Every organization that sends out emails are assigned a score by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This score is the sender reputation that can affect the deliverability of your email campaigns. Hence, email marketers should always strive to practice the below tips to maintain a good sender reputation. If your reputation suffers, your emails may be blocked by the ISPs as spam.
We have mentioned many times previously that buying an email list is a big no-no. It’s a waste of time and money as you’ll get lots of fake emails, honeypots, etc. Sending emails to a bought list is a guaranteed way to get your mail server domain or IP address blacklisted. Nobody likes to be sent emails without signing up for those newsletters.
When complying with anti-spam regulations, email marketers should not just put an unsubscribe link in all marketing emails just for appearance sake. Whenever a reader clicks on the unsubscribe link, they should be given the option to confirm that they want to unsubscribe from your mailings.
Alternatively, you can let them choose which types of newsletters they wish to receive or not. After the reader has updated their choices, respect their wishes. If they no longer want to receive any emails from you, then unsubscribe them. Don’t attempt to send them any more marketing emails unless they subscribe again.
If you are not already familiar with this, email marketing campaigns should be sent through an Email Service Provider (ESP). An ESP allows you to monitor important campaign metrics, including email bounce rates and the reasons behind failed deliveries.
If you identify any email addresses with hard bounces, remove them from your mailing list immediately. A hard bounce indicates a permanent delivery failure, meaning future emails are unlikely to reach those addresses.
Some ESPs automatically remove or unsubscribe email addresses that generate hard bounces to help maintain list quality and protect your sender reputation. In such cases, no additional action is required.
Just as you would not immediately trust a total stranger, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are also cautious about senders who suddenly send large volumes of emails to their users. Sending a high volume of emails from a new IP address or domain can negatively affect your sender reputation and may result in emails being blocked or sent to spam folders.
To avoid this, you should perform IP warming by gradually increasing your email sending volume over time. Start by sending a small number of emails to engaged recipients at the ISP, then slowly increase the volume as your sending reputation improves.
Without regular maintenance and cleaning of your mailing list, your email bounce rate may increase over time. This can happen for several reasons, such as recipients changing their email addresses, employees leaving organizations, domains expiring, or mail servers becoming inactive.
To reduce bounce rates and maintain good email deliverability, you should regularly validate your email list using MailboxValidator Bulk Email Validation. Ideally, perform email verification before every major email marketing campaign to ensure you are sending messages only to valid and deliverable addresses.
A good sender reputation is worth the efforts we’ve mentioned above. When you have a good reputation, your emails will have a high deliverability rate. In tandem, you should also see your open & click rates go up. As email marketers know, open & click rates can heavily influence your sales conversion to boost your revenue. So, follow these 5 tips and your marketing journey will result in favorable results for your earnings.
