Do you know the Certified Senders Alliance? Yes, you do! This German organization which maintains one of the most important email whitelists! To give you an update on CSA, we asked Julia Janssen-Holldiek to (re)come and talk to us about the specifics of CSA.
BADSENDER - Do you have to pay to be certified and whitelisted? What is the business model of the CSA?
Julia - There is a one-time review fee, which includes legal and technical review of sample newsletters as well as review of the sender's historical reputation. Finally, the CSA Complaints and Certification Committee decides on certification. If positive, there will be a monthly fee for maintaining the whitelist.
BS - What do you call the certified (affiliates, members, customers)?
Julia - We call them Certified Shippers đ
BS - How many active certified members do you have?
Julia - There are currently 114 certified shippers
BS - How many certified people in France?
Julia - It is difficult to answer this question because many certified companies operate internationally and therefore often have offices in France. You can find all certified companies on our website under the heading " Participants ".
BS - Do you make a difference between marketing email routers and publishers of informative newsletters?
Julia - We distinguish between e-mail service providers and marketing companies. IP sovereignty on the sender's server is decisive for certification. The sender to be certified must have exclusive technical control. If this is the case, an inspection for certification can take place.
BS - How effective is CSA certification for members? Do you have any numbers?
Julia - Since we have a large number of email providers and spam filters as partners, we can't give any figures in general. Some figures and benefits can be found in this document: https://certified-senders.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Warum-sich-eine-CSA-Zertifizierung-lohnt.pdf
BS - What are the main risks of not being certified? Seeing the emails arrive in spam, but still?
Julia - There is a risk of not being sufficiently informed about legal and technical requirements, i.e. not being aware of current legislation. In addition, CSA informs certified shippers early on about reputational issues through various mechanisms so that their reputation is safeguarded.
BS - How long does the certification take?
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Julia - Depending on the sender, from 2 weeks to 2 years.
BS - What are your monitoring and control actions?
Julia - Complaints received through the Eco Complaints Committee, specially designed tools for tracking technical criteria, feedback from participating partners, spam reports, etc.
BS - Is there a large percentage of your members who lose your certification?
Julia - Generally, we are able to maintain certification in cooperation with the shipper after certification of actions taken as a result of a temporary delisting.
BS - Do you work directly with the different messaging services or with big players like Signal Spam? Is Signal Spam your only partner ? I'm interested in understanding how you work with messengers to get your white lists accepted.
Julia - Actually, we work directly with big players like Verizon Media, 1&1, Cisco, etc. when it comes to developing and complying with CSA regulations. The cooperation with partner associations like Signal Spam is more for joint communication to the outside world and for expanding the network in Europe.
BS - For your information, I subscribed to the CSA newsletter but I didn't receive anything! Is this normal?
Julia - We actually only send it quarterly (no spam;-)
BS - What are the most common emailing malpractices that make CSA certification impossible?
Julia - The biggest problem is when recipients receive emails they don't want to receive, but there are also problems with the consent statement (for example, if it contains too many sponsors) or when the customer relationship exception has been misunderstood or interpreted too broadly. Of course, the frequency with which the newsletter is sent is also a factor.
BS - Thanks a lot for this interview Julia! See you soon!
Julia - Thank you!
About Julia Janssen-Holldiek
Julia JanĂen-Holldiek leads the operational area of the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA), where she previously worked for 4 years as Manager Business Development & ISP Relations. Before working for CSA she was Sales and Marketing Manager at DELL GmbH. She studied Business Administration at the University of Cologne and at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash
