How to avoid deliverability issues when sending press releases from corporate domain?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit user shares that gradually increasing your sending volume, especially when starting a new campaign, helps prevent triggering spam filters. Sudden spikes in sending volume can be a red flag for ISPs.
Email marketer from Gmass Blog suggests regularly checking your domain and IP address against email blacklists. Being listed on a blacklist can severely impact your deliverability, so it's important to monitor and take action if you're listed.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that deliverability problems principally occur because of poor sending reputation caused by negative recipient actions. News desks typically don't react badly to appropriately targeted press releases.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that warming up your IP address is crucial. Start by sending emails to your most engaged subscribers and gradually increase the volume. This establishes a positive sending reputation.
Email marketer from StackOverflow user discusses avoiding spam trigger words in your email subject lines and body. These words can flag your emails as spam, so it's important to be mindful of your language.
Email marketer from Constant Contact shares that including a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in all your emails is essential. Making it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe can lead to spam complaints.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that segmenting your audience and sending targeted press releases can drastically improve engagement. By sending relevant content to specific recipients, you reduce the likelihood of being marked as spam.
Email marketer from EmailToolTester explains that using a dedicated IP address gives you more control over your sending reputation. This is especially important when sending high volumes of emails like press releases.
Marketer from Email Geeks states that sending press releases doesn't absolve from sending properly formatted emails with a clear and easy unsubscribe mechanism, and to not send Word documents and to be ready to send a plaintext copy of the email to those who don't like PDFs.
Marketer from Email Geeks advises to keep a close eye on bounces and complaints. If complaints are seen, it's a big issue that needs investigation. He also mentions bounces happen occasionally, and the bounce reason should be reviewed, acting on the information (e.g., removing addresses that no longer exist).
Email marketer from Litmus shares testing and previewing emails across different email clients and devices to ensure they render correctly. Poorly formatted emails are more likely to be marked as spam.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that sending via a Gmail API plugin could be problematic because Google limits outbound emails per user and they are not equipped to manage volume emails. He suggests using Sendgrid with proper branding.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that sender reputation is critical. Maintain a good sending reputation by consistently following best practices and avoiding actions that can harm it.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource highlights the importance of proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve deliverability. These methods help verify that your emails are legitimately sent from your domain, which ISPs use to determine sender reputation.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that your email content plays a significant role in deliverability. Avoid spam trigger words and ensure your message is relevant and engaging to your audience.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that list hygiene is critical for maintaining good deliverability. Regularly remove invalid or unengaged subscribers to reduce bounce rates and spam complaints.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from RFC documentation discusses adhering to proper email formatting standards (RFC 5322). This includes using valid headers, character encoding, and line lengths to ensure your emails are properly interpreted by receiving servers.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help emphasizes the importance of setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These authentication methods verify that your emails are genuinely sent from your domain and prevent spoofing, significantly improving deliverability.
Documentation from Microsoft 365 documentation advocates for regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses. Sending to these addresses can increase your bounce rate, negatively impacting your sender reputation.
Documentation from SparkPost Documentation states that proper bounce processing is crucial. Handle hard bounces (permanent failures) by immediately removing those addresses from your list. Soft bounces (temporary issues) should be retried a few times before removal.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services Documentation emphasizes setting up feedback loops (FBLs) to receive notifications when recipients mark your emails as spam. This allows you to promptly remove these recipients from your list and prevent future complaints.