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Your Feedback Loop Rates Part II

Article by Tony Patti CATEGORIES: Deliverability TAGS: , , ,

Are you paying attention to your Feedback Loop Rates? Part II

By Tony Patti CIPP/US – VP of Deliverability & Privacy Compliance

Last time we discussed what FBLs are and why they’re important to your inbox deliverability rates.

To review – many ISPs offer Feedback Loops, or FBLs, which convey information about spam reports to the sender, and can prove invaluable in gauging the health of a list. Almost all ISPs require that the domain(s) sending the message have correctly authenticating SPF and DKIM, and functioning postmaster@ address(es). An ESP typically has FBLs set up as part of their service.

This week we’ll give you details on the 14 ISP FBL programs, how to sign up for them and what specific complaint percentage targets each one has.

Let’s start with the top 4 webmail ISPs:  Outlook, Yahoo, AOL & Gmail.

  1. Microsoft Outlook (formerly Hotmail/Live Mail) JMRP: Microsoft calls their FBL program the Junk Mail Reporting Program. The JMRP along with their SNDS service (Smart Network Data Services) comprise the Microsoft Postmaster Program and allow senders to monitor their email traffic, IPs and complaints for all Microsoft email domains.  Details on enrolling your mailing IPs are at the Microsoft Postmaster site: https://mail.live.com/mail/postmaster.aspx  

 

For reference, more than 30% of the IPs sending mail to Microsoft Outlook keep their complaint rate at less than 0.03% and this represents a good target.

 

  1. Yahoo:  For Yahoo’s FBL program you will need to have your email DKIM signed and you’ll also need a Yahoo ID to apply for and manage your Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop. (CFL according to them — great another acronym).  For more information on the Yahoo CFL or to enroll or manage an existing CFL go here:  https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN3438.html

 

Your target complaint rate for Yahoo should be no higher than 0.03%

 

  1. AOL: AOL’s FBL program is similar to others and uses a special format called ARF to return complaints to your complaint address. ARF stands for Abuse Reporting Format which enables a machine process to automate the task of extracting the recipient’s emai address from the complaint email.  You can apply for the AOL FBL program here: https://postmaster.aol.com/fbl-request

 

FBL complaints rates at AOL should also be kept below 0.03%

 

  1. Gmail: Gmail does not have a traditional FBL program like other ISPs. They do not provide you with an individual complaining email address to remove from your list. Instead they provide you with aggregate complaint stats on your mail streams.  If your mail is properly authenticated with SPF & DKIM, your sender reputation is clean and you have your List-Unsubscribe headers correctly configured your complaining recipients will be presented with an unsubscribe link if they click the spam button on your message.

 

Full information on the Google FBL program is available at the Google Postmaster site here:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652?hl=en

Other ISPs

Here are links to the other major feedback loops.  Be aware that ISPs are not required to provide FBLs and may change their requirements or remove the FBL at any time.

  • BlueTie – http://feedback.bluetie.com/
  • Cox – http://fbl.cox.net/ PAGE 11 OF 22
  • Earthlink – https://support.earthlink.net/articles/customer-service/collection-of-best-practices-for-email-senders-on-the-earthlink-network.php
  • FastMail – http://fbl.fastmail.fm/
  • ItaliaOnLine – http://fbl.italiaonline.it/
  • Mail.ru – https://postmaster.mail.ru/
  • Rackspace – http://fbl.apps.rackspace.com/
  • Synacor – http://fbl.synacor.com/
  • Telenor – http://fbl.online.no/
  • Terra Brasil – http://fbl.mail.terra.com.br/index.php?lang=en_US.utf8
  • Time Warner Cable – http://feedback.postmaster.rr.com/
  • Tucows (OpenSRS) – http://fbl.hostedemail.com/
  • United Online – http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/whitelisted.html
  • USA.net – http://fbl.usa.net/
  • XS4ALL – http://feedbackloop.xs4all.nl/
  • Yandex – http://yandexfbl.senderscore.net/
  • Zoh-– http://fbl.zoho.com/