Change is an ever-present factor when it comes to delivering email. What was once a simple technical task – the delivery of an email message from one server to another – has become a complicated science and in some cases, an art form.

Hurdles abound. Standard protocols for determining the success or failure of email transactions are constantly shifting. Content filters range widely in quality and accuracy. Bad email is still getting through and good email is sometimes getting lost or is being dropped into a bottomless pit before you ever receive it. Recently ISPs have started blocking pictures and disabling hyperlinks by default. As a result, open rates are becoming increasingly difficult to measure and the sheer volume of email is making it difficult to get your message through all the rest.

Making Email Marketing Work

Despite these hurdles, organizations continue to consider email to be the most efficient and economical way to communicate with their customers, prospects, channels partners, and employees. By partnering with Email Service Providers like IMN, many of the technical obstacles associated with email communications can be easily overcome. For instance, at IMN, we have implemented and embraced these technical remedies, to name just a few:

• We work with hundreds of ISPs and corporate IT departments to make sure email servers are white listed and that the messages sent will get through.

• IMN monitors message delivery and formatting quality to ensure HTML email is delivered at its highest quality.

• We work with other industry experts to establish best practices, develop technical solutions and standards, and lobby the government for the appropriate legislation.

• IMN provides robust subscription management, opt-out compliance, and abuse reporting tools.

• We continually invest and evolve the technologies and infrastructure needed to address the ever-changing landscape of email delivery.

The Person with the Greatest Leverage

In the end, no matter what an email service provider may do to push email to its proper destination, the person with the real power and influence over the delivery of email is the email recipient himself. After all, the IT departments and ISPs to which IMN delivers email are there to serve the email recipients first and foremost.

We see this play out on a regular basis in our ISP Relations department. When email is not getting through for one reason or another, we call the IT department or ISP and present our case which is made stronger when backed up with communications from email recipients within their network.

If the people to whom you are sending email want to hear from you and value what you have to say, your email will inevitably make it through no matter what the hurdles may be – filters, black lists, or picture and link suppressions. Your subscribers, if they are truly interested readers of your communications, will complain to their ISP or IT department, they will adjust their spam controls, and ultimately they will add your email address (the one you send newsletters and other emails from) to their address book to ensure delivery.

The Power of the Address Book

Being added to an electronic address book is the ultimate triumph for an email marketer. This means your customer or prospect has accepted you into their circle of friends and has opened a clear communication channel to you. This is especially true in the case of ISPs such as AOL, Yahoo, and MSN who have new, tougher anti-spam controls that can disrupt email communications. But, if your email address is in the recipient’s address book, your email will be passed directly to their inbox.

So getting your email address into the address books of all your subscribers may be the key to your success – today and in the future. No matter what the spam-free world of the future looks like, the address book will likely continue to be the best way to distinguish between the people you do and do not want to hear from. So go ahead and ask your subscribers to add your email address to their address books. And while you’re at it, please add newsletter@imninc.com to yours. J