What are best practices for surveying cancelled customers via email to protect sender reputation?

Expert from Email Geeks suggests if you keep the volume low % of your total sends and are thoughtful about your segments, you can probably avoid the more severe impacts on deliverability.

Email marketer from Vertical Response Blog suggests to personalize your survey emails. Vertical Response recommends using the recipient's name and referencing their previous interactions with your business to increase engagement and decrease spam complaints.

Email marketer from EmailOnAcid Blog suggests running a re-engagement campaign before sending a survey to churned customers. EmailOnAcid recommends this warms up the recipients and identifies those who might still be interested, which reduces risk to your sender reputation.

Email marketer from Quora responds by advising to include a clear unsubscribe link in your survey email, even to cancelled customers. DigitalG says this shows respect for their preferences and helps avoid spam complaints.

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares advice, starting with researching the legal situation regarding emailing customers who have cancelled their subscription. Dmytro recommends a deep dive into recipients' behavior, focusing on engagement levels even while they were paying customers, and to cull those who were highly unengaged. Then, plan on adding the survey in batches to normal campaigns, keeping the surveys to be 5-10% of normal engaged traffic.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog emphasizes the importance of a clear and easy unsubscribe process. ActiveCampaign recommends making it simple for recipients to unsubscribe to avoid frustration and potential spam complaints.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog suggests A/B testing different subject lines to improve open rates and engagement. Litmus recommends crafting clear and concise subject lines that accurately reflect the content of the email, which reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog emphasizes the importance of sender authentication. HubSpot recommends setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your domain and improve email deliverability.

Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog suggests regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive subscribers. Neil Patel advises that this improves engagement rates and protects your sender reputation by reducing the risk of sending to disengaged recipients.

Email marketer from MarketingProfs Forum shares the idea to use a double opt-in approach, even for churned customers. John suggests sending an initial email asking if they'd be willing to participate in a survey before sending the actual survey.

Email marketer from SmartrMail Blog emphasizes the importance of maintaining a consistent email frequency. SmartrMail recommends setting expectations for how often you'll be sending emails and sticking to that schedule.

Email marketer from Reddit suggests segmenting your cancellation survey emails based on the customer's previous engagement. Emma recommends sending to those who were recently active first and monitoring your metrics closely.

Expert from Spam Resource explains it is generally not advisable to email users who have unsubscribed. They state that doing so could damage your sender reputation and potentially violate anti-spam laws. If you must contact unsubscribed users, ensure compliance with all applicable regulations and consider using a separate sending domain.

Expert from Email Geeks recommends not sending from a different email address, to own what you’re doing, be honest about why you’re reaching out, confirm it’s a one-time thing and then do that. The bigger risk is spam reports and faking some sincerity and humility will go a long way to mitigate that (the first time).

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that there’s no urgency to it, though, so just trickling it in to your normal traffic as Laura suggests is sensible.

Expert from Word to the Wise mentions focusing on list hygiene by removing unengaged subscribers, which can improve your overall sender reputation. This proactive approach helps ensure you're only sending to people who want to receive your emails, thereby reducing the likelihood of spam complaints and bounces.

Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of warming up your IP address gradually. SparkPost recommends slowly increasing your sending volume over time to establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools emphasizes the importance of monitoring your spam rates. Google states that high spam rates can lead to deliverability issues and recommends keeping your spam rate below 0.10% to ensure your emails reach the inbox.

Documentation from SendGrid explains the importance of maintaining a clean list and removing unengaged recipients. Sendgrid suggests that sending to a disengaged audience increases the risk of bounces and spam complaints, negatively impacting your sender reputation.

Documentation from Mailchimp shares the recommendation to segment your email list based on engagement. Mailchimp states this allows you to target your most active subscribers and avoid sending to inactive users who are more likely to mark your emails as spam.

Documentation from Microsoft explains that sending unsolicited bulk email may be considered abuse. Microsoft suggests avoiding sending emails to users who have cancelled their subscription to avoid being flagged as spam.