Spam , Matrix, and Shaw

Transcription

1 Spam , Matrix, and Shaw The importance of and your business cannot be denied. It is an extremely effective tool for communicating with your customers; but handled irresponsibly can hinder your efforts, affecting your business as well as your colleagues business. Being blacklisted or having a decreased reputation is something that OMREB members have experienced during the past couple of years and something that the OMREB IT department has been working hard to resolve and an issue that we take very seriously. There are several key steps that you can take to ensure that the reputation of your address, your company s address, or your own personal address stays off of blacklists and anti spam filters. This becomes even more important with the fast approaching Anti spam Legislation scheduled to become enforced on January 1, The Federal Governments information website on the Anti spam legislation: An article outlining the Anti Spam Legislation and the New Rules of Consent : news/marketing and the law new rules of consent Are You s Being Flagged as SPAM? OMREB Members can take steps to ensure the successful delivery of s and to avoid them being flagged as nuisance s, spam, junk, garbage. s that are flagged as spam, if left unresolved will effectually result in the address itself (joe@joe.com) becoming blacklisted, and / or the entire domain (joe.com) becomes blacklisted. Ask Your Client to Add Your Address to Their SPAM Filter or White List: These steps begin by ensuring that you have a client / recipient who actually wishes to receive MLS listing s from you, and who understands they will be receiving regular s from you (your address). It is considered good practice in advising or asking your client to add your address to their spam filter or white list which most programs such as Outlook or Outlook Express, or Mozilla Thunderbird support. Add both the sending REALTORS address and the Tarasoft mailer (postmaster@matrix er.com). It is also worth noting that ISP s such as Shaw have services called Webmail that you can access, change and modify the spam filter settings at a higher level by processing s before they are even delivered to you or your client. These tips offer no guarantee of delivery, but they have been shown to be effective in many circumstances. See attached instructions for modifying your Shaw webmail spam settings. Avoid Buying or Renting Addresses They Can Also Buy You Trouble: Sending to people who didn't request your messages is the fastest way to trash your sender reputation, and a bad sender rep is the fast lane to detention. A purchased or rented list is not composed of people who want to receive your s. Many addresses belong to people who didn't read the fine print in the privacy policy when they registered for an account or entered a contest. Even though they didn't see the clause that warned them they were agreeing to share their addresses with the marketing world, that doesn't mean they want your . They'll just click the "report spam" button instead. Or, they'll abandon that address because of all the spam they received from it and move on. More money wasted. Purchased lists could be riddled with old, invalid or spam trap addresses, called "honeypots." ISPs and blacklist services use these addresses specifically to trap and block spammers, since nobody else would be ing to them.

2 Once you start ing to these addresses, you're going to set off a lot of activity, but not the kind that produces traffic or sales. Instead, you'll generate enough spam complaints to prompt ISPs either to block your messages outright, or route them to the bulk folder instead of the inbox. Then, if you send to an address monitored by a major blacklist service such as Spamhaus that can block delivery at the major ISPs your won't be accepted again until you demonstrate that you've recommitted yourself to a permission based program that employs best practices for mailing. I'm a firm believer in the saying, "You are what you send." Are you willing to put your corporate brand in the middle of a cesspool if your purchased list explodes? Update Your Contact List on a Regular Basis: Many people cancel or change their addresses or simply abandon an box. This will keep your contact list clean and accurate. Sending Your Client MLS Information from Matrix : The purpose of the client portal is just as the name suggests you have a client relationship whereby you have at least established their basic search criteria and advised them of the service. Ensure the recipient that you are sending auto s to 'wants' to receive these s. It is important to make sure that your client understands that you will be sending them frequent or infrequent (depending on the schedule you set up) listing updates to the address they have provided you. Advise them that if they no longer wish to receive these 'listing updates', they should advise you and use the 'Unsubscribe' link in the they receive. They should not simply ignore the s and report them to TELUS or Shaw as spam. Configure the Scheduling Options in MATRIX for the Delivery Times of Auto s: If you set your client to receive the auto s ASAP, this may send out more s than your client was expecting to receive. In MATRIX when you set up an auto you are given a variety of options: o o o ASAP s are sent as soon as possible. Daily s are sent on the days you choose. You can specify them to go in the AM or PM or both on the days you select. Monthly s are sent on the first of the month at midnight. Include Text in Your Subject Line That is Not 'Suspicious' or 'Spam like' in Nature: Using catch lines like 'Check this out' or 'You've got to see this' will only increase the likelihood that the will be flagged as spam. In the initial that you send out to your client, include some text to inform them that the they are reading was sent out as mutually agreed upon and that if they DO NOT wish to receive these s, to either unsubscribe using the link in the , or to contact you directly to have the auto s disabled. REMEMBER: The primary reason we are in this position is because clients are reporting the s as spam and not using the link to unsubscribe which appears on each sent from MATRIX. It is important that this information be explained to clients when they are being set up for auto s. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the ongoing issues with delivery, please contact Charles Howarth via (support@omreb.com) at the OMREB office.

3 Enter: into your address bar of your browser Enter your user name (everything before ) and your password then click Log In.

4 Once logged in, click on Settings

5 Then click on Spam Filter

6 Choose one of these two settings. We recommend that you choose Tag Suspected Junk .

7 Then click Save and you are done