"NOT IT!"

Recently, Ken Magill posted an article entitled, Let’s Play the Email Blame Game. In this article, Robert Consoli, director of deliverability for ESP Silverpop was quoted as saying, "It’s very cyclical. Each [Christmas] shopping season, ISPs hunker down and tweak their filters to be more aggressive because they know they’re going to have a higher volume of e-mails coming in." I disagree with this statement. Speaking from a filtering point of view, we do not tweak our filters to be more aggressive merely because there is a higher volume of emails coming in during the holidays. Year round, we are constantly updating our filters and implementing new approaches to address mail which attempts to circumvent policies, filters, and blocklists. On the other hand, the holiday season is the time of year that ESPs and senders pull out mailing lists they haven't touched since last year, blow the dust off of them, and try mailing to them in the hopes of garnering a few last-minute click-throughs. That behavior is likely to cause a lockdown on filters, as ISPs see an increase in bounces, attempts to deliver to old addresses, and complaints from users who, having not heard from you in a year, are no longer engaged. Keeping your recipients engaged and your lists clean are year-round activities. If the only time you think of your recipients is the holiday season, don't be surprised that they're not thinking about you, either. Monitoring bounces and feedback loops, aging out unresponsive recipients, re-engaging jaded customers… these are basic list hygiene actions and should be performed year-round.