Magnet Mail: Advanced Email Broadcast Solutions

Deliverability: A Joint Effort and Our Top Priority

Sending emails is easy. Getting them into the inbox is much more difficult. Because your email marketing success depends on the delivery of your messages, deliverability is MagnetMail’s top priority.

MagnetMail has a dedicated deliverability department that monitors ISP practices, new technologies and system architecture and activity. The MagnetMail team has systems in place to proactively monitor and communicate with domains (ISPs and email administrators) that exhibit deliverability issues. There is also regular correspondence between MagnetMail and both filter and blacklist administrators to identify and rectify problems. And every MagnetMail configuration and feature – including the deliverability testing module – is designed to optimize deliverability.

Most of the components necessary for good deliverability fall into three areas:

Reputation: Most ISPs (Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, Gmail, etc.) determine whether to deliver your email based on the reputation of the sender. If you have a good reputation – consistent sending, good list management and low complaint rates – your email will likely be delivered. If you have a bad reputation, your email may be tossed in the junk folder or discarded altogether. On average, reputation comprises 77% of the ISP criteria for delivering email. Some ISPs base their decisions 100% on sender reputation.
Content: While reputation is the primary criteria for ISPs, the content of your email also plays a role. On average, content comprises 23% of the ISP criteria for delivering your email. Some ISPs base their decisions as high as 68% on content. This aspect of deliverability rests almost entirely on you.
Authentication: There are a variety of technologies and configurations available to authenticate your email with the ISPs. In layman's terms, authentication verifies that you are who you say you are and prevents spammers from hijacking your name. MagnetMail has adopted several of these technologies and continues to monitor emerging practices.

Your email must pass through several Spam filters on its way to your recipient’s inbox. At each of these zones, your email can be judged on the aforementioned criteria – creating many potential points of failure:

MagnetMail is structured to address each facet of deliverability at each stage of delivery, but it takes a joint effort – with you, the sender – to reach peak performance. Here is a look at some of the components necessary to achieve top deliverability results:

DELIVERABILITY COMPONENT:	WHAT MAGNETMAIL DOES:	WHAT YOU CAN DO:
ISP Relations Internet Service Providers (Verizon, AOL, Comcast, etc.) are the email gatekeepers and play a predominant role in deciding whether emails arrive in the inbox. If an ISP verifies an email’s origin, approves the content and validates your sender reputation, your message will most likely be delivered.	MagnetMail maintains relationships with all of the major ISPs (and many minor ones) and corresponds regularly about general delivery criteria and specific resolutions. MagnetMail’s proactive deliverability department makes sure that each ISP has MagnetMail’s up-to-date whitelisting information. MagnetMail also communicates directly with ISPs at regular industry meetings.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, ISP relations are managed in full by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything.
Blacklist Monitoring Blacklists are directories of IP addresses identified as known or suspected spammers. Filtering companies (and therefore ISPs and email administrators) rely on blacklists to block incoming emails that may be Spam. The presence of an IP address on a blacklist may degrade deliverability.	MagnetMail monitors blacklists 24/7 to ensure that MagnetMail’s sending IP addresses are not listed. If an IP address appears on a blacklist, MagnetMail has protocols and relationships in place to contact the blacklist operator and address the situation.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, blacklists are monitored in full by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything.
Whitelisting A whitelist is a directory of vetted IP addresses used by ISPs and email administrators to expedite the delivery of email from trusted sources. Whitelists are maintained on a variety of levels, from ISPs to corporations to recipient desktops.	To maximize deliverability, MagnetMail communicates regularly with the top ISPs to make sure that its sending IP information is conveyed and updated. In addition to speaking directly to the ISPs, MagnetMail maintains and publicly promotes its whitelisting information, which includes instructions and a list of all associated IP addresses.	Convey MagnetMail’s whitelisting information to your recipients in every email that you send. Also consider including it on your subscription pages. Encourage your recipients to forward this whitelisting information to their ISP or email administrator and add your “From Field” address to their safe sender list at the desktop level.
Complaint Management Many email providers (Hotmail, AOL, Juno, etc.) give users the ability to report email as Spam. Frequent reports can affect your sender reputation and degrade deliverability.	Via Feedback Loops, MagnetMail is automatically notified by many email providers when a recipient reports an email as Spam. That recipient is automatically suppressed in your MagnetMail database and will no longer receive any emails from your account.	Much of this component is automatically addressed by MagnetMail, but you can reduce Spam report complaints by sending timely, targeted content to opt-in recipients. Also, if you receive a complaint from a recipient via another method of communication, it is incumbent upon you to suppress that recipient in your database.
List Management This has several facets. The big one is the presence of user unknown email addresses in your lists. If you repeatedly send emails to these addresses, your sender reputation will degrade. Secondary to user unknowns is the consistent acknowledgment of opt-out requests and limiting the number of complaints generated by recipients. The higher the list quality, the higher your deliverability.	After two bounces, MagnetMail automatically suppresses user unknown email addresses to prevent you from harming your reputation. MagnetMail also provides tools to identify bounces and remove bad email addresses from your lists.	Engage in regular list hygiene. This means analyzing your bounces and either removing bad addresses or updating them. As always, you should also have a reliable opt-in process that ensures a quality list of recipients. A double opt-in process can help to minimize the number of bad email addresses in your lists.
Unsubscribe Management A key component to deliverability is reducing complaints from recipients. These can take the form of Spam complaints or general complaints directly to the ISP. Providing an effective and immediate mechanism for unsubscribing reduces complaints and enhances your sender reputation.	MagnetMail offers comprehensive unsubscribe management functionality that allows your recipients to easily opt-out from one or more groups using hosted unsubscribe pages. MagnetMail also securely maintains all unsubscribe data to ensure permanent compliance.	If you use MagnetMail’s comprehensive unsubscribe management process, you don’t have to do anything. If you manage your own opt-out process, ensure that all emails include an unsubscribe mechanism for your recipients and that your opt-out pages are instructive and functioning. Also honor all opt-out requests made by email, phone or postal mail. To be compliant with the CAN-SPAM law, you may not send email to unsubscribed recipients more than 10 days after the opt-out request.
Provisioning ISPs and email administrators identify your email by information contained in the message header. This includes such elements as “From Field” address, return-path address and IP address. Over time, based on sending practices, these elements develop unique sender reputation grades.	MagnetMail makes sure that all necessary message header information is included in your email. By default, these elements – aside from the “From Field” address, which you input for each message – reflect the standard MagnetMail configuration and leverage a high sending volume to solidify a strong sender reputation.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, provisioning is taken care of by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything. However, you can choose to implement custom domains and private IP addresses. This will give you a unique sender identity and allow you to develop your own sender reputation. Contact MagnetMail to find out if you may benefit from custom provisioning.
Content Before the advent of sender reputation, email content was the primary determinant for deliverability. It remains a factor today. Filters will scan your email for certain words or phrases that can indicate Spam. Too many of these triggers will cause your email to be sent to the junk folder or not delivered.	MagnetMail offers two utilities to check for content that could potentially trigger a Spam filter. First, a Spam Checker is available on multiple MagnetMail pages to check your content against Spam Assassin – one of the predominant filters used by ISPs and email administrators. Second, MagnetMail offers a full-scale deliverability module that, among other things, checks content against Postini, another major content filter.	Regularly make use of both the built-in Spam Checker and the add-on deliverability module to check your content for Spam triggers. Also maintain a consistent “From Field” in your emails to build up your reputation. And in general, be aware of content that could trigger Spam filters and avoid using certain words or phrases in your emails.
Sender Score Certified Formerly known as the Bonder Sender program, Sender Score Certified is an email accreditation program that acts as a whitelist for 40 percent of all email inboxes.	MagnetMail is Sender Score Certified and the deliverability team monitors and maintains this accreditation.	You must apply with MagnetMail to participate in the Sender Score Certified program. Your application will be based on your sending practices and, if accepted, you will need to maintain your qualifications. Contact MagnetMail for more information about becoming Sender Score Certified.
Sender ID Sender ID is an email authentication protocol designed to protect your sender reputation and potentially increase deliverability. When you send an email, the Sender ID system verifies your identity to dissuade spoofing and phishing – practices associated with spammers that can harm your reputation.	MagnetMail is configured to use Sender ID and the system is maintained regularly to ensure strong sender reputation.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, Sender ID is taken care of by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything. You can alter the configuration of Sender ID for your account or opt out of the program entirely, but MagnetMail recommends that you retain this authentication protocol to optimize your deliverability.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Much like Sender ID, SPF protects your reputation by verifying your sender identity to dissuade spoofing and phishing.	MagnetMail is configured to use SPF and the system is maintained regularly to ensure strong sender reputation.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, SPF is taken care of by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything.
DomainKeys and DKIM DomainKeys is an email authentication systems designed to verify the sender identity and message integrity. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an authentication method that synthesizes the DomainKeys and Identified Internet Mail specifications. Both aim to increase deliverability by confirming and upgrading your reputation.	MagnetMail has tested both DomainKeys and DKIM and is in the process of a system-wide implementation.	As part of your partnership with MagnetMail, DomainKeys and DKIM are taken care of by the MagnetMail team. You don’t have to do anything.

If you have questions or would like a personal consultation about how your account can be provisioned to improve deliverability, contact MagnetMail at 301-652-5074 or support@realmagnet.com.