jeff dellapina - deliverability tools to build a better brand
TRANSCRIPT
Deliverability Tools to Build a Better BrandE-Mailing Conference Spring, 2016
Jeff DellapinaManager – Deliverability
Agenda
§ General Deliverability Terms§ IMC Deliverability Dashboard§ Gmail Postmaster Dashboard§ Housekeeping
General Deliverability Terms
Bounce Categories
§ Hard Bounce• Permanent Failed Message
o Bad Mailboxo Bad Domain
§ Soft Bounce• Temporary Failed Message
o Inactive Mailboxo Everything else that is not a hard bounce.
Bounce Types
§ In Stream• Error messages provided by receiving server during the live mail transfer.
•
§ Out of Stream• Error messages provided by recipient server after original message is successfully delivered.
Bulking, Blocking and Blacklisting
§ Bulked - Message is delivered but sent to the “Junk Folder”
§ Block - The destination email server is refusing to accept email due to ISP/Inbox Provider send practice violations
§ Blacklist - List of IP addresses or domains that individuals or enterprises use to filter email due to send practice violations. Spamhouse, Spamcop, SORBS, Surbl.
Spamtraps – Digital Venus Flytraps
§ A spam trap is an abandoned email address that was shut down and after 6-12 months is re-activated
§ Senders will receive a hard bounce and the address gets added to the Suppression List
§ Other spamtraps are email addresses listed in websites that never sign up for any email. Also called HoneyPots they wait for “spiders” to harvest addresses across the web.
IP Ramp-Up
§ A process within the VMTA that limits the volume of email during initial sends to specific ISPs. This ramping of the IP will build the reputation with different ISPs• Aol is limited to 1,200• Yahoo and Hotmail are set to send 5,000 on the first send • Segmenting your data into buckets• Ramp up any domain that makes up a 10 % or more of your list• Sending same volume for 30 days to turn off Auto Ramp-up
Feed Back Loops
§ Certain ISPs send recipient abuse complaint details back to Silverpop. • The abuse complaint is marked in the mailing reports• The problem address is added to the Master Suppression List• Abuse complaints can generate weeks, months, years after the initial send• Complaints from previous mailings impact today’s mailings• People that click abuse do so for 3 reasons:
o No memoryo Relevanto Frequency
Feed Back Loops – Seznam.cz
Feed Back Loops – Seznam.cz§ You must complete the previous form
•Before starting the form you need to select the “from” domain used in the mailings
•The “from” address needs to have new mailbox created that is either [email protected] or [email protected]
§ Once those are in place you complete the rest of the form including:•The “from” domain used in the mailings•The “selector” for your DKIM record. IBM is spop1024•Enter the address created from above to receive the abuse complaints
§ Make sure you take those complaints and remove them from your database
Email Authentication
§ Sending authenticated email means making sure proper DNS records are in place on the “from” or “sending” domain used in the mailings.
§ SPF Record§ DKIM Record§ DMARC Record
Email Authentication – SPF Record / Sender ID
§ IBM can send email on behalf of e.company.com
§ e.company.com TXT “v=spf1 ip4:208.85.1.0 – all”
§ Actual Error message :: Hotmail - smtp;;550 (COL0-MC4-F6) command rejected due to Sender ID test failing for IP 208.1.1.1. Please ensure this IP is authorized to send mail on behalf of [companyname.com].
Email Authentication – DKIM Record
§ Original Message Sent was the Same Message Received§ Reduces Screen Scraping§ Used by Yahoo for Feed Back Loops to manage abuse processing
§ spop1024._domainkey.e.example.com. IN TXT "k=rsa;; p=MFwwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQADSwAwSAJBALRpcZtsOe3y863bcLav91ftXKrLUymFwH9nOxFkJmMKdCRdcQo3dcIKDPn1lZqdXVfa7TFVVQVs• .
Email Authentication – DMARC Record
§ Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance
§ Text Record that monitors the listed domain against various Spoofing and Phishing attempts
§ Implemented in Stages• None – Monitor – Don’t do anything but report what is happening• Quarantine – Push aside any message that fails DMARC• Reject – Delete any message from any source not listed within DMARC
Email Authentication – Actual DMARC Record
• dmarc.silverpop.com TXT v=DMARC1;;p=none;;pct=100;;rua=mailto:[email protected];;ruf=mailto:[email protected]
• What domain do we want to monitor?• What do we do with failures?• What percentage of mail do we want monitored?• Where do we send these reports?
TLS – Transport Layer Security
§ A secure method of sending email. TLS replaced SSL as the preferred method. • The receiving server must be set-up to accept TLS messages• TLS can be used across all domains or sent to a select group of domains• There are 2 kinds of TLS
o Opportunistic• Every message is sent using TLS• If the receiving server does not accept TLS the message is delivered non-securely• 3rd party email services –Appear to be secure but not delivered to recipient securely
o Forced• Every message is sent using TLS• If the receiving server does not accept TLS the message is bounced
IMC Deliverability Dashboard
Deliverability Dashboard - Location§ http://portal.silverpop.com
Deliverability Dashboard - Overview
Deliverability Dashboard- Internal IP scoring
Deliverability Dashboard - Good Day / Bad DayBounce Rate <5% = Green, 5-10% = Yellow, >10% Red, under 1000 messages = Grey
Deliverability Dashboard - Status Alerts
• This view shows the various status fields. The first status is the alert status. Currently we have 2 alerts in place: Hotmail SNDS and IP Warming completed. Look for changes in the future as we add more alerts.
• Next up is the Whitelist status. This lists where the IP address whitelisted. Please note whitelisting does not mean inbox placement.
• Finally we include our blacklist status which tells you if the IP address is listed on any blacklists.
Deliverability Dashboard -SNDS Alerts• This view shows the SNDS ALERT.
§ When this alert is received that means IP address crossed a threshold of abuse rate, spamtraps
§ In the past we created cases for each client every time this alert appeared. This saves time as well as allowing all client’s employees the ability to see this alert.
§ Scroll down to the SNDS portal to see what happened.
Deliverability Dashboard - VMTA Warming Status Alerts§ This view shows the VMTA Warming Alert. Once a segment is completed we present
this alert. Hovering over the alert mentions which domain is now completed.
Deliverability Dashboard - IP Warming Status / Other Links§ This view shows the IP Warming Status which shows you the current max
volume you can send to each of ISPs listed. This is great to know during ramping and before sending so you don’t suppress addresses because you exceeded the send limit.
§ The Other Links alert section takes you to the SenderScorewebsite
Deliverability Dashboard - Hotmail SNDS Portal
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Getting There
§ Create a new Gmail Business Account• Go to http://postmaster.google.com• On the Bottom Right click on the red +button• In the pop-up box enter your “From” or “Sending” domain• Decide between using a TXT record or a CNAME• Send the supplied record to whoever manages webhosting/IT• Return to postmaster site and verify the new record.
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Sign-up Step 1
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Sign-up Step 2
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Sign-up Step 2 - CNAME
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Home Page
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Metrics Menu
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – History Menu
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Spam Rate
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – IP Reputation
Gmail Dashboard – IP Reputation - Ratings
§ Bad — A history of sending an enormously high volume of spam. Mail coming from this entity will almost always be rejected at SMTP or marked as spam.
§ Low - Known to send a considerable volume of spam regularly, and mail from this sender will likely be marked as spam.
§ Medium/Fair — Known to send good mail, but is prone to sending a low volume of spam intermittently. Most of the email from this entity will have a fair deliverability rate, except when there is a notable increase is spam levels.
§ High — Has a good track record of a very low spam rate, and complies with Gmail's sender guidelines. Mail will rarely be marked by the spam filter.
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – IP Reputation – Multiple IPs
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Domain Reputation
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Feed Back Loop
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Authentication
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Delivery Errors
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Delivery Errors Explained§ Rate limit exceeded: The Domain or IP is sending traffic at a suspiciously high rate, due to
which temporary rate limits have been imposed. The limit will be lifted when Gmail is confident enough of the nature of the traffic.
§ Suspected spam: The traffic is suspected to be spam, by our systems, for various reasons
§ Email content is possibly spammy: The traffic is suspected to be spammy, specific to the content
§ Bad or unsupported attachment: Traffic contains attachments not supported by Gmail
§ DMARC policy of the sender domain: The sender domain has set up a DMARC rejection policy
Gmail Postmaster Dashboard – Delivery Errors Explained (cont.)
• Sending IP has low reputation: The IP reputation of the sending IP is very low
• Sending domain has low reputation: The Domain reputation of the sending IP is very low
• IP is in one or more public RBLs: The IP is listed in one or more public Real-time BlackholeLists. Work with the RBL to get your IP delisted.
• Domain is in one or more public RBLs: The Domain is listed in one or more public Real-time Blackhole Lists. Work with the RBL to get your domain delisted.
• Bad or missing PTR record: The sending IP is missing a PTR record.
House Keeping
§ Self Improvement – Add personal value / Job Search§ Product Knowledge/Features§ Currently Free to complete at your own pace
IBM MC Certification
General Links
§ SPF http://www.openspf.org/§ DKIM http://www.dkim.org/§ DMARChttp://dmarc.org/§ Gmail Bulk Senders Guidelines https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?hl=en
§ CASL - fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home§ CAN-SPAM - http://www.fcc.gov/guides/spam-unwanted-text-messages-and-email
Gmail Links § Bulk Senders Guidelines
• https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126
§ Bulk Senders Trouble Form• https://support.google.com/mail/contact/bulk_send_new?rd=1
§ Gmail Feed Back Loop • https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652
§ Gmail Talks about Authentication• https://support.google.com/mail/answer/180707
§ Gmail Talks about DMARC• https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2451690
Links - Setting Up CNAME§ 1 and 1
§ http://help.1and1.com/domains-c36931/manage-domains-c79822/dns-c37586/enter-a-cname-record-for-your-domain-a643600.html
§ DreamHost§ http://wiki.dreamhost.com/CNAME_record#Custom_CNAME_Record§
§ EuroDNS§ http://help.eurodns.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1591553-how-do-i-add-a-cname-canonical-name-record-
§ Gandi§ http://wiki.gandi.net/en/dns/zone/cname-record?s[]=cname
§ Godaddy§ https://www.godaddy.com/help/managing-dns-for-your-domain-names-680
Links - Setting Up CNAME (cont.)
§ HostGator• http://support.hostgator.com/articles/plesk/plesk-10/changing-mx-a-cname-records-plesk-10
§ IX Webhosting• http://www.ixwebhosting.com/support/st_kb/how-to-add-a-custom-cname-record/
§ Network Solutions –Web.com• http://www.networksolutions.com/support/cname-records-host-aliases-2/
§ Register.com – Web.com• https://forum.web.com/register/faq/#AccountInformation/How_Do_I_Change_My_CNAME_Record.htm?High
light=cname
§ ZoneEdit• https://support.zoneedit.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1/0/root-domain-aliases-root-aliases-
zone-apex-aliases-implemeneted-as-anames
Questions?