It's time to re-engage!

A re-engagement campaign is where you beef up your subscriber engagement (the open/read/click percentages in a sender's stats) by asking existing subscribers to click on a link to show that they're still alive, often followed by retiring/suppressing addresses who don't respond. (That suppression step boosts your engagement rates which makes you a better sender in the eyes of many ISPs, and it also helps you leave spamtrap addresses behind, so if you're having spamtrap or blacklist issues, it's very important.)

How do you do it? What should you consider? MailChimp has a solid high-level overview. Some bits are MailChimp specific, but it's still a good place to start, regardless of which ESP or email platform you use.

Need examples of compelling re-engagement content? HubSpot's got you covered, with ten great examples of effective re-engagement emails.

A site called "Essence of Email" has another dozen examples you should check out.

MailChimp also links to this Really Good Emails site which has a ton of re-engagement campaign example emails.

Note: What marketers call a re-engagement campaign, anti-spam folks would call a permission pass or reconfirmation email.

Scunthorpe Redux

Well, it looks as though we haven't solved the Scunthorpe Problem just yet, according to Natalie Weiner, whose last name still gets blocked by filters. Read more about it over on Slashdot.

Gotta love content filtering.

Previously.

List Bombing: History and Prevention

Mapp Digital Senior Deliverability Specialist Tom Ellengold has posted a brief, but useful, overview of the list bombing issue faced by so many senders and email service providers of late. If you're not familiar with the issue, it's definitely worth a read.

Thank you for signing me up!

Since I last posted, my new address sample2018box@gmail.com has received 105 different emails from 80+ different senders. Thank you for your help signing it up to email lists, and feel free to sign it up for more!

I tried to sign up some myself. I had trouble with a few attempts. Looks like you actually have to sign up for HBO or Showtime to get their emails (boo, no lead-gen?). And a handful of folks actually are utilizing double opt-in, which is great to see. Thanks, Cinemark, CBS News, Gear Wrench Tools, Aldi Austria (Hofer), Publix Grocery Stores, and Jersey Mike's Subs for actually verifying email addresses before assuming they're valid.

In case you're wondering, CBS News seems to use Mapp Digital (aka BlueHornet), NBC News seems to use Sailthru, and I have no idea what ABC News uses because they haven't sent any emails yet, even though the address is signed up.

Let's track!

Hey there! Want to help me with a fun project? Sure you do!

I'm tracking different emails from different brands, senders, companies, and email services providers. Want to help give me more samples to play with?

Just add my new special address sample2018box@gmail.com to your list, your client's list, or submit it on various websites you visit. I won't report the mail as spam. I'll probably even open and read some of the mail. Maybe even click on a link or two.

Sign it up for a newsletter. Register it for a rewards account. Use "forward to a friend" to send it something. Do whatever you want.

That address again is sample2018box@gmail.com and thanks in advance for adding it to email lists!

Google moves gmail.com to "quarantine" DMARC policy (for subdomains)

Gmail warned us that a more restrictive DMARC policy was coming, didn't they? That warning came all the way back in 2015. They said that "p=reject" was coming. Maybe it still is -- we're not there yet, but this appears to be a step in the right direction.

Today's update: For subdomains under gmail.com and googlemail.com, they've implemented a "quarantine" DMARC policy.

Still, this change has a significant impact on senders. If you send mail with from address of (something)@gmail.com or (something)@googlemail.com through an outside (non-Gmail) email platform like an ESP, that mail is likely to get delivered to the spam folder. I jumped the gun a bit on this one -- today, this doesn't affect your sending as (something)@gmail.com.

They're not the first to implement a DMARC "quarantine" policy for some part of their domain. Apple did the same thing back in July. Mail.ru went to "p=reject" back in March.  And of course OATH (AOL and Yahoo) started this trend, implementing a "p=reject" policy for their main domains way back in 2014.

Edit: Ha ha, fingers sometimes move faster than brain. To clarify, this applies to subdomains of gmail.com -- i.e. bounces.gmail.com, server.gmail.com, etc. The DMARC policy for the top level of gmail.com and googlemail.com is still p=none. My bad for suggesting otherwise.