Today’s is the fourth in a series of posts on contractual terms that clients want to try to get, but usually will be unable to get due to the harsh impact of reality. So far, we have considered Delivery Service Level Agreements, Inbox Guarantees, and Send Rates. Today, we turn our attention to the topic of reputation.

It seems that some people want to come up with a contractual requirement that the ESP create a positive reputation for all of their space.  That’s both correct and incorrect.  It’s because of the incorrect aspects of it that you are not likely to get this included in your contract.

But, let’s start by looking at how it is correct.  An ESP has a reputation as an entity.  That reputation is based upon a number of items.  Those things will include the general character of mail that all of its clients send, how responsive the ESP is to abuse reports concerning their clients, and a myriad of other such issues.

Rarely, some (very small part) of that reputation will be based on the person behind the curtain.  The one that they see at industry events and conferences.  This is mainly going to be tied to ESP responsiveness to ISP concerns and how well that representative can move the ESP in a friendly direction.

That reputation will not get the ESP out of being blocked.  It won’t generally get blocks removed or filters changed. What it might get is some blunt talk about where problems lie and the benefit of the doubt when the ESP sends their representative to say “We’ve fixed our problems.”

But, while the ESP has an institutional reputation, it will not be the main factor is determining reputation.  The main factor in reputation is going to be what email the ISP is getting from you.  That’s right. You determine most of your own reputation.  And, there are lots of things that you can do to improve or impair your reputation. Things ranging from how you put your list together, to how your email is put together, to the time it takes you to truly remove someone from your mail file all have some form of impact on your reputation.

It is this part that will keep reputation guarantees out of ESP contracts.  They cannot make you engage in best practices (although they can decline to do business with you if you won’t), and if those best practices are not followed, then as a rule, you can expect that your mail will take a reputation hit that no contract can fix.