by Morgan Witt
The ISPs and domains that you are sending to are measuring how many people mark your emails as spam. It is essential that complaint rates stay below the ISPs individual thresholds to ensure optimized delivery to the inbox. AOL has historically been the tightest with a threshold of less than 1%. So that means that if more than 1% of subscribers that receive your email to their inbox mark it as spam the probability increases that you will see your email delivery rate slow down or blocked all together.
With this being said, it is important that “complainers” be purged from your email marketing lists to ensure that you do not aggravate them further with subsequent email campaigns. The best way to automate that process is to get connected to the available feedback loops that some of the major ISPs offer.
What is a feedback loop?
A feedback loop is a mechanism by which complaints are recorded by the ISP (to calculate complaint rate) and recipients are unsubscribed when they mark your email as spam within the email client they are using to recieve the mail. For example, lets say a subscriber (recipient) receives your email to their Gmail inbox and takes the action to hit the “Report Spam” button. The complaint is then recorded by Gmail and a report is generated to the email service provider (ESP) and/or to the sender (you) so that the recipient can be unsubscribed.
Who offers feedback loops and how can I get signed up?
1. abuse.net
Contact: update@abuse.net
Required Information: Domain Information
Description: Abuse.net database entries can be verified by doing a look up on the submitted domain using: http://www.abuse.net/lookup.phtml
2. American Online (AOL)
Contact: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/tools/FBL.html
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information
Description: AOL will return an automated response to abuse@(domainname.com) with a confirmation link that must be clicked to confirm the AOL feedback loop request. Upon confirmation, AOL will provide a response within 24 hours.
3. Excite
Contact: emailadmin@cs.excite.com
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information
Description: A response should be received within 3-5 business days. The response will be sent from the Excite Postmaster. If accepted, be prepared to process feedback loop data.
4. Hotmail/Windows Live (Junk Mail Reporting Program)
Contact: http://postmaster.live.com/Services.aspx#JMRPP
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information, Practices Information, Sender ID (authentication)
Description: Hotmail will review the application and provide one of two responses:
- Acceptance- Next steps to complete enrollment, which includes a signed agreement to complete online. Once this is signed, additional information will need to be provided. Once this final step is completed, Hotmail will provide communications to confirm that the feedback loop is set up.
- Decline - This occurs if critical information is missing, clarification is needed, reverse DNS is not in place, or IP contact information does not match the company information.
5. Hotmail/Windows Live Smart Network Data Services (SNDS)
Contact: https://postmaster.live.com/snds/index.aspx
Required Information: Domain Information or Autonomous System Number (ASN), Sender ID (authentication)
Description: Enter a network that you are responsible for via IP, IP range, or Autonomous System Number (ASN) that you own. The authorization algorithm works using reverse DNS, WHOIS, and the global Internet routing table. If successful the authorization algorithm will return a list of email addresses it found to be associated with the provided IP range in a properly authoritative manner. If it does not return any addresses, try following the advise it provides. Click on the link in the email you receive at the chosen authorization email address. This will provide the authorization token to the SNDS website.
6. Outblaze
Contact: postmaster@outblaze.com
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information, Practices
Description: A response should be received from Outblaze within 3-5 business days. The response will be sent from the Outblaze Postmaster. If accepted, be prepared to process feedback loop data.
7. Road Runner
Contact: http://security.rr.com/spam.htm#FBL
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information
Description: A response should be received from Road Runner within 3-5 business days. The response will be sent from the Road Runner Postmaster. If accepted, be prepared to process feedback loop data.
8. Yahoo!
Contact: mail-abuse-bulk@cc.yahoo-inc.com
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information, Domain Keys (authentication)
Description: Upon review, a manual response will be received from Yahoo! Customer Care confirming setup.
9. United Online(Juno/Netzero)
Contact: http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/whitelisted.html
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information, Practices
Description: Once the feedback loop request form has been submitted, United Online will return an automated response confirming that the application has been received. Additionally, it provides a communication stream to add any additional information that may have not been provided in the original request. After United Online has reviewed the application, two possible responses can be received:
- Confirmation that the information provided has been added to their Trusted Sender List and feedback loop setup.
- Denial to be added to their Trusted Sender List and feedback loop setup with provided reasons.
10. USA.net
Contact: http://fbl.usa.net/
Required Information: Company Information, Domain Information
Description: Once the USA.net feedback loop request form has been submitted, they will return an automated response from unblock@support.untd.com to the confirmation email address provided. This email will contain a confirmation link that will need to be clicked in order to activate the feedback loop.
11. Spamcop.net
Contact Information: http://www.spamcop.net/anonsignup.shtml
Required Information: Domain Information
Description: Spamcop.net sends an authorization notice, including login information. Once logged in, the IP range to be monitored can be entered by going to http://spamcop.net/
