Email Marketing & Delivery Blog - Enterprise Email Application Software Blog

New Features for Email Delivery Service

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:23:20 GMT

Zrinity added a multi-variant campaign type to Campaign Intelligence recently. This is a new feature added due to customer feedback and requests. We will post the full story tomorrow.

Email Evolution Conference

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:57:06 GMT

I've just returned from the Email Evolution Conference in San Diego. I learned some things, shared some knowledge and made new friends. I'm energized and it's all still running through my head. I'm really looking forward to Marketing Sherpa's conference later this month.

The vendor area at these conferences are most often the most valuable and most under used resources. Attendees should come prepared with a list of questions and approach vendors with them, but generally it's only a small percentage that have the courage to approach them and pick their brains. They fear it would create some kind of commitment. Vendors don't expect to close deals at conferences. They are there to build brand recognition and begin relationships, so that in the event you consider a product or service in the space with which they compete, you would think of them. They love to listen to your story and love to tell theirs. The top experts in the field are standing there ready to share free leading-edge knowledge. They want to share ideas and visions and really enjoy hearing about yours. If I had attended this conference to learn about email deliverability issues, for instance, I would probably get all the answers I needed in the vendor area and then would know which of the sessions would be most important for me to attend.

Many of the attendees told me that the sessions at Email Evolution were very interesting and informative. I think that the diversity of speakers and topics offered by DMA affiliations helped. A luncheon speaker from Daily Candy reminded me of a very important lesson in marketing. Treat your customers and prospective customers like friends and two things will happen. They will talk about you and they will actually become good friends. While that was not the focus of the talk, it was what I was reminded of. Follow your passion, have fun with it and then you'll find a way to make money doing it. I had the opportunity to share stories and knowledge with hundreds of people at this conference and since I still remember some of the people I met at conferences last year and tell their stories, I expect the experience will carry on for years. I was enriched.

Extensive E-Commerce Team Research Results in Eldorado Resorts Choosing Zrinity

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:09:19 GMT

This news release needed to be posted in the blog for numerous reasons. The biggest, of course, is the fact that an entire team of business and high tech experts, as well as numerous email industry insiders, were utilized to locate Zrinity and to ultimately choose the Zrinity email delivery and marketing systems for use within Eldorado Resorts.

It is also noteworthy that our target prospect focus has evolved into two broad descriptions of entertainment and Web 2.0 firms. Entertainment further breaks down into travel, gaming, casino and social networking while Web 2.0, or New Millennium Business, breaks down into networking, business and personal, and Web marketing firms. Business and social networking fit into both entertainment and Web 2.0 categories since all networking, even for business, includes a degree of entertainment, while personal networking is merging into the business networking more and more.

Here's the first few paragraphs of the news release...

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(PRWEB) January 13, 2008 -- Zrinity Inc, a Utica, New York-based email marketing server provider, was chosen by Eldorado Resorts to provide its new inhouse email delivery server and system and expertise after "extensive ecommerce research."

According to Chad Hallert, Corporate E-Commerce Manager, Eldorado Resorts, the Eldorado E-Commerce Team stringent requirements for their new in-house email delivery servers and systems consisted of the following: Recommendations by other email delivery industry colleagues; Features provided by ASP email systems; Complete in-house control over company assets, data, etc.; Includes all reports, plus custom reports, provided by other services; Flexibility with ability to customize applications; Tier 1 training from email delivery -industry experts; Tier 1 support from email delivery industry technical experts.
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Click Here to Read the Full News Release

Domain Warnings Added to Domain Reports in XMS

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:49:23 GMT

There were so many cool new features added to XMS this year, but one of the best was the Domain Monitoring Service. It gave administrators a full report of deliverability by recipient domain, but was originally indexed by volume sent. Now, the report is indexed by average delivery delay and severity is indicated by color. Administrators can now spot deliverability problems and their cause within seconds.

Zrinity Connection Algorithm Delivers More and Avoids Dynamic Blocks

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:28:01 GMT

The deliverability of your messaging gateway is highly dependent on other gateways, most often using older SMTP servers and often configured in unusual manners to address issues that have occurred over time. Until recently, administrators used a brute force approach to get the best delivery results and then often fine-tuned the number of connections and messages per connection to each of the major gateways. Newer email servers can manage a very large number of connections efficiently and often caused problems for administrators of older email servers. It's like an unintentional denial of service attack that isn't accepted well. The response has been countermeasures that reduce the number of connections available to servers that use that approach and with small networks, often just a hard block entered by the administrator. It's a little embarrassing to contact the email administrator at some university about your deliverability issue and get a response that starts with, "So you're the guy!".

We created a Connection Authority Service in XMS to monitor connection performance with each recipient domain mail exchanger and constantly adjust the number of connections and messages per connection to achieve the best delivery results with the least amount of resources at each end of the connection. When messages are ready to send, a permit is granted or denied by the service. By marching to the beat of the other guy, we make it possible to move more messages through the pipeline by taking advantage of good connection performance periods and backing off during bad periods to allow them to recover. We also avoid tripping alarms that would put us into a longer delivery delays caused by dynamic blocks, hard blocks and crashes. The algorithm also supports the built-in load-balancing in the SMTP protocol by evaluating the connection performance of each mail exchanger when multiple mail exchangers are available for a recipient domain. There is an overriding mechanism to allow more connection resources to be allocated to domains that allow it. This is rarely used, but enables administrators who know that 75% of their email stream is to yahoo, to enable a much larger pool of connections to yahoo when allowed. You can also limit messages per hour to specific recipient domains, but that would no longer be useful, since the connection algorithm does that for you.

We found another use for the connection algorithm when we observed that some DNS servers were being swamped by XMS, causing packet loss and invalid results returned. That, in turn, caused delivery delays until the DNS cache within XMS was refreshed at a later time. By adding the connection algorithm to DNS queries, we assured better query results over time and eliminated wasted resources within XMS and the DNS server. We've also made the DNS server used for lookups configurable for those wishing to use a dedicated DNS server. Using a shared DNS server in a high volume gateway is often a drag on throughput, as there are sometimes thousands of queries made in a short period of time.

In the XMS Management Interface, you can see a visual representation of the current connection performance for each recipient domain. There is a list of command line errors in the same report. That list often contains a message indicating a block when action is taken to deny connections. I expect that within a few years there will be a standard for implementing sender reputation and user action feedback, using the current delivery status notification mechanism, so that gateways implementing the standard would be able to automatically make adjustments. For example, a recipient gateway could signal the sender that the sender is currently in a dynamic block condition for the ratio of deliverable to undeliverable email (a standard threshold, since it indicates a sender that does not handle feedback), and that a permanent block that would require human intervention to remove is pending. The sender gateway would read the standardized delivery status code and take action to suspend deliveries for that ip until administrator approval.

I've lumped a few things together here, because they are all closely related. They are all indications that you listen and respond. Your gateway is being tested for that every day. You have to use proper table manners, or you can't come to dinner.

Behavioral Email Marketing and Google Analytics

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:59:08 GMT

There are a few different business activities that people refer to as behavioral marketing. We discuss them all then drill down into the specific means to conduct behavioral email marketing. Zrinity coders recently added Google Analytics to their email campaign metrics, thus giving valuable information about email recipients who follow links to the Web site. This empowers email marketers with a more powerful ability to monitor behavior of email recipients from click, to browsing to point of purchase.

Profiles based upon actions that can group people into groups using metrics tools cannot be contacted directly since they made no actual interaction with you or your Web site. These browsers can be targeted via banner placement and offer manipulation. This, however, is useless for email marketing.

The most superior Web-based method is giving browsers tracking cookies who later use some type of contact method such as sending you an email or placing an order. This way you collect data on the browser computer, which can become valuable once the browser has initiated direct contact through the Web site via an order or optin action.

However, people who recently placed an order, or otherwise contacted you through the Web site, and thus you have their email address and some small tidbit of information about the person are VERY hot leads for upsells, or just more sales. These people have, by simply placing an order, given you valuable and incredibly timely marketing data. Not to mention the fact that they also shared a credit card or some payment method, which is the ultimate show of trust. This group is so ripe for more sales that they must be targeted in multiple ways. It is more valuable to watch what customers do then to conduct surveys where data has to be compiled to be useful and where people frequently lie to get done with the survey. Actions speak louder than words.

These customers should be sent more potential sales immediately within a receipt, satisfaction questionnaire, etc. If they purchased a jacket, send an offer for gloves in real time in the receipt you send. If they chose “Mr.” Send them male gloves or glove warmers, or both. If you don’t currently employ this type of behavioral email marketing, then don’t go overboard by spending money on fancy behavioral software for people browsing your site.

Behavioral email marketing is the very first method to drive sales since it is simply grabbing attention at the exact right moment in time. It is a very simple business strategy that you should, first and foremost, increase sales revenue by selling more to existing customers. Also, budget allocations should be favorable to KEEPING existing customers over getting new ones. This action could be the difference between keeping this customer or losing them to competitors utilizing smarter systems. If you hit a person at the right moment while they are thinking of preparing for the winter, or some event, you will dramatically increase sales ratios and loyalty.

You can use behavioral data to drive offers through the site using groups to define people by watching their traffic patterns, etc. In order to assign any value to the profiles using email, you need an email. There is a plethora of ways to get that email, first and foremost, get an order or an optin for a news related item, white paper, etc.

Adding Google Analytics to Email Campaign Metrics

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 05:00:00 GMT

Metrics are the most critical piece of the marketing puzzle. For decades marketers relied on taking polls to determine voice of the market. They spent millions conducting focus groups to try to take an extremely well-informed educated guess. But it is still all a guess, no matter how well educated the guess might be.

Metrics from email campaigns are typically thought of as separate from the metrics produced by say Google Analytics, and that was the way it is. Well, now Zrinity delivery coders have tied the email campaign directly into Google Analytics. This means that you will log in to view the metrics provided by Zrinity Email systems to determine bounce rates, delivery rates, campaign testing and the like. Now, when you get to the end of the line for the email campaign, the click to the Web site, the Zrinity system passes the traffic metrics to Google analytics so that you can then switch to the Google Analytics to track each click from an email in the Web site movement and metrics. Thus, completing the metrics loop. From email metrics to Web site metrics, all the way to the final sales conversion.

This is the preliminary step to integrating all Web site metrics measurements directly with email metrics.

Email Marketing Best Practices Pricing

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

In a recent article by Ken Takahashi, Ken says that pricing based solely on bandwidth without qualifying each and every customer is not the best way to do it. We think he is right! In fact, we, at Zrinity, have been brainstorming on this exact issue in house for a few months. We are ready to act and announce our new Best Practices Pricing (c) for our email server and list management systems. Although we have not worked out the exact pricing schemes, we will begin monitoring our email senders for pricing purposes, not just to provide them with their metrics. Their metrics will affect their pricing going forward.

One example is a customer with no complaints and a very clean IP address with high deliverability over a six month timeframe. This customer will receive maximum discounts on licensing going forward. We do not believe it is feasable to 'punish' customers who are doing poorly, from a sender perspective, but we will provide maximum discounts to customers who qualify as Best Practice Customers.

There are many people who do think that a new provider will solve their deliverability issues and we think that, in some cases, it will help, but in many cases they are their own worst enemy. Best Practices Pricing (c) will be a way to get the customer to engage with the email delivery experts on the team as well as invest some money to properly train their staff and consult with their email marketing managers since the investment will be offset, on some level, by savings in licensing fees.

Watch our blog for more about the new Zrinity Best Practices pricing schemes...

Zpedia - Email marketing definitions and white paper library

Ken Takahashi, VP, Corporate and International Development, Return Path, Inc.

Q&A With A Super Coder - Zrinity Super-Coder Matt Finn

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:00:00 GMT

Zrinity Email Delivery Algorithm: Millions of Decisions a Minute

There is no doubt that the email delivery algorithm producers at Zrinity are far ahead of their peers in the email industry, but it amazed me as I interview them, how FAR ahead they are. Matt Finn is one of the key coders for Zrinity's email systems and I thought it would be interesting to publish some of the conversation to the blog...

Rob Thrasher: "Matt, what is the decision making process of the algorithm that makes it so superior to other products?"

Matt Finn: "Our system takes statistical samples over time for each email sender to statistically determine if there are connection limits between our sending server and the recipient server. Theirs no way to tell for sure what each recipient servers limitations are and the thousands of variations on email sent from a particular IP, with specific names in the email subject/body/etc. will affect delivery."

Rob: "So there are thousands or maybe millions of variables and the Zrinity algorithm learns the best delivery scenario for each sender-server situation?"

Matt: "Yes, it collects statistical data and makes millions of decisions over hundreds or thousands of consecutive connections to determine the next course of action. An example is that one EDU site may only allow three simultaneous connections, while other restrictive EDU sites might allow more - they don't usually publicize their actual limits or settings. Making it even more complex, each recipient might have numerous recipient servers, with varying delivery rules. Each of these servers might have rules that change midstream or daily. We are able to push the limits of these rules without breaking them, where other mail servers would consistently break these rules without knowing it, and run into significant delays in sending mail."

Summary: The Zrinity email system learns over time how to alter its attempts to deliver email. This protects reputation and further ensures delivery. This is a very intelligent email delivery system!

Avoiding Spam Traps

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:10:01 GMT

Even the most reputable senders, using strict, double opt-in methods, find it difficult to avoid spam traps. Bots place known spam trap addresses into every web form they can find that isn't image verified in an attempt to sway the use of this countermeasure or reduce the impact of a single hit. The idea is that if you can generate enough customer complaints about deliverability from reputable senders, gateways may reduce the impact on sender score of a spam trap hit. Using single opt-in forms makes you very susceptible to the insertion of spam traps. However, imagine the frustration of system administrators when they learn that their opt-in confirmation emails are hurting their sender-reputation. The only solution is to protect your opt-in forms with image verification.

Minding the Rules
The first spam traps were email addresses created and published in web pages, but never used in email subscriptions. If you were to email one of these recipients, it’s was assumed that you purchased a list from someone who scraped the address from a web page. In that case, you were in violation of CAN-SPAM rules. The sender reputation penalty for this is high. Only a few hits a day will reduce your deliverability at some major gateways. If you protect your opt-in forms, you should rarely send to one of these addresses. However, it does occur, since these are sometimes entered into forms by humans with bad intentions. Therefore, an occasional hit is tolerated.

Types of Spam Traps
Stale addresses are now used at some major gateways as spam traps. This is really a feedback handling test, but is often treated the same. If your email gateway attempts to deliver to a stale address multiple times, the recipient gateway will know your gateway isn’t handling feedback, since it sent you a delivery status notification warning you that the address was no longer valid. It’s assumed that multiple hits may occur before your gateway has a chance to handle the feedback, so the effect on sender reputation is less than a hit to an address posted in web pages. Feedback (bounces) handling is now a requirement in any sender gateway.

A Domain Name System (DNS) spam trap is a domain that is registered, but never used for email. If your email server attempts to deliver a message to one of these domains, the IP address of the server is logged when it does a DNS query for the mail exchanger for that domain. It’s concerning that an unintended consequence of this type of trap is that it can create a type of open relay in any gateway that allows localhost to relay. The mail exchanger query for those domains often return localhost as the address for the mail exchanger, so your server would route them to that address. Spammers now use a database of these traps to send messages through your server by making the envelope sender the intended recipient. This causes your server to create a delivery status notification to the intended recipient, most often containing the original email. This can seriously affect resource usage and sender reputation in your gateway, as this traffic is consistent and heavy now. If your gateway allows localhost to relay, you must make plans to change that.

Collecting a list of spam traps to use as a global “do not mail” list is futile. These addresses change and new ones are added all the time, and having to compare each recipient to the list would be a huge consumer of resources.