Your EMail Deliverability Is At Risk
(Updated Feb 11, 2016)
If you are already using your an email address from your own domain name as your reply-to address for your AutoResponder campaigns, you can stop reading. BUT ….
If you are using a AOL, Zendesk, rocketmail.com, ymail.com or other commonly available free email service as your reply-to in your AutoResponder campaign, you are hurting your email deliverability and will need to make changes in order to keep using your AutoResponder campaign.
TrafficWave.net and most reputable email service providers have always recommended that you not use such email addresses.
Our big reason for this recommendation was that it just didn’t look professional for a business to be using a free email service. Every time any business person hands you a card that has a gmail or yahoo email address on it, don’t you find myself wondering how credible this person or business is?
We get it. Those services are free and they require a little less work to set up, but using your own domain lends more credibility to your image and reputation.
Now, going beyond the concept of professionalism and image, big changes are happening on the internet and if you at all serious about your business image, and making sure your messages get delivered, it is time to stop using the freebie emails as your reply-to address in your AutoResponder Campaigns.
One of the ways that ISP’slike Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, etc.. fight spam is by using something called “email authentication” to check whether an email that comes from you actually came from you. If you have ever had your email address hacked or received an email from a friend but knew they couldn’t have actually sent the message, then you have experienced the issue, as well.
Things have changed.
On Friday, April 4, 2014, Yahoo changed their email authentication settings using the new DMARC standard. The new setting by yahoo is causing a lot of email from yahoo users to be rejected by other ISP’s.
On April 22, 2014, AOL did the same thing.
More ISP’s are following suit and we believe more will be doing the same.
Here Is What You Must Understand:
If your AutoResponder campaigns are using a AOL, Zendesk, rocketmail.com, or ymail.com email address as the reply-to, these services are now saying, “We do not vouch for this email being sent”. This is causing your emails to be rejected and that is causing receivers to be removed from your list. This also means your messages are not being delivered.
Effective Feb 11, 2016, if you are still using AOL, Zendesk, rocketmail.com, or ymail.com as your reply-to address in any AutoResponder campaign, we will be suspending that campaign until the correction is made.
This is not a TrafficWave.net Specific Issue. A lot of companies are being impacted by these changes, including all of the other Email Marketing Service companies, such as Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, GetResponse, etc…
If you are a real “tech head” and want to dig in to the new DMARC standard for email authentication, follow this link: http://dmarc.org
To see how this change is impacting other companies and lists, follow these links:
- Yahoo’s New DMARC Policy Destroys Every Mailing List Across The World
- Yahoo Mail Brings The Pain with DMARC Policy Change
- Yahoo Email Anti-spoofing policy breaks email marketing lists
The Solution Is Simple
Change your reply-to address in your AutoResponder Campaigns To Your Own Domain.
If you do not have your own domain, it’s time. Your email list is worth money to your business. You owe it to yourself to get this done quickly. Until you make this change, you will be leaving a lot of emails undelivered which will be costing you more money.
If you have your own domain, contact your web hosting provider for help with setting up your email addresses.
If you do not have your own domain, we invite you to open a web hosting account with our web hosting company: EWS2.com.
EWS2.com and our service will always be compatible and compliant with the new DMARC email authentication protocols together.
How To Change The Reply-To Email Address in TrafficWave.net:
- Log in to your back office at http://www.trafficwave.net/login.html
- Go to your AutoResponder Campaign Manager.
- Select a Campaign.
- Click the “Profile” tab.
- Click the “Signature Tokens” tab.
- Change “Your Return E-mail Address” to your own email address using your domain name.
- Click “Update Signature Tokens”.
Follow steps 3 through 6 for each of your AutoResponder Campaigns.
For more tips on Deliverability, check: Deliverability Tips
All Comments
Rodney Coleman
October 17, 2016
I’ve used my own domain email for years because I was taught early on that using your own domain would help with deliverability . I also forward my domain email to a gmail account but I don’t foresee a problem because the main email is still on my server.
Great info though Brian because many people don’t realize how this will effect their email marketing and you are correct, just another reason to use TrafficWave!
Keep up the great work,
Rodney Coleman
admin
October 17, 2016
Thanks, Rodney! Sounds like you’ve got a good handle on things.
FeelPlanet
January 1, 2016
Too often companies don t think about purging data until significant email delivery problems have surfaced. If you wait until your email is blacklisted or delivered to the junk folder, you risk having to make much more aggressive purging decisions than marketers who proactively manage their data.
admin
January 1, 2016
This is another good reason to use a service like ours.
Hilton Sousa
November 27, 2015
I’ve set the reply-to address to my own domain, and yet Gmail insists in saying my letters are spam. This is what Google tells me:
Why is this message in Spam? We’ve found that lots of messages from afs2.trafficwave.net are spam.
It’s strange, because the confirmation emails (sent by afs1.trafficwave.net) are flawlessly delivered to the inbox.
Do you have any clues on how to solve it ? I’m just migrating from MailChimp to TrafficWave, and this problem is a show stopper for me 🙁
Best regards,
Hilton
admin
November 30, 2015
Hi, Hilton. We have our tech team working on resolving this as we “speak”.
Victor
November 30, 2015
I’m also experiencing this issue at my end,. all messages goes to spam.. which is very bad for business..
admin
November 30, 2015
You will want to be sure you are paying attention to your content so that you are not triggering common spam filters, check your email address, and follow all the tips given in these articles:
http://blog.trafficwave.net/?s=deliverability&submit=Search
trinidadian
November 11, 2015
I did not see “Signature Tokens Tab” but saw “change member information”. Can I place my email address there instead?
admin
November 11, 2015
You will get better results by following the instructions.
trinidadian
November 11, 2015
I figured it out. Thank you.
trinidadian
November 11, 2015
I am attempting to change my email and in back office. Unable to see the “signature token tab” I saw it when I was setting up my campaign but not seeing it now. Looked all over.
admin
November 11, 2015
Click the “Profile” tab to see your “Signature Tokens” tab.
admin
November 11, 2015
Excellent! Begin by following the training we provide in your back office. You may also want to take advantage of our 30 Minute List Building challenge (also presented in your back office).
Partha
November 10, 2015
Thank you for the highlight. I was using gmail and I had changed it accordingly.
Somlak Suwanmalee
November 12, 2014
I’m so glad to can come back to trafficwave.net again.
Maureen
June 24, 2014
I’ve been working online since the late 90s and am the owner of multiple domains so have the option of easily switching email addresses if/when necessary – but really want to point out that I have had ZERO issues using a VERIFIED gmail account. Although do agree with other providers making delivery harder – as a working VA – I work with other autoresponders in addition to TW and again no problems using a VERIFIED gmail email address. (as of Jun 14)
When using a verified gmail email address you still need to follow the same rules as using ANY email address in sending email communications – spammy headlines will cause delivery problems no matter what email address or autoresponder you use.
Just want to put this out there for newbies who may not want to invest in more expenses until they are fully in profit with TrafficWave.
Gil Pahlow
May 26, 2014
What about those who use an email address issued by their ISP?
Example. I can use myname@iinet.net.au which is a sub-domain of my ozemail.com.au which is the original ISP I used.
ozemail was bought out by iinet and still used by iinet for all the old ozemail members.
I foresee an cost issue making a clear change to IInet , we old ozemail members would have to come iinet on iinet terms that are not so favourable as those we get now.
Gil Pahlow
Australia
admin
May 27, 2014
We highly recommend using your own domain name.
admin
May 10, 2014
The trend is already changing due to the new DMARC protocol as indicated in the above article.
Jim
April 27, 2014
I am a senior citizen, presently using over 100 safelists to promote a program. Most of them insist that members use gmail as a contact mail address, and another gmail address for list email. Will these safelists be affected by this change?
admin
April 27, 2014
Every list on the planet is being affected by this change.
samzul
April 25, 2014
Hi Sir,
All my autoresponder now not function when submit name and email in
opt form..
no more reply message to me like this” AutoResponder Campaign Subscriber Alert”
I have also tried to create an email and submit themselves to the opt in form .. but the results remain disappointing .. no reply from my autoresponder .. it’s not just happening on one of my email campaign but it happens in all my email campaign ..
I noticed this happening when I see my email no longer receive this message “AutoResponder Campaign Subscriber Alert”
Thanks
samzul
admin
April 26, 2014
Be sure you make the changes to your campaigns as instructed.
Scott
April 25, 2014
Hey thanx for all the help, It is Admin like you that make it worth while to even attempt what we do. And believe you, me, born with my initials you need all the help you can get. I will update our return email shortly right now my tech support is bathing the dogs.
Thanx, sincerely, Scott
Daniel
April 25, 2014
Good advice to anyone, not only creates your personal e-mail account but helps to promote your website as well. Your subscribers will see (Your chosen email name) @(Your Website) Looks very Professional. Build email account in your cpanel, search you tube building email account in cpanel. It is not a complicated process. If you need username and password to access your cpanel your web host can provide for you.
Ameer
April 25, 2014
Sir, i do not know how to check and change the problem, please help, if possible you can change as you see any risk, i am promoting your website, thanks, Ameer.
admin
April 25, 2014
What happens when you follow the instructions given, Ameer?
Rick Regalado
April 25, 2014
I don’t understand my domain name is not an email address so how can it be my return email address
admin
April 25, 2014
You will want to create an email address with your web hosting provider and use that email address. The email address will contain your domain name.
Robin Robinson
April 25, 2014
Thank you for the update. And for clearing up how to get
our domain email. I went to YouTube to look for a video about
using the Tokens to change my personal email to my domain name. I came back here and found the answer.
Commission Mentor
April 25, 2014
As an example, Rick, my website is commissionmentor.com; my website email address is support@commissionmentor.com and that’s what I use as my TW return EM address.
Jimmy Cook
April 25, 2014
I use my Domain email and forward it to a gmail account – that shouldn’t matter – should it?
Also, just joined TrafficWave and am amazed at the speed of deliverability.
Keep up the good work
admin
April 25, 2014
Glad you are enjoying the deliverability! The only way for you to know for sure about forwarding is to try it. My guess is that gmail will be adopting DMARC soon so it may cause you problems down the road.
Larry Wentz
April 25, 2014
I don’t think the email forwarding will be an issue. It’s something that your host does as a service & gmail, aol, etc.. wouldn’t even know you do it. It’s a very common practice. I just set it up myself & did a test subscription at both AOL & Gmail – it worked.
Larry Wentz
April 25, 2014
I have email forwarding going to main aol email address but set up the email forwarding at my hosting account on a domain I own. I then use myname@MydomainImhosting.com (sample) for the signature token. Emails sent to that email address are forwarded to main AOL email addy I use because I set up forwarding for that email address.
admin
April 25, 2014
Sounds good, Larry. The point is that you are now using an email address from a domain that you own and control and that’s what everyone needs to start doing.
Commission Mentor
April 25, 2014
I’m so glad you clarified that, because it seems that everyone is missing the point!
admin
April 25, 2014
Forwarding from a domain you own, using an email from that same domain should not present any problem, at all.
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