Pusher Sending Policy

Since the beginning of Pusher’s existence, we have been fighting alongside the global anti-spam community (Internet Service Providers, fellow Email Service Providers and anti-spam organizations) in the raging war against spam. On a daily basis, there are email senders that impersonate legitimate brands and/or try to phish for personal information. Spam laws have been set up in certain countries and as an additional measure, we’ve created our own set of rules to protect the reputation of our clients and their intended recipients. Not only do these rules help us identify spammers, they also help increase your deliverability and build a strong sending reputation.

‍

Unfortunately, failing to observe these rules could affect your ability to send through and to use our services. In some cases, it can lead to a rate limitation on your emails, or temporary or permanent account suspension.

‍

Defined below are core statistics the Pusher team references when reviewing email accounts and sending practices. Please familiarize yourself with this chart and work to stay below these acceptable thresholds. Accounts with statistics above these numbers can face account suspension and in some cases, termination.

*Pusher reserves the right to update the parameters of the acceptable sending threshold without prior notice.

‍

Core Statistics defined:

• Bounces – Much like traditional snail mail, when a destination address cannot accept the incoming package and it gets returned to sender, bounced messages are returned to sender because the recipient address is incorrect or inactive.
• Unsubscribes – Recipients that opt out of receiving communication because they no longer want to receive communication. There are a variety of reasons customers choose to unsubscribe; some might be that they’re no longer interested in the content you’re publishing or are overwhelmed with a noisy inbox, or your content wasn’t what they were expecting.
• Blocks – Messages that do not leave Pusher servers due to a permanent error. These are email addresses that bounced in the past because they are either non-existent or invalid, or previously reported your message as spam. This also includes email addresses that resulted in complaints from recipients or did not pass through Pusher’s spam filters.
• Spam Complaints – Number of recipients that marked your message as spam.
• Spamtrap Hits – After a certain amount of inactivity, webmail providers turn email addresses into spam traps to catch senders that are using outdated lists or lists purchased, and/or obtained from third-party companies.
• Unjustified Abuse Complaint – When a recipient reports a sender for messaging without their consent.

‍

‍

Our 6 Commandments

Below are 6 commandments that you are to comply with to maximize your deliverability rates and to avoid any suspension of your account, and ultimately to help us in the war against spam.

‍

1 – ALL SENDING METRICS TO REMAIN WITHIN Pusher’S THRESHOLDS

Regular maintenance of your contact list will ensure that you are messaging an engaged audience with active email addresses. While it can vary from business to business, a good benchmark for an engaged customer is someone who has opened or clicked on an email in the past 3 to 6 months. Maintaining a list of customers who regularly read your content and find value in your messaging will result in less bounced or blocked emails. While the process of removing inactive or incorrect email addresses may make your contact list look smaller, it will significantly improve your deliverability (and sender reputation) in the long-run. Other things to keep in mind for good practices are: writing subject lines that are reflective of the content within the emails & avoiding promotional terms or common spam words.

‍

2 – ACQUIRING OR SENDING TO THIRD-PARTY MAILING LISTS IS PROHIBITED

Sending campaigns to contact lists that have been acquired (bought, exchanged or loaned) from a third party company will negatively impact deliverability and is strictly prohibited. As a result, email addresses must always be collected in a way where the recipient has explicitly opted in to receive communication. Use of lists that are bought, rented or scraped from third-parties is prohibited by law in most countries, and is absolutely prohibited on Pusher servers.

‍

3 – AN UNSUBSCRIBE LINK MUST BE INCLUDED IN EVERY CAMPAIGN

All campaigns must include a clear and concise link for recipients to easily opt-out of receiving future communication. The link must be easy for anyone to recognize, read, and understand. On your end, this unsubscription must be granted immediately, with no further emails being sent to this recipient from that moment forward.

‍

4 – THE SENDER NAME AND STATUS MUST BE CLEARLY COMMUNICATED IN EVERY MESSAGE

“From”, “To” and “Reply-To” fields must accurately and clearly identify the sender’s domain name and email address. It is important to send from domains that are at least one month old, with a transparent public domain record that redirects to the sending party’s legal pages. When sending from a different domain name on behalf of a partner or related third-party organization, the email body must clearly communicate that the message is sent via a third-party domain.

‍

5 – ONLY LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE INFORMATION CAN BE SENT WITH Pusher

Pusher does not support the sending of messages that contain, promote, reference, or link to unlawful, illegal, libelous, defamatory or violence against any individual or group and more generally affecting human rights. Moreover and unless the sender gives us sufficient and specific guarantees at Pusher’s sole discretion, Pusher does not work in principle with senders (i) who promote the following activities, whether permitted by law or not, including the following but not limited to: gambling, sexual, adult content, weapons and any explosives, tobacco or tobacco-related, drugs, political, hacking, penny stocks, forex trading and trading advice, payday loans, lead sales and work-at-home offers promoting schemes such as “get rich quick”, “build your wealth” and “financial independence”, or (ii) who send emails in the name and on behalf of third-parties (including their own customers). In general, your emails must not contain any information or content otherwise sovereignly deemed unsuitable to Pusher or harmful to the reputation of Pusher, its affiliates, partners, customers and users.

‍

If your business is regulated by an authority (i.e. medications, investments, lending, banking, gambling, betting, medicine…), you are asked to contact our sales department for a custom account instead of subscribing for a self-service account. Pusher reserves the right to request documents and relevant licenses pertaining to your activity.

‍

6 – USE OF SERVICES MUST COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS AND WITH OUR TERMS & POLICIES

Your use of our services must comply with all applicable laws and regulations in effect, as well as the General Terms and Conditions of Use, any Specific Conditions and the Privacy Policy. It is your responsibility to read and understand these terms and policies applicable to your use of our services and the emails you send.

‍

It is also your responsibility to ensure that you are not a compliance risk, and we reserve the right to restrict your rate limits and take other related actions until we can determine that you do not pose any risk to your intended recipients and/or to Pusher.