This week I continue my series on e-mail deliverability inspired by the Lyris Inc panel featuring Michael Kelly of Click Mail Marketing, Craig Spiezie of the Online Trust Alliance, and David Fowler of Lyris Technologies.

Beyond Compliance and Authentication

CAN-SPAM compliance defines the bare minimum standards you must observe to keep from being legally culpable.  Authentication guarantees that nobody else’s actions will impact the deliverability of your e-mail.  However, it is entirely possible that your own actions could impact your e-mail deliverability, even if you never violate the standards set out by the CAN-SPAM act.

Your online activities will impact a number of different reputation scores that e-mail servers will use to determine whether e-mails you send should be forwarded on to their users.  Think of it as a credit check for your correspondence.  If you show yourself to be sufficiently trustworthy your letters will be delivered.

What Goes Into a Reputation

Bulk E-mail Practices (IP Reputation)

• Spam is also sometimes known as unwanted bulk e-mail (UBE). The most surefire way to keep your e-mail reputation clean is to ensure that your e-mails are still wanted. This means keeping your e-mail relevant to the purpose of the list, routinely asking recipients to opt-in so that those least interested can self filter, and monitoring reading behaviors so that you can catch warning signs of discontent.

Patterns and Connections (Link Domain Reputation)

• E-mails can originate from more than one location yet still be associated with the same site. Even if you are squeaky clean, unethical individuals using the same domain can stain your reputation. This is part of why establishing your identity for the various authentication services is so important. However, your Link Domain Reputation also includes everyone you link to and also those who link to you - so before you put a website into one of your e-mails, make sure that it is trustworthy. As with websites, links to porn, gambling, and online pharmacies should probably be avoided.

Online Real Estate (Website Reputation)

• Spam frequently comes from overly aggressive advertisers. There are behaviors which overly aggressive advertisers use on web sites as well. For example, they tend to use lots of pop-up advertisements or generate unnecessary error messages whenever a visitor tries to navigate away from their site. When building your website, do not use tricks that could be seen as forcing someone to stay.

Other Factors

• Consumer Perception - SPAM is in the eye of the beholder. If people perceive your company in a negative light, they will be more likely to list your communications as SPAM, which is detrimental to all of your reputation scores.
• Industry Perception - Depending on what business you’re in, you may find that unscrupulous individuals have poisoned the online well for you. For example, if you run a legal and legitimate online pharmacy, you will need to take extra care to make sure that your e-mail does not come across as SPAM.

Protecting Your Online Reputation

The easiest things you can do on your own to preserve your online reputation are to develop relevant content so that your readers will want to receive your e-mails and to give them the ability to leave your list once they are no longer interested.

And remember, no means no. If someone opts out of an e-mail list, be sure that you do not use procedures that will gather them back in without their explicit consent.

In addition, you can look for e-mail service providers that offer built in assurances that they will do everything they can to protect your online reputation. Many ESPs know what sort of changes in behavior can harm your reputation, and will take steps to help you avoid falling into such traps accidentally.