A reputation is
a terrible thing to lose

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Return Path have launched the DMA Reputation Registry, which helps members determine whether their mailing IPs are authenticated.

Pointing out that authentication is among the factors that influences email marketing deliverability, CEO Matt Blumberg of Return Path warned, "it will become an increasingly important factor and it is even possible that some receivers will outright block any email that isn't authenticated."

Authentication technology enables ISPs to verify the source of an email, and determine whether that source is authorized to send the emails it is deploying. Three years ago, the DMA required its members to authenticate all outbound messages.

The Reputation Registry is intended to make compliance easier. Email marketers merely enter their company IP in the Registry database to see if their email is authenticated. If it isn't, the technology tell them what to do to get compliant.

"It's not a silver bullet because it doesn't speak to the quality coming off that server and there are plenty of spammers smart enough to authenticate their e-mail," admitted Director-Corporate Communications Tami Forman of Return Path (via ClickZ). "But it does prevent phishing. It knows that this server is not authorized to send, say, e-mail from ebay.com."