Executive Summary
Sender reputation is increasingly becoming a critical factor to getting email delivered at ISPs. Today, reputation is the foundation for the standards of the Sender Score Certified whitelist, previously known as the Bonded Sender Program. This whitepaper provides an overview of what types of measures are used to gain acceptance in this re-launched program, the requirements behind the new standards, and how these changes have created the finest accreditation program available for both senders and receivers.
Introduction
Email technology is constantly evolving. While we have been talking about authentication, reputation and accreditation for years now, it is the combination of these methods that is the key to email delivery success. Who you are and the behaviors you exhibit as a mailer determine how successful you are delivering email to your subscribers. With reputation, who you are is defined not just by your name, your IP address or domain, but by your mailing history your online reputation. Because a good reputation is increasingly important to gain entry to inboxes, Return Path has made it the cornerstone of our Delivery Assurance Solutions product line, Sender Score.
One of the changes we made was to re-launch the Bonded Sender Program as Sender Score Certified. The new program name better reflects the high reputation standards required to become accredited in the industry's leading whitelist. But what does this mean for email marketers? How has the program changed and what are the benefits for participants?
Changing the Standards for Accredited Senders
Having an incredible amount of reputation data at our fingertips changed the game for the Bonded Sender program. With Sender Score Reputation Monitor, the first email reputation management system, we had a new, robust source of reputation information. We receive daily data streams from a variety of different sources in the industry, representing B2B and B2C, domestic and international, ISP mailboxes and commercial filters. With Sender Score Reputation Monitor as the foundation for Sender Score Certified, we were able to enhance the program requirements to be more reflective of sender behavior -- and of ISP expectations for well-behaved senders. Not only have we expanded the number of data sources that support the program, but we have also expanded the aspects of sender behavior that we monitor.
Improving Sender Score Certified for Senders
With the comprehensive set of data points available through Sender Score Reputation Monitor we have a more holistic view of a sender's behavior. The Sender Score Certified program now monitors a sender's complaint rates, unknown user rates, spam trap data, permission practices, email infrastructure, volume of email sent, identity integrity, and more. This is a significant improvement over the prior Bonded Sender Program, which used fewer resources. As an example, we now track complaints across four unique sources, as compared to the Bonded Sender Program that only tracked complaints from Spam Cop. With Sender Score Certified, we now use a broad spectrum of reputation data to base acceptance into the program and on-going compliance with program requirements.
In addition to increasing the accuracy of identifying wellbehaved senders, using the Sender Score Reputation Monitor data also allows us to provide transparency into a sender's behavior and their compliance with the program Standards. In the past, senders had complained that it was unclear why they did not meet the program standards for acceptance into the program or why they were suspended from the program. Members now have complete access to every metric that is used to track and monitor their reputation and compliance with program standards. By adding transparency to the data by which senders are monitored, senders can identify exact areas where they are having problems, and fix those issues so that they can gain acceptance into the program and remain in the program once accepted.
