The next Big IDEA for Successful Email Communication

August 11, 2005

More than 20 of the world’s leading email service providers and agencies have recently united to offer the next big “IDEA.” Deirdre Baird, president of Pivotal Veracity, the company who will be serving as the backend host of I.D.E.A., shares details on why the solution was developed and the goals of the many partners behind it.

What is the IDEA?

The Independent Deliverability Email Audit or I.D.E.A. is a new service jointly developed and exclusively offered by the single largest group of premier providers in the permission-based email space. I.D.E.A. offers a comprehensive assessment of a company’s infrastructure, reputation, permission polices, messaging practices, inbox penetration, advertiser/partner policies and more. I.D.E.A. reports provide a scored analysis of a company’s current email practices, systems and methodologies, as well as detailed best practice, legal, technical, and strategic guidance on managing the key factors that drive a company’s reputation and the long-term credibility and deliverability of their email communications. The partners have also created a new website, www.emaildeliveryaudit.com, that describes the I.D.E.A. service in more detail.

What is so big about it?

For starters, you need only consider the list of partners to recognize this was a sizable undertaking that is likely to represent a sizable force in the market. Premier providers from all facets of online communications including deployment, data processing, acquisition, consultants, and agencies, have joined forces to offer I.D.EA. Together the providers have thousands of clients and directly deliver or substantially influence more than 1.5 billion emails a month across some of the largest brands in the world.

“I.D.E.A. represents the combined expertise of leaders throughout the online communication space,” said David Baker, vice president, Email and Analytical Solutions, of Agency.com. “To obtain the same level of expertise represented in I.D.E.A., a client would typically have to engage two to five different vendors. I.D.E.A. allows us to codify and bring directly to clients best practices based on the first-hand experience of more than two-dozen industry leaders across a wide-range of disciplines.”

Silverpop, a leading provider of permission-based email marketing solutions, strategy and services, is another partner involved in creating and supporting I.D.E.A. Because Silverpop is committed to helping marketers cultivate and maintain long-term strategic relationships with customers and partners by maximizing the potential of email as a relationship tool, the benefit of a program like this was readily apparent to Elaine O’Gorman, Silverpop’s vice president of Strategy. “Email relationships are all about credibility,” said O’Gorman. “Email marketing benefits from a strong commitment to best practices that serve both the sender and recipient sides of the equation. The components evaluated as part of the I.D.E.A. process underscore the importance of managing all the myriad elements that go into a credible, results-driven email campaign. Silverpop is proud to be a partner in this important endeavor.”

“I.D.E.A. is in line with our focus on best practices and policies that should be implemented to both resolve and proactively manage deliverability over the long term,” said Scott Olrich, CMO of Responsys. “Responsys takes a holistic approach to deliverability as we recognize that email arriving in the inbox is affected by a wide variety of factors ranging from recipient permission quality and complaint ratios to sending reputation and ISP white listing approval and acceptable usage policies. We plan to use I.D.E.A. to augment our existing Deliverability Audit. Having the additional information that I.D.E.A provides enables us to offer more effective delivery, reputation and best practice guidance to our clients.”

Is I.D.E.A. another “silver bullet” solution to avoiding the spam folder?

As more companies become aware that their emails are being blocked or filtered as spam, a host of new services, from certification programs to ‘I don’t spam’ website seals, have been introduced that purport to solve all problems and guarantee inbox delivery (“silver bullets”) .

“There is a tremendous amount of misinformation in the market, the most onerous of which is the promise that by paying some 3rd party a fee you will be guaranteed inbox delivery at various ISPs,” said Tim Marusich, president of BlueHornet, a Digital River company. “Even if the ISPs themselves place you on their internal white list they do not guarantee you inbox delivery. If, for example, your spam complaints go up, your data management is poor or you’re not RFC compliant, your mail will be blocked or redirected to the spam folder. If you do not address the fundamental problems and policies that resulted in your being blocked in the first place, that white listing won’t last no matter whom or how much you paid. Our goal with I.D.E.A. is not to perpetuate the false and opportunistic notion there is a quick fix, but to empower our clients with the knowledge, policies and processes they need to effectuate a long-term solution.”

Dave Fowler, senior director of Deliverability for Yesmail, an infoUSA company, concurs and adds insight on another critical aspect of I.D.E.A. “I.D.E.A. places a microscope over a company’s practices including its current deliverability and any issues with its mailing systems and service providers. These aspects of I.D.E.A. are evaluated along a set of standardized criteria by I.D.E.A. partner Pivotal Veracity. The black-box approach of “don’t worry about deliverability; we are experts at it and we take care of it all for you” is neither realistic nor truthful. Today a client’s reputation and deliverability is directly impacted by all the companies who touch their email program – from the sponsors or affiliates with whom they co-promote, to the vendor who hosts their mailserver, to the service bureau who processes their data. No one company is the cause of the problem nor, acting in isolation, the solution. In addition to sharing a common goal of preserving the viability of email, the I.D.E.A. partners also share a sincere commitment to a collaboration with the sending and receiving community, and the transparency and open dialogue upon which all successful partnerships rely.”

Where will I.D.E.A. go from here?

“We are already working on expanding I.D.E.A. to make it more affordable to small business and to include state and international legal compliance. It may also include other aspects of electronic communications, such as automatic registering in reputation services and new mediums, such as SMS,” said Jane Kaiser, president of Eclipse DM, the I.D.E.A. partner who has responsibility for the media industry. “You simply cannot bring together this many industry leaders and have a static solution. We refer to it as the big “IDEA” expressly because it represents the innovative thinking and guidance of the best minds in the business.”

Currently the full I.D.E.A. service may be executed in one-to-two weeks and costs an average of $1,500 to $2,500. Companies may visit www.emaildeliveryaudit.com, for more information or to contact I.D.E.A. or an I.D.E.A. partner.

Best Deliverability Product/Service

In this year's Marketing Excellence Awards conducted by ClickZ, Pivotal Veracity, host of I.D.E.A., was voted the winner of the Best E-Mail Deliverability Product/Service award