Business Email Addresses May Be Bad for Business
Most corporations care about your reputation as a good corporate citizen, but some don’t. Greg Crandell reports.
Eight years experience delivering email on behalf of credit unions has taught us the value of one’s reputation.
In the mail space, reputation of the sender has come to supersede all other measures of validity, including all technical schemes – both those focused on complying with regulations, and those focused on appropriate content.
Complying with CAN-SPAM rules and writing content that doesn’t offend automated checkers is still important, but email deliverability is now most dependent upon the sender’s reputation, which is built over time via good practices, technical sophistication, and expensive processes.
DMI’s earned reputation gains for our credit union clients deliverability statistics that dwarf the industry. Our safelisted status with commercial ISPs across the country, and internationally, helps us ensure emails get delivered to the credit union members targeted. However, one area in which DMI and its clients’ reputation doesn’t earn the needed respect is within the typical corporate email server. Individual companies don’t have to play by the rules of commercial ISPs. They aren’t in the business of providing email services to customers; so they don’t concern themselves with the rules followed by the commercial and general public. This means they typically set onerous rules to screen heavily any email coming to them, including much email that their own employees wish to see, but which is not specific to their corporate business. So, email from the employees credit union, while desired by the employee (your member), is likely to be screened and tossed out by the employer.
What does this mean for credit union marketers, and their email communication efforts? It means you should not ask for, and should not accept, a member’s employment email address. Your business is with your member, not their company. You need to ask for a personal email address if you want to ensure the consistent delivery of your messages to your members. So, don’t be afraid to ask, because anything less isn’t good enough.
Eight years experience delivering email on behalf of credit unions has taught us the value of one’s reputation.
In the mail space, reputation of the sender has come to supersede all other measures of validity, including all technical schemes – both those focused on complying with regulations, and those focused on appropriate content.
Complying with CAN-SPAM rules and writing content that doesn’t offend automated checkers is still important, but email deliverability is now most dependent upon the sender’s reputation, which is built over time via good practices, technical sophistication, and expensive processes.
DMI’s earned reputation gains for our credit union clients deliverability statistics that dwarf the industry. Our safelisted status with commercial ISPs across the country, and internationally, helps us ensure emails get delivered to the credit union members targeted. However, one area in which DMI and its clients’ reputation doesn’t earn the needed respect is within the typical corporate email server. Individual companies don’t have to play by the rules of commercial ISPs. They aren’t in the business of providing email services to customers; so they don’t concern themselves with the rules followed by the commercial and general public. This means they typically set onerous rules to screen heavily any email coming to them, including much email that their own employees wish to see, but which is not specific to their corporate business. So, email from the employees credit union, while desired by the employee (your member), is likely to be screened and tossed out by the employer.
What does this mean for credit union marketers, and their email communication efforts? It means you should not ask for, and should not accept, a member’s employment email address. Your business is with your member, not their company. You need to ask for a personal email address if you want to ensure the consistent delivery of your messages to your members. So, don’t be afraid to ask, because anything less isn’t good enough.
Labels: e-Statements, email
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