Evan Burke from Lyris talks about the changes to Spamcop, an IP-based blacklist by Cisco & on issues which contribute to Spamcop listing. http://blog.lyris.com/ to accelerate your digital & email marketing campaigns.

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Lyris Connections Blog
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Deliverability Update – Spamcop Changes
By Evan Burke
Many senders are reporting that Spamcop, a well-established IP-based blacklist
owned and operated by Cisco, recently increased its listing activity. Some sources
are indicating that Spamcop expanded its spamtrap network, adding new sources
of spamtrap data. By our measures at Lyris, IPs are getting listed about 2.5 times
as often as they were before the rollout, starting about October 23.
But don’t worry too much. Spamcop isn’t used for blocking decisions by any major ISP; for North American,
consumer-oriented lists, we’ve measured impact of less than 3% for most senders. Even so, that can be significant
–and business-oriented lists can be affected even more by a listing. So here’s our guidance on how to respond if you
find yourself listed.

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A few Spamcop facts to keep in mind:
Spamcop listings are highly dynamic. Most listings drop off within 24 hours of a spamtrap hit.
In most cases, Spamcop listings will only affect delivery to a small fraction of your list – usually less than 3%.
Spamcop’s spamtraps are primarily created from addresses which were previously valid, but haven’t been used in
at least 12 months. It will set these addresses to bounce with a “hard bounce” or “invalid” message while they are
sitting unused, so most legitimate email marketers with well-designed bounce processes will have suppressed
potential traps well before they become a problem.
Spamcop listings may also be caused by reasons other than trap hits. High complaints from its user base may
cause listings as well.
Being listed on Spamcop doesn’t mean you’ve sent spam. It may indicate you have list management or bounce
processing issues that need to be addressed, however.
Recommendations for minimizing impact:
Use a dedicated IP:
• If you’re not on a dedicated IP, mailing activity of other senders may result in a listing – even if they’re not
sending spam. Moving to a dedicated IP is the most reliable way of ensuring that you’re the only sender
affecting your deliverability.
Segment your list based on activity:
• Recipients who have opened or clicked one of your messages in the last 12 months are practically guaranteed
not to be spamtraps.
Our first recommendation is generally to send less frequently to recipients who have not opened or
clicked any messages in over six months. This is a rule of thumb – you may need to change your approach
to suit your marketing program.
If you are affected by Spamcop listings, you may need to entirely cease sending to inactives if you want to
avoid listings entirely.
This sort of segmentation can provide additional benefits – improving engagement and reducing
complaints/bounces, and improving your deliverability with major ISPs and reputation systems.
Old addresses can be a minefield for spamtraps:
• Send to your recipients regularly, not less than once every two to three months.
• Avoid emailing recipients that you haven’t sent to in nine months or more. If you can’t avoid sending to them,
expect to be listed by Spamcop as a result.
Spamcop isn’t the only blacklist you should be worried about – others use similar strategies for
creating spamtraps.
• Have a “lifecycle” strategy for managing your recipients, especially old/inactive ones. Make sure it includes a
“sunset” approach to remove recipients from your list who have never opened/clicked, or have not been active
in a very long time.
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3. lyris.comCopyright © 2014 Lyris, Inc. All rights reserved.
About Lyris Inc:
Lyris (@Lyris ) is a leading global provider of digital marketing solutions that help companies engage with customers
in more meaningful ways. Lyris products and services empower marketers to design, automate, and optimize data-
driven interactive marketing campaigns that facilitate superior engagement, increase conversions, and deliver
measurable business value. Lyris’ high-performance, secure, and flexible digital marketing platforms improve
marketing efficiency by providing automated digital message delivery, robust segmentation, and real-time digital
channel analytics. The Lyris solutions portfolio is comprised of both in-the-cloud and on-premises offerings – Lyris HQ
and Lyris LM – combined with customer-focused services and support. More than 5,000 companies worldwide partner
with Lyris to manage and execute sophisticated digital marketing campaigns across email, social, Web, and mobile
channels. Learn more at www.lyris.com.
And finally, our deliverability team here at Lyris is very experienced in helping clients resolve the sorts of issues which
contribute to Spamcop listings. Feel free to reach out if you’d like professional assistance by visiting our website or
calling 888-465-9747.
Keep up with the latest industry trends, developments and best practices for
continuously optimizing your digital marketing campaigns.
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