• by August 30, 2007

Lyris' EmailAdvisor ISP Deliverability Report Card for the second quarter found a rise in the number of email sender authentication checks. For the first time, Lyris said, Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authentication checks made the list of the top ten content triggers checked by ISPs.

Also, according to the study, permission-based email messages make it to U.S. ISP inboxes roughly 75 percent of the time. Neither of the top two performers even made the top ten in the previous quarter--number one AIM.com with 97% inbox delivery, and number two RoadRunner SoCal at 87%. The remainder of the top ten--all of which achieved inbox delivery rates higher than 80 percent--were Verizon, USA, CompuServe, iWon, AOL, Juno, Mac and NetZero.

The study also found that 16% of permission-based emails sent to U.S.-based ISPs still land in the junk/bulk folder almost of the time. XO Concentric led in this respect, with 56%, followed by SBC Global and Bell South, at 30% each, Yahoo at 26%, and MSN Network, GMail and Hotmail all tied at 18%. PeoplePC, USA and EarthLink also made the top 10. At the other end of the spectrum, Lyris said, AOL only rejected 1.94% of emails.

In other email marketing news on Wednesday, San Francisco-based interactive agency Red Bricks said it had added acquisition, retention and other email programs to its line of services, with initial clients including Seagate, [x+1], Terabitz, and PictureItPostage.

Red Bricks Media said it has been running a number of pilot email marketing campaigns for clients over the past 2 years.

The Lyris study measured the full delivery trajectories of more than 436,000 permission-based email marketing messages using ISP domains in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. From a period beginning April 1, 2007 and ending June 30, 2007, the Lyris EmailAdvisor service monitored the full delivery trajectories of 436,558 production level, permission-based email marketing messages sent from 69 different businesses and non-profit organizations to multiple accounts at 58 ISP domains in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.