DMA to Launch Email Reputation Registry; New Service Developed in Partnership with Return Path

July 9, 2007 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) will launch a Web-based Email Reputation Registry this summer, giving member companies unprecedented access to third-party data about their email programs. The registry, which is being developed in partnership with Return Path’s Sender Score unit, bolsters the DMA’s efforts around self-regulation in the digital marketing arena by making it easier for its 3,600 member companies to increase the integrity and value of email marketing.

“We are excited to be able to offer this unique service for our members,” said Patricia Kachura, DMA’s senior vice president for corporate responsibility. “The Email Reputation Registry will be a critical element of our efforts to help curb spam and phishing and promote higher quality email marketing. Return Path’s email reputation service and demonstrated expertise in this sector make it the perfect partner for this program.”

DMA began requiring its member companies to authenticate their outbound email in early 2006. Since then, the DMA’s consumer affairs group has been monitoring compliance with the requirement and has seen a steady increase in the percentage of members whose programs are authenticated. To help guide its members through the authentication process, DMA earlier this year launched an online Email Authentication Help Center (http://www.the-dma.org/emailauthentication).

The new Email Reputation Registry will enhance these offerings by making the monitoring and compliance process fully transparent to member companies by giving them access to the monitoring data, reports, and alerts for their IP addresses and domains. This transparency should accelerate adoption of email authentication for email marketing and corporate email, as well as improve overall email effectiveness and deliverability by providing critical reputation information.

“Email authentication is a critical technology for business, ISPs, and consumers,” said Craig Spiezle, director of online safety and security for Microsoft. “DMA’s efforts to ensure member compliance and to promote best practices will help enhance online trust and confidence while curbing online abuse for the entire ecosystem.”

In addition to email authentication, the registry will provide DMA members with access to other key metrics about their email marketing programs, including CAN-SPAM compliance related to the 10-day unsubscribe processing requirement and end-user spam complaints.

Also, the registry will include a resource center for member companies to download free whitepapers on how to implement email authentication protocols as well as other best practices to improve email infrastructure security.

Email authentication through royalty-free Internet standards like SPF, Sender ID, and DomainKeys Internet Messaging (DKIM) is an easy-to-implement, critical step in the war against spam and phishing. By authenticating its outbound email, a company enables ISPs and corporate networks to validate the identity of the actual sender of the email. This validation protects the company’s domain from spoofing and forgery, enhancing the deliverability of legitimate email while increasing the ability to detect deceptive and malicious email.

“The Email Reputation Registry enhances DMA’s leadership in email marketing and will be a pillar in the war against spam,” said Matt Blumberg, chairman & CEO of Return Path and Chairman of the DMA’s Interactive Marketing Advisory Board. “Return Path is very pleased to be able to support this exciting initiative.”

DMA’s Email Reputation Registry will launch this summer with a pilot group of member companies and is expected to be available to all members this fall.

About Sender Score

Sender Score, Return Path's Delivery Assurance Solutions division, helps mailers get more email delivered to the inbox by giving them the tools and insight to monitor and diagnose deliverability failures, build better email reputations, and minimize or prevent future blocking, filtering, and rendering problems. Sender Score works with both the sending and receiving communities to bring more transparent standards to email delivery and filtering. Return Path's delivery assurance solutions include Sender Score Monitor, Sender Score Manager, and the Internet's most widely used whitelist, Sender Score Certified. For more information, visit www.senderscore.com. Get your reputation score at www.senderscore.org.

About Return Path

Founded in 1999, Return Path is an email performance management company dedicated to helping its clients build better relationships with their customers, generate higher response rates, and achieve significant returns on their investments from their email programs. More than 1,500 companies currently use Return Path's services to generate superior results from their email programs, taking advantage of Return Path's pioneering innovations in deliverability, email list quality solutions, customer acquisition, online market research, and best practices strategy. For more information, please visit www.returnpath.net.

# # #