How do I repair a damaged Gmail sender reputation when moving to a new ESP?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from GlockApps Blog emphasizes avoiding spam traps. Spam traps can severely damage your sender reputation. Ensure your list acquisition methods are legitimate and use double opt-in.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog shares the advice to segment your email list based on engagement and send targeted content to each segment. This improves engagement and sender reputation.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that focusing on engagement metrics (opens, clicks) with your Gmail subscribers can help rebuild your sender reputation. Encourage recipients to mark your emails as 'not spam'.
Email marketer from ReturnPath Blog (now Validity) shares the importance of setting up feedback loops (FBLs) with Gmail and other ISPs. FBLs provide data on complaint rates, helping you identify and remove problematic subscribers.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares the importance of warming up your IP address when switching ESPs, by gradually increasing sending volume to establish a positive sending reputation with Gmail.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that it's more about engagement (opens/clicks/replies) with highly engaged users than it is about specific messaging and recommends starting with a small portion of engaged subscribers and slowly ramping up over time, they also say the cause of the reputation damage is more instructive about changes needed.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that maintaining a consistent sending volume can help rebuild trust with Gmail. Avoid sudden spikes in sending volume.
Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares the importance of cleaning your email list to remove inactive or invalid email addresses. Sending emails to only engaged subscribers improves your sender reputation with Gmail.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that sending slowly is important to avoid hitting Gmail too fast, also segmenting engaged users and notes CTR is more useful now than open rate, also synchronizing bounces, unsubscribes, inactives from the old ESP to avoid sending to them again and recommends using Google Postmaster Tools.
Email marketer from Litmus Blog explains the need to monitor complaint rates and unsubscribe requests, addressing and rectifying issues identified can help demonstrate that you respect your recipients and are responsive to feedback.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that deliverability issues in 2022 can be addressed by focusing on providing value to subscribers, improving list hygiene, authenticating email and watching sending reputation metrics.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that sender reputation damage can take time to repair, and recommends focusing on consistent engagement, proper authentication, and gradual increases in sending volume, while closely monitoring deliverability metrics.
Expert from Email Geeks shares advice to break unengaged subscribers into chunks and re-introduce them slowly into weekly mailings to gauge the tolerance level before bulking, they also mention slowing the cadence for unengaged segments spread over a week or two monthly or quarterly and suggest identifying and improving or removing content with atrociously low engagement.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft states subscribing to the Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP) provides feedback on when users mark your mail as junk, allowing you to identify and address issues.
Documentation from SparkPost Documentation states that setting up proper sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial to verify your identity and improve deliverability to Gmail by building trust.
Documentation from RFC explains that ensuring you have a valid PTR record that matches your sending IP address to your domain name is crucial for reverse DNS lookups and can affect deliverability.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools Help explains that using Google Postmaster Tools allows you to monitor your sender reputation by providing data on spam rate, IP reputation, and domain reputation, helping identify issues impacting deliverability.