Delivering to the inbox and winning the war against spam

Today's launch of Lyris ListManager 10 sees online marketing specialist Lyris UK (www.lyris.co.uk) continue to play a key role in the industry's drive to deliver timely, relevant and valuable email to the inbox and reduce unwanted messages.  The new version of the company's flagship email marketing tool combines sophisticated technology with better availability of information to address critical deliverability issues.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now provide increasingly specific reasons, rather than a generic rejection, when they 'block' messages from reaching the inbox of the intended recipient.  Lyris ListManager 10 has been developed in response so that the software acts on the information it receives from ISPs and optimises its behaviour in order to deliver more email. Listmanager 10 also provides detailed reporting information to give greater transparency to email marketers so that they can amend their campaigns as necessary.

Andrew Robinson, managing director of Lyris UK explains:  "Good email delivered to the inbox is welcomed, but people hate spam and are equally frustrated when valid email is unnecessarily blocked.  However, the picture has improved significantly in recent years.  Today all the parties involved in email marketing recognise that they have to collaborate if the industry is to combat spam and ensure that the medium achieves its potential."

Robinson continues: "A growing 'spirit of openness' has seen ISPs become richer sources of information which in turn enables email marketers to respond by using the sophisticated capabilities of Lyris ListManager 10.

Everyone wins because less spam is delivered and more legitimate messages get in to the inbox."

Key features of Lyris ListManager 10 include:

- Mailstreams which group emails together by IP address and send out a mailing to each set in parallel (ie at the same time).  Each group can be handled differently, depending on the requirements of the specific domain, so that a high delivery rate is achieved. 

- Categorisation of 'complaints' and SMTP transactions from ISPs about why emails were blocked, so that each can be handled according to the reason for non-delivery.

- Automatic adjustment in real time to match the needs of individual ISPs.  For example Lyris ListManager 10 recognises if emails are likely to be rejected because they are being sent out too quickly and alters the send speed accordingly before the mailing. This protects an email marketer's 'sender reputation'.

- Ease of use so that the IT department does not need to be over involved in marketing activity.

In a recent Jupiter Research executive survey, 70 percent of e-mail executives said the most important considerations for selecting an email service provider are deliverability features and provider services.[1] Additionally, Forrester  reported in July 2008 that "ensuring that email messages make it to the inbox continues to be a critical challenge for email marketers, particularly as spam volumes increase and Internet service providers (ISPs) change their guidelines for which messages get delivered."[2]

1.    Jupiter Research, E-mail Marketing Buyer's Guide 2008, March

2008

2.    Forrester, The Secret to Email Deliverability, July 2008

About Lyris, Inc.

Lyris, Inc., (OTCBB:LYRI.OB), formerly J.L. Halsey, is a leading marketing technology company that provides hosted and installed software solutions for marketers at mid-size businesses. The company offers marketers an integrated technology platform through its Lyris HQ product and point solutions including ListManager, EmailLabs, ClickTracks, BidHero, Sparklist, Hot Banana and EmailAdvisor. These sophisticated, yet easy-to-use tools provide marketers a suite of best-of-breed applications for managing email marketing campaigns, publishing and managing Web site content, creating landing pages, optimizing Web sites and managing pay-per-click campaigns. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, Lyris also has offices in London.  Global clients include Nokia and Adobe, and UK clients include Arsenal FC, Chinwag, Euroffice, NET-A-PORTER and Tate Online.  For more information, please visit www.lyrisinc.com, www.lyris.co.uk, www.emaillabs.com, www.clicktracks.com, www.hotbanana.com and www.sparklist.com