Shortly after the new year began, Delivra began noticing higher than usual percentages of Verizon.net addresses bouncing.

This was not across-the-board, and definitely varied in severity from client to client (and often, varied significantly between segments).

The bounce message was always the same: "550 4.2.1 mailbox temporarily disabled: x@verizon.net" (where x was the username portion of the intended recipient's email address.)

The reason for this is that Verizon moved a number of their clients...

Wednesday night as I was driving (finishing up some last -minute shopping) I tuned into a local radio show hosted by Indianapolis businessman, Denny Smith. I don't listen to the show religiously, but am always glad when I do. Denny has a really down to earth, common-sense approach to the subject matter being discussed, and despite the show's title ("Everything Money") the guests and topics often stray far from finances.

That evening, he had two guests from the Miriam Bender Achievement Center....

You don't have to be an email marketer to know that the holidays are fast approaching. Many retailers have had their Christmas decorations out in full-force since before Halloween. Those of you who know my love of Halloween can guess how I react to that, but I do understand the desire to get as much out of your marketing efforts as possible this time of year.

Every year, I see email volume and frequency start increasing earlier and earlier. Competition to get your offers into the hands of your...

Neil Berman recently used the analogy of a wedding to explain the importance of planning your marketing efforts, but it got me thinking how much email marketing is like a relationship.

Imagine your prospective recipient's first visit to your site as the first date.  Perhaps a friend set her up (through a personal recommendation or link from a trusted site), or she used a dating service (you showed up in a Google search).

You begin spending time together, getting to know one another (through...

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of sad to see that Google has halted the development on their Wave product.

I saw it as a bold re-imagining of email.  Wave was originally introduced to me as "what email would look like if it was developed today" and that's exactly how I saw it - a more collaborative tool designed around sharing beyond simple forwarding.  Those you chose to share a wave with were now part of the conversation, not just recipients.

The problem, as I see it, is that email DOES...

I often hear from marketers asking  how to protect various aspects of their recipient lists(s) from others in their organization who are looking to do something they know isn't right.  The questions normally come on the acquisition end ("They're convinced buying a list is a good idea, what should I say?") but sometimes, it goes the other direction, and the marketer is dealing with higher-ups who think it is a good idea to sell their list to a third party.

These requests for help are full of...

I've become a bit of a crossword nut lately.  Recently, I just don't feel right if I haven't finished the puzzle in the paper by the time I'm done with my coffee. I'm not looking for hidden instructions (a la "Burn Notice"), but sometimes there appears to be a theme.  I do use a pen, not a pencil, so I'm pretty careful if a question could have more than one answer.

So the other day the 7-letter question at 118 across jumped out at me.

The answer wasn't "banners".

The answer wasn't "network" or...

I read a question from a marketer recently who was asking if he should include a text message in addition to the HTML messages that he is sending and it made me realize that some of the things I take for granted aren't necessarily common knowledge. The shortest answer to the question is "yes." In general, HTML-only emails are seen by receiving systems as more "spammy", so creating your message with both a text and HTML message (and letting the receiving system decide which to display) can help...

Email authentication can be a difficult, foreign concept to understand, but an important one for those that are sending or intend to start sending email campaigns.  Fortunately, the Email Experience Council has recently released a great resource that explains what email authentication is, how various ISPs use the authentication method, why email authentication should be a concern for you, and much more!

Here is a brief excerpt of the EEC Email Authentication Whitepaper:

“Email authentication is a...