What are best practices for deliverability when sending a first email campaign to an old list?

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that a confirmation email process should be used, sent to each email address as it was acquired. Addresses that confirm should be the only ones sent the first mass mailing.

Email marketer from Mailjet explains that you should begin by cleaning your old list. Remove any invalid or inactive email addresses to reduce bounce rates and improve your sender reputation.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests not sending emails to anyone who requested emails more than 3 months ago, also suggests using an email validation service to help avoid invalid typos. A real-time confirmation step is a much preferred best practice.

Marketer from Email Geeks adds that the first email to them should be a reminder of why they signed up, reiterate the value proposition, and explain how they can opt-out.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign suggests proactively removing inactive subscribers from your list. Regularly prune your list to remove subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails in a certain period, as keeping them on your list can hurt your deliverability.

Email marketer from Neil Patel says personalizing your email content can greatly improve engagement. Use subscriber data to tailor your messaging and offer relevant content to each individual.

Email marketer from Email on Acid discusses the use of A/B testing, testing different subject lines, content, and send times to find what resonates best with your audience and improves engagement.

Email marketer from Sendinblue shares the importance of segmenting your list based on engagement. Identify active subscribers and separate them from those who haven't engaged in a while. Target your most engaged subscribers first to build positive sender reputation.

Email marketer from Constant Contact recommends warming up your list slowly. Start by sending emails to a small, highly engaged segment of your list and gradually increase the volume over time to avoid being flagged as spam.

Email marketer from HubSpot recommends monitoring your deliverability metrics, including bounce rate, open rate, click-through rate, and spam complaints. Analyze these metrics to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments to your email marketing strategy.

Email marketer from ZeroBounce advocates using an email verification service to identify and remove invalid, fake, or risky email addresses from your list before sending your campaign.

Email marketer from Reddit recommends running a re-permission campaign. Ask your subscribers to confirm their subscription and remove those who don't respond. This ensures that you only send emails to people who actively want to receive them.

Email marketer from Litmus shares offering preference centers to subscribers. Allowing subscribers to customize the types of emails they receive and the frequency at which they receive them can help reduce unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Expert from Spam Resource emphasizes the importance of list hygiene. They explain that cleaning your list by removing invalid and inactive email addresses is crucial for improving deliverability when sending to an old list.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests not sending to an entire old list at once, and instead gradually ramp up the volume, starting with the newest/most trusted.

Expert from Email Geeks shares they have several clients with 70%+ COI rates, most of the non-confirmed are typos or bots trying to subscribe to their sites and most of the people that want your emails will COI if you tell them it’s going to happen at the time of sign up.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that permission practices are key to deliverability, particularly with older lists. They recommend confirming subscriber consent and engagement before sending a campaign.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares the importance of verification services can reduce bounces, but they are not a one stop solution to deliverability. Also mentions that a responsible sender has to care about where the leads came from and how they were acquired.

Documentation from Google explains that when sending bulk emails, authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This helps prove that you are the legitimate sender of the email and improves deliverability to Gmail users.

Documentation from SparkPost explains to focus on engagement metrics. High open rates and click-through rates signal to ISPs that your emails are valuable and wanted, improving your sender reputation and deliverability.

Documentation from Microsoft advises to monitor your sender reputation using tools like Sender Reputation Data (SRD). Identify and address any issues that may be affecting your deliverability, such as spam complaints or blacklisting.

Documentation from RFC-Editor explains that setting up a proper SPF record can greatly assist with deliverability by telling mail servers which IPs are authorised to send emails on your domains behalf