Beat Spam Blockers & Maximize Email Campaign Inbox Deliverability With Reputation Service Providers (RSPs) Part 5

June 21, 2010

Since it’s not cost effective for real estate professionals to get Return Path Safe or Certified level directly by themselves, you need to send your email through companies who are Return Path Certified.

As I’ve recommended many times before, you should be using an Email Service Provider for sending your email campaigns, and email reputation is yet another reason why.  Many email providers are Return Path Certified.  Make sure the email provider you use has this certification.  To attain this certification the Email Service Provider themselves has to demonstrate a strong reputation over time in various ways for the clients they send emails for.

One way you can test an Email Service Provider has in fact attained the all-important Return Path Certified status is setting up a free email account with the Email Service Provider and sending yourself 3 or 4 different test emails.  In each test email look in the email’s header, find out the mail server’s IP address and then lookup the IP address’s reputation with Return Path at https://www.senderscore.org/.

Here’s what a typical email header looks like.  I’ve highlighted in red the IP address of the sending email server so you know where to find it in your test emails:

Received: (qmail 14533 invoked from network); 28 Jun 2010 22:40:54 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO p3pismtp01-020.prod.phx3.secureserver.net) ([10.6.12.25])
(envelope-sender <jeans@e2000training.com>)
by p3plsmtp02-03.prod.phx3.secureserver.net (qmail-1.03) with SMTP
for <jeans@mm4a.com>; 28 Jun 2010 22:40:54 -0000
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AjsDAEa/KExAyqUvimdsb2JhbACTBItdagEBAQoJDAcPBR/EHoItBINmhk4
Received: from smtpauth23.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net ([64.202.165.47])
by p3pismtp01-020.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with SMTP; 28 Jun 2010 15:40:54 -0700
Received: (qmail 1364 invoked from network); 28 Jun 2010 22:40:54 -0000
Received: from unknown (24.20.219.192)
by smtpauth23.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.165.47) with ESMTP; 28 Jun 2010 22:40:53 -0000
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 7.1.0.9
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:40:48 -0700
To: jeans@mm4a.com
From: Gabrielle Jeans <jeans@e2000training.com>
Subject: New Listings And Solds In Your Neighborhood
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”us-ascii”; format=flowed
X-Nonspam: IP whitelist 64.202.165.47

Even if an email service provider claims to have Return Path authentication it’s important to verify they still have it as Return Path can downgrade a Certifed rating to a Safe rating or even revoke a Safe rating and terminate an account altogether.

To verify the ESP’s Return Path rating you should send multiple test emails to yourself through them so you can get several different mail server IPs.  You should lookup all of them at Return Path and see if they all have Certified status.  You shouldn’t use the ESP unless all the IPs you look up have Certified status because your email campaigns may be sent with any of these IP addresses.

Filed under: Using Email For Attracting Buyers/Sellers

Tags: email deliverability, email inquiries, email newsletter, email prospects, email reputation, Email Service Provider, email subject line, email training tips, marketing, prospect, prospecting, real estate course, real estate education, real estate educators, real estate email newsletter, real estate internet marketing, real estate internet marketing tips, real estate internet training, real estate seminar, real estate seminars, real estate training, realtor education, realtor email newlsetter, Reputation Service Provider, Return Path, Sender Score Certified, Using Email For Attracting Buyers/Sellers