ad:tech Sydney: Here We Come!

March 11th, 2010

G’day mate! If you just so happen to be in the neighborhood of Sydney, Australia on March 16 – 17 for ad:tech, feel free to stop by Stand 38 and say hi to either our CEO, Jim Mansfield, our Director of Sales, Loren Zimmerman or our Australian Account Manager, Bryan Richey. We’ve got a lot of exciting things going on and want to know how we can work together.

For even more excitement, come by the stand around 2 p.m. on March 16th for our live aussieprizes.com.au drawing! You won’t want to miss it!

If you’d like to set up an appointment ahead of time, send us an email – appointments@intela.com. See you there!

Understanding New Spamhaus Launch

March 5th, 2010

As stated in one of my previous posts, Spamhaus was planning on launching their domain block list on March 1, 2010. In order to fight against spam more efficiently, Spamhaus decided to add this new feature to their arsenal (already composed of SBL the Spamhaus Block List, XBL the Exploits Block List, PBL the Policy Block List). This list is now available for system administrators all around the globe and will be used as a uri blocklist as well as a RHSBL (right hand side block list). In other words, this will trap everything on the right hand side of the @ sign. Spamhaus officials stated that even though this list is primarily destined to trap URI inside the body of the email, it can also be used for checks at the SMTP level such as: HELO, connecting IP or DNS domain, From & Reply-To domains, Message-ID domain. This list is considered as a “zero false positive list” according to Spamhaus and there are serious implications for marketers.

First of all, it is important to understand the concept of “false positive”. Every spam filter out there is bound to generate false positives and always need tweaking to reduce them to a minimum. A false positive is (in spam filter terms) an email or a characteristic related to an email being trapped as malicious or spammy by mistake. To simplify things, one could describe it as an email which has been trapped by a glitch in the filter when it should have been delivered. By considering this list as a “zero false positive list” Spamhaus certainly implies that the margin for mediation for marketers flagged on that list is next to zero. Indeed, based on their statement, anybody appearing on that list will be there for a good reason: spamming activity. It is important for marketers to keep this in mind and make sure that their domains don’t appear on this list. Maintaining a limited number of well monitored domains is key.

Additionally, list hygiene and a strong opt-in process are essential to eliminate the possibility of emailing spam traps (main source of information for spam filters).  Thus far in 2010, we are witnessing a big shift from IP reputation and blacklists to domain based reputation and blacklists. In order to comply to ISPs’ standards and maintain high deliverability and ROI, marketers must adapt.

By:

Martin Ebongue, European Email Delivery Manager

OMExpo Madrid is Big Hit with Intela Team

March 3rd, 2010

The OMExpo in Madrid on February 24 – 25 was a successful venture for a handful of Intela team members. The venue’s location and how everything was set up was great. The turnout was amazing and our team met a lot of new people and made quite a few connections. It was fantastic to see all the interest from so many foreigners to work with our US based company. Plus, we have quite a diverse staff and it certainly helped to have multi-lingual members with us.

We look forward to working with everyone we met and anticipate next year’s show!

If you’d like to contact our sales team, please send an email to sales@intela.com.

An Overdue Introduction

February 12th, 2010

Although it’s only been a month, Intela’s newest US sales team addition is fitting in like he’s been here for years.

Josh Krogh hails from the lovely state of Montana.  Most of his youth was spent behind a piano and on the basketball court, which lead him west to sit the bench for the Pacific Lutheran University basketball team in Tacoma, WA.  After realizing his future did not include wearing Lakers purple, he thought riding the mountains in Colorado would be a better fit.

Josh has spent the last three years honing his affiliate manager skills in the internet marketing industry while spending his weekends shredding the Rockies.

He is addicted to keeping a clean shoe game, does a mean Michael Jackson impersonation, favorite yoga position is Savasana,  and can be found not coming to a complete stop on his scooter.

(Josh also apparently refers to himself in the third person because he wrote the majority of this — verbatim.)

Intela Turns Four!

February 2nd, 2010

On February 2, 2006, Jim Mansfield signed the official papers incorporating Intela. Soon after, Paul Mansfield, Jennifer Mansfield and Ryan Wilson officially joined Jim in his new venture. They all had the aspiration to build a successful business but none of them knew it would happen with such impact and so quickly.

What Jim started as an email company in Boulder, Colorado has grown to become a leading international agency specializing in customer acquisition through email marketing, lead generation and a global affiliate network. By the end of 2006, Intela had only 11 employees and occupied part of a small suite in a two-suite office building.

As the years have progressed, Intela has opened an office in the UK, opened for business in Australia, France and Spain, and currently employs 47 people in the U.S. and Europe.

With the recent acquisition of $7.25 million to grow the business to new heights, there are no limits on Intela’s potential for the future. They will continue to expand throughout Europe and explore all other possibilities.

E-Marketing Show Highlights

February 1st, 2010

On January 26th and 27th Intela’s staff including myself attended the E-marketing show in Paris Porte maillot. The show was a huge success, according to the event planner, and attracted a large number of French players of the digital market.

Amongst others, ESPs, lead generation companies and list providers where present to gather contacts and generate news leads and business opportunities. In parallel, several conferences and various topics were held by representatives of various French companies and international companies present on the French market.

The subjects of the conferences reflected clearly the current trends and challenges of the digital market:

The surge in smart phone usage around the world and on the French market:

  • Around 30% of males under 35 declare reading their emails on smart phones. Advertisers must now take this into account when building their creatives and make sure that they are adapted to this kind of display. In addition smart phone allow users to read their emails at any time instead of at fixed time slots during the day

The increasing usage of social networking sites:

  • Social networking sites are very powerful tools for viral marketing, as experts observed that 70% of users would read an email or offer shared or passed down by one of their contacts on a social networking site. Advertisers are starting to adapt their strategies to incorporate this powerful media and showing more and more interest in multichannel marketing.

Behavioral targeting and engagement:

  • One of the biggest changes in the digital world this year is the integration of engagement metrics in spam filters and it is essential for advertisers to adapt if they want to survive. Therefore, a lot of conferences were organized around engagement and customer relationship management to better understand and know users.

Indexing and web site optimization:

  • Another hot topic was the visibility of one’s web site of search engines. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) combined with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are tools available for advertisers to considerably increase the visibility of their website on the internet.

All in all, this was a very positive show for Intela as it allowed us to gather contacts, potential partners and affiliates for the future.

By: Martin Ebongue, European Email Delivery Manager

Intela @ ASW2010

January 26th, 2010

DKIM Authentication Protocol

January 22nd, 2010

What is DKIM?

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an authentication protocol developed in order to address the security problem of spoofing, phishing, forged e-mail messages, and other fraudulent practices for underlying email sending technology. DKIM is an enhanced protocol of DomainKeys with the adoption of certain aspects of Identified Internet Mail. DKIM is the result of combined efforts from Yahoo! and Cisco amongst other supporters.

Why has DKIM become essential?

DKIM authentication technology allows supporting Internet Service Providers (ISP) to confirm the identity of the sender. If the identity of the sender cannot be authenticated, email messages will result in additional anti-spam filtering to determine if messages should be delivered to inbox, bulk or rejected. Without DKIM authentication, senders chances of being filtered or blocked by major ISPs are greatly increased.

As previously mentioned, DKIM authentication is important because it allows ISPs to verify the originating source; preventing phishing scams, domain forgery, and other fraudulent practices. DKIM authentication plays a key role in the emerging reputation and accreditation systems that will drive the future of email. As a legitimate business, authentication is not optional; rather it is essential to securing your brand and online reputation.

DKIM is now the key component of the newly developed domain reputation systems allowing senders like Intela to benefit from the numerous advantages of domain reputation: domain whitelist / enhanced whitelist and more importantly reputation portability from one IP to the other.

How does the DKIM authentication protocol work?

Generally, ISPs utilize two primary methods of authentication: IP and cryptographic.

1. The IP solution ties a responsible sending domain back to a set of permitted IP addresses, which requires publishing text (TXT) records in the Domain Name System (DNS) record for each of your domains. Essentially, this solution validates the origin of e-mail messages by verifying the IP address of the sender against the alleged owner of the sending domain.

Examples of an IP-based solution are SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and Sender ID, which has been adopted by over 10 million domain holders worldwide.

2. Cryptographic authentication signs each message in a way that is difficult to forge and designed to verify the DNS domain of an e-mail sender and the message integrity, proving that the message came from the indicated sending domain and provides senders with a consistent reputation across their domain regardless of what IPs mail it’s sent from.

Examples of a cryptographic solution are Yahoo! DomainKeys and DKIM.

AOL supports SPF (IP solution) and DKIM (Cryptographic authentication).

Microsoft (Hotmail, MSN, and Exchange) supports Sender ID (IP solution) which provides additional input to their SmartScreen junk email filtering process.

Yahoo! supports DomainKeys (Cryptographic authentication) and DKIM (Cryptographic authentication).

Gmail supports DomainKeys (Cryptographic authentication), DKIM (Cryptographic authentication), and SPF (IP solution).

Presently, there is no single method accepted by all ISPs. However, a consensus seems to grow around DKIM and there are more and more adopters of this protocol.

The majority of smaller ISPs are relying on some or all of these methods to authenticate email senders. In addition, businesses must broadly adopt authentication across all their domains, not just those associated with large volume commercial email.

This means domains used for corporate email, customer support and other services. While most online fraud is associated with high-profile marketing domains, without authentication it is possible for any of your domains to be spoofed — and compromise critical business functions.

DKIM: The ultimate solution to all deliverability problems?

It’s important to note that DKIM and other authentication protocols will not fully resolve deliverability problems. Validating a domain does not reflect positively upon the content or value of the message, only to the identity of the responsible sender.

DKIM and other authentications will make it harder for your domains to be forged and it is critical to your deliverability since most ISPs make authentication a requirement for inclusion on a white list. However, authentication will not compensate for weak sender email practices pertaining to content, permission standards, bounce handling, complaints, or filter triggers.

By: Martin Ebongue, European Email Delivery Manager

AS West a Hit for Intela!

January 20th, 2010

The Intela team got back to Boulder in one piece and once again, had a great show! We enjoyed meeting everyone that stopped by the booth! Hopefully we can do some business together or collaborate on some projects to continue our success.

If you didn’t get a chance to chat with the team and would like to discuss opportunities with us, send an email to sales@intela.com. See you at the next show!

Intela Raises $7.25 Million to Grow European Business

January 18th, 2010

SPORTINGBET FOUNDER MARK BLANDFORD JOINS AS NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Intela Global Ltd (“Intela”), a performance-based lead generation and email marketing company, announces that it has raised $7.25m (£4.5m) in additional capital to fund European expansion and appointed Mark Blandford and James Stoddart to its board of directors.

The completion of the fundraising will see $5 million of new equity invested by funds managed and advised by Bestport Ventures LLP (“Bestport”) whilst ETV Capital SA will provide facilities and loans amounting to $2.25 million. Jim Mansfield, founder and CEO of the Company, retains a majority shareholding.

With offices in Boulder Colorado and London, Intela was founded in 2006 and has since grown rapidly to become an internet marketing company with a strong reputation and more than $20 million in annual revenue. Intela is one of the leading email marketing companies in the UK. It designs and manages online campaigns encompassing email marketing, lead generation, and affiliate advertising for clients including the Accident Advice Helpline, Citroën, T-Mobile and William Hill.

Following the successful fundraising, Mark Blandford and James Stoddart will join Intela’s board as non-executive directors. Mr. Blandford founded Sportingbet PLC in 1997 and later led its listing on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM). In 2002, he was voted AIM Entrepreneur of the Year.

James Stoddart is a co-founder of Bestport and has extensive experience of investing in venture capital opportunities in the UK. Mr. Stoddart has backed a number of successful businesses including Active Hotels Ltd, Cassium Technologies Ltd, Mfuse and Dr Foster Ltd.

Jim Mansfield, CEO of Intela, commented “The new structure and the additional funding will enable Intela to further grow its business in Europe from its operational base in the US. It has a proven business model in the UK which it will now roll out to Australia, France, Spain and other European countries. This is an exciting phase in the development of Intela and we’re pleased to welcome Mark and James to our board.”

James Stoddart, Partner, Bestport Ventures LLP, commented “Intela has experienced rapid growth and has excellent prospects to continue this by moving into the European market which continues to flourish, despite the current economic climate. Bestport has the opportunity to add value through our experience and contacts, as well as providing expansion capital to enable management to maximise their potential. By investing in strong management teams through the economic cycle we can help businesses capitalise on the best opportunities ahead of recovery and sustained growth.”

For further information please visit www.intela.com or call

Intela Global
Jim Mansfield, CEO
Tel: +44(0)207 437 0007

Bestport Ventures
James Stoddart, [Partner]
Tel: +44 020 7487 2555

Tavistock Communications
Matt Ridsdale
Tel: +44 020 7920 3150

Notes to Editors

About Intela Global Ltd.
Intela is a performance-based lead generation and email marketing company based in London with its operational center at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. In addition to the UK, Intela provides programs and distribution in the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Canada and Australia. Intela has the ability to acquire customers in numerous international markets using email marketing, Intela-owned web properties and promotions as well as the company’s multi-national affiliate network Crispads.com and our UK site, CrispAds.co.uk .

As a strong affiliate and developer of custom promotional and incentive properties, Intela has been able to provide affiliates with access to high paying unique programmes built by Intela and its stable of exclusive merchants. Through CrispAds, Intela offers affiliates and merchants personal service and clear terms of payment and tracking. Intela’s CrispAds programmes are ideal for affiliates of any traffic type and are particularly good for email, social media, hosted sites, co-registration, incentive and PPC.