News From Coravue

Coravue Certified Opt-In Certificate Solves the “False Positive” Spam Problem

Opt-in certificate allows spam filters to identify genuine opt-in messages.

LOS ANGELES, CA — January 27, 2003 — Coravue, Inc. announced today that its Coravue Opt-In Certificate allows "whitelist" spam filters to guarantee delivery of e-mail to genuine opt-in subscribers.

The certificate helps marketers and publishers overcome the problem of spam filters blocking genuine opt-in newsletters when content is similar to spam messages.

The Coravue Opt-In Certificate is an encrypted certificate that is inserted only in newsletters to subscribers who have opted in using a hidden online form. The Coravue Mail service, which is used by marketers and publishers, now automatically inserts the Coravue Opt-In Certificate in e-mail newsletters to identify genuine opt-in subscribers.

How the Certificates are Used

The Coravue Opt-In Certificate can be used in three ways:

• Subscribers can create filters that use the certificate to identify requested newsletters and make sure they are not accidentally deleted.
• Corporate e-mail systems can use the certificate in enterprise-wide e-mail filtering to ensure that opt-in messages are delivered to employees.
• Commercial spam filter software can use the certificate to improve filtering accuracy by ensuring that certified e-mail messages are not marked as "spam."

"Spam filters using our certificates are 100% effective in identifying subscribers who have chosen to receive the newsletters we host for clients," said Cliff Allen, Coravue's president.

Creating Certificates

The opt-in subscription forms used by Coravue's hosting clients contain special programming that store an encrypted certificate number in a subscriber's profile. Then, a subscriber's encrypted certificate number is automatically inserted into the header area of the e-mail newsletters they receive. This means that while opt-in subscribers obtained through offline methods, such as call centers, trade shows, and salespeople, are valid subscribers, they are not certified opt-in subscribers and do not receive an opt-in certificate.

Improving Filter Accuracy with Certificates

Spam filters have become very good at blocking e-mails containing a wide variety of words and phrases — sometimes too good.

"Spam filter software has been a big thorn in the sides of legitimate e-mail publishers, as it often blocks our newsletters from reaching opt-in subscribers," said Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," who is an expert on e-mail newsletter marketing and author of Boost Business With Your Own E-zine (www.EzineQueen.com). "Finally, Coravue has created what we've been waiting for — a viable and simple solution to help ensure that our publications are actually reaching our readers!"

Newsletter subscribers can improve the accuracy of filtering by creating a "whitelist" filter that looks for their Coravue certificate and stores those newsletters in an appropriate mailbox. When the Coravue Opt-In Certificate "whitelist" filter is processed before any "blacklist" spam filters, all newsletters containing a Coravue certificate are guaranteed to avoid spam filters.

Corporations can use the Coravue certificate by whitelisting the Coravue Opt-In Certificate to ensure that their employees receive newsletters that they have requested.

The Coravue Opt-In Certificate can also be used by spam filtering software companies to assure their customers that genuine opt-in mail is not accidentally marked as spam.

"Trusted Sender" versus Certification

"Trusted sender" approaches reduce spam by obtaining promises from corporations that all their employees and publishing clients will follow anti-spam guidelines, but this approach does not actually block senders from spamming.

However, Coravue's technology-based system monitors every e-mail address — from subscription to newsletter distribution — and guarantees that only messages to certified opt-in subscribers contain an encrypted certificate.

Benefits to Marketers and Publishers

The spam problem has caused many companies, ISPs, and individuals to use spam filtering software in an attempt to reduce the aggravation spam presents. Many spam e-mails mimic legitimate opt-in e-mail so it's hard for spam filtering software to accurately distinguish between the two. This results in many newsletters being discarded without the subscriber knowing they have lost their newsletter issues.

Lower delivery rates cause a decline in the "open rate" (percent of subscribers opening a particular newsletter issue) and "clickthrough rate" (percent clicking on a link).

As the use of Coravue's certificate in "whitelists" increases, the number of opt-in newsletters delivered increases. For marketers this means that newsletters containing product information and special offers will actually reach the people who have opted into their list.

Publishers using the Coravue certificate will reach more of their subscriber base, which means advertisers will receive exposure to a higher percentage of the audience.

Pricing and Availability

There is no charge to publishers and marketers to use the Coravue Opt-In Certificate because the certification process is built into the Coravue Mail service. This means that newsletter publishers only pay their standard Coravue hosting fee — and no surcharge or premium to send certified opt-in newsletters.

In addition, for a limited time each marketer and publisher who begins using Coravue's e-mail hosting service will receive one million free certified opt-in e-mail messages as part of the "Feel Like A Million" promotion.

More information about the Coravue Opt-In Certification — and the "Feel Like A Million" promotion — is available at http://www.coravue.com/optin .

About Coravue, Inc.

Coravue provides marketers with an integrated suite of Web-based marketing communications and sales applications, including lead management, personalized Web and e-mail, and sales force automation. The personalization functions of the Coravue Connect applications make it easy for marketers to apply one-to-one relationship marketing techniques by tailoring online and offline marketing materials to each individual.

More information about Coravue is available at the company's Web site located at http://www.coravue.com .

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