Maintaining consistent email delivery can be a very tricky thing. Sometimes, even if you are following best practices such as proper email collection, removing bounces and generally being a “good” sender, your delivery can degrade over time. Once this happens, it’s time to reassess what is going on and look at the potential pitfalls you may have triggered. One of the most obvious symptoms can be whether or not you are on a shared IP or a dedicated IP.

Let’s quickly talk about the basic differences of each:

Shared IP – A shared IP means that your mailings are being sent off an IP that includes other users/companies. Most ESPs will start your account on a shared IP. They sometimes use this as a probationary step because they need to see what you are like as a sender before determining where best to place you in a tiered structure.

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The digital marketing world is one in constant flux, which is the nature of any industry that centers on technology. From Apple vs. PC to BluRay vs. HD DVD, standards for new technologies become the battlegrounds for many companies trying to have their chosen formats to be the winners. Of course, this is hardly surprising given the vast sums of money spent to win such format wars.

As a result, companies trying to establish their particular format as the standard tend to dismiss the other proposed suggestions. So-called “early adopters’ are used to such shifts but by the time a particular technology reaches the mass consumer audience, normally one standard is established… hopefully.

Digital marketing channels are no different when it comes to standards, both good and bad. Some communication vehicles are more or less uniform in their standards but others offer digital marketers a sometimes bewildering array of options, causing many to go with the less common denominator approach. To help sort through the mess, here’s a quick guide on how various digital marketing communications deal with standards, from the easiest to the most contentious.

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Last year Apple changed the smart phone industry forever with the release of its wildly popular iPhone device. While other similar devices had been on the market for years, the iPhone used Apple’s unparalleled marketing prowess to quickly establish itself as a major player in the space. Plus, it just looked damn cool.

Still, while the iPhone was unquestionably a hit with consumers, it wasn’t as fully embraced in by businesses, which are the bread and butter of the smart phone industry. Granted that wasn’t necessarily Apple’s intended target with the first iPhone but it was still considered a drawback, especially since the device couldn’t synch to an enterprise mail server like Exchange. As a result Research in Motion’s Blackberry device continued to be the de facto standard when it came to business smart phone users.

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In the novel 1984, novelist George Orwell predicted a future where the government had complete control over the populace, monitoring their every move through technology. An enduring classic, the book introduced the concept that “Big Brother is watching you.” In fact, it proved to be such a seminal work that the term “Orwellian” became synonymous with technologies that are used in such invasive matters of privacy.

Of course, in today’s society we really are in the era of Big Brother, except that the monitoring technology is (or at least supposed to be) designed to protect us, not control us. Opponents of the infamous Patriot Act might disagree but that’s an issue for another day, or blog for that matter…

In some cases, marketers have implemented monitoring and tracking ideas that are almost as nefarious as those Orwell wrote in 1984. This has been exacerbated by online technologies. While for the most part, being online is relatively safe, the proliferation of viruses, Trojan horses and other applications designed to extract information about consumers has caused many to be a lot more cautious. Unfortunately for digital marketers, this skittishness is hurting the burgeoning use of what is being called behavioral targeted messaging.

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