Spam Resource
It’s time to talk Email List Management! On Thursday, October 20th, my Kickbox Colleague Jennifer Nespola Lantz and I will touch on the risks of database resurrection, how bad data can tank deliverability (and how email verification can help to mitigate that risk), and more good and bad practices when it comes to keeping your email list alive. And we’ll have time for your questions. Join us, won’t you? Register here.
Hey, email nerds! Are you like me, running various random EC2 instances with scripts or applications that do a bunch of spam and email message analysis, checking (among other things) all the domains and IPs you find? Okay, there aren’t millions of us, but I know I’m not alone out there! Email nerds unite! Anyway, if you’re querying Spamhaus’s blocklists directly from your AWS-hosted infrastructure, be aware: Beginning October 18th, Spamhaus is likely to block those queries, responding instead with a 127.255.255.254 response code. Why? It sounds like AWS is a large source of traffic for Spamhaus, and it’s hard for them to sort out who’s who– including who should be getting access for free and who shouldn’t be. Don’t fret, though. Just sign up for the Spamhaus Data Query Service (DQS), and you should be able to keep the access flowing.Is this really surprising at this point? Not to me.
It’s time for a New Jack Swing break, courtesy of Johny Kemp, who just got paid. Enjoy.
Another day brings us another simple reminder that buying lists will cause you trouble. Toshi Onishi, writing for the Dotdigital blog, succinctly shares with us the three major issues around transparency (and consent) that comprise insurmountable roadblocks when it comes to purchasing email lists. And if you need more ammo to help explain to a boss or marketing manager why buying lists isn’t cool, don’t forget to check out https://www.shouldiuseapurchasedemaillist.com where you’ll find more links to articles that break down why it’s a bad practice and so broadly prohibited.
Mobile providers have been suggesting this for a while now (here’s me talking about Verizon and this service apparently goes back ten years) — report that SMS spam so that somebody can do something about it! But the reporting process (at least on iPhone) was clunky. Manually forward the content of an SMS message to 7726 and then the 7726 bot replies, requesting the source phone number, which you can then provide. Not the slickest process. Apparently, Android has had a solution to this for a while now, and Apple joins them with iOS 16, offering a much easier way to report an unwanted SMS message as spam! Proofpoint explains here that now, with iOS 16, users can hit the “report junk” link under the unwanted message, and a report will be sent both to Apple and to Proofpoint to help guide future SMS spam filtering efforts. YAY! Because SMS spam sucks!
Check it out — it’s our first taste of BIMI on iOS outside of beta. Apple iOS users who upgrade to iOS 16 can now see a BIMI logo associated with an email send, depending on what mailbox provider they use. All four of these CNN Newsletter signup emails were opened and viewed on the default Apple mail client in iOS 16.0.2, and as you can see, iCloud and Fastmail users get shown the BIMI logo for CNN! You’ll note that no logo is displayed for the Yahoo and Gmail subscribers, even though both platforms support BIMI (and CNN has the Gmail-required VMC in place). Why Fastmail and not Gmail or Yahoo? I suspect that Fastmail was quickest to implement an updated “authentication results” header that includes information about the BIMI logo checks, and I don’t think Gmail and Yahoo are including that information. Yet? It seems likely that they’ll catch
If you want to learn more about SMTP response codes and error messages, here’s a couple of resources you’ll want to check out and bookmark for future reference. First, here’s John Porrini from SocketLabs: 21 SMTP Response Codes That You Need To Know.And after you’ve checked that out, you’ll want to bookmark the SMTP FIELD MANUAL: A collection of raw SMTP error codes spotted in the wild from Postmark. Very useful to try to understand what kind of rejects (bounces) certain mailbox providers will send back and sometimes it has come in handy when I can’t access to a client’s actual bounce message, so I can review what common ones that particular mailbox provider sends, and develop a thoery of what might have happened, based on that.
Lucas Ropek for Gizmodo explains: “Turns out it’s pretty damn easy to spam the entire Air Force using just one email address.”Oh, no. Really? Yep, as it turns out.
Online marketing company Dotdigital is hiring! They’re looking for a Senior Deliverability Strategist/Consultant to join their Messaging Operations team. In this role, this person would “make sure customers are getting the most from their email programs and that the Dotdigital platform is performing optimally by encouraging best practices, and is able to share in representing Dotdigital in the industry and make the most of opportunities to champion strategic projects from concept to deployment.”For more information or to apply, click here.
It’s time! Pumpkin spice has only just arrived but smart marketers know that the sooner you can begin to prepare for deliverability and marketing success for the year-end holiday season, the better. That’s why my Kickbox colleague Jennifer Nespola Lantz and I put together our top tips on things you SHOULD and SHOULD NOT do if you want to keep yourself out of the spam folder this holiday season. You can find the article (and a link to the recorded webinar) over on the Kickbox blog.