Best Practice: Email Sender Reputation

Audrey

September 25, 2024 10:45

Overview

How can you keep your emails out of the spam folder? Having a good sender reputation will keep your emails out of the dreaded spam folder. When you send frequent email campaigns you run the risk of being identified as a source of spam. Your campaigns are more closely reviewed by spam filters and these filters sometimes mistakenly move legitimate messages into the wrong folder.

The components of a sender’s reputation are spam complaints, number of recipients, and email tiers.

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Are You Who You Say You Are?

Authenticating your From email address will maximize the deliverability of your emails and ensure your emails will not be marked as spam instantly conveying that your email can be trusted.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, use SenderID, DKIM, and SPF authentication as a way to scan incoming emails for spam, forgery, and phishing. Emails that fail authentication are more likely to land in a junk or spam folder.

To help ensure your emails reach your recipients, email marketing best practice is to authenticate your From email address using one of these respected methods:

Each of these methodologies works by using technology that adds a digital signature to your email headers. This signature validates and authorizes your domain name in the eyes of the receiver. They do not authenticate your content or tell the receiver to treat your message differently.

For information on how to authenticate your email domain, see this FAQ: Can I set the From address on my emails?

Whitelisting

Whitelisting and safe sender lists are similar terms that result in allowing email to flow through spam filters to the recipient email inbox. Safe sender lists target an email address while a whitelist can target an email address or domain.

Ask recipients to add your from email address to their contact list. This will help your messages to bypass the filters and land directly in the recipient’s Inbox.
Encourage recipients to add the from address to the safe sender list in every email campaign you send out. Learn more about From Address
You can add the marketer to your Contacts. You should also consider adding ZiftONE email addresses to your contact lists so that you receive your Test emails. Learn more about Whitelisting.

Avoid Spam Traps with Quality Contact Lists

Most Internet service providers use filters to sort legitimate email from the junk or spam. Take the time to build and maintain your subscriber lists for the highest return on your investment and to avoid spam complaints. As a marketing automation platform, we are obligated to enforce anti-spam laws. This means we have some requirements you should be aware of in our Terms and Conditions of Use

If you have purchased a list, you are in danger. Purchased lists often contain inactive, useless email addresses that will only slow you down by causing bounces.

Here are some ways to build a quality contact list:

Only add subscribers who have specifically requested to receive your emails. Having a business relationship with an individual or a business doesn’t mean it’s okay to add them to your mailing list. If you automatically add contacts or if your sign up process is unclear, recipients may flag your email as spam.
Before adding recipients to a contact list, ensure that you have the proper permission for each and every recipient on the list. Why? Without proper permission you run the risk of getting reported for spam or worse, being sued under anti-spam or privacy laws. The basic principle of permission is that you can only email people who have explicitly given you permission to contact them, and only about subjects that the recipient has agreed to. Focus on Sender Permissions and receive explicit permission before sending emails.
Direct people to sign up on a web form.

Bounces

When you send out marketing emails, you often receive bounce-back messages alerting you to out of date email accounts. It is important that you take action and remove any bounced addresses from your mailing lists.

Complaints, bounces, and unsubscribes all indicate the health and overall quality of a list. They are not only a direct representation of how happy your recipients are in receiving your emails, but they serve as a report card for your email marketing practices as a whole.

If engaging content is sent regularly to a list of people who are waiting to open the email, these numbers should be 0 (or very close to it). Each complaint or hard bounce generated is a mark against the account. If someone unsubscribes from a list, they are indicating to a sender that the emails sent are no longer of any interest to them.

You can follow the guidelines below to understand how our Email Service Provider monitors your account:

Consistent Marketing Activity: You should send an email at least once every 6 months.
High Engagement: Engagement is based on the open/click-throughs of emails you send.
Complaints: Expected results: 0.10% Should never exceed: 0.25%.
Hard bounces should never exceed 5% Expected results: 0% - 1% Should never exceed: 5%.
Unsubscribes should never exceed 1%.
Low/no SPAM complaints

Monitor your list for inactive subscribers. You can Suppress or create a Do Not Contact list of subscribers who have not opened in 3 months, 6 months, or whatever time frame you are comfortable with.

Email Frequency

Another best practice is to deliver what you promise. If you promise weekly updates, deliver weekly updates. Not only should your emails be personal and relevant but you want your recipients to look forward to receiving your emails. If your emails do not hit these three top factors, should you be sending the email?