By: ActiveTrail's Postmaster Dept.
What is the ISP Relations Department?
Well, without trying to sound too overly dramatic, the ISP Relations Department is often the last line of defense between you, the e-mail marketer, and an ISP who wants to pull your Internet service out from under you thanks to a SPAM complaint from some customer of yours who forgot that they signed up to receive your newsletter or e-mail or because of a technical issue with the way you send.
Why do you need an ISP Relations Department?
Can’t you send the ISP your own proof that you run a legitimate double opt-in list and that the subscriber really did ask for the e-mail to start flowing?
“He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client”
There’s no intent to offend your intelligence here, but you really would be foolish to deal with SPAM complaints and other mail-related problems on your own. This is what an Email Service Provider does best. Here’s why:
• Lack of Credibility
Sure, you can holler that you’re innocent all day long, but is the ISP going to believe you? You have, shall we say, great motivation to be believed. So much motivation, the ISP may think that you may be willing to manufacture evidence to save your skin.
When the TOS or Security team at an ISP works directly with the ISP Relations staff, they’re dealing with peers. Both parties are mail professionals who inherently trust one another because neither one has anything to gain by being dishonest.
• Common Language
What may take a user 20 minutes to explain can be explained in just a few minutes when all involved parties speak the same lingo. The more unprofessional you sound, the more likely it is that you’ll end up losing the case.
• Less of an Opportunity To Shoot Yourself
in the Foot
There’s reason that your accountant doesn’t want you talking to the IRS and your lawyer doesn’t want to put you on the witness stand. When people start talking, they sometimes say too much. You might think it’s Ok to say “But I have sent over 1 million e-mail messages last year and never had a complaint,” but your ISP is only going to hear “1 MILLION” and start to sweat. Let the pro’s do the talking – you’re much better off.
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Are you doing your
own ISP relations?
…“He who is his own lawyer has
a fool for a client”
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• Time Is Money
What if it takes five hours to straighten the mess out? What it takes two days or a week? Your time is much better spent on things that make you money. While your ISP Relations team is handling your case, you’re free to continue running your business.
Sure, maybe you can handle your own ISP-related issues; and maybe it will work out the first time. But if you’re name pops up more than once or twice on your ISP’s SPAM list, you’re days are certainly going to be numbered unless that ISP has the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes when they know that equally professional experts are handling things from the other side.
• Changing ISP requirements
As the email market evolves so do ISPs and their requirements. Today most major ISPs require some kind of certification from the sender. These certifications vary between ISPs for example Hotmail.com requires the "Sender ID" standard while Yahoo has introduce its own standard called "Domain Keys". On may cases ISP also require certain sending patterns. One ISP may allow up to 15 simultaneous connections with 1,000 emails each and another may not allow such methodology. The problem at hand is the fact that you need to send differently to different ISP. Even worse, if you already know how to send to each ISP, can you technically do that? This is where the ISP relations department meets the R&D department transferring the ever-changing requirements, constantly researching changes and implementing them in the technology.
So, the next time you send out an e-mail campaign, or deliver your latest e-zine or newsletter, take a moment to think about your ISP relations. Are you doing it right?