How can I protect my sender score when adding new audiences to my email platform?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus shares that improving subscriber engagement is crucial for maintaining a good sender reputation. Encourage recipients to interact with your emails by including clear calls to action, personalized content, and engaging visuals.
Email marketer from Email on Acid suggests actively monitoring your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools. This allows you to identify and address any issues that may be affecting your deliverability, such as high spam complaint rates or low engagement.
Email marketer from Reddit recommends regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. This helps to improve your sender reputation by reducing the number of emails sent to recipients who are unlikely to open or click on them.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor advises being vigilant about avoiding spam traps. Spam traps are email addresses that are used by ISPs to identify spammers, and sending emails to these addresses can severely damage your sender reputation.
Email marketer from HubSpot shares that using a dedicated IP address can give you more control over your sender reputation. This allows you to build a positive reputation with ISPs based on your own sending practices, rather than being affected by the actions of other senders sharing the same IP address.
Email marketer from Sendinblue advocates for permission-based marketing, emphasizing the importance of obtaining explicit consent from subscribers before sending them emails. This practice helps ensure that your recipients are genuinely interested in your content, reducing spam complaints and improving engagement.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that segmenting your email list can help maintain a good sender reputation. By dividing your audience into smaller, more targeted groups, you can send more relevant content, which improves engagement and reduces the likelihood of spam complaints.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that a transition should be done over a few days, breaking down the list into smaller batches and monitoring KPIs daily, but adding 10% isn't a big deal if there's a good reputation prior.
Email marketer from an Email Marketing Forum stresses the importance of monitoring and minimizing bounce rates. High bounce rates can negatively impact your sender reputation, so it's crucial to identify and remove invalid or inactive email addresses from your list.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks shares that growing 10% shouldn't provide many surprises, but advises building solid forms with ReCaptcha and submission rate limits to protect properties from being used for abusive purposes.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that maintaining a consistent email volume when adding new audiences helps protect your sender score. Sudden spikes in volume can trigger spam filters, so gradually increase the number of emails you send over time.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests looking closely at the phrase 'transactional, to start,' especially if there's a list of addresses that will be mailed based on it being 'transactional' and then continuing to mail them non-transactional mail.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests asking questions about how a new on-site signup list was acquired, over what time period, and what the recipients' expectations are if it hasn't been mailed to before.
Expert from Word to the Wise highlights the importance of a good email service provider for maintaining a solid sender reputation. They share how a good ESP has deliverability measures in place to help make sure your sender reputation remains as high as possible
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Postmark explains the role of feedback loops in sender reputation management. By participating in feedback loops with ISPs, you can receive notifications when recipients mark your emails as spam, allowing you to remove those recipients from your list and improve your deliverability.
Documentation from Microsoft explains the best practices for avoiding spam filters. This includes using a reputable email service provider, crafting engaging content, and avoiding spam trigger words.
Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of setting up sender authentication methods such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols verify the authenticity of your emails and help prevent spoofing, improving your sender reputation.
Documentation from Google explains that warming up IP addresses involves gradually increasing the volume of emails sent from a new IP address to establish a positive reputation with ISPs. Start with small volumes and gradually increase over time, monitoring deliverability rates closely.