September 15, 2015 Return Path, Inc.
Table of Contents What is Inbox Monitor?... 3 How Does Inbox Monitor Work... 4 Seed Data... 4 Subscriber Data... 4 Getting Started with the Seed List... 5 How to Import the Seed List... 6 Reference Seeds... 7 Matching ID... 7 API Functions... 7 General Information... 8 ISP Weighting... 8 How to Activate ISP Weighting... 8 Alerts... 9 How to Set up Alerts... 9 Non Seeded Campaigns...10 Duplicates...11 How to Determine if Seeds Were Set up Incorrectly...11 Problems Overview...12 Campaign Overview...13 Dashboard...13 Customize Dashboard...14 Campaign Overview > Campaigns...16 Campaign Overview > Trends...17 Additional Information...18 Filters...18 Apply ISP Weighting...18 Compare Campaigns...19 Billing Period Information...20 Subscriber Data Icon...20 Download Information...20 Campaign Overview > Campaign Details...21 Consumer Mailbox Providers...22 Return Path Inc. Page 1 of 41
B2B Providers...24 Sending IPs...24 Inbox Optimizer...25 ISP Overview...26 ISPs...27 Regions...27 Graph...29 ISP Filters...30 Graph...30 B2B Providers...30 Graph...31 Alerts...31 Filter...32 Seed List...32 ISP Weighting...34 Non Seeded Campaigns...35 Filter and Sort...36 Non Seeded Campaigns > Campaign Details...36 Feedback...38 Glossary...39 Return Path Inc. Page 2 of 41
What is Inbox Monitor? Inbox Monitor is a Return Path software solution that gives you the most accurate information on whether your email is reaching your subscriber s inbox using Return Path s proprietary consumer data stream and placement at real mailboxes. Inbox Monitor provides fast and precise diagnostics of your overall email campaign performance. Inbox Monitor confirms that your campaign emails arrived in the inbox as well as which folder they were placed in by each mailbox provider. Inbox Monitor also validates the configuration of your sending infrastructure and authentication processes. Inbox Monitor gives you the ability to: Improve inbox placement by quickly identifying the root causes of issues affecting your email streams. Gain insight into the overall deliverability health of your email program. Customize delivery alerts to proactively address ISP deliverability issues. Track deliverability by region, country, ISP, and more. View fluctuations in campaign performance through graphs, lists, and other views. Access key information easily through customizable dashboards and filtering options. Gaining access to relevant, granular deliverability data found in Inbox Monitor gives allows you to make accurate decisions about your email program s effectiveness and take immediate action on any problems. Because deliverability failures can cost you a lot of money, the data Return Path Inc. Page 3 of 41
offered in Inbox Monitor helps you to improve your email program s performance, which results in greater campaign ROI. How Does Inbox Monitor Work Inbox Monitor utilizes seed data and subscriber data to track your inbox placement. Though seed data and subscriber data both show inbox and spam folder placement data, their source is different. Seed data comes from a set of mailboxes that Return Path has set up at numerous mailbox providers across the globe. Subscriber data comes directly from your customers mailboxes. Seed Data Seed emails are known, good addresses owned by Return Path that are placed on your email lists to track your inbox placement rates. Access to this data is invaluable because it often shows the wide disparity between the delivered metric shown on your email platform delivery report and the number of messages that actually arrived in the inbox. Note: Seed metrics do not impact marketing metrics because seed addresses are gathered through IMAP or POP processes and do not trigger an open or a click. Subscriber Data Subscriber data is information aggregated from a panel composed of approximately two million users and is owned by Return Path. The panel is comprised of subscribers using mailbox plug in companies owned by Return Path. Users of these tools have agreed to share data anonymously. For campaigns tracked in Inbox Monitor, this data gives you insight into the inbox and spam folder placement data from a subset of your actual customers. Return Path Inc. Page 4 of 41
Inbox Monitor provides subscriber data when 10 or more of your subscribers on your email list overlap with the subscribers in the panel. The degree to which these sources overlap vary depending on population makeup and fluctuations in subscriber panel activity. In the user interface, blue subscriber icons indicate that placement results for Yahoo!, Gmail, and/or AOL are being drawn from subscribers for the campaign. (Placement results for all other ISPs are still gathered from the seed list.) These blue icons can be found in two places in the Inbox Monitor user interface: 1. On the Campaign Overview page next to a campaign s subject line 2. On the Campaign Details page in the ISP Statistics section Note: Because the four global ISPs (AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo) are beginning to use engagement-based filtering, subscriber level data brings more granularity to placement reporting to account for situations where engagement filtering is used. Getting Started with the Seed List To begin using Inbox Monitor, download and import the seed list into the email database. Add the seed list to the mailing list (for every new campaign); then deploy the campaign. Return Path Inc. Page 5 of 41
How to Import the Seed List 1. Decide how many recipients and which ISP groups who are receiving your email campaign. For example, B2B, Asia, Europe, and so on. Ask your Account Manager to set up the seeds. 2. Select Seed Link in the sub-navigation menu. 3. Download the seed list by copying and pasting it or by selecting Download to add it to your email list. 4. Send a campaign to your list after you have added the seed list. 5. Monitor your campaign in Campaign Overview when seed data populates in the interface. Best practices for distributing seeds in a mailing list: Distribute seeds evenly. Import seeds into the mailing list. Sort the list alphabetically. Note: Seed accounts are continually checked for new messages, but the data should not be considered final until four hours after your mail event has completed sending. Return Path Inc. Page 6 of 41
Reference Seeds At the top and bottom of the list, there are four unique seeds called reference seeds. These reference seeds separate your campaigns from Return Path s other clients; it is critical that the reference seeds are included in the seed list. Matching ID A matching ID is a unique identifier representing your campaign. The matching ID allows Return Path to generate accurate campaign level deliverability reporting. Also, a matching ID may be needed to ensure duplicate messages are not sent. Please contact an Account Manager to coordinate set-up and testing. Note: If your campaigns already contain a campaignid, messageid or job number that is unique from one campaign to another then Return Path can use this value as the matching ID. API Functions You may prefer raw data to the data in the user interface. Through the API function, you can request specific sets of data using XML/RPC (remote procedure call). Contact an Account Manager if you wish to receive reports of this raw data. Examples of data sent using the API function: Lists of From domains for a given realm (account). Overall aggregated statistical data (inbox %, bulk %, missing %) for campaign(s). Overall statistical data by ISP for a campaign. Detailed mailbox provider seed placement data on a per campaign basis. Return Path Inc. Page 7 of 41
General Information ISP Weighting Inbox Monitor calculates your overall deliverability evenly based on the total number of seeds for each ISP. Though this is a great way to determine deliverability at the ISP level, each list is unique; you may need more specific insight at the campaign level. By using ISP Weighting, you can view adjusted delivery statistics based on the composition of your list. How to Activate ISP Weighting 1. Determine the percentage of the list represented by dividing the total number of addresses at a specific ISP by the total number of email address on the list. 2. Navigate to the ISP Weighting page. 3. Add the calculated weights into the text box to the right of the chosen ISP. Select Update List. Return Path Inc. Page 8 of 41
4. Repeat the previous step for other more highly-weighted ISPs. You can adjust up to 1,000 campaigns at a time. 5. Find delivery statistics recalculated based on percentages provided. Note: If you apply domain weights to a campaign that does not send to the seeds that have been weighted, these campaigns are not included in the report. Alerts Inbox Monitor allows you to receive custom alerts based on the needs of your email program. Delivery Alert emails display results of any problems (rules or criteria violated). The system looks for problems once per hour and generates an alert for any problems triggered. Only one alert is sent per rule and campaign. How to Set up Alerts 1. Navigate to the Alerts page. 2. From the ISP drop-down menu, select one of the following values: a. Total Deliverability: creates alerts based on the average deliverability of a campaign. b. Any ISP: creates alerts based on one or more ISPs. c. Specific ISP: creates an alert based on the chosen ISP. 3. Choose thresholds for inbox percentage and time by using the drop-down boxes. Return Path Inc. Page 9 of 41
4. Select Add Rule. 5. Find the chosen alert thresholds listed in a table below the drop-down menus. Non Seeded Campaigns Non seeded campaigns are those received by the subscriber panel that did not match campaigns sent to the seed list. These are often transactional mail streams and campaigns not sent to the seed list. Non seeded campaigns are discovered from the From domains already associated with an account by the seed list. Non seeded campaigns show basic placement metrics for inbox and spam folder placement at ISPs in Return Path s subscriber panel 24 48 hours after deployment. For more advanced placement metrics, such as near real time reporting, diagnostics, and information from additional ISPs, send campaigns to the seed list. Note: There is no limit on the number of non seeded campaigns that may show up on the page. Return Path Inc. Page 10 of 41
Duplicates If seed lists are not set up correctly, you might see duplicates represented in the Campaign Diagnostics section of the Campaign Overview > Campaign Details page. How to Determine if Seeds Were Set up Incorrectly 1. Check the reference account placement percentages: a. Because reference seed email addresses have no filtering or blocking applied, they should be placed in every inbox. So, if the percentage is less than 100%, the seed list may not have been set up correctly. 2. Troubleshoot whether or not the system is causing duplicates. a. Look at the Received: portion of the reference accounts headers. If the time stamps are different for the hops the message took on its way to its destination, then your system sent duplicate copies. If your mailing system stopped and restarted during sending, you may see duplicates. 3. Troubleshoot whether or not an ISP is causing duplicates: a. Look at the Received: portion of the reference accounts headers. If the time stamps are the same for the hops the messages took on its way to its destination then the ISP delivered duplicate copies. If a virus in on the loose, it may create spikes in network traffic for ISPs. Return Path Inc. Page 11 of 41
Problems Overview For definitions of the problems found on the Campaign Details page, please see the Glossary. Return Path Inc. Page 12 of 41
Campaign Overview Use Campaign Overview, which is Inbox Monitor s default page, to view a variety of metrics, information and statistics about your campaigns. You can view the data by either Campaigns or Trends. There is also the Dashboard, which gives you a quick glance at key performance metrics. Dashboard On the Campaign Overview page, use the data shown in the Dashboard to give you snapshot views of your data through a variety of customizable widgets. Return Path Inc. Page 13 of 41
Selecting any of the links embedded within the Dashboard changes the information shown or graphed in Campaigns or Trends view. Also, select the date range you wish to see by using the drop-down box to filter the information listed on the Campaign Overview page. Customize Dashboard To customize the widgets and data in the Dashboard, select Customize. Once selected, the Dashboard slides downward. You can add the following list of widgets to your dashboard: Inbox by Country Inbox by Domain Inbox by Filter Type Inbox by IP Inbox by ISP Lowest Inbox ISPs Overall Deliverability With the exception of Overall Deliverability, each widget shows placement metrics for four values for instance, the Inbox by IP widget displays four IPs of your choice. By default, Priority ISP shows AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! By default, Inbox by IP shows your worst performing IPs. By default, Inbox by Domain shows your worst performing domains. In order to use the Inbox by Country and Inbox by Filter Type widgets, you need to manually add values. Return Path Inc. Page 14 of 41
The Overall Deliverability view shows the percentage of your messages that are lost or seen in the inbox or bulk folder. Others show placement data from a large sample of mailers across the industry. Note: So as not to skew placement rates downward because of campaigns that have not yet been fully deployed, ongoing campaigns (or, campaigns that were deployed fewer than four hours before the time of viewing) are not shown in the dashboard widgets, overall placement values and calculations on the Campaign Overview and ISP Overview pages in Inbox Monitor. How to Add a Widget 1. Select the widget you would like to add. For example, Inbox by Country. 2. Add a subtitle in the text box. (Optional.) 3. Customize the widget by selecting the blue tools icon and selecting values from the drop-down boxes. (Optional.) 4. Add the widget to the dashboard by selecting the green Add to Dashboard button. Or, add the widget by selecting and dragging it. To request a new widget, select the Let us know link. Return Path Inc. Page 15 of 41
Once you have selected your widgets and filtered the data, you can toggle between Campaigns and Trends view to view your metrics in different ways. Campaigns view shows a table listing various metrics for the chosen IP, domain, filters, and more within the chosen date range. Trends view gives you the ability to visualize these same chosen metrics in graph form. Campaign Overview > Campaigns On the Campaign Overview page, the Campaigns tab shows information for your campaigns in the following categories: Customer: List of customers (or child accounts) for ESP or businesses with multiple divisions Inbox Placement % Spam Placement % Missing % Date and time stamp Subject line and Matching ID for the campaign From: domain Complaints received via feedback loops Problems that affected campaign placement If Inbox placement is high, the percentage shown in the graph is green. If placement is average, an orange triangle icon shows. If placement is low, a red octagon shows. To discover more information about a subject line or problem, select the link embedded in the table. This brings you to the Campaign Overview > Campaign Details page. Return Path Inc. Page 16 of 41
To see additional problems hidden within the list, select the blue arrow icon next to Issues. Note: The date and time stamp is pulled from the header of the first message seen in one of the Inbox Monitor seed accounts. Campaign Overview > Trends You can select Trends to see visuals of placement results. By default, the Trends view will show the percent of campaigns delivered to the inbox, bulk folder, or spam folder, and the percentage of seeds that went missing over the past seven days. You can customize the graph by un clicking any of the check boxes. Tip: Viewing your campaign information by graph view can help you pinpoint fluctuations in placement and understand how your mail program is performing over time. Return Path Inc. Page 17 of 41
Additional Information Filters If you wish to filter any of the data in both the Campaigns and Trends view, select the Filters button at the top of the table to filter the information by a range of the following variables: ISPs IPs Domains Tags Alerts Issues When you choose a filter, it is saved, even if you navigate to other pages. To undo all filters chosen, select clear all. TIP: Filter to see the results of a certain ISP or IP, or to see campaigns that triggered a delivery alert. Pinpointing fluctuations in placement can help you identify when a problem began and associate it to changes in your mail program. Apply ISP Weighting If you wish to apply ISP weighting to your data, select the check box. Applying ISP weighting gives you a clearer picture of how your campaigns are delivering based on the domain distribution of your subscriber base. For more about how to weight ISPs, see the General Information section. Return Path Inc. Page 18 of 41
Compare Campaigns To compare campaigns, select the Compare Campaigns check box. This prompts you to select check boxes next to two or three campaigns found below, then select View. You can only compare up to three campaigns at one time. Once you select View, you are brought to a new page showing details for the chosen campaigns. Inbox Monitor compares the following items: Subject Line Matching ID with email creative % Inbox % Spam % Missing Date From Domain Complaints Problems Return Path Inc. Page 19 of 41
Also, you can use ISP Statistics to compare how your emails performed across regions, B2B, and Reference Accounts. Billing Period Information In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, you can find out about your current billing period. Use this information to know how many messages you have sent and how many messages you can still send for the remainder of the time. Subscriber Data Icon There is a subscriber data icon to the left of the subject line if Inbox Monitor found subscriber data for an IP. For more information about subscriber data, see the How Does Inbox Monitor Work? section. Download Information If you would like to download the information found on the Campaigns Overview page into a CSV file, select the Download link found at the bottom left side of the page. Return Path Inc. Page 20 of 41
Campaign Overview > Campaign Details To visit the Campaign Details page, select a subject line or Campaign Issues link. On this page, you can find ISP Statistics, B2B Provider information, and Inbox Optimizer suggestions for a single campaign. At the top of the page below the subject line, you can find a summary of the chosen campaign s performance. To view the message creative for the chosen campaign, select View Message. You also have the ability to archive campaigns, such as tests or partial sends, which could negatively skew your performance trends reported in Inbox Monitor. You can access the list of archived campaigns and restore them if needed. An Archive Campaigns button can be found on each Campaign details page. Note: A dash indicates that the diagnostic test has not had enough time to complete. Return Path Inc. Page 21 of 41
From Campaign Details, you can toggle between Consumer Mailbox Providers, B2B filters, Sending IPs, and Inbox Optimizer to learn more about the chosen campaign. Consumer Mailbox Providers By default the Consumer Mailbox Providers section tab shows ISPs in all regions. Also, you can group the ISPs by region by clicking the drop-down box. You may have the option to learn more about your campaign placement results by ISP If any of the ISPs listed appear blue with an icon next to it, you can select the link to open a pop-up box containing the ISP s profile. Return Path Inc. Page 22 of 41
When investigating a specific ISP, select the Details button to see more information on individual seed results. Selecting this button reveals a table that shows the following: Placement status A link to the message header The message s date and time stamp Seed email addresses Sending IPs Number of duplicates For troubleshooting issues with messages, you can view the message header by clicking on the link embedded in the table. A pop up box reveals the chosen message header. Return Path Inc. Page 23 of 41
B2B Providers The information displayed in the B2B Providers tab displayed in the same way as it is displayed in the Consumer Mailbox Tab except for the fact that it is grouped by B2B providers instead of by regions. By default, the information found in this tab is grouped by all B2B providers, though you can alter this view by choosing from the values found in the drop-down box. Sending IPs To view information on the IP addresses used to send this campaign, select Sending IPs. Here you find a list of the IPs used to send the campaign to the seed list. If you have Return Path Reputation Monitor, you also see the Sender Score for each IP address when the campaign was first seen. If you have Return Path Certification, you also see the Certification status for each IP address when the campaign was first seen. Note that the Sender Score and Certification status may differ as they reflect different ISP networks. Return Path Inc. Page 24 of 41
Inbox Optimizer Using seed data, engagement data, and reputation data, Inbox Monitor s feature Inbox Optimizer continuously analyzes how a your Gmail subscribers interact with their email program. By doing so, Inbox Optimizer helps you understand what elements of your email program are driving filters to place your mail in the spam folder. These elements include issues having to do with your reputation, infrastructure, subscriber engagement, and more. Reference Accounts If you would like to find information about how your reference accounts fared at ISPs, you can scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you will find a table titled Reference Accounts listing this information. Return Path Inc. Page 25 of 41
Archive Campaigns You also have the ability to archive campaigns, such as tests or partial sends, which could negatively skew your performance trends reported in Inbox Monitor. You can access the list of archived campaigns and restore them if needed. An Archive Campaigns button can be found on each Campaign details page. ISP Overview The ISP Overview page gives you the ability to track placement by ISPs, ISPs Filters, and B2B Providers. Through viewing the ISP Overview page, you can get insight into your deliverability across ISPs, so you can easily monitor the health of your entire program. You can view the information found on the ISP Overview in list and graph views Return Path Inc. Page 26 of 41
Sort the information using the date by using the Filter drop down. The date range drop down sorts the information by: today; 2, 7, 15, 30, 60, or 90 days; or a custom range. The Filters drop down allows you to filter the information by All Domains or by specific domains. You can also download the information into a CSV file by selecting the Download link found at the bottom of the page. ISPs When you select ISPs, you can see how your campaigns fared at consumer mailbox providers around the world. A table displays the information below for the chosen region, country, or ISP. Average inbox placement % Spam placement % Missing inbox % Regions In the table, ISPs are grouped into these main regions/groupings: Return Path Inc. Page 27 of 41
Asia-Pacific Europe Reference accounts North America To discover more information about the ISPs found in a specific region, select the arrow next to the region s name to expand the box. Reference Accounts You can also find information about your reference accounts, which can be found in the Overall Placement column along with the regions. Return Path Inc. Page 28 of 41
Graph The graph allows you to visualize trends, view fluctuations in sending, and more. You can graph up to six data points at a time. By default, the graph shows results for seven days. To graph an item found in the table, select the check box in that item s row. The graph shows information according to the data point selected in the gray boxes above it: Inbox %, spam %, or Missing %. Toggle between graph views by selecting a button. When you select data points, the chosen items form a list below the graph. Select the blue X to the right of the Graph heading to de select all graphed data points. Return Path Inc. Page 29 of 41
ISP Filters When you select ISP Filters, you can view ISPs using the same filter technology. This helps you troubleshoot more than one ISP at the same time. A table displays the information below for each type of filter: Inbox placement % Spam placement % Missing inbox % To discover additional information about a filter, hover over the help icon. Graph The graph shown on the ISP Filters page functions the same way as it does on the ISPs and B2B Providers pages. For more information, see the graphs section on ISPs above. B2B Providers When you select the B2B Providers tab, you can check filters that represent the majority of the B2B hosting companies and filters. B2B providers are broken into three categories: Appliance, Hosted Email, and Hosted Filter. Descriptions for each category can be found in the Glossary, or by hovering over the help icon. A table displays the information below for each type of B2B provider: Inbox Placement % Spam Placement % Missing Inbox % Return Path Inc. Page 30 of 41
To discover information about specific filters in the categories, select a filter category, such as Appliances. A row slides downward showing metrics for filters found within that category. Graph The graph shown on the ISP Filters page functions the same way as it does on the ISPs and ISP Filters pages. For more information, see the graphs section on ISPs above. Alerts Note: The Inbox Monitor B2B seed list is primarily composed of hosted filtering applications used by large business as well as email hosting companies that cater to small and medium sized businesses. On the Alerts page, you can set up custom alerts based on your campaigns. For instance, you can choose to receive alerts when fewer than 90% of your campaigns reached inboxes at Gmail. Email alerts will be generated for rules that are triggered one alert per rule and campaign. For more information about alerts and how to set them up, see the Getting Started page. The alerts page displays four drop-down boxes that give you the ability to set thresholds for alerts. Return Path Inc. Page 31 of 41
At the bottom of the page, there is a table listing the alerts you have set up. Filter You can filter the alerts further by clicking on the drop-down box at the top right of the page. This drop-down box allows you to filter the information by customer (for ESPs) and child accounts, if any. Seed List On this page, you will find a list of seed addresses used in your account. For more information about seeds and the seed list, see the Getting Started page. By clicking on the Seeds to Suppress link, you will also find a list of seed addresses that have been permanently deactivated and need to be removed from your account. It is important that you remove these seeds as promptly as possible. Return Path Inc. Page 32 of 41
You can view the seed list by customer (for ESPs) or by child accounts by clicking on the dropdown box in the upper right corner and choosing a value. By clicking on the Download link, you can download the seed list into a CSV file. Return Path Inc. Page 33 of 41
ISP Weighting On the ISP Weighting page, you can adjust the delivery statistics to reflect ISPs that have higher representation on your mailing lists. For more information about ISP Weighting, see the General Information page. To do this, you calculate the percentage then enter it into the text box in the row for the chosen ISP. Then Inbox Monitor will give that domain a higher weight value when calculating delivery metrics. Return Path Inc. Page 34 of 41
You can filter the ISP Weighting by customer (for ESPs) or by child accounts by clicking on the drop-down box found in the upper right corner and choosing a value. Non Seeded Campaigns On the Non Seeded Campaigns page, there is a table listing metrics for any non seeded campaigns found. Non seeded campaigns are those seen by the subscriber panel that are not part of the seed list. For more information about non seeded campaigns, see the General Information page. On the Non-Seeded Campaigns page, there is a table listing information for a campaigns : Customers (for ESPs) or child accounts Inbox placement rate Spam % Date stamp Subject line/campaign ID Sending domain Return Path Inc. Page 35 of 41
Filter and Sort You can filter this table by ISPs, domains, and IPs by selecting the blue Filters tab in the center of the page. By selecting the drop-down boxes, you can sort the information shown by: 15, 25, 50, 100, or 500 items per page, or within the date ranges for: Today, the last: 2, 7, 15, 30, 60, or 90 days, or custom range. You can also sort the information provided by customer (for ESPs) or child accounts. Non Seeded Campaigns > Campaign Details To discover more information about a specific subject line, select it from the table. Selecting a subject line brings you to its Campaign Details page, which displays the following basic metrics for the chosen subject line: Inbox placement % Spam placement % Date sent Matching ID From: domain This page also shows basic ISP Statistics for the chosen subject line: ISP Inbox % Spam % Return Path Inc. Page 36 of 41
Select the Details button to discover subscriber data details. This expands the view to see the specific details for each seed. The first time stamp displays when the first seed was delivered the last timestamp displays when the last seed was delivered. This gives you an idea of how long it took your campaign to completely deploy. If you would like to know more information about the ISP that received the non seeded campaign, select the ISP. This opens a pop up box with a profile of the ISP. Note: Non seeded campaign data is only used on the non seeded campaigns page. Data for these campaigns is not aggregated across Inbox Monitor. Return Path Inc. Page 37 of 41
Feedback To share a comment, report a bug, or suggest new features, select the Give Feedback button. A pop up box appears where you can provide feedback into the fields suggested. Once you are finished, select Send Feedback. Return Path Inc. Page 38 of 41
Glossary API: An application programming interface may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables. An API exchanges information via function calls local to the machine. Appliance Server: A specialized server designed to run with little or no support. Appliance server products come with all hardware, software, and applications bundled into one product. Server appliances provide Internet sharing, FTP services, email, VPN connections, firewall services, and more. B2B: Commerce transactions between businesses and other business for instance, between architects and fabricators. B2B Email Providers: Corporate focused mailboxes, as opposed to free, consumer mailbox providers. Bounce Email: Undeliverable email returned to sender. Bounce emails can be soft or hard. Hard bounce email is permanently bounced back to the sender because the address is invalid. Soft bounce email is returned to the sender because the recipient's mailbox is full, the server is temporarily unavailable, or the recipient no longer has an email account at that address. Campaign Creative: Including text, graphics, links, etc. campaign creative is the content sent by an email marketer to its subscribers. Campaign ID: The unique identifier added to the header of an email campaign. Cloudmark: An internet technology service providing security solutions for detecting and blocking inbound and outbound message abuse. DKIM: An authentication method that confirms the sending domain through encryption. Email Client: An application or system that accesses a service made available by a server, which is often on another computer system that the client accesses via a network. Email clients are programs used to read and send email messages. Email Hosting Service: A service that provides dedicated, custom email platforms for small and mid size businesses (larger businesses usually run their own email hosting service on their own equipment). Email Server: An email server transports mail. It is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the clients. The clients either run on the same computer or connect through the network. Feedback Loop: Sometimes called a complaint feedback loop, a feedback loop is an interorganization form of feedback by which mailbox providers forward the complaints originating Return Path Inc. Page 39 of 41
from their users to the sender s organizations. Mailbox providers can receive user s complaints by placing report spam buttons on their webmail pages, or in their email client, or via help desks. The message sender s organization, often an email service provider, has to come to an agreement with each mailbox provider from which they want to collect users complaints. Filtering Companies: Companies that facilitate the process of organizing and processing email for the purpose of combating spam. Email filtering companies may: Pass the message through unchanged for delivery to the user's mailbox, redirect the message for delivery elsewhere, throw out the message, or edit the message during processing. Filtering Hosting Service: A filtering hosting service is an email security technology that incorporates multiple filters to protect businesses inbound and outbound email from spam, viruses, phishing scams, and email policy violations. An email filtering hosting service provides tools for writing rules to help enforce corporate and regulatory policies, disaster recovery tools, and more. From Domain: The domain pulled from the header of each message. The From: domain includes the email address the message was sent from. It is the portion of the From: address right of the @ symbol. Headers: Email headers contain information that is used to control an email message s transmission. Usually only the subject line, sender, and sent date are displayed in the email message, though the full, raw header also includes information such as the path the email takes during transmission. HELO: The command used to initiate an SMTP connection where the sending server identifies itself. HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language is a markup language written in a form consisting of tags enclosed in angle brackets (<example>) within web content. HTML is used to display web pages and other information in a web browser. IMAP: Internet Message Across Protocol is a standard protocol for accessing email from local servers. Infrastructure: Infrastructure refers to the actual hardware used to deploy emails. IP Address: The Internet Protocol address is the number assigned to a device, such as a computer, that uses the internet to communicate with other devices. Though IP Addresses are binary numbers either 32 or 126 bits (characters) they are stored in text files. Mailbox Providers: Organizations that provides an email hosting service. Matching ID: A unique identifier that represents a campaign. MTA: Software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client server application architecture. An MTA implements both the client (sending) and server (receiving) portions of SMTP. Return Path Inc. Page 40 of 41
MX: A resource record in the Domain Name System specifying email messages on behalf of a recipient's domain. An MX record validates that the sender s receiving machines are configured to accept inbound mail connections for the purpose of bounce processing. Reference Seeds: Unique seed accounts placed on an email seed list. The domain for these email addresses have no filtering or blocking applied. Reputation Network: Return Path s Reputation network is an open, collaborative network that collects real time data including feedback loop and complaint data from more than 100 million inboxes operated by ISPs in the Return Path Reputation Network. All of the receivers (ISPs and filtering companies) who participate in Return Path s Reputation Network contribute aggregate, non confidential data that Return Path analyzes and uses as sources for the reputation data. Reverse DNS: A protocol that translates the sending server IP address into its hostname (host.example.com) by searching domain name service tables. RPC (Remote Procedure Call): XML/RPC is a specification and set of implementations that allow software running in different locations, operating systems, and environments to make procedure calls over the Internet using http as the transport and XML as the encoding. XML RPC is designed to be as simple as possible, while allowing complex data structures to be transmitted, processed and returned. Seed List: Email addresses placed on an email list to track delivery rate and/or rendering. A company can create a custom seed list or use a list provided by a third party vendor. Sender Score: Compiled through Return Path s Reputation Network and acting as a reputation rank, a sender score is an indication of the trustworthiness of an email source compared to other email senders. SPF Record: Sender Policy Framework is a policy published in the DNS that states which IP addresses and mail servers are allowed to send mail on a domain's behalf. ISPs check for an ISP record in order to verify that the IP the email came from is listed in the record. POP Server: The most common email server, Post Office Protocol is a mail server used by local email clients to retrieve email from a remote server. Proxy: A software design pattern or class functioning that interfaces to something else, such as: A network connection, a large object in memory, a file, etc. XML (Extensible Markup Language): A software and hardware independent tool created to structure, store, and transport information. Though XML is similar to HTML, XML was designed to carry data instead of display data. Return Path Inc. Page 41 of 41