Mind your sender reputation to increase deliverability
 Email marketers are constantly challenged to get as many emails delivered as possible. Yet your battle for the inbox starts long before you come up against your recipient’s spam filter. It starts with the ISP and the ISP’s opinion of your sender reputation.
Keeping your reputation clean will increase the likelihood that ISPs will let your email through. Managing that reputation, however, can be complicated. There are several critical factors that ISPs consider when determining your sender reputation. Below are some of those factors and what you can do about each to make sure you look good to the ISPs:
How long has your domain been operating?
ISPs look for longevity. Try not to change your domain over time.
How many emails do you send?
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on your frequency. Use your unsubscribe rate as a gauge of emailing too often. You might have a lot to say, but think about other ways you can get the message out rather than send another email. Can you tack on to a newsletter or merge two messages into one?
What size emails do you send?
To keep the size down, use embedded links, don’t use attachments, and make sure your images are optimized for email. A lower resolution image might have a lesser quality, but it will not be noticeable in an email.
How many bounces do you get?
Sender reputation aside, it is best practice to keep your list clean. If you do not use an Email Service Provider (ESP) that automatically eliminates hard bounces immediately and soft bounces after a few times, make sure to do that manually.
Are you sending emails to spam traps?
If you are doing legitimate, opt-in email marketing, you shouldn’t be hitting spam traps.
Are your mail server settings correct?
Make sure your IP address is on your DNS record. When a mail server is sending email on your behalf, that server needs to be listed. To check your DNS record, you can use services such as http://dnsstuff.com/.
What do third-party reputation lists say about you, including blacklists, blocklists, and accreditation services?
Sign up for a service like Pivotal Veracity’s eReputation Manager. You want a system in place that lets you know if you end up on these types of lists.
How are your emails configured?
ISPs look at the heading, links, images, content, authentication, etc. Avoid spammy words, make sure you’re using html for email and not html for websites and make sure you optimize your email for rendering with images blocked. In the header, ISPs look at the sender’s IP address, host name of senders IP address, From or Return Path, and reply-to and From addresses.
Do you get user complaints?
If you are following the best practices described above, you’ll reduce your number of user complaints at the same time.
As with any reputation, it can be hard to shake a bad one. Monitor yours, keep it good and wholesome, and the ISPs will notice. If you find this list of dos and don’ts is overwhelming, don’t hesitate to ask ClickMail for help.
| Deliverability tip |
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Your sender reputation affects your deliverability. Implementing double opt-in for email signups is one practice you can use to help you maintain a good reputation. You only need to do it once: set it up and stick with it. |
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