Lost: 200 emails gone missing. Last seen on the 25.10.2003

Sound familiar? Ever wondered what happens to those unopened emails that you see in your stats from your latest email campaign/newsletter? Yep, you guessed it-their mail servers are doing it for them.

This is what is referred to as a "False Positive". It means that although the recipient has opted in to receive your newsletter, for some reason or another, the mail server's filters have deemed it to be Spam and, in most cases deleted it, before the recipient has had the chance to give their verdict on whether it was worth opening or not.

In order to protect themselves (and presumably us) against the onslaught of unwanted emails, the servers have implemented filters, which are designed to stop Spam in its tracks. Of course there are bound to be some casualties - and in this case it is your legitimate correspondence.

There are four main things that happen when an email is filtered - depending upon which type of filter is being used.

It gets delivered - it has been deemed not to be Spam.

It gets deleted without notification to either sender or recipient.

It's deleted and the sender is notified via auto-bounce that the email address is no longer valid, even though it may be valid.

It's deleted and a blacklist is notified that the sender is a Spammer.
So, let's have a look at the types of filters currently in use:

Community: This is based on the community joining together and installing the filters, then reporting any occurrences of Spam. False Positive occurrences should be low, but in reality they aren't. This is due to a couple of reasons: The first being the weed theory. What one person regards as a weed, another may regard as a flower. We all have different opinions. The other is that many people are now reporting once wanted email as Spam instead of unsubscribing.

Blacklisting: ISP's generally use their own proprietary lists of known Spammers, created by themselves. Third party blacklisting companies also publish databases of Spam senders. False Positive's are extremely high, as these third party blacklists have no accountability. In fact anyone can report an IP Address as a Spammer and do not have to qualify their reasons.
Address recognition: Sender's email address is in the recipient's address book or the server's/gateway's acceptable list. Email senders must earn their position within these lists.

Trapping: The filter company plants email addresses all through the Internet to attract Spam Harvesters. Once the false addresses receive Spam, the source of the Spammer is identified; the sender is then blocked immediately across all users of the filter. False positives are extremely low.

Challenge-Response: This white listing concept is based on all emails being Spam and the sender having to prove otherwise. Before an email is delivered, the ISP or PC that uses the filter challenges that a human sent the email. The sender has to then manually click the link and then they are added to the subscriber's permissible list. Any auto-responses such as Double Opt in responses do not work well with this type of filter.

Rule-Based: This is the most commonly used type of filter on a server. It catches Spam by rejecting/accepting messages based on predetermined rules of what is acceptable.

Bonded Sender: Email markers gain status as a non-Spammer through these bonder senders and are therefore permitted through the filters.

Volume Blocking: Spammers are known to send high volume emails without thought to speed, volume or list cleanliness. The ISP sees the large amount as well as the other problems and terminates the connection.

Probability: Using rules, a method "learns" the users definitions of Spam and decides what may be regarded as Spam. False Positives increase as rule-based Spam is reduced.

Remember though, not only are you dealing with rule-based filters as well as the other types of filters (and most servers use a combination of filters), you also need to get past the personalised filters (i.e. the recipient themselves), so be sure to test your campaign thoroughly before sending it.

Kath Pay is a Director of Ezemail Pty Ltd, (www.ezemail.com), an innovative company that provides comprehensive email & SMS marketing solutions ranging from DIY newsletters for small businesses to email/SMS campaign management for large international corporations. For more information on how easily email/SMS marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath on kath@ezemail.com

---

Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Adsense websites

Summary of Adestras Presentation on Best Practice EZines at the July NEPA Conference

At the recent Online Marketing Show, Adestra ran an email... Read More

Three Steps To Building A 50K Email List In Less Than 90 Days

One major asset that every internet or affiliate marketer needs... Read More

DoubleClicks Q3 2004 Report Shows Bulk Email Marketing Eficiency Increase

Wednesday, December 15 2004 at 16:00 EET... Read More

Just Write an Email

How did you sell your last product? Imagine that I... Read More

Personalizing Your Emails? An Amazing Technique That Doubles Your Click Throughs And Profits

Are you publishing an ezine or offering an email course?... Read More

Is Your Email Address Blacklisted?

A lady emailed me yesterday very upset over the fact... Read More

Signature File Dos and Donts

Signature files have been around since, well, before most current... Read More

Attract New Subscribers With Magnetic Ads

One of the most effective methods of advertising your e-zine... Read More

Run Profitable Contests Using Autoresponders

Running a contest for your e-zine subscribers or web site... Read More

Building Your Own Goldmine - The Golds In The List

The best way to make money on the Internet is... Read More

The 8 Biggest Newsletter Marketing Mistakes

Newsletter publishing has always made a lot of sense. It... Read More

3 Important Tips to Write Money-Making Autoresponder Messages

Sending autoresponder messages is one of the most powerful email... Read More

Do Your Autoresponders Drive Your Customers Crazy?

A chained auto-responder is a sequence of emails that gets... Read More

Ten Tips to Building Your Opt-in List.

To build and maintain your opt-in list requires constant attention.As... Read More

E-mail 101: The Dos and Donts

Even though many people have been writing e-mails for a... Read More

Dirty Secrets Of Co-Registration Email Lists

Years ago, I listened to Internet marketing "gurus" share that... Read More

Learn How to Double and Triple the Size of Your Opt-in List by Helping Others

I think first of all, everybody deserves to have a... Read More

Email Autoreponder ? How to Put your Business on Autopilot

Answering emails can take up a significant portion of the... Read More

Using A Simple Idea to Target Your Audience

A wonderfully easy and free concept that many people seem... Read More

Email Marketing - How Best To Manage and Distribute Your Messages

This holiday season 15 percent of consumers in the US... Read More

Internet Marketing Strategies: 20 Secrets To Using Free Autoresponder Courses To Magnify Your Sales

Among internet marketing strategies that most marketers are not using... Read More

How Email Etiquette Will Make You More Money through Loyal, Repeat Customers

When it comes to gaining and keeping customers, every website... Read More

How To Improve Your Open Rates And Click-Thru Rates In Your Email Campaigns

In this article I will give you several tips that... Read More

Why Do Marketers Lie in their Emails?

Coming as I do from a direct response and direct... Read More

Benchmark Study of Email Database Services

-- Email Appending and ECOA Match Rates Revealed --NEWTON, MA,... Read More