Today we are celebrating both the dawn of networked email, and the person who sent the first email, Ray Tomlinson. In October, 1971, Ray sent the very first networked email. To be sure, the computer to which he sent it was barely 3 feet away from the computer from which he sent it, and yes, he had sent it to himself, but nonetheless, it was groundbreaking. Prior to that some computers had a rudimentary 'email' messaging system through which one person could leave a 'mail' message for another person, but only on the same computer (sort of like a local dropbox). Sending one email to another computer was a Very Big Deal. It was also Ray who decided that there should be the "@" between the username and the domain (web address) of the email, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Of the current email authentication mechanisms, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, DKIM seems to be the most confusing for people (this is why we offer a human-powered DKIM checker, contact us for a free DKIM check). What is a DKIM selector? What are the DKIM tags? How does one create a DKIM record? Is there a good DKIM record generator? Here is a plain English explanation of DKIM, and a breakdown of the anatomy of a DKIM record.
Just as with any other industry, the email deliverability and email marketing industries have their own […]
Spam trigger words, do they exist, or don't they? And if spam trigger words exist, what are they? Here's the definitive answer. Ask 5 different email marketing or email deliverability experts whether there is really such a thing as spam trigger words, and you'll get seven different answers. Even highly respected deliverability sources will say something like "There is no such thing as spam trigger words... except.." or "Spam trigger words don't exist, but...". Because you see, spam trigger words do exist.
Google is ending a pilot program that allowed political campaigns to bypass the spam filter, and they have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the RNC filed against them. Note that Google is not 'restarting' spam filtering in Gmail for political campaigns, as claimed by some, and that's because they never stopped. Confused? You won't be, read on.
Why would people who request your email, maybe even pay to receive your email, still report it as spam? Here's why. By way of example, we have a customer who sends email out on behalf of a very large, very well-known institution in the financial investment world. Some of these mailings lists are paid mailing lists. By which we mean that the users paid to receive these emails. And yet, they still report it as spam. Why would they do this? Here's why.
Did you know that certain popular buzzwords can actually hurt your deliverability when used in your email subject line? No, we're not talking about so-called 'spam trigger words', although those are still a thing despite what some may say. And did you know that personalization in your email subject line (and even in your opening salutation) can also hurt your deliverability?
Here's a fun "what if" game, play along with us: What if the boss gave you $10,000 to improve your brand's email marketing ROI? How would you spend it? What would you do? Well, for us that was a no-brainer. But before we tell you how we would spend that $10k, and why, let's cover some basics.