How's Your Unsubscribe Reputation?

By Kevin Newcomb, The ClickZ Network, Sep 20, 2005
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A new service aims to rate the email list suppression practices of a brand by monitoring every entity that sends email on its behalf.

LashBack monitors and reports on unsubscribe practices for a clientele of email service providers, affiliate merchants and other large email senders in its Certified Network program. The program monitors unsubscribe compliance of those senders by tracking requests submitted by client ISPs, anti-spam firms, and consumers. It measures the response against internal anti-spam policies and CAN-SPAM regulations. The idea is to help clients identify unsubscribe problems quickly, before repeat offenses land a sender on a blacklist.

Affiliate marketer and rewards network Memolink and email service provider Skylist are the first to become certified under the program.

"If all of our customers sent all their mail through us, this wouldn’t be as compelling to us -- we know our unsubscribe procedures are good," Josh Baer, CEO of Skylist and list suppression service provider UnsubCentral, told ClickZ News. "But almost nobody sends all their email from one place. Most have different procedures for marketing, sales transactions, and relationship messages."

LashBack tracks things like whether the sender has a working unsubscribe link, or if it can process unsubscribe requests in a reasonable time period. When a sender develops a problem, the sender and the service provider are notified, so both can respond accordingly.

"When you're dealing with a number of organizations, it becomes more important to know if everyone is doing their part," said Brandon Phillips, president of LashBack. "It doesn't matter if you're a big or a small brand -- what matters is who you're doing business with."

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