Consider Ignoring AOL and Yahoo!

The two biggest contributing factors affecting email delivery are the number of failed emails that reside in your email list and the number of spam complaints you get when you send emails. ISPs like AOL and Yahoo use this data when you send bulk email, to either slow you down or halt delivery altogether. It might be better to get rid of these types of addresses from your email list altogether.

Most people have more than one email account that includes a business email, a couple of throw away accounts and maybe one well preserved email address that they only give to close friends and family. The throw away accounts are used specifically for signing up for possibly less than savory newsletters and shady email offers. I use them when I want information for which I have to register so that my good personal account and my business account don't become polluted.

Other people do this too and they use free online email accounts to manage them. If your email list contains a large number of free email addresses, Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail, maybe you are not reassuring enough on your website about how you plan to use the email addresses you collect. If there is any question about where the subscriber's email is going to end up, they will likely pull out a throw away and sign up for that. Regardless of how they got on your list, these types of addresses are going to be less responsive by default.

Free email accounts like AOL, Yahoo etc. also have pretty tight spam filters. If you are not careful, your email address may end up in the junk folder with a bunch of SPAM messages. Most users do not carefully sift their junk folders unless they are waiting for something important. These clients have a handy button that can mark every single email message in their junk folder as SPAM, which is a mark on your email reputation. Your email message simply gets lumped in with a bunch of other obvious junk, but the ISP doesn't care about that. Asking the subscriber to add your from address helps, but most people probably do take that extra step.

Even though AOL is now free, most people using AOL are the same people who have been using AOL for a long time and like it. In my experience, although there are many exceptions, the vast majority of AOL users are less savvy about the technology they are using. AOL makes it easy to label incoming email as SPAM and many people take advantage of that. Even if they requested information from you, a single lapse in memory could be a black mark on your email reputation. Signing up for the AOL feedback loop helps you keep track of the percentages of your emails that end up on the list, but it doesn't take very many complaints to slip of the AOL whitelist.

Given the fact that these types of addresses are frequently used as throw away email address and are often used by less savvy or disinterested subscribers, it may be a good idea to wean them from your list. You do not have to eliminate them altogether, but maybe raise the bar for continued inclusion based on past responsiveness. If you track click throughs or opens you can make that one of the filtering criteria for sending these types of addresses. Cutting down one AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail emails from your list may help with overall email message delivery.

Copyright 2008, Pathfinder Email Consulting

Managing SPAM Emails

The other day, Terry Zink posted an excellent article on security that questions who is at fault when security is breached. Along the same vein, if you sign up for email messages and the proceed to get spam, you may be complicit in your own subsequent deluge of unwanted emails. Even though most reputable sites have some sort of email policy indicating what they will do with your email address, many may not follow it. If they fail to follow it, who really has time to go back and call them on it.

Most people have more than one email accounts. There are so many free email services online, it is silly not to take advantage of them. A maximum of three email addresses is all you need to reduce your email headaches.

Top Secret Account
Configure one email account to be your top secret account. This is one that you only give out to your most trusted and like-minded friends and family. You do not want to give this to your sister in law that constantly forwards you chain emails along with all her other contacts. This account should only be given to people who follow proper email etiquette.

Business Account
Reserve your business account to correspond with people with whom you are conducting business. This includes your customers, suppliers, banks etc. Most business transactions should be archived especially if you fall under the various privacy laws and requirements like Sarbanes-Oxley. Managing a couple of email accounts on your business email can help you distinguish between important correspondences and transaction backscatter.

Throw Away Account
Everybody who browses the Internet and finds information they cannot live without should set up one or more throw away accounts. This way, if you decide later that you can live without subscribing to a particular newsletter, or find that your account was compromised or sold to unscrupulous spammers, you can simply toss it later. You can add your sister in law to one of these too, because eventually someone will find the address on the cc list and send you junk.

By using throw away accounts, you can often pinpoint exactly who sold your email address or violated their own stated policy by sending you spam. At that point you can take appropriate steps to inform them or report them to their ISP or to black lists.

The point is, if you give your email address to someone who is likely to use it to spam you later, you are someone responsible for the spam you receive. Take care of your email addresses and you will see a lot less spam, or at least be able to deal with it easily when it occurs.

Copyright 2008, Pathfinder Email Consulting