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[Editor's note: this is the second in a series of posts celebrating the history of our company on the anniversary of Delivra's founding. If you missed the first installment, you can read it here.]

Like many American companies, Fred Delivra & Co. played a role in supporting the Allied war effort during World War II, and was profoundly changed by it, suffering both losses and triumphs. 

The first loss occurred even before the U.S. formally joined the fighting. Fred Delivra's right-hand man, Alphonse Jones, suddenly resigned his post in December 1940 to fight alongside the British in North Africa. Jones had formerly been a soldier-of-fortune, and told Fred that he found the life of a deliverability manager too "passive" and "unfulfilling." Jones' adventure was short-lived, though; he disappeared during a German offensive in Libya in April 1941. 

Jones' presumed death haunted Fred Delivra, and cemented his devotion to the Allied cause. When America declared war, he was quick to volunteer his services, but found no takers in Washington, due to suspicions concerning his ambiguous national origin. However, military planners soon found themselves in need of Delivra's legendary skills in pigeon training. The generals' forward-thinking prevailed over the bureaucrats' fears about Delivra's loyalty, and President Roosevelt personally requested Fred's services, which were gladly given. 
 

Delivra's pigeons proved unerring in their accuracy and targeting instincts, earning several Dickin Medals for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty." The success of the so-called "Minneapolis Project" resolved any questions about Fred's loyalties, and led to Fred Delivra working for the newly-formed Office of Strategic Services. Not everything about his role in the OSS is known, but according to documents declassified by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, we at least know that Delivra worked to secure communications between the Allies and the resistance in France and Holland. Also, British documents show that, near the end of the war, Delivra was working on a system of validating authenticity of messages carried by pigeons. Following the fall of Berlin in May 1945, Fred Delivra's proposed Pigeon Key Identified Message (PKIM) system was no longer seen as necessary, and was never implemented, but his design has been cited as an inspiration for the email authentication technology of today. 
 

Fred Delivra also played an important role in the organization of the Yalta Conference in February 1945 to discuss the reconstruction of postwar Europe. Delivra was responsible for supervising messengers, telegrams, and translation, as well as snacks and afternoon tea. This latter role proved most valuable, as Fred's daring introduction of American-style orange soda was well received by Josef Stalin, and led to a softening of the Soviet leader's stance against the inclusion of France in the eventual occupation of Berlin. 
 

Meanwhile, back on the homefront in Indianapolis, Delivra's facilities had been quickly converted to wartime production shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when the nation's electronic mail needs shifted abruptly from commercial to military communication. A contract with the Office of War Information--the company's largest order to date--called for Delivra to establish a Design Services team to create propaganda posters to rally popular support for the war and to encourage conservation, productivity and vigilance. But with the men and pigeons of Delivra serving the cause of freedom overseas, it fell to a workforce of mostly women to keep Delivra's messaging factories in production, breaking a 40-year tradition of chauvinism, because of what Fred Delivra termed "patriotic obligation." Teletype operators worked tirelessly to relay messages between GIs and their loved ones back home, and to publish to the American forces the latest news from the States.

The acceptance of female employees in the work force, the diversification of services to include design, and the exposure of an entire generation of Americans to electronic messaging would lead, in the decade that followed the war, to unprecedented growth and prosperity for Delivra & Co., and for its founder, who returned to Indiana after turning down the ambassadorship to the newly-formed nation of Syria. However, Delivra has never ceased remembering the sacrifice of its employees who gave their lives in World War II: 
 

Army 
Buck Taylor
Christopher Bligh
Christoper Smith
Christopher Thompson
Giuseppe Amato
Patrick Donnelly
Salvador "Sonny" Juarez

Navy
Arthur Stone
Lawrence Douglass

Pigeon Corps
Aphrodite
Millie
Little Freddie IV
Zeke

 

With rumors about the declining health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs making news, we were inspired to re-run this post from November 2009, discussing the obviously bogus appearance of Mr. Jobs' email address on several of our clients' mailing lists, and how confirming your opt-ins can prevent such fraudulent subscriptions.

In September 2010, as if to prove the point of this post, Jobs famously replied to a college journalism student who wrote to him for help connecting to Apple's PR department: "Please leave us alone." The student took offense at the curt message, but it was more polite and personal than the Spamcop complaint you can expect if Jobs' address ends up on your marketing email list.

I'm hoping for a miraculous recovery for Steve Jobs, who will always be, in my mind, the thriving, driven young man portrayed by Noah Wyle in this 1999 TV movie. I'd email Steve my well-wishes, except, well, um...yeah, never mind.  This blog post will have to do.

Chris Broshears | Product Development

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One of the routine tasks performed by our Support team is the investigation of Spamcop complaints. With our Terms of Service allowing only the use of opt-in mailing lists, these complaints should be (and are) infrequent, and not all of them have merit. However, each of them must be investigated.

A recent complaint drew some extra attention because of where it came from: sjobs@apple.com. I'm willing to bet that Steve Jobs doesn't personally check that mailbox! However, it's apparently a valid address, and whoever monitors it objected to receiving a mailing sent by one of our clients.

We responded by removing the address from all the mailing lists on which it appeared. But Mr. Jobs is not the only celebrity to ever appear among our clients' subscribers. For example, we've seen quite a few occurrences of "president@whitehouse.gov" and "vice_president@whitehouse.gov", and various forms of addresses for Bill Gates. How did these luminaries come to be enrolled in these mailing lists? Let's dispense with some of the more obvious answers:

• They actually signed up to receive those mailings. As a famous philosopher once said, "you cannot be serious!" If Steve Jobs has time to personally read marketing emails, then the shareholders of Apple should march on 1 Infinite Loop with torches and pitchforks.

• The mailing list was harvested from address found online. They'd better not be harvesting addresses!! To paraphrase another well-known philosopher, I pity the fool that brings a tainted list like that into our system.

No, the more likely explanation is that people subscribed with false addresses on purpose. Perhaps they did it as a prank--that happened to me once, when an eBay seller mistook me for someone she held a grudge against; I spent days unsubscribing from all sorts of lists. Whatever their reasons, confirming opt-ins would largely prevent the problem of bogus addresses being subscribed. Confirmed Opt-In, or COI, is the process of sending new subscribers a message, to the address they provided at signup, containing a link they must click on to confirm that they really do want to hear from you. Some people refer to this practice as "double opt-in" or "closed loop opt-in." By any name, COI is the surest way to demonstrate, in response to spam complaints, that your mailing list consists only of people who have requested to be part of it.

Other than pranksters, why would anyone want to give you a fake email address? Maybe they don't really want to receive email from you, and are only providing an address because you require it in order to sign up for some other service or offer. Or perhaps they just don't understand how you plan to use their email address, so they fear giving you a real one. Either way, there's a weakness in your opt-in process that can be addressed, whether you switch to COI or not. Make sure your opt-in process is clear about why you are collecting their address, and how you plan to use it. And make sure that the user feels comfortable that they can give you their valid email address for transactional purposes, without also opting in to unwanted marketing messages.

I don't care how insanely great your products or services are, I promise you Steve Jobs didn't sign up for your newsletter, if for no other reason than that he's got people to do that for him. So if I he shows up on your list, take a good, hard look at your opt-in practices.

The Support Team at Delivra thrives on assisting our clients in an accurate and timely manner. That is our primary responsibility and we address each phone call/e-mail with the utmost importance. Another responsibility of the Support Team is not only assisting, but also teaching our clients about the software. Listed below are some of the more commonly asked questions we receive from clients.

1. Where do I find my list name?

A. Your list name is located in the top right hand corner of the Delivra website. The actual name is located next to 'List.'

2. Why does my HTML content look different when pasting into the editor from another program?

A. If you choose to paste the information by using ctrl+v or right clicking and choosing paste, there is a good chance the HTML content may look drastically different. To resolve this, always make sure to choose 'Paste as plain text' in the editor. This will eliminate a lot of those issues with content looking incorrect.

3. I've edited my content and now it's completely incorrect, how can I get it back to how it was?

A. If you've made a numerous amount of changes, there's a good chance you will not be able to click the undo button to resolve every change. Support recommends before making big changes within your content that you create a copy.  The following steps will allow you to do this:

• Click Content
• Click View Content
• Click Copy next to your file name
• Name the content whatever you would like

B. You should now see a copy of your current content. Open that copy and make any changes that you would like and you will still have the original with no changes made.

4. What is the difference between a soft bounce and a hard bounce?

A. Soft is a temporary failure being reported by the recipient's server (example: mailbox full or out of office).

B. Hard is a permanent failure being reported by the recipient's server (example: recipient's mailing address is no longer valid).

• NOTE: If a member hard bounces on 3 consecutive emails, that member will be changed to a held status. That means any future mailings will not be sent to that member.

5. What is the maximum size for images?

A. 600 pixels

If you have any questions or need assistance, please do not ever hesitate to contact us. You can reach us by e-mail at support@delivra.com or by phone at 1-866-915-9465.

Chris Sapp | Support

Recently, we've had the opportunity to welcome Chris Sapp to the Delivra Team. As of November 1st, 2010, Chris is the latest addition to the Delivra Support Team and is working as our new Application Analyst. As such, he is responsible for helping you with your email marketing needs and for answering any questions you may have regarding the software. 

Chris comes to the team with over six years of techinical support experience. Previously to joining Delivra, Chris worked at Conseco, where he worked on their Service Desk for several years. He also graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems from Indiana University. 

To learn more about Chris, check out thsi short Q & A section: 

Q: Favorite Sports Team? 

A: My favorite sports teams are the Indiana Hoosiers, Indianapolis Colts, and the Chicago Cubs. I grew up on all three of them and have been a fan of all three teams for as long as I can remember. 

Q: What are your hobbies? 

A: I enjoy sports, live music, movies, and anything outdoors. 

Q: What's your favorite music? 

A: I enjoy pretty much all music, but country. I was raised on classic rock and oldies. 

This past weekend Delivra had the privilege of being a sponsor for Music for All’s Bands of America Grand National Championships. What an exciting time for these talented and hard working students!! Everyone did such a fabulous job! We had a booth at the show which provided more than a few opportunities to explain what makes Delivra different. I quickly realized there was one very important differentiation. We define success by the quality of relationship we have with each customer.

A lot of the businesses I spoke with just didn’t know how to tell if their email marketing was effective. The question I asked back to them was, “What advice does your account manager give you?” More often than not the response was “What account manager?”

You know, the account manager that should help you understand your statistics and how to use segmentation to successfully re-market your product. That same account manager should keep you in the loop on trends and best practices in email marketing. They should provide you with the education and resources to help you succeed. Not to mention a great support team that is available to answer your questions. You know, that account manager.

Email marketing is a great investment into your business. Are you utilizing email to its fullest potential? Not sure? Contact us: info@delivra.com or 1-866-915-9465. We’d be happy to help you figure it out.

Rachel Rewerts | Account Management

In an earlier blog post, we announced the winners of the Infuse Initiative, a business grant program.  In the next couple of blog posts, we'd like to take the time to introduce the winners in more detail for those of you interested in learning more about them!

Today's blog post is highlighting the Indianapolis Early Learning Center, this year's non-profit Infuse Initiative winner.  Indianapolis Early Learning Center, located at 3901 West 30th Street, Indianapolis, is a non-profit preschool that invests in a successful future for all preschool-age children, regardless of their socioeconomic status.  The school accomplishes this by ensuring that all families have access to the best early childhood education programs to prepare their children for school and for life.

The Infuse Initiative business grant also provides them with pro-bono marketing, technology, accounting, legal and sales training services.  Delivra will provide the Indianapolis Early Learning Center a free email software subscription, professional services and technical support for one year to improve their email marketing efforts.

"Recently, I was able to attend the event announcing and congratulating the winners of the Infuse Initiative.  I had the opportunity to sit next to Amanda Byrd, the Founder & Executive Director of the preschool.  She seemed extremely grateful to be receiving the award and has big plans for the future and I can't wait to see what she does!" said Lavon Temple, Marketing Intern at Delivra.

Stay tuned to the Delivra blog for more information on the other Infuse Initiative winner - Professional Conventions & Meetings.

Also, keep a look out for more news as we eventually share a case study and more details on how the Delivra and Indianapolis Early Learning Center teams were able to work together in order to improve their email marketing efforts.

In my line of business, I sign up for a *lot* of email newsletters.  Most of my subscriptions aren't necessarily based on an affinity for the brand, but rather a desire to stay in touch with how other companies--beyond Delivra's clients--are using email.

One observation I've made is that (in my inbox, at least) the bulk of email I receive from retailers is aimed at driving traffic to their e-commerce websites.  But brick-and-mortar retailers can use email as a way to motivate shoppers to visit their physical stores.   In fact, we recently added a feature to our HTML editor to allow retailers or retail brands to create their own scannable coupons that email recipients can print and use.

Our Creative Services team has been using our new Barcode Editor to insert barcode images into mailings they've designed for a regional retail chain in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states.   We're now pleased to offer this capability to all of our Professional and Enterprise clients, available by request to your Delivra Account Manager.

The Barcode Editor supports the most popular barcode formats supported by retail point-of-sale systems, including UPC, Code 128, and Code 39 (also called "3 of 9").  Designers can control the size of the barcode image, as well as the message to be encoded.   Barcodes are inserted into mailings as JPEG or PNG images, and can be oriented vertically or horizontally with respect to the mailing content.

If you choose to send barcoded coupons to your subscribers via email, keep in mind the following tips:

1. Before sending, test your barcodes by printing the email and scanning the barcode with actual equipment used at point of sale.   Without going into too much technical detail, let's just say that not all scanners can read all formats or dimensions of barcodes.
2. Be careful about the offers you send.  A Midwest grocery chain recently found itself in hot water with shoppers after it pulled the plug on an Internet coupon offer that proved too popular and was becoming too costly.  The coupon, for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more, amounted to a giveaway of free money, with the company realizing no benefit.  Once a coupon is published on the Internet, assume that it will be forwarded and multiple copies printed.  Consider using a "percent off" offer, or one requiring a higher minimum purchase amount, to limit your financial risk.
3. The "text" of your barcode--the letters and numbers it represents--can be dynamic.  You could load a unique coupon code for each recipient into a Delivra demographics field such as Text2_, and use a merge tag (%%Text2_%%) as the text to encode in your barcode.  When the mailing is sent, a unique barcode will then be generated for each recipient.  If your point-of-sale system supports it, this would give you a way to track which recipients' coupons were actually used, or to limit each unique coupon code to a single use.

Interested in learning more or getting started with bar codes in your emails?  Contact your Delivra Account Manager today!

Chris Broshears | Product Development

One of the most common questions fielded by our Support team goes something like this: "My email looked just like I wanted in the editor and when I tested it, so how come it didn't look the same for my recipients?"

It's a common misconception that HTML is a "standard."  Web developers have known for years that different web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.) interpret HTML in slightly different ways.  I like the way this web design tutorial puts it:

Your Web browser is a translation device. It takes a document written in the HTML language and translates it into a formatted Web page. The result of this translation is a little like giving two human translators a sentence written in French and asking them to translate it into English. Both will get the meaning across, but may not use the same words to do so.

There was a time when browser compatibility was a bigger problem for Web page designers than it is today.  Years ago--during the so-called "browser wars," when Microsoft and Netscape were competing for market share--both browsers added their own proprietary "extensions" to HTML, instructions that only worked in their web browser. The difficulty faced by designers, trying to write HTML that would look good in either IE or Netscape, gave rise to a "Web Standards" movement, which held that:

If Netscape and Microsoft persisted in building ever–more incompatible browsers, the cost of development would continue to skyrocket, tens of millions would find themselves locked out, and the Web would fragment into a tower of digital Babel. In fact, we said, it had already begun to do so.

Adoption of Web Standards by the browser makers has eased the burden of compatibility testing on Web page designers.  But what about those who write HTML for email rather than for Web sites?  Unfortunately, there hasn't been widespread adoption of standards among different email clients (Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail, etc).  Worse, some of the recommendations of the Web Standards movement aren't fully applicable to the current state of email clients.

For example, one of the principles of the Web Standards movement is that HTML should only be used to define document content and structure, while CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) should be used for formatting.  Therefore, use of HTML tags like <font> for formatting is no longer recommended.  And while the <table> tag still has a purpose, it has nothing to do with aligning and positioning text on the page. But if a designer tries to apply those recommendations to email, they're not going to be pleased with how their message looks in, say, Outlook 2007, or Gmail, or Lotus Notes.

So what's an email designer to do?  May I suggest:

1. Test, test, test.  Set up accounts on the free web-based email services, and use them to preview your email before releasing it to the world.
2. Use tools like EmailAdvisor, which send your email to a seed list of addresses, then provide you with snapshots of how the HTML message looked in each of several popular email clients.  Or...
3. Use a simulator that doesn't require sending to a seed list--this is especially useful when the designer is not the same person who will be triggering the email send (and therefore doesn't have access to a seed list).  Our designers at Delivra find a tool called "Email on Acid" particularly useful.
4. Design for the lowest common denominator.  Our built-in HTML editor purposely does not generate code that uses the newest instructions.  That way, when you create an attractive-looking mailing, you have fewer worries of it breaking in, say, Outlook 2007 due to lack of support for certain CSS features.

Chris Broshears | Product Development

Your landing page is the stepping stone between your clicks and conversions. Your email content may be expertly designed and written, but if little thought is given to the Web pages that your email leads to, all your efforts are wasted.

Earlier this month, our own Support specialist Todd Weymouth blogged about the ease of creating your own landing pages using our HTML Editor. Taking that a step further, below are 3 simple tips on designing your own successful landing pages:

1. Keep it relevant. In the world of email marketing, relevance has always been a key component. Create a customized landing page that ties in specifically with your email offer. If your beautiful, targeted email is simply dumping your recipients on your homepage – leaving them to navigate to your offer themselves  – you can bet most of them will give up quickly.
2. Reinforce the call-to-action. Make it absolutely clear to the recipient what steps they need to take next. The less guesswork you leave to your recipients, the more likely it is for them to convert. Break your content into key points that make your information clear and skimmable; lastly, keep pertinent information above the fold. The more “fluff” your recipients have to scroll through to get to the point, the more likely you are to lose them.
3. Keep the design flowing smoothly. The look and feel of your landing page should match that of your email content. Convince your recipients that they are on the correct page with a second’s glance by keeping your branding, imagery, colors and fonts similar to that of your email content.

Did you know that in addition to customizing landing pages, we can customize other pages available with Delivra? Your Forward to a Friend page, your profile form page, your surveys, triggered mailings – these can all be branded with simple elements like your company logo and colors. If you’re looking to create something a little fancier, you can also hire the help of Delivra’s design team! Your account manager can give you more details.

Questions? Have another email design topic you want to hear about? Feel free to shoot me an email.

Celeste Odell | Design Services

Over the years I have worked under numerous marketing models in which the marketing team was charged with creating a marketing plan and strategy, implementing that on time and under budget, and then presenting all of the STUFF that went along with that work.  For one major campaign that I worked on, I actually had a marketing VP ask us to present to our sales team a 90 slide PPT (professionally designed and animated) illustrating all the stuff we created for them.  Needless to say, that VP is no longer with that company and I am sure they haven't completely altered that way of thinking.  However, for years that is what the company expected of marketing.  Show us your STUFF.

In fact, I would venture a guess that there are numerous marketers that still manage their discipline that way.  Here's how I know, this is a true story I heard recently of a marketing team that did just that for years....

Over the course of 10 years, the company built a marketing department.  The team had directors, managers, designers, and much more.  In fact, I'm told they could produce brochures and stuff better than any printer around.  They had closets of chotchkies (you know all those cool fun giveaway items with your logo on them) and gift baskets.  They had shelves of marketing collateral printed and ready to go.  They even had enough tradeshow booths to run a show all their own.  The team grew and grew and reached just under 15 employees.

They were very good at creating STUFF.  However, I'm not sure they accounted for a turbulent economy and never thought a company that built that much around marketing would eliminate the entire team.  They did!  Want to know why?!?  Well, the company had to make cuts because of the economy and because this marketing team was more concerned with timelines and stuff and not results, they were perceived as a mere line item and cut.

So you may ask what is the point to all the storytelling today?  The point is this:

You MUST hold yourself accountable as a marketer to bring true value to your company.

And no, I don't mean value in meeting a timeline or coming in under budget.  Those items should be assumed.  What I am talking about is tying every marketing activity to the results....are you tracking ROI on what you do?  Here at Delivra, I manage our marketing and make sure it is measurable.  I hold my self accountable to bring results to the company and if I am not bringing results, then I adjust my tactics and plan.

Here's a simple way to think about it:  All marketing efforts can pretty much be tied to three things-brand awareness, lead generation/nurturing, and client retention.  Everything you do should have an end goal of supporting one of these three areas.  Measure the ROI on each tactic that contributes to those areas and you will very clearly begin to see which activities bring the best results.  That's one of the reasons I have always liked marketing technologies like email marketing.  They make it easy for you to track results in real-time and make sure you are getting the return.  For every dollar your company spends on marketing, your ROI should not only recoup that dollar, but multiply it!  Here's an interesting stat....

Email marketing will generate an ROI of $43.52 in 2009. DMA (2009)

Are you able to illustrate ROI to your company in a way that makes you and your function indispensable?  Are you able to create, manage, and adjust a marketing plan off of more than a gut feeling?  If not, then you should definitely look into measuring results through ROI tracking and looking at marketing as a way to boost your brand, generate leads, or retain clients.  Plain and simple.

Here's a helpful calculator that may help you. I'd love to hear what you think....Comment today!

Carissa Newton | Marketing

For the past three months, a select group of Delivra clients have been beta-testing a new import utility that was written by our Development team over the summer. We're happy to announce today that the testing was successful, and that the beta period is officially over!

The new import tool has the same purpose as the old one--to allow you to upload a CSV file containing your email addresses and associated demographic information. However, there are new features that make the new utility superior to the importer that was included in Lyris ListManager, namely:

1) Import files can use any names in the header row, or contain no header row at all. It's not necessary to include database column names in the CSV file, because the new importer lets you map the fields of your file to the right database column as well as specifying any fields that can be ignored:

2) Imports run in the background, allowing you to work on other tasks while your file is processed.  You can view the status of your import at any time:

And, receive an email when it is completed, with attachments showing any records that could not be imported:

3) For our clients who use subscription categories to manage list members' preferences, it is now possible to import addresses directly into those categories from a CSV file, in addition to your use of categories in profile forms or API integrations.

The new CSV importer will be made available to all Delivra clients beginning in January 2010 (and the old importer will be retired sometime soon thereafter).   But we're happy to enable it right now for any of our clients who would like a sneak preview.   Just send a request to support@delivra.com and indicate for which lists you'd like to turn on this new utility.  Once enabled, two new options will appear on the Add Members page:

Chris Broshears | Product Development

 

One of the routine tasks performed by our Support team is the investigation of Spamcop complaints.  With our Terms of Service allowing only the use of opt-in mailing lists, these complaints should be (and are) infrequent, and not all of them have merit.  However, each of them must be investigated.

A recent complaint drew some extra attention because of where it came from: sjobs@apple.com.  I'm willing to bet that Steve Jobs doesn't personally check that mailbox!  However, it's apparently a valid address, and whoever monitors it objected to receiving a mailing sent by one of our clients.

We responded by removing the address from all the mailing lists on which it appeared.  But Mr. Jobs is not the only celebrity to ever appear among our clients' subscribers.  For example, we've seen quite a few occurrences of "president@whitehouse.gov" and "vice_president@whitehouse.gov", and various forms of addresses for Bill Gates.  How did these luminaries come to be enrolled in these mailing lists?  Let's dispense with some of the more obvious answers:

• They actually signed up to receive those mailings. As a famous philosopher once said, "you cannot be serious!"  If Steve Jobs has time to personally read marketing emails, then the shareholders of Apple should march on 1 Infinite Loop with torches and pitchforks.

• The mailing list was harvested from address found online. They'd better not be harvesting addresses!!  To paraphrase another well-known philosopher, I pity the fool that brings a tainted list like that into our system.

No, the more likely explanation is that people subscribed with false addresses on purpose. Perhaps they did it as a prank--that happened to me once, when an eBay seller mistook me for someone she held a grudge against; I spent days unsubscribing from all sorts of lists.   Whatever their reasons, confirming opt-ins would largely prevent the problem of bogus addresses being subscribed.  Confirmed Opt-In, or COI, is the process of sending new subscribers a message, to the address they provided at signup, containing a link they must click on to confirm that they really do want to hear from you.  Some people refer to this practice as "double opt-in" or "closed loop opt-in."  By any name, COI is the surest way to demonstrate, in response to spam complaints, that your mailing list consists only of people who have requested to be part of it.

Other than pranksters, why would anyone want to give you a fake email address?  Maybe they don't really want to receive email from you, and are only providing an address because you require it in order to sign up for some other service or offer.  Or perhaps they just don't understand how you plan to use their email address, so they fear giving you a real one.  Either way, there's a weakness in your opt-in process that can be addressed, whether you switch to COI or not.  Make sure your opt-in process is clear about why you are collecting their address, and how you plan to use it.  And make sure that the user feels comfortable that they can give you their valid email address for transactional purposes, without also opting in to unwanted marketing messages.

I don't care how insanely great your products or services are, I promise you Steve Jobs didn't sign up for your newsletter, if for no other reason than that he's got people to do that for him.  So if I he shows up on your list, take a good, hard look at your opt-in practices.

Chris Broshears | Product Development