In the current issue of E-ZineIQ, Strongmail Systems VP Dave Lewis encourages all email marketers to get on board with email authentication. He makes a strong case that legitimate emailers need to see the future coming up which includes reputation systems and the segregation of email by class (shades of snail mail).

He also predicts that with all the new challenges to sending volumes of email, senders will need much more sophisticated technology platforms, leading to the consolidation of email marketing toward using larger and larger email service providers. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I know that it’s a heck of a lot easier for a marketing manager to delegate the technology issues than try and keep up. I hope that the technology will standardize to the point that competition among providers continues.

ChiefMarketer.com: Why E-Mail is Broken–And What to Do About It.

Fixing what’s broken with e-mail – trust and infrastructure – will yield enormous dividends to everyone in the e-mail eco-system, but especially legitimate senders. Imagine the day when trust is restored to e-mail. Your customers’ mailboxes would no longer be clogged with spam, so your messages would actually get opened and read. Delivery of your e-mail would be based on your own reputation, not on your skill at evading spam filters.