OMG, what a bummer!  An agent in our office has been "warned", but I didn't think they ever really suspended people!  Are you sending tons or using addresses from people you aren't working with? I am asking because I want to avoid the same problem.

Let me know if you need me to send a card out for you! :-)

Mahalo, Jamie Friedman, Prudential All Star Realty on Kauai, Hawaii

Hi Lou,

I work for truelogic, and firstly sorry to hear you have been blocked, I believe if you speak with AAH or our tech support people they can resolve that issue for you.

To address some of your other comments and provide more of an explanation about how we manage all of this.

- You are not the only agent from Prudential that has been suspended. There are a number of agents we are working with to help them avoid generating spam complaints and hence avoid being blocked.

- As you mention the abuse notices we get come from the ISP's and occur when their customers use the report spam tools that are built into the ISP email programs (Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail etc). ISP's do not publish the thresholds they use to determine issue around deliverability based on the number of emails received vs the number of spam complaints lodged... so to that effect we look at the statistics across all of our users and their sending to determine what an acceptable and unacceptable rate is, and this is something we are constantly reviewing.

- We also look at rates based on a 90 day rolling window... so while the size of your list may have some impact, it is actually based more around the volume of email you are sending and the complaints you are receiving against that volume.

- The other comment in your blog by James is also a good indication of people's reactions to email they don't want, it is becoming more and more common for people to use the report spam button as a simplified and quicker opt out rather than using the method supplied in emails, although in James's case it sounds like he was unsubscribing from emails which were not Can-Spam compliant and hence using the report spam option becomes the only viable solution.

There is also a unique situation with Prudential Real Estate that is important to note here... sometimes a contact may end up on multiple Prudential agent databases... and then if they are receiving email from all those agents they may not really notice the emails are coming from different agents and hence, while they do opt out from one or two, the others are still sending to them... this is why on our opt out page for Prudential Real Estate we provide recipients with the option to opt out from all Prudential Real Estate senders. Given this issue, we recommend agents do not share their personal contact lists or let other agents send to them on their behalf.

- Our goal around implementing the abuse management within eCards is not to stop users from using our system, but rather to ensure they are using it in the best interests of the recipients on their list. As the ESP we have a duty to our users, but also their recipients... we don't want to enable people to send things to people who don't want it. Real estate is a tricky one in that respect as some people will want content when they are looking for property, and then once they find their property they may no longer be interested in that content.. and now with the report spam option being so prevalent it is sometimes seen as the quick/easy way out (note when recipients do click the report spam option we also opt them out)

-  As you should have found the first time, getting unblocked is not very complicated, although for users that continue to end up being blocked it does become more involved as we need to start ensuring the reasons for the abuse reports are being fixed.

- There are lots of sources of information on the web about email practices and minimizing users reporting you for spam, such as ensuring your database are opt in etc. Some other ones I think which are also important include:

* Make sure the recipients can easily identify who you are, this way they will remember why you are emailing them and when/why they signed up to receive your emails.

* Send them the information they asked for. So if they signed up for open home listings, send them that, not newsletters or other content.

* Rather than sending an eCard per property each week, maybe send one eCard with all the properties for that week.

* Avoid using MLS databases, they are not opt in, and these people get lots of email they don't sign up for so will be reporting spam a lot more.

Mike,

I really appreciate your well explained response.  My problem is only partly with TrueLogic, in fact my frustration is mostly with the way ISPs identify spam.  I find it unbelievable that my emails get flagged for abuse when on-line pharmacies, fake college degrees and Russian mail order brides continuously hit my email box.  Bottom line, the system isn't working to stop spam and IS working to stop me from sending emails to my own registered website users.

A few more things specifically about Truelogic.

It isn't as easy as calling AAH to get unblocked.  AAH unblocked me the first time without difficulty but told me y couldn't unblock me this time until I spoke directly to Truelogic.  I emailed support at Truelogic about a week ago and haven't heard back (maybe you can help with this).  My ecard account is still blocked today.

I have read the PDF from Truelogic titled "Abuse Report Update" and I am adhering to most of what your company outlines as best practices with the exception of one, the opt-in form element.  Normally, putting an "join" or "signup" from element in the registration would be a good idea, but if I my abuse rate is .08 percent, that make my current success rate 99.92 percent.  If I were to implement the opt-in form, I can negatively affect that success rate. 

Lastly, I have recieved several complaints that the opt-out included in the Truelogic email don't always work (similar to James experience in my REW blog).  This leaves the user with no other option then to hit the spam button on their email program which reports me.

Again I appreciate your comment and think you guys have one of the most sophisticated email marketing systems in the world but what good is it if I am unable to use it in the way that has been proven to be 99.92% successful.

Hi Lou,

Okay, not good at all that you sent us an email about this and it was not followed up, I will chase up what happened there.

I agree that the report abuse model is not the perfect solution for spam management and reporting, but it does help.. it helps ISP's to monitor what their recipients are classing as spam, and in turn let email senders know this information and which of their users are getting these reports.

The opt out issue is one that we do hear about from time to time, the opt out functionality we provide is very simple, and it does work. I think the main reason you are hearing that it does not work is that recipients are often getting multiple emails from Prudential Real Estate senders (my points previously about contacts on multiple databases and MLS databases) and when they opt out from one or maybe two, they are not realizing that it is different senders that are still sending them the emails from whom they have not opted out. We counter this by giving users the option to select at what level they want to opt out (e.g. all Prudential Real Estate senders is an option they can select, and if they do that means no Prudential Real Estate agent using our system can email them, but I am sure there are Prudential Real Estate agents using other systems and of course we cannot effect that).

Of course people will still click the report spam option rather than trying the opt out in some cases as it is just easier, and people expect that to function as an opt out. We are aware of this and are always looking at our levels and thresholds to allow for this.

What we usually see is that the rate of abuse will increase when you bring new lists into the system, or when you first start using it, and after that they should drop provided you are continuing to send people content they asked for and not too frequently.. If you are not using any purchased lists or shared lists you should be right to continue using the system and it will balance out.. if you continue to get high abuse reports over the next few weeks (you can see them in reporting) then I think you might need to look at the content or source of your lists to ensure they are on target.

Just to close out this thread, I want to point out that Truelogic did step up to the plate and got me turned back on.  The service provided by Truelogic is top-notch and their hands are pretty much tied when it comes to the problem I have with the abuse thresholdsput forth by various ISPs.

In my mind, the overriding problem exists where we as real estate agents are unable to use email marketing as a tool to develop rapport with solicited, registered users of your own website.

Thanks very much to Mike of Trulogic who went the extra mile to accomodate me in every way that they could.