AOL and Yahoo! have employed the CertifiedEmail services of Goodmail to filter spam from incoming email. Goodmail acts as a 3rd party certifier of acceptable email senders. In effect, they operate a whitelist of email senders whose messages are sent to the recipient without interference. Messages from unapproved senders are routed through various spam filters and thus may or may not be delivered. Companies can apply to Goodmail for accreditation if they meet specific requirements that include business history, use of dedicated IP addresses for email, and low number of complaints. There is a fee for applying.
What does this mean for email marketers?
The implementation of the CertifiedEmail by two of the largest email domains may have a tremendous impact on your email marketing campaign. If your emails are sent from a non-accredited domain, a large number of your messages should be sent to junk mail folders or thrown away entirely. Yahoo! and AOL are likely the first of several organizations that will adopt this or similar services, making it even more important to select an email services provider with a clean track record. Ideally, your provider will have already been accredited.
There are several important things you can do to diminish the likelihood of being perceived as a spammer:
- Use only opt-in email addresses.
- Provide clear unsubscribe instructions.
- Use a valid “from” address.
- Use list selects to build a highly-targeted mailing lists.
- Keep content as relevant as possible to the subscriber base.
- Avoid spam-like terms and all-CAPS in the subject line. (E.g. New, Free, Promotion)
We welcome your comments and feedback.