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You’ve Been Blacklisted! The Importance Of Keeping Your Data Clean.

Posted on Jul 14, 2011



For the average marketer, creating and sending bulk email campaigns is seen more as a chore than an exciting adventure through the world of communication.

Depending on who you talk to, sending bulk emails can be tricky, time-consuming, stressful, anxiety-inducing and down-right scary. (If you’ve ever completed an email campaign, given yourself a pat on the back and then found a glaring and potentially job-ending mistake you’ll understand these feelings.)

It is this trepidation that most marketers approach email marketing with which ends up compounding the problem. It’s a difficult enough process to craft, build and test an email without worrying about additional factors - such as how clean is the list you’re sending it to?

But worry you should. And with good reason.

Perhaps “worry” is the wrong word here. What you should do is “embrace” your email marketing list data. Really understand it.

Why? To put it as bluntly as possible, it’s your legal obligation.

Every country has it’s own rules governing email. We all hate spammers and these rules are there to qualify legitimate email correspondence.

So here’s important link number one - The Spam Act of 2003:

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2011C00080

Not following these rules can have some pretty severe consequences such as fines or imprisonment, but the most common of which culminates in ending up on a blacklist.

Click through to read more…

What is a blacklist?

“A Blacklist is a database of known internet addresses (or IP’s) used by persons or companies sending spam. Various ISP’s and bandwidth providers subscribe to these blacklist databases in order to filter out spam sent across their network or to their subscribers.”
http://www.spam-blockers.com/SPAM-blacklists.htm#what-is-a-blacklist

So, obviously this is bad.

“But I don’t send spam”, you say.

Well, no, but bear in mind that these blacklists are mostly automated - robots - so it only takes one mistake for you to end up on one.

How does this happen?

The most common method used to capture spammers is through “honeypot” email addresses. These are email addresses set up specifically by anti-spam services to capture unsolicited emails. These honeypot addresses sit dormant and do not ever subscribe to lists, so if your data has been gathered legitimately you should have nothing to worry about.

If you have acquired your list through a third party however - be very cautious. Basically you want to be 100% satisfied that the addresses are genuine. The consequences aren’t worth it otherwise.

Advice:
The best way to grow your list is organically through a sign-up form on your site, or via a competition (with clear information that they are being added to a mailing list).

Whilst incorporating a double-opt-in method (confirmation email) is not compulsory in Australia, it IS highly recommended best-practice.

What do I do if I end up on a blacklist?

In the words of The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Don’t Panic.

Well, maybe just a little.

Melon Media actively monitors all of the main blacklists and should one of our clients end up on one we work quickly to have it removed. This involves providing message headers, full HTML code and company details and usually takes 48 hours. We have a range of IP addresses set up for sending so if one is blacklisted it will not impact your sends.

For those wanting to really take charge of their data melonMail also has dedicated IP addresses that can be assigned to your company alone - giving you complete control over your sender profile and list status. To enquire about a fixed IP please contact us here.

Of course prevention is better than cure so a few minutes a week keeping your list up to date is imperative.

List management

Here are a five simple steps you can (and should) take to keep your list data up-to-date.

Confirm permission: Before you even add people to your list - make sure you have permission to send things to them, either from a check-box on the sign-up form or through an implied business relationship (sketchy, but legal).

Best practise is to have a double-opt in method (confirmation email with a link) so that there is no doubt that the recipient is valid.

Let them leave: It is mandatory to have a working unsubscribe link in your email. If somebody wants to leave, let them and don’t email them again. Continuing to do so can get you reported.

Age: Check that none of the addresses in your list have been out of correspondence for more than two years. If you haven’t sent them an email in over two years, deactivate and archive the addresses.

Third parties: If your list has data from a third party (an external provider) - ensure the validity of the address and that they have opted-in to receive messages from you.

Manage bounces: After conducting a send you will most likely receive some bounced emails. If it is a permanent bounce type (ie: No such address), then you should purge them from your list. Deactivate the address or, even better, unsubscribe it to prevent future mailings. Continuously sending to bounced addresses can affect your sender score.

That’s it. As long as you keep your data up to date and manage your lists properly then the whole process of sending bulk emails will become less of a chore and more, dare I say it, fun!

Happy mailing.

—-Have you experienced the pain of being blacklisted first-hand? Do you have some choice words for those that don’t manage their lists correctly?. Do you just have something to say? Comment below

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Melon Media is a specialist email marketing provider and digital agency based in Sydney Australia that assists organisations with their email marketing campaigns and website requirements. Melon Media offers full outsourced email marketing services including campaign consulting, concept, design and implementation as well as the provision of high quality hosted solutions enabling clients to self manage their own email broadcast campaigns. Melon Media is also the home of CheckDog, ManageFlitter, TourCow, EmailSociety.   Melon Media spell check and link check powered by CheckDog.