This is really boring stuff…

I caution you, reading this is about as much fun as chewing on tin foil but it falls into the ‘you need to know’ category.

So…why would I run a business that sends emails on travel agents’ behalf when they can do it on their own for free?

1. Because they don’t! (Most of the ones that tell you they do are either exaggerating or sending sporadic blasts because they’ve read that email is cheap marketing)
    
2. Because if you send more than a few dozen emails at a time, they generally don’t reach the intended client and the ones that do, are generally labeled as SPAM.
    
3. Because the agents that have thought it through and have welcomed direct e-marketing as part of their marketing strategies know you can’t execute effectively from your office computer without spending money and dedicating time and resources.
    
4. Because it’s not your core business. You sell travel.
    

I don’t often do this but… this is an 8 second Travelwatch commercial. “We jointly (with you) design email campaigns, we deliver the campaign properly with measurable results and we price our products based on the realities of the retail travel industry.”

But let’s say you don’t believe me and you’re going to do it in-house rather than outsource it. Here’s what you’re up against.

All e-mail sent via the Internet is routed through ‘port 25’ (computer talk) so when you send an email through your computer, it always uses port 25 to transmit data. Most large North American ISP’s (Internet Service Providers – i.e. AT&T, EarthLink, Bell Canada, Rogers etc…) block ‘Port 25’ so no bulk/multi emails can be sent from a single computer. They’re not just being nasty to you, blocking the port is part of your ISP’s arsenal to fight spam unfortunately; it tends to punish the innocent along with the spammers.

But my messages are getting out you say! Yes they are, but without you knowing it, your email is actually being sent by your ISP’s servers and most large numbers of emails sent by a single address get dropped into a black hole and neither you nor your intended receiver are aware that it never got delivered.

But wait, there’s more…

Another weapon in the anti-spam arsenal are the black lists. These lists stop email from being delivered if the sending address has previously been identified as sending spam. This can be as innocent as the kid next door sending 10,000 invitations to his birthday party. I don’t want to get into technical detail but suffice it to say that you can be using a black list address and not be aware because these (IP) computer addresses are in most cases grouped and arbitrarily assigned by your ISP.

And finally there’s corporate or personal anti-spam software. This is a tough one because the parameters can be changed by individuals so the software can label your messages as spam and your e-mail ends up in a folder that will probably never be read or is totally deleted.

So, the Port 25 and Black list issues can be dealt with by using companies like mine or by doing proper research on your ISP but the anti-spam software can be mostly bypassed by developing a few simple habits that I will tell you about next week.

Stay tuned and behave,

Frank