Friendly Fire Casualties in the War on Spam

A cyber war is raging between internet service providers and the senders of illegal and irresponsible email.However, in their determination to rid the world of spam, there’s a few friendly fire casualties. This is making the war harder to win as, in the process of destructing illegal email, ISPs are at times blocking emails people want from legitimate senders such as friends, family or services they are subscribed to.

Today, 95% of emails sent are spam. This high spam rate is increasing the pressure on ISPs to make their spam filters tighter as well as making it harder for them to do their job and send the subscriber the emails they asked for. However, the filters can be a problem for marketing companies as marketing and personal emails do not always make it through. According to Return Path, 15% of all European commercial mail does not get delivered. This is a big problem in a world where important information is increasingly sent through email. Many people have their bank statements and information about different bills they pay as well as subscription services emailed to them. The failure to deliver these emails could cause problems for customers as they will not be receiving the information they asked for, leaving them potentially out of the loop, or even out of pocket.

Research by Return Path shows that email delivery rates from commercial senders differ between ISPs. The highest rate of delivered mail was 98.25%, whereas the lowest rate was a mere 75%. This can explain some of the frustration email marketers feel about such friendly fire filtering. The report also claimed that 24.7% and 21% of mail sent to Demon and BT mail boxes respectively, fails to reach the inbox.

However, in this ongoing war against spam, there are some things that marketers can do to support the ISPs and help their emails reach their customers.

Margaret Farmakis, senior director of Response Consulting at Response Path said, “Marketers must understand that they themselves have the most influence over their deliverability by following email best practice.” Farmakis also said, “The first step to improving email deliverability is to understand how many emails are actually being delivered to the inbox. That’s why email marketers must demand accurate metrics from their email broadcast providers, showing how many emails are actually reaching the inbox, rather than how many didn’t bounce. Only then can they begin fixing their email reputation.” The email reputation of the sender is important to ISPs when deciding whether an email is allowed thorough their filter. By understanding their email reputation, marketers can take action on how to improve it, thus improving the chances their email will make it through the filters.

ISPs don’t deploy spam filters to wage war against legitimate marketing emails just the illicit and malicious spam emails that pose a threat to the ISPs' users. If marketers take measures to maintain a good email reputation, ISPs would be one step closer to victory in their battle against spam. Hopefully one day, spam can be eliminated from our inboxes without further loss of lawful and legitimate mail.