Thursday, August 23, 2007

White on White: A review of Silverpop's latest white paper on white listing

Over the last few months I have been talking with some of our clients about white listing. Silverpop, an email service provider, released a whitepaper today entitled Unlocking the Secret World of White Listing. This document outlines what senders need to know about white listing and verifies many of the points that I have been making to our clients.

When ISPs are considering white listing you they are looking at a variety of items. Bounce rates, complaint rates, volume, and authentication/reputation are all considered when applying for a white list, and ISPs look at your previous sending patterns to determine what they expect those to be.

A few highlights from the whitepaper (which I encourage everyone to read):


“Keep in mind that the topic of complaints is very sensitive for ISPs. After all, those unhappy people are their customers.”


Some ISPs keep records of addresses that have bounced, and if you continue to send to addresses they’ve told you are no good, you not only risk any chance of being white listed but also endanger the future deliverability of your messages.”

At the end of the day, this is why it is imperative to adhere to best practices when sending. For a comprehensive listing of what ISPs expect senders to adhere to, please read MAAWG Sender Best Communications Practices - Version 1.1.

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