The board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association voted to require all DMA members to use e-mail identification and authentication protocols.
“E-mail authentication protects the integrity of responsible marketers’ brands and improves the likelihood that legitimate e-mail, whether it is a marketing offer, airline ticket confirmation, or a financial statement, gets through to its intended recipient,” DMA president/CEO John Greco said at the DMA’s annual conference this week in Atlanta. “Consumers can have more confidence they are getting a legitimate, valid offer from a trusted source. Marketers get fewer false positives, increased deliverability, and better protection for their brands against illegal use. It¹s a win-win for everybody.”
The DMA estimates that legitimate commercial e-mail resulted in approximately $39 billion in sales in 2004, including about $9 billion in small-business sales.
For more on e-mail authentication: “Keeping It Real: What E-mail Authentication Means to You”
“Hotmail Implements E-mail Authentication”
“Beyond Can-Spam: E-mail Authentication”