Improve Email Deliverability:Tactics for Avoiding Spam Traps

Twitter: @ReturnPath#AvoidSpamTraps

Tom SatherSr. Director,

Research

Today’s Speakers

Lori VaughnClient Success

Expert

Kelly HoganClient Success

Expert

What are spam traps?

The Different Types of Spam Traps

Pristine / Honey Pot / True Trap

Recycled Traps

60% of all emails received by spam traps are sent from commercial marketers.

Spam Trap Addresses are TOP Secret

What’s the Impact of Spam Traps?

Who Uses Spam Traps?

• Spamhaus• Spamcop• SURBL• SORBS• Project Honeypot• Return Path

Blacklists

• Cloudmark• Brightmail• Vade Retro• TrendMicro

3rd Party Filters

• Global providers• Local

Mailbox Providers

How do spam traps get on my

list?

Harvesting Spam Traps

Bad Practices:• Purchased lists• E-append• Email harvesting

Risky Practices:• Affiliate partners• POS collection• Sweepstakes/Contests/

Prizes• Restricted website

access• Poor bounce processing• Aged addresses• Import Address Book• Merger or acquisition• Typos• Malicious attack

Acquisition Risk Levels

How Do I Measure Spam Traps?

•Microsoft Smart Network Data Services (SNDS)• Bounce Logs• Blacklist websites• Delivery Performance

Publically Available Tools

Return Path Tools

How do I prevent and isolate spam

traps?

Prevention and Isolation

• IP segmentation• Acquisition• Permission•Hygiene • Inactive Strategies

IP Segmentation

WelcomeMessage

Inactive Subscribers

Reminder Messages

IP Segmentation: New Spam Traps

1. Review IP addresses for spam trap activity2. Suppress all new addresses if spam trap

activity found3. Or further divide and conquer

Slice and Dice By:• Acquisition Source• Engagement Level• Paid vs. Trial• Purchase vs. Non-

purchase

IP Segmentation: Legacy Spam Traps

Implement Custom X-headers

Audit Data

Partners

Spam Traps Found

Acquisition: Signup Forms

Acquisition: Point-of-Sale (POS)

Acquisition: Back-end Processes

Permission: Confirmed Opt-in

Hygiene: Bounce Codes

Hygiene: Global Suppression

• Reject malformed addresses:• me@hotmai.lcom• hi@geemail.com• Reject abuse@ and postmaster@ addresses• Reject role accounts• sales@company.com • customerservice@company.com

Hygiene: Malformations and Role Accounts

Inactive Strategies

Return Path Professional Services

• The Marketer’s Field Guide to Gmail, Outlook.com, and Yahoo!

http://landing.returnpath.com/marketer-field-guide

• On-Demand Webinar: What Marketers Need to Know about Email Engagement and ISP Filtering

landing.returnpath.com/email-engagement-webinar

• The Email Marketer’s Guide to Bounce Processing

landing.returnpath.com/email-bounce-processing-whitepaper

Additional Resources