails, this announcement landed in my spam folder.  Now I have a theory as to why this happened: They sent one mass email to their entire database at once explaining the issue, thus making email clients think it was a spam message due to the large amount of recipients it was going to.

But from this debacle, it dawned on me that if a spammy message lands in your inbox, you usually mark it as spam and it consequently effects the IP address negatively.  But what if you mark it as “not spam”?  Don’t you think it should inversely effect the IP in a positive manner?

After discussing this with a few co-workers, some interesting points were made.  With this scenario, there’s a strong possibility that spammers would just have to create multiple accounts across all major platforms to counteract the legit spam reports, thus increasing the deliverable spam email.  But what if major email clients could track the “not-spam” marks on a person by person basis?  I’m not sure how likely that is, but if someone figures it out, it’s definitely something I’ll support…

Being involved with email, deliverability is one of my biggest challenges.  It’s a constant struggle to combat spam filters.  But if something like this is initiated, it would definitely help my cause and make my job a lot easier.

Does anyone know if something like this is feasible?  Do you think it’s a good idea? Bad idea? Neutral?  Comment below!

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Posted by MindComet on Aug. 14, 2008

More Yahoo! Maintenance

Apparently Yahoo! is continuing it’s behind-the-scenes maintenance work with both Yahoo! Classic and Yahoo! Mail Beta.  Users have been experiencing previously read or deleted emails returning to the inbox unread, consistent JavaScript errors, and messages failing to load properly.

Keep this in mind when gathered open and click results for Yahoo! addresses, as this will definitely skew the numbers.

For more info, check out their blog.  There’s a growing discourse between their development team and users and email marketers alike experiencing problems.

Thanks to Dylan at The Email Wars for pointing this out.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 29, 2008

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Back in July, Ben Chesnut over at MailChimp wrote an excellent article on deliverability and rendering.  He states that emails are more or less “just miniature web pages” and I couldn’t agree with him more.  Any web designer new to the email design-game should not hesitate to read this.  Here are a few bullet points to sum up the article:

• Not designing for the preview pane is stupid.
• Assuming the images will display on all clients is stupid.
• Using images to communicate your message is stupid.
• Not testing your email in different email clients is stupid.
• Not including an unsubscribe link, a physical address and privacy policy in your footer is stupid.
• Including Javascript and Flash in your email is stupid.

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Posted by MindComet on Nov. 05, 2007

Images Are Fine in Moderation

This post is about deliverability.  Specifically, it’s about getting your message across.  I don’t mean getting it into your recipient’s inboxes…  I mean the content within your message.  How is it being displayed?  Are the most important parts (calls to action, etc) of your email within images?  If this is the case, you may want to reevaluate your strategy for email marketing.

Most email clients block images by default.  The only exception I can think of is when a user adds you to their address book. So if the majority of your users open your email and all they see is x’ed out boxes – or if you’re lucky the alt text attached to your images will display in their place – how can you guarantee that they’ll all choose to display the images?  It’s ultimately risky to put nothing but images in your email to drive your message across.

If you want to see an email campaign that gets it right, subscribe to The Home Depot’s mailing list.  They use large, embedded text over enticing images / calls to action.  See for yourself:

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Posted by MindComet on Sep. 19, 2007