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Counter-measures Against
Bad ISPs and Mail Services
Counter-measures against non-whitelisting ISPs/mail services and
damaging filtering providers must be strong, deliberate and unwavering.
Emphasis switches from customer education to customer activation.
Inform your valued clients, affiliates, subscribers, partners (both existing
and prospective) properly -- any reasonable and fair person will be on your side.
But most importantly... start immediately on the bigger picture. Spread the
word. Why is this the most important thing you can do?
Level 2a will ease
your pain immediately, and over the next 6 months, but
you will still ultimately be swamped if you do not spread the word to
every small business you reach (Level 2b).
And finally, if this does not bring those who damage your business back to
"fair Netizen" behavior, then Level 2c, a massive class action suit becomes the last and
only recourse. But what a powerful final option!
Let's get started...
Level 2 has three action steps...
- a) Continue to Activate and Educate
- b) Spread the Word
- c) Consider a Class Action Suit
Level 2a
Continue the education and activation of customers. Proceed logically
and professionally. They do not need to know of the details of your
judgment of how unfair-bordering-on-immoral his ISP happens to be.
They
just need to know the facts -- present them properly (see the
template in the Deliver My Mail
download package). Do that, and the reasonable customer
will make the right judgment and vent anger at the appropriate "break in the chain."
We have to stop being "the dolphin" and start becoming the
wall that bounces problems back where they belong... to the
ISP who is not delivering what the customer wants... the mail.
If ever a customer doesn't "get it," go back to the basic 5 steps...
- STEP 1) A customer wants AND expects a piece of mail, for whatever reason.
- STEP 2) A non-spamming small business sends that e-mail.
- STEP 3) The ISP filters it out.
- STEP 4) The customer doesn't get the mail s/he wants.
- STEP 5) The ISP/mail service refuses to deliver the mail,
and/or the filtering provider refuses to tell the marketing company what the problem is.
It is so obvious. That final step is unacceptable
because your customer or affiliate or subscriber has the fundamental
EXPECTATION to receive e-mail that they want.
And that fifth step does not lie within your power.
Only the ISP can deliver it.
There can be no doubt in your customer's mind. No matter how the ISP tries to
cast blame on you, or blame it on the filtering company,
the ultimate responsibility to deliver the mail lays with
the ISP or mail service.
Why is it critical to educate your customer, to prepare them for
what ISPs/mail services might reply? Because...
Once a company is on the "wrong side of right,"
what would you expect them to do? At best, they try to obscure this basic
logic. At worst, they lie. So it's important to repeat it to
your customers, over and over...
"When you signed up for mail service,
you expected to receive mail!
If they are now telling you that they can't or won't whitelist mail
that YOU WANT, switch to a service who will. "
Small businesses, after all, can only send that mail.
And you are sending it to the correct address
(the customer verifies that on the template in the download package,
as you will see).
Some might say that the filtering
service is to blame, but that is not the sender's concern,
nor is it the customer's worry. If you send enough customers back
to the people who fail to deliver the mail (the ISPs and
mail services), then they
can take care of their own problems, however they like.
This Works!
We Have Done It Before
Of course, it works. It's honest. It's open. It's fair. And experience has proven it
out, too.
Yes, we've done this once before... with Hotmail. And
they backed down after two weeks of pressure, after
saying that they would never change their filter and that we
would have to be bonded (the onerous and expensive process
from Bonded Sender, owned and managed by ex-senior Microsoft people,
as explained earlier).
This time, however, we're not going to turn a counter-measure on and off, over and over, because it's clear now
that this will be a recurring event. Why waste our time
to do this each time they make a mistake?
Instead the Level 2 response leads you through a simple-to-install
set of confirmation Web pages and whitelisting explanatory pages.
All you have to do is put up this "one size fits all" solution,
customize it if you want, and leave it
up.
If the mail gets through (which it still usually does, by the way!),
no problem. But as soon as it doesn't, the customer is
"programmed" to complain vehemently to the appropriate
place... the ISP or mail service.
The actual process is well
covered in the confirmation Web template, which leads the
customer to the whitelisting Web pages, which ultimately educates
and activates your customer in all the right ways.
UPDATE: IT WORKED AGAIN.
Within days after we exposed the
BrightMail contest (see screenshot just below), they pulled it down.
And within days of the contest disappearance, we were unblocked.
Suddenly, without BrightMail contacting us, we were successfully
sending all mail to all the ISPs that were previously
being blocked to BrightMail filters.
So yes, "real-time" proof -- "Deliver My Mail" works.
Use the
information, and the download package on this site, well. You will
not only prevent problems, but if you do hit a problem, you'll
overcome it with a minimum of distress.
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SIDEBAR:
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If your customers
are business customers, please add a link back to this
deliver-my-mail.sitesell.com Web site. It
will do for them what it does for you, and it will spread the word, and
it will build up the strength and likelihood for the possible class action lawsuit.
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No point in going into more detail here. It's all included in the Deliver My Mail download package.
Place the blame where it lays. Educate and activate -- point the
anger of your customers to the companies who deserve it.
Good ISPs with
responsible practices will flourish. Bad ones will suffer,
not us. THAT is merely the way it should be.
Even if you are the only small business to adopt this
process (low-tech and easy to implement), you will
benefit tremendously. You will reduce your pain and
work of a sudden severe filtering problem, or the
inevitable countless minor filters, by 99% (you won't
even feel the minor ones!).
And the solution is free.
However, don't stop there...
Level 2b) Spread The "Deliver My Mail" Program
Even this fix will be temporary if only you use it.
How many customers do you have? 100? 1,000? 10,000? How
many subscribers (and affiliates, if applicable) do you have? Your voice remains small.
But spread the message... spread this solution... and your
voice will be multiplied a million-fold.
And small business will no longer be abused.
Bookmark this page. Return every month or so. Scroll
it quickly and look for  to find...
- our progress to win respect for small business
- heros and villains in what should be a cooperative effort to beat spam
- update the status of the possible upcoming class action lawsuit (see below).
Do not merely use the Deliver My Mail program for yourself. Spread it
to others. Help spread the
program to millions of small businesses.
And they, too, will spread the word... to merchant friends,
and to customers.
It will take a huge groundswell of end-users complaining loudly
to the places where blame should be laid. When ISPs
hear those angry voices, when customers can no longer be fooled,
when mistakes cannot be covered up, when ISPs lose business to
those who run their businesses responsibly...
Small business will have the respect and courtesy that it
collectively deserves.
But even this activism is likely not enough, so...
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