Email reputation management...Is it an opportunity?

6 replies
From a business owner point of view there are can be a ton of headaches caused when email IP addresses get blocked or added to spam lists.

There are solutions out there to help mitigate some of these issues but I was interested in whether anyone has added the management of email reputation to their offline portfolio of services.

If you have...what have been the pitfalls and is there potential for growth in this area?
#email #managementis #opportunity #reputation
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    That's an interesting question.

    Do you have clients that are doing mass business email off of their own servers instead of using a service like Aweber or MailChimp?

    The last time I ran into an issue like that was when I was still doing network consulting and support. A client started blasting out 100's of marketing emails per day from their Microsoft Exchange server and hit the blacklists.

    It was a pain in the rear to get them back off the lists. They switched over to using a service for their email blasts after that.
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

      Do you have clients that are doing mass business email off of their own servers instead of using a service like Aweber or MailChimp?

      The last time I ran into an issue like that was when I was still doing network consulting and support. A client started blasting out 100's of marketing emails per day from their Microsoft Exchange server and hit the blacklists.

      It was a pain in the rear to get them back off the lists. They switched over to using a service for their email blasts after that.
      Both myself and clients tend to do email marketing via providers like Infusion etc but I've noticed that lately not with the marketing material but general business to business communications like order confirmations, sending invoices etc are getting blocked by I guess association with IPs that may have been used by spammers or have been exploited in someway.

      It's just I hear staff feedback in relation to this type of problem more and more and was considering solutions and also whether there was opportunity to solve a business problem that appears to be growing and annoying business operators and their staff as a potentially way into an organisation so as to deliver an immediate benefit that could be leveraged to sell other services.
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      • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
        Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

        I guess association with IPs that may have been used by spammers or have been exploited in someway.
        That will be your challenge. You will have to define the "why" behind their messages going to spam or not getting delivered.

        With invoices, sales messages, etc...It can be as simple as wording in their forms triggering responses in a spam filter.

        We used several hardware-based spam filters for clients and had to tweak and whitelist businesses or their emails would not make it through.

        The scoring systems weigh where they are coming from, both domain name and IP address, the content of the email, and how they are scored in a variety of published spam lists.

        It does not take much to flip someone over the limit.

        It could be an interesting business, but it will also be a challenging business. (But that can mean higher profits, too.)
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        • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
          Thanks Barry,

          I've been looking at the outbound content amongst other things and came across a provider who filters outbound in an effort to reduce the chances of getting blacklisted.

          I was wondering if anyone has used such a service and what results they could expect.

          One of the providers I looked at is mail channels and I wasn't sure whether they were just an intermediary or reseller or had something different to offer that was worth considering.

          Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

          That will be your challenge. You will have to define the "why" behind their messages going to spam or not getting delivered.

          With invoices, sales messages, etc...It can be as simple as wording in their forms triggering responses in a spam filter.

          We used several hardware-based spam filters for clients and had to tweak and whitelist businesses or their emails would not make it through.

          The scoring systems weigh where they are coming from, both domain name and IP address, the content of the email, and how they are scored in a variety of published spam lists.

          It does not take much to flip someone over the limit.

          It could be an interesting business, but it will also be a challenging business. (But that can mean higher profits, too.)
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    I have in the past but it's not something I really marketed or planned on doing. Just one of those things that kind of happened lol.

    Basically, it wasn't a matter of managing their reputation but setting them up in a way that their main operation wouldn't be effected by blacklists, sender reputation, etc. Usually when they have plans to send unsolicited mass email.

    Scaling that would be tough.
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  • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
    Just a thought - offering complete email solutions might be way to go - since not all companies experience this and to bring it up would be some confusion. It could be presented as one component of many, that way you might sell other services JMO

    I am no email expert, but I did have a biz owner with 4 different storefronts/offices who had managed to tangle up their email situation very badly and I was able to help them get a handle on it, they were kicked off a major email program cause of bounce rate and complaints (due to the genius who set it up where all emails went into one central pile and then they emailed them all - but different hours, policies etc at the 4 centers LOL. Hence the bad email blood)

    They also had some office accounts that were bouncing - just a mess. But it is not something I ever actively looked for but then again who knows?

    I have a (sometimes) day spa client who barely had an email list after years of being open, I asked her "what bout the groupon and living social people"?? she was like "what about them"?? Ouch

    I at least put in a system where they have to put in the "email" of the client before they honor the discount cert. The gals who work there told her and me "lots of them don't want to give email, and lots of them don't have an email". I said "they can NOT buy a groupon without an email " (tee hee)
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