Bronto Blog

There’s been a lot of talk and criticism directed at online shoe retailers these days…BrontoFire has recently covered DSW and Zappos’ calls-to-action (or lack thereof), and DJ and I also poured a little gasoline on the Zappos fire over at eROI this week.

DSW and Zappos may have their issues, but now there’s a new kid on the block, a certain ShoeSteal.com.  And the name of their game is SPAM.  Check out this “Welcome to ShoeSteal.com” message I received in one of my personal accounts the other day:

Shoe lover that I am, I have never heard of this company before now, so I obviously have never opted in to receive email marketing from them.  They must have obtained my address via a shady co-registration site or rented/purchased list. Judging from their site, they look pretty brand-spanking new, so I imagine the latter scenario is most likely.  List purchasing is a big no-no, but list rental is a common tactic new businesses (or businesses new to email marketing) like to use to kickstart their programs – and it’s a practice that we here at Bronto advise to use only with extreme caution.

ShoeSteal.com may have some great deals, but I won’t be shopping there any time soon.  Spamming is no way to start a relationship.

Julie Waite
Account Manager

Earlier this month, I was doing my routine sweep of my Gmail Spam folder. I found a legitimate email that was incorrectly tagged as Spam. This post is not to criticize Gmail for the false negative. I understand that it happens every so often (rarely with Gmail). In fact, I think Gmail is one of the best web clients when it comes to identifying Spam.

However, when I opened the email, I noticed an alert I had never seen before.

After clicking on the blue “Learn more,” I was directed to a Gmail help page titled, “Messages asking for personal information.” Gmail provides a clear, concise explanation of what phishing and/or spoofing is, including a YouTube video on how to detect phishing. They introduce their new service, “designed to alert Gmail users to messages that appear to be phishing attacks.” Finally, the Gmail Team outlines several steps to protect users against “fraudsters.”

I’ve loved Gmail even since I received the “coveted” invite from a friend. That was back when Gmail was in Beta. Oh wait…they still are in Beta. Either way, it is great to see that Gmail is not only identifying (and filtering) messages they deem as spam, are also trying to prevent and educate their users on phishing emails. Well done, Google. Between this initiative and your Google Flu Trends, I’d say you are doing good work. Keep innovating.

Has anyone seen this before? Please email examples to dj [at] bronto [dot] com.

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto

Last week, Christine of the “Official AOL Postmaster Blog” posted a new entry titled, IP Reputation, the Whitelist and Inbox Delivery at AOL. I did not find anything that was earth-shattering, but the Q&A formatted article provides some real insight into how one of the major ISPs thinks about reputation and deliverability. Below is what I believe are the 3 most important takeaways (check out full post on the AOL postmaster site):

1. What is IP reputation? - “…reputation is a holistic view of your IP and takes into account a wide variety of factors including — but not limited to — spam complaints, ‘not spam’ reports, spam folder deliveries, and invalid recipients.”

2. How does IP reputation impact inbox delivery? - “In short, IPs with a good reputation will benefit from better inbox delivery than IPs with a bad reputation. Moreover, IPs with a bad reputation will be subject to more temp deferrals, temp blocks, and permanent IP blocks.”

3. How can I improve my IP’s reputation? - “The trick to a good IP reputation is to send mail to people who want it. AOL has put together a list of best practices to help senders ensure they are doing just this.”

Yahoo! and MSN/Hotmail have their own versions of the sender/delivery best practices:

• Yahoo! - What are some best practices when sending to Yahoo! Mail? As a sender, what can I do to ensure that my email goes to the right folder? General Postmaster help.
• MSN/Hotmail - Postmaster Services

The bottom line from all ISPs is quite simple: Send email that is timely, targeted, and relevant to those subscribers that have asked for it.

DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices and Deliverability at Bronto

First there was Spam. Spam Spam Spam Spam Spammity Spam. Now…Bacn. No, that is not a typo. Bacn (sans “o”) is the term - coined back in August 2007 - for “email that you want, just not right now.” It’s a great way of identifying email that you signed up for and are interested in, but when it reaches your inbox, you shout out…

• “I’m too busy…no time to read it now. I’m sure I won’t miss much in just one email.”
• “I really should read this - why…I’ll just block off some time next Thursday!”
• “There’s just too much going on! I can’t take it anymore!!! Help…”

….and a potentially valuable email gets vaporized. If this sounds familiar, congratulations, you now understand bacn. It’s those emails you signed up for and wanted to receive but you’ve since pushed it into email purgatory (limbo) - suspended between your inbox and spam hades. The email doesn’t belong in your spam folder because it’s good stuff, but it doesn’t sit in your inbox long enough to make a noticeable impression.

Some love this new buzzword. Others loathe it. Either way, it is gaining some momentum, and email marketers need to be aware. Bacn has an unofficial website, was written up in NPR and the NYTimes, and is being discussed in the blogosphere - Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports, Chad White at RetailEmail.Blogspot, Gmail Blog.

Now you are in the know. Welcome to the club. Think about how bacn could skew your metrics, especially open rates.

Bacn - it’s not just another meat, it’s a new way of life for an email marketer trying to make sense in this crazy world.

DJ Waldow
Account Manager at Bronto