Live From DMDNY: Be Relevant; Don’t Look Spammy, Panelists Say

Sending relevant massages and making sure e-mail messages don’t look to an Internet service provider like they’re spam are the keys to getting e-mail delivered, said panelists Wednesday at the Direct Marketing Days New York Conference.

“You don’t want to look like a spammer,” said Austin Bliss, CEO of FreshAddress. “It’s important to understand how spammers behave and what their lists look like. They blast out tons of e-mail and who knows where they get their e-mail addresses from.”

As a result, the typical spammer’s e-mail list will have a high percentage of undeliverable addresses on it, making that attribute one of the things Internet service providers look for when deciding whether or not incoming e-mail is spam.

And with 30% of people changing their e-mail addresses every year, it doesn’t take too long before even a permission based marketer can look like a spammer and find their e-mails getting blocked if they aren’t diligent about removing undeliverable addresses, he said. “Undeliverable addresses make you look like a spammer,” said Bliss.

A marketer’s undeliverable rate should be no higher than 10%, according to Rick Buck, director privacy/ISP relations, e-Dialog. The only ISP that has published an acceptable delivery rate is AOL, he said, and according to AOL’s published statement, the company will accept e-mail deliveries that are a minimum 90% deliverable.

“It’s really important that you scrutinize your database,” said Buck. He added that e-mailers should look for generic addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected] and remove them.

“Those addresses never signed up for anything,” he said. “Go and talk to the vendor — if you’re buying names — and press them about how they’re getting addresses.”

When asked how much of a role frequency plays in causing a marketer to be perceived as a spammer, the answer again came down to relevancy. Spam complaints are the No. 1 gage ISPs use to determine whether or not incoming e-mail is apam.

Buck said he’s got clients who mail every day and who have extremely low spam-complaint and opt-out rates. He’s also got clients who wouldn’t dare mail that often, he said.

To avoid being perceived as a spammer and getting their mail blocked, Buck said the mailer should shoot for a less-than-half-percent complaint rate.

Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Software added: “Make me want it [the e-mail], because if I want it, I’m going to get it.”