Tuesday, June 12, 2007

By: Des  Cahill, CEO

Let me start by apologizing. The inanely repetitive lyrics are likely to be running through your head right now. But, I had to use this as my title - because I've concluded that when it comes to email, it is a small world after all.

So let's dig deeper. Anything to get your mind off that song! I come to my observation about the worldwide importance of email after spending the last couple of weeks traveling around the U.S. and Europe and attending email-related events in both San Jose and Dublin. Email is still increasing worldwide. For both businesses and consumers it is the number one online application used every day. Email is global. Sender subscriber lists are transnational as the Internet is borderless.

The incredible devotion we consumers have to our email was evident at my cousin's farmhouse in rural Ireland, on the bustling streets of central London, in airports, buses, trains - everywhere people were checking email for business and personal use.
 
At Habeas, we're also experiencing the global implications of email. A significant and increasing portion of our customers are senders headquartered in Western Europe or Asia/Pacific. These senders still have a large percentage of subscribers who have Hotmail, Yahoo! or other free U.S.- based webmail accounts and are turning to Habeas for assistance with email delivery and reputation tracking. So a U.K.- based supermarket may have a customer in London subscribing to their weekly specials email newsletter - but the supermarket has to make sure Hotmail isn't throttling or blocking their email.
 
On the flip side, we're also seeing increased interest from our U.S. headquartered customers in the international traffic component of their campaigns. Large multi-national customers are interested in making sure their online reputation is maintained globally by monitoring their in-country email campaigns. Mid-tier e-commerce companies are offering their goods and services to an increasingly international audience - it's not just delivery to the big four U.S. ISPs anymore. Non-delivery to the inbox at BT or Tiscali can have a significant impact for these senders.

So, what are the implications for an international commercial email sender?
 
1. Do an analysis of your list. Do you have known international domains in your subscriber database? Do you have user profile info with country information?
 
2. Think about your creative, copy, and offer. Are they as relevant in Brussels as well as in Des Moines? Should you be segmenting for known international users?
 
3. Make sure your seedbox network reflects your demographics. You may want to expand your delivery seeding program to encompass some of the international ISP domains on your list or work with a 3rd party provider such as Habeas.
 
4. Consider email reputation tracking and whitelisting programs with strong international support. Nearly 5M email networks subscribe to Habeas' whitelist - with about 80% of those outside the U.S.
  
As glad as I am to be on the last leg of my journey home, it has been a great trip and reminder that email is a global phenomenon in an ever-shrinking world.