Since its launch in 2001, the compelling content and high profile subscriber base of Sherman Ventures' AustinXL daily business news has had the increasing support of a strong advertising base of Fortune 500 companies, universities, and influential organizations. This year, founder and publisher Chris Sherman leveraged the success of his XL brand to introduce three additional publications, DFWXL, HoustonXL and CareerXL. The results have been remarkable. Sherman Ventures' subscription base currently consists of more than 11,000 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, VPs, entrepreneurs, technology executives, angel investors, venture capitalists, lawyers, programmers, and marketers in the three largest Texas markets. Aptly, advertisers across markets point to the XL brand as an excellent vehicle to drive their messages into important decision maker and buyer segments.

Sherman Ventures' delivery challenges caught the personal attention of CEO Joshua Baer because he was familiar with the high-profile publication.. As Josh offers, "I was surprised to hear that Chris 'confirmed opt-in list with a top-notch reputation was facing content filtering issues. . I was convinced that the advanced reporting and content customization features of the StormPost solution would allow him to pinpoint the source and increase deliverability."

However, SKYLIST would first need to prove itself before Chris would agree to switch distribution partners. "As a daily publication, our readership depends on the timely delivery of market news in order to make decisions. Therefore, an accountable email delivery partner is absolutely key", says Chris.

Sherman Ventures' initial challenge centered on the fact that a few its subscribers were reporting that they were no longer receiving daily emails, even though their addresses were good and they had not unsubscribed. Chris wanted to know why.

The SKYLIST team employed several of our best practices based email testing procedures to reveal the cause of Sherman Ventures' delivery challenges. Many Sherman Ventures' readers subscribed to the service via corporate email addresses. At that time, several corporations were adopting aggressive content filters. In fact, industry-wide, an reported 12% of emails were being incorrectly filtered by content based software. As a result, perfectly valid emails to confirmed subscribers were being filtered by recipient content filters. This understanding provided Sherman Ventures with the information required to manage the expectations of its subscriber base. To solve this challenge for Sherman Ventures, SKYLIST embarked upon a dual approach. The first step entailed training Sherman Ventures to leverage StormPost's preventative content filtering feature to identify common flags that might be likely to trigger a filter. The second step involved contacting subscribers that had reported non-delivery for further testing and to confirm that they were again receiving their XL email. The solution was a great success. Furthermore, as Chris puts it, "While SKYLIST's technical solution was critical in addressing this particular concern, I switched distribution partners because of the SKYLIST people. The entire time I was experiencing a great challenge to my business, every member of SKYLIST that I interacted with moved Sherman Ventures one step closer to success. It often felt like members of the SKYLIST team were my own employees. "

Today, SKYLIST's relationship with Sherman Ventures continues to reach new levels of success. As Sherman Ventures publications continue to expand and its demographic targeting requirements increase in relation to advertising demands, SKYLIST is preparing to deliver time saving customized reports , and enhanced targeting features. For more information about Sherman Ventures or any of its publications, you can visit www.shermanventures.com.