ISPs Are Turning Away Permission-Based Emails

More than half of the major Internet Service Providers (ISPs)blocked nearly 20 percent of legitimate commercial emails during the second half of 2003, stated a recent Return Path study entitled “Email Blocking and Filtering Report.”

According to the report, the overall number of messages filtered out even rose slightly from July to December 2003 marking a 1.7 percent increase. Moreover, this is a 3.7 increase above the numbers shown for the second half of 2002.

NetZero is reportedly the biggest ISP offender, blocking nearly 38 percent of opt-in commercial emails. EarthLink welcomes the most permission-based emails and boasts only a 7 percent non-delivery rate.

Each ISP employs a different spam blocking process. Mechanisms include content filters, spam traps, blacklists, unknown user thresholds, and more. Because of the different blocking techniques that are used, legitimate email marketers are having a difficult time doing their jobs. According to MediaPost, “Return Path found that the marketing industry has the highest delivery failure rate among all permission-based verticals, at 50 percent.”

Delivery rules and procedures put in place by each ISP are constantly changing; this makes it extremely difficult for marketers to stay updated, especially when no prior notification is given.

“Each ISP is making its decision based on what they think is best for their subscribers,” stated Return Path’s Stephanie Miller to MediaPost. “Remember, [blocking spam] is part of their value proposition. The onus is on marketers to understand the problem and remedy it.”

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