How do I recover from a bad domain reputation with Gmail?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from DigitalMarketer advises implementing a sunset policy to automatically remove inactive subscribers from your list after a certain period of time, preventing them from dragging down your engagement metrics.
Email marketer from Neil Patel emphasizes focusing on improving email engagement by segmenting your list and sending targeted content to different groups of subscribers. This improves sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that engagement is a decisive factor with Gmail. Less engaged recipients started receiving emails in the spam folder, when before they were receiving them to promotions. If your recipients vary as "engaged" and "not engaged" then the reputation you see in Google Postmaster Tools may just not be much of a factor.
Email marketer from Email on Acid explains monitoring bounce rates to identify and remove invalid email addresses from your list, as high bounce rates can negatively impact your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that cleaning your email list to remove inactive subscribers and spam traps is essential for maintaining a good sender reputation with Gmail.
Email marketer from Gmass encourages review your email content to avoid spam trigger words and phrases that can flag your emails as spam.
Email marketer from Hubspot recommends running a re-engagement campaign to identify and re-engage inactive subscribers before removing them from your list, giving them one last chance to opt-in.
Email marketer from StackOverflow shares that reducing the number of complaints is crucial for improving sender reputation. Ensure an unsubscribe link is prominent.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests segmenting your email list based on engagement and demographics, then create targeted campaigns for these smaller, more engaged groups.
Email marketer from Litmus stresses the importance of consistently providing valuable and relevant content to your subscribers to encourage engagement and build a positive sender reputation.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks shares advice to stop sending for a few days, then start slowly with the best recipients and gradually increase volume over time.
Expert from Spam Resource explains the importance of utilizing feedback loops to identify and remove subscribers who mark emails as spam. This prevents future complaints and improves reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests starting with a very small send volume, like 20 emails, and increasing from there. The exact starting volume depends on how bad the reputation is.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that hitting spam traps severely damages your sender reputation. Regular list hygiene and permission-based marketing are crucial to avoid them.
Expert from Spam Resource recommends maintaining a consistent sending volume and frequency to establish a predictable sending pattern. Fluctuations in sending volume can trigger spam filters.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google explains that Google Postmaster Tools provides data about your sending reputation with Gmail, allowing you to diagnose and address issues.
Documentation from SparkPost recommends implementing email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your identity as a legitimate sender and prevent spoofing.
Documentation from SendGrid advises warming up your IP address gradually by slowly increasing the volume of emails you send over time to build a positive reputation with ISPs.
Documentation from RFC explains that understanding RFC records help prevent spoofing, phishing, and other email abuses by validating the authenticity of email senders.
Documentation from DMARC.org shares information on DMARC, helping to implement a DMARC policy and monitor your email authentication results to identify and address any issues with your email infrastructure.