If we’re to think of Email Marketing as governed by a set of best practices, the trifecta that comes to mind would be:

1. Obtain proper permission
2. Send relevant content
3. Set and maintain frequency expectations

On the surface, these appear to be simple; however, many marketers are not following these practices as dogmatically as they should be. The most common repercussion from this is having your email land in the spam/junk folder, or potentially being blocked. Many ESPs (Email Service Providers), DSPs (Deliverability Service Providers) and marketing groups have all published case studies which confirm that straying from “The Big Three” leads to the following:

1. High complaint rates
2. Mailing spam trap addresses
3. Mailing invalid (expired accounts, accounts that were never valid, etc.) addresses

As these are driving factors in many ISP reputation systems, not adhering to recommended best practices often generates data that reflects poorly on you and your campaigns. The idea is to legitimate your operation by distinguishing yourself from the Viagra salesmen of the world. To do this you have to set the bar high and work on setting your program up for success as a means of discernment in not only the ISPs eyes, but that of the filtering companies many of them employ to stop spam. In the weeks to come, we will expand on each item and provide information to help make your email marketing efforts more successful and help place your mail in the Inbox.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
Due to recent amendments to the UK Companies Act of 1985 and the Northern Ireland Companies Order provisions of 1986 within the UK Companies Act, it is now required that all emails sent by a company incorporated or doing business in Great Britain include specific references to that company’s name, place of registration, registration number and address of its registered office.

HOW THIS MAY IMPACT YOU
The amended Companies Act extends the disclosure requirements already existing for paper business letters and order forms to their electronic or email counterparts. This means that as of January 1, 2007, companies incorporated in Great Britain, and overseas companies that operate in Great Britain, must include the following items in all print or electronic business letters and order forms:

- Company name
- Company place of registration
- Company registration number (if one exists)
- Address of the company’s registered office

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
Per the existing act, “business letters” are limited to transactional-type messages; email marketing messages and newsletters are not considered business letters. However, “publications” and “notices” (which may include email marketing and newsletters) must contain the company’s name.
Based on these findings you will want to adhere to the following advice:

1. For transactional messages, include all of the required disclosures for business letters described above.
2. For all other commercial messages, (including marketing and newsletters), include regular CAN SPAM-type disclosures (name of sender, valid physical postal address).

mobileStorm is providing this advisory as part of its ongoing efforts to keep you informed on issues that may affect your use of the email channel. We do not represent this advice as complete legal guidance or a substitute for it. We recommend that you seek appropriate legal guidance on the applicability of these laws to your email communications and on whether and how you should comply.

The entire text of the UK “Companies Act 2006″ can be found at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060046_en.pdf
“Explanatory Notes” on the Companies Act 2006 can be found at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/en2006/ukpgaen_20060046_en.pdf

Please contact your mobileStorm Account Manager or Support with questions or for further assistance.

2006 has come and gone and we now look to 2007. What can marketers expect from ISPs and filtering companies to get their mail to the coveted Inbox? Below is our Top 10 (in no particular order)

1. Attain proper permission
2. Set and maintain content expectations
3. Set and maintain frequency expectations
4. Brand yourself appropriately
5. Run an Address Book/Safe Senders List strategy
6. Authenticate
7. Register for FBLs (Feedback Loops)
8. Properly manage bounces, unsubscribes and complaints
9. Send from a unique IP address
10. Send from a unique domain

As you can see, 1-5 are items that are more marketing focused and 6-10 are more technology driven. These things combined all contribute to your sending “reputation” (the key factor many ISPs and filtering companies are using to determine message acceptance/blocking and Inbox/Bulk folder placement). Stay tuned for more in-depth articles regarding these and many more topics!

In the last quarter of 2006, mobileStorm joined the 2 leading email deliverability related organizations (MAAWG and the ESPC). Here is a brief description of them and links to their sites:

MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) - “The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group is a global organization focusing on preserving electronic messaging from online exploits and abuse with the goal of enhancing user trust and confidence, while ensuring the deliverability of legitimate messages. With a broad base of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and network operators representing over 600 million mailboxes, key technology providers and senders, MAAWG works to address messaging abuse by focusing on technology, industry collaboration and public policy initiatives.” [1]

ESPC (Email Sender and Provider Coalition) - “The Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC members have recognized the need for strong spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email and have been very active in the war against spam.” [2]

Being an active participant in these organizations is critical to our customer’s success and we look forward to working together with all participants in these organizations to assist in preserving email as a communication channel.

[1] http://www.maawg.org
[2] http://www.espcoalition.org