Goodmail Adds Premier Level to CertifiedEmail
Goodmail made Epsilon and CheetahMail CertifiedEmail Premier Providers, granting them free use of its CertifiedEmail privileges.
E-mail service providers Epsilon and CheetahMail were named CertifiedEmail Premier Providers by Goodmail. Qualifying clients can use the blue-ribbon envelope icon that comes with certification without paying the established $0.00025 per e-mail.
Premier Provider status has been granted to both ESPs through the end of 2008, and will be available to other clients that meet Goodmail’s accreditation standards for CertifiedEmail. Epsilon plans to roll out the service in multiple stages, according to Ragy Thomas, president and CTO of Epsilon Interactive Services Group. He said a group of clients have already signed on to take part in the Beta phase before the service is extended to a larger group. Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail service will be available as a default delivery method to all clients that meet the certification criteria under the third stage. Clients will be able to opt out of the blue-ribbon program if they so desire.
“We believe that this is in the best interest of our clients, the ISPs, and the consumers themselves,” said Thomas. “We are very optimistic and will take a scientific approach in rolling this out and are excited to see how it’s going to move the needle for our clients.”
Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail service was initially adopted by AOL and Yahoo, though its trusted delivery is now accepted by additional ISPs including AT&T, Cox, Comcast, Verizon, and RoadRunner. E-mail is delivered to inboxes with images and links enabled because blue-ribbon senders are recognized for practicing proper e-mail marketing procedures.
According to Epsilon-sponsored research conducted by GfK, as many as 65 percent of e-mail users receive e-mail with images disabled.
“To date, most of the benefits senders have seen have been around 100 percent assured delivery, and links and images rendered on default,” said David Atlas, VP of marketing at Goodmail. “We are entering a phase where we are reaching out to customers to take advantage of the changing way e-mail is implemented.”
Both Goodmail and Epsilon declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal allowing e-mail marketers to use the Goodmail certification without a per-e-mail fee. “Because of the volume Epsilon is able to leverage, we were able to create business terms that Epsilon is able to offer with future and existing clients,” Atlas said.
Thomas said Epsilon and Goodmail are working together to launch additional products going forward.
