Return Path’s latest 'Global Email Deliverability Benchmark Report (2H 2009)' has chastised several UK broadband ISPs, including Demon Internet , BT , AOL UK and Orange UK, because their strict anti-spam (junk email prevention) measures make them the "most difficult ISPs for email marketers to reach". Shame.The report, which reviewed data from 131 ISPs in the USA, Canada, Europe, and the Asia Pacific territories from July through December of 2009, claims that it is referencing "legitimate, permission-based commercial [email]" and not your common garden variety of junk email marketing. Not that many people could tell the difference.
Margaret Farmakis, Return Path’s senior director of Response Consulting, said:
"Internet Services Providers work extremely hard to protect their customers from the scourge of spam emails. The problem for marketers is that legitimate permission-based emails are often misidentified as spam by ISPs, and subsequently directed to the spam folder or vanish into the ether. Marketers must understand that they themselves have the most influence over their deliverability by following email best practice.
Although Europe outperformed North America – where almost 20 per cent of permission-based email wasn’t delivered in the last six months of 2009 – these figures still represent an unacceptably high rate of missed opportunities and lost sales."
"Internet Services Providers work extremely hard to protect their customers from the scourge of spam emails. The problem for marketers is that legitimate permission-based emails are often misidentified as spam by ISPs, and subsequently directed to the spam folder or vanish into the ether. Marketers must understand that they themselves have the most influence over their deliverability by following email best practice.
Although Europe outperformed North America – where almost 20 per cent of permission-based email wasn’t delivered in the last six months of 2009 – these figures still represent an unacceptably high rate of missed opportunities and lost sales."
ISPs Demon and BT Internet had the highest non-delivered rates ("legitimate" marketing email that doesn't reach its target inbox) for the United Kingdom at 24.7% and 21.8% respectively. AOL UK, Yahoo!, Orange UK and Hotmail all have non-delivered rates in excess of 10%.
We suspect that the concern over this would be more palpable if the report wasn't so focused on marketing email, legitimate or not. Indeed we further suspect that many consumers may even view an ISPs non-delivery rate for "legitimate" email marketing as being something of a positive note.
However we do encourage any ISP that deploys anti-spam filtering to give its customers some degree of control over which addresses it applies to; even if that is merely in the form of a basic “on” and “off” switch. Mandatory anti-spam filtering is not always necessary and most filters will sadly catch some legitimate email, including important personal and business messages.
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Comments: 10
Always someone elses faultPosted: 3 February, 2010 - 1:38 PM
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Thank you ISP's from stopping these people from sending me things I don’t want. If the marketers put as much effort into listening to consumers when we say we do NOT want their rubbish then maybe they would be taken seriously. Like the rights holders issues we see and the censorship brigade, it’s all being lumped onto ISP's to resolve - Marketers have clearly found also that it costs financially/commercially so let’s find another way round the problem by forcing ISP's to resolve it.
I may lose some legit e-mails through ISP side filtering rules but hey, I'll live.
The Very Good Email CompanyPosted: 3 February, 2010 - 4:06 PM
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It’s not the argument of what constitutes Spam – we’re all different – but I did find myself agreeing strongly with your comment: “we do encourage any ISP that deploys anti-spam filtering to give its customers some degree of control over which addresses it applies to; even if that is merely in the form of a basic “on” and “off” switch.”
We’d strongly agree with that sentiment – and being able to select the level of filtering (from ‘Low’ to ‘Extreme’) has always been a core feature of our filtering platform here at The Very Good Email Company, along with the ability to view and restore any removed mail from the customers’ Spam folder.
If any ISPs out there would like to improve their email platforms in this respect we'd love to hear from them!
Iain
www.verygoodemail.com
timelessPosted: 3 February, 2010 - 5:55 PM
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personally l dispise spam filters in the respect of blackhole'ing emails.
my friend and l run our own dedicated server and have owned several dowmains got getting onto 7 years now and for some reason we have always had problems with users who use AOL emails, 90% dont even reach the users junkmail let alone their inbox (l even tested when l was with AOL), problem is with such a large user base of members at our forums (10,000+) we have had to block AOL completely because the tech support email got swamped with bounced messages and "why cant l verify my account" emails which were generally constant.
since the block we only ever have two of three emails asking why they are banned, which is much better than the 1000s of daily emails, still l dont know why AOL or any other isp who uses filtering gets to pick and choose what messages arrive and what doesnt! its annoying.
TrqJbPosted: 3 February, 2010 - 7:23 PM
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Some years back I discovered (disastrously late) that a whole stack of emails had not turned up in my mailbox.
Words cannot express how much I hate these black-box anti-spam so-called "solutions" which serve only to mask the problem. Whilst it remains hidden to such an extent, there is no incentive for anyone to actually do anything.
The people painting over the graffiti on the wall say they have solved the graffiti problem by virtue of painting over the wall every time someone scribbles on it. Stop the people scribbling on the wall and maybe we won't have to keep paying for all that paint.
MartinPosted: 4 February, 2010 - 1:09 AM
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They are they own worst enemy !
I downloaded some free software, now the welll known maker / seller send me emails pushing other tune up, anti everyting software at least EVERY OTHER DAY, and sometimes TWICE a day. This is now SPAM, and deleted by my filter.
But it means I have to be very carefull whom I give my email address and in fact have to have several just for marketing SPAM.
My wife gets daily emails from Amazon, Next, M%S, Boden, White, Tesco, ......etc., every name on the high and virtual street.
Someone should tell them less is more !
Regards,
Martin
TrevorPosted: 4 February, 2010 - 11:53 PM
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Spam filter ON please and set high. I do not want
ChezPosted: 5 February, 2010 - 1:38 PM
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A lot of "so called" permission based emails are difficult to switch off. They ignore your unsubscribing. I believe that I have only lost one email ever to the spam box in several years and that was because the sender didn't put a subject line in and I didn't know her name due to the fact she was running subscriptions of a group I had expressed an interest in joining and I was not at that time aware of her name. Because of the above the email was deleted without being opened.
Carrot63Posted: 6 February, 2010 - 1:56 AM
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I don't really like the overzealous ISP spam control as a rule, I'd rather have some control over filtering my own email. That said, I'm delighted to see self-proclaimed "legitimate" marketers getting blocked. I sick of getting speculative emails from supposedly "reputable" firms as either one time emails or with an unsubscribe option - I don't see why I should waste time unsubscribing from something I never signed up to in the first place. "Prior consent" seems to be beyond the lexicon used by marketing people.
ForumsPosted: 20 March, 2010 - 9:13 AM
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Unfortunatley they are also blocking automatic registration e-mails when trying to register for online communities and shopping sites. Therefore verification and password reset e-mails rarely arrive. While I agree with a lot of the above, they need to work harder to filter more sympathetically.
OliverPosted: 25 June, 2010 - 10:24 AM
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This thread is all about unwanted spam. My problem is the reverse, of undelivered emails to frequently used family addresses. My address is in their approved/safe/white lists, but the messages disappear into the ether.
I am using orange, and they are with hotmail and tiscali.
Orange "customer service" ignore me - maybe they do not receive my emails either!
Any suggestions?????
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