You can help fight spam and ensure the deliverability of your own messages by following these rules from StrongMail's director of deliverability services.

According to the Radicati Group, spam accounted for 74 percent of all consumer email traffic in 2005-- a number that is expected to climb to 85 percent by 2009. Another report estimates spam costs companies about $20 billion a year in lost productivity and computer costs. Unfortunately for email marketers, as more spam clogs America's inboxes, more customers and prospects will ignore and delete legitimate opt-in messages.

All of us involved in email marketing have a responsibility to do our parts in the fight against spam. One way is to make sure that your email technology platform or service provider leverages the latest throttling limits, bounce codes and other ISP rules to ensure that your email doesn't cross over into the parameters they set for spam. Email technology vendors and ESPs often offer deliverability services that can help you mimimize any potential issues that might arise.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about how much spam is out there and what can be done about it. On September 19, Catherine Holahan wrote an article about the rising costs of fighting spam. Within a week, I received a number of emails from both colleagues and clients asking for my thoughts on the subject. It made me realize that we need to have a more open dialogue about the role in the fight against spam.

Steps to stop spam
Even as the ISPs spend money to protect their users from receiving these messages, marketers are trying to figure out ways around those filters to make sure they get in the inbox. So what can you, as a permission-based marketer, do to help in the fight?

First and foremost, obey the law.

• Make sure you are CAN-SPAM compliant. This should be standard operating procedure for any email marketer.
• Know and adhere to the laws of other countries you send to.
• Keep up with legislation as it changes in an attempt to close the loopholes and broad interpretations being exploited by spammers.

Engage your subscribers.

• Don't be afraid to ask subscribers to personally whitelist you by adding you to their address books.
• Always get the recipients' permission and show respect for their privacy.
• Give them easy ways to opt out to avoid them perceiving you as a spammer.
• Ask subscribers for their preferences and act on them. Keeping your messages relevant will improve brand perception and the likelihood that they'll want to continue receiving your messages.
• When people opt in, set expectations of what you'll be sending and how often to keep them from reporting you for spamming.

Get help from the experts.

• Most email technology providers and ESPs now have deliverability teams. Build a good relationship with this group.
• If you are planning something you think might cause a problem, call the deliverability team first. They will most likely be able to predict the problems you might encounter and help you make adjustments to accomplish your goals.
• Get whitelisted with all major ISPs that offer this service. This will allow you to be recognized as a "legitimate/consent based sender."
• Verify that you've implemented some, if not multiple, authentication methodologies.
• Implement a seedlisting test schedule to ensure the ISPs view your messages in a positive light.
• Set up weekly or monthly meetings with your ESP's deliverability team. Use these meetings to discuss metrics as well as plans for the following sending cycles.
• Verify that the technology provider or ESP is a member of various professional associations and coalitions so they can stay current on emerging issues, learn new best practices and build relationships with ISPs and other providers.

Continually monitor campaign activity.

• Monthly or daily monitoring of campaign activity is critical to identifying and resolving deliverability issues, bounces and ISP conflicts.

Keep your lists up to date.

• Dirty data can raise unwarranted suspicions of spam activity. Delete addresses that bounce after a set number of attempts.
• Be cautious about renting lists.
• Always remove subscribers' names immediately on request.
• Ensure lists are based on recipients who have opted-in.

Manage bounces.

• Keep your lists clean. Check for incorrectly formatted addresses, invalid domains and typographical errors.
• Insist that your technology provider or ESP provide you with the type of granular delivery reports that enable you to proactively manage your list and marketing practices.
• Pre-test your emails before sending to your entire list by sending a test to yourself and others. Be sure to include all the major email services used by your recipients.
• Prompt customers to update information when they're making transactions.
• Set and adhere to a bounce threshold, or the number of bounces that must occur in a given period before an email address is purged.
• Include subscription/account management links in emails for easy updating of email addresses.
• Monitor delivery rates by domain, and particularly those most important to you. If one is significantly different or you experience a sudden change, you may have a filtering or blacklist problem.
• Remove "spam flag" addresses that can be added to your list maliciously. Examples are abuse@somedomain.com, postmaster@somedomain.com and nospam@antispam.net.
• Confirm email addresses by sending a welcome message when a user subscribes, registers or makes a purchase. If that message bounces, attempt to correct it right from the start. 

Adjust for spam filter rules.

• Score email campaigns against filtering rules before sending them. This way you can make changes to your message if needed before you send it.
• Proactively seek good relationships with ISPs in order to better understand their requirements.

The fight against spam will only be won through a collaborative effort. By following these guidelines, not only will you be more likely to get your messages into the inbox but by doing so you are helping the ISPs fight spam. The ISPs want to make sure that their customers get the mail that they want and they want to know exactly who is sending to them. Follow these rules and you will build a positive reputation with the ISPs rather then having them wonder if you are spamming their customers.

Spencer Kollas is director, deliverability services, StrongMail Systems. Read full bio.