What are the best practices for handling typo traps and blacklists when sending emails?

Summary

To effectively manage typo traps and blacklists in email marketing, a comprehensive strategy focusing on prevention, data quality, sender reputation, and user experience is crucial. Prevention starts at the signup phase by implementing real-time email verification systems and robust input validation to catch and correct or remove common typos, avoiding corrections within the ESP itself. Double opt-in is paramount to ensure genuine subscriber interest and a clean, engaged list. Maintaining excellent list hygiene through regular scrubbing, removing invalid, inactive, and role-based addresses, minimizes bounce rates and spam complaints. Monitor and manage your sender reputation using tools, establish feedback loops, send consistently, and authenticate your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. User experience improvements, such as easy unsubscription options and testing content across clients, further reduce spam complaints. Focusing on building a list of recipients who recognize your brand, along with proactive monitoring and adaptation, reduces the risk of hitting typo traps and being blacklisted.

Key findings

  • Signup Validation: Real-time email verification during registration and robust input validation are essential to prevent typo traps.
  • Double Opt-in: Double opt-in is a key element to verify subscriber interest and prevent issues from harvested lists.
  • List Hygiene: Regularly scrub your list to remove invalid, inactive, and role-based addresses (e.g., sales@, info@) to improve deliverability.
  • Sender Reputation: Monitor sender reputation using tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools and establish feedback loops with ISPs.
  • Authentication: Authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability and avoid spam filters.
  • Consistent Sending: Maintain consistent sending volume and cadence to establish a positive sender reputation.
  • List Unsubscribe Headers: List-Unsubscribe headers allow easy unsubscribes, reducing the risk of spam markings.

Key considerations

  • Preventative Measures: Focus on preventing typo traps and invalid addresses from being added to your list in the first place.
  • Data Governance: Implement data validation checks at the point of entry to filter out invalid or incorrect email addresses early.
  • Bounce Monitoring: Monitor bounce reasons to identify patterns and address deliverability issues.
  • ISP Relations: Actively engage with ISPs through feedback loops to quickly address any complaints or deliverability issues.
  • Domain Reputation: Protect and monitor your domain and IP reputation by adhering to best practices and promptly addressing any issues.
  • Recognisable Sender: The real problem of spamtraps is when the receipient doesnt recognise the sender

What email marketers say
10Marketer opinions

To effectively manage typo traps and blacklists in email marketing, a multi-faceted approach is essential. This includes maintaining impeccable list hygiene by regularly removing invalid and inactive addresses and implementing processes to catch and correct common typo errors in email addresses. Confirming subscriber interest through double opt-in and providing easy unsubscription options are crucial. Monitoring sender reputation using tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools, establishing feedback loops with ISPs, and maintaining consistent sending volumes all contribute to a positive sender reputation. Additionally, avoiding sudden volume spikes, testing email content across various clients, using real time email verification and being wary of invalid addresses like role based emails all help improve email deliverability. Proactive steps like these will minimize the risk of hitting typo traps, being blacklisted, and ensure better engagement and deliverability.

Key opinions

  • List Hygiene: Regularly clean email lists to remove invalid, inactive, and role-based addresses (e.g., sales@, info@) to reduce bounce rates and spam complaints.
  • Typo Correction: Implement processes to identify and correct common typos in email addresses or remove them from the list.
  • Double Opt-in: Use double opt-in to confirm subscribers' interest and maintain a clean, engaged list.
  • Easy Unsubscription: Provide an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe to reduce spam complaints.
  • Reputation Monitoring: Monitor sender reputation using tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools.
  • Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops with ISPs to promptly address deliverability issues.
  • Consistent Sending: Maintain consistent sending volume and cadence to establish a positive sender reputation and avoid sudden spikes.
  • Content Testing: Test email content and rendering across different email clients and devices to improve user experience.
  • Real Time Verification: Using real time email verification during registration is key.

Key considerations

  • Data Validation: Implementing stricter data validation on signup forms can prevent typo traps from being added to your list.
  • Monitoring Bounce Reasons: Regularly check bounce reasons to identify and address specific deliverability issues, such as 'undefined permanent failure' or 'magic mail' blocks.
  • Sender Authentication: Ensure that your emails are properly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability.
  • Segmentation: Segment your email list to send targeted content, which improves engagement and reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam.
  • Proactive Approach: Take proactive steps to maintain list hygiene and monitor sending reputation to avoid being blacklisted.
Marketer view

Email marketer from ZeroBounce recommends cleaning invalid email addresses and checking email addresses to avoid spam traps. Also to monitor your IP address and domain reputation.

September 2024 - ZeroBounce
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Geeks identifies that most blocked bounces are due to 'undefined permanent failure' and some due to 'magic mail' issues. He outlines next steps: reverting fixed email addresses, marking invalid ones, improving the email form field, and implementing double opt-in.

October 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus mentions testing email content and rendering across different email clients and devices. This ensures a consistent and positive user experience, which can improve engagement and reduce spam complaints.

November 2024 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that they monitor their sender reputation using tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools. They also recommend setting up feedback loops with ISPs to address issues promptly.

September 2024 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet recommends segmenting your email list to send targeted content, which improves engagement and reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam. They also advise regularly cleaning your list to remove inactive or invalid email addresses.

April 2021 - Mailjet
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sendinblue advises using double opt-in to confirm subscribers' interest, which helps maintain a clean and engaged list. They also highlight the importance of providing an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe.

May 2022 - Sendinblue
Marketer view

Email marketer from Stack Overflow stated that its important to use a real time email verification system to make sure that emails are valid when someone first registers.

November 2024 - Stack Overflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit advises to implement a process to identify and remove addresses with common typos (e.g., @gnail.com instead of @gmail.com). They suggest running regular checks against a list of common misspellings.

February 2024 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from MailerCheck advises that you should be wary of invalid email addresses. Sending to role-based email addresses, such as sales@ or info@, may result in high bounce rates and spam complaints.

December 2022 - MailerCheck
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot stresses the importance of consistent sending volume and cadence to establish a positive sending reputation. They also recommend avoiding sudden spikes in email volume.

September 2023 - HubSpot

What the experts say
9Expert opinions

Effectively handling typo traps and blacklists requires a proactive approach focused on data quality and user consent. Correcting typos within the ESP is discouraged; instead, focus on preventing them at the source, such as the signup page, through real-time validation and filtering. Implementing double opt-in is crucial to ensure genuine subscriber interest and prevent issues arising from harvested addresses or simple user errors. Data validation on lead forms is essential to avoid collecting invalid or fake email addresses that can lead to spam complaints. Maintaining excellent list hygiene through regular scrubbing is also critical. Finally, spam traps often result from sending emails to people who don't recognize the sender, so focus on building a list of truly interested recipients.

Key opinions

  • Typo Correction Location: Typos should be prevented at the source (signup page) rather than corrected in the ESP.
  • Double Opt-in Importance: Double opt-in is essential for preventing blacklist issues and ensuring genuine subscriber interest.
  • Spam Trap Source: Spam traps often result from sending to people who don't recognize the sender and perceive the emails as spam.
  • Data Validation on Lead Forms: Validating data on lead forms is crucial to prevent collecting invalid or fake email addresses.
  • List Hygiene: Maintaining excellent list hygiene through regular scrubbing is critical.
  • Handle fat finger syndrome signups: Typo spam traps are often the result of fat finger syndrome or general user errors when signing up

Key considerations

  • Proactive Prevention: Focus on preventing typo traps and invalid addresses from entering your list in the first place.
  • Address Validation at Signup: Implement filters and checks during signup to detect and correct or delete likely typo traps.
  • Source Control: Since the most common providers are AOL, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo, these should be checked first.
  • Prioritize Legitimate Subscribers: Focus on building a list of truly interested recipients who recognize your brand.
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks mentions that double opt-in can help ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive emails, and there are ways to implement it with higher confirmation rates.

January 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource shares that they should be considered one of the four major categories of traps as well as being very common. They highlight that they can occur from a large list being badly harvested or from organic signups due to users simply having fat fingers or making mistakes when typing in their email address, therefore, the most common are Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo.

June 2024 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource explains the importance of maintaining excellent list hygiene, including regular scrubbing to remove invalid or non-existent email addresses. They emphasize preventing typo domains from making their way onto your mailing lists in the first place.

June 2023 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares that implementing double opt-in is essential to prevent running into blacklist issues and verification is better than nothing, but not as effective.

June 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks explains that typos should not be corrected in the ESP but at the source, such as the signup page.

April 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that it is important to filter and check sign-ups. They suggest adding a step that detects likely typo traps during the sign-up process and then either correct them (if the customer has the ability to correct it) or delete them.

July 2021 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks states that the real problem when hitting spamtraps is often sending emails to real people who don't recognize the sender and perceive the emails as spam.

December 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks explains that fixing domain typos is a dangerous line to walk, and it's better to flag them as invalid and move on.

July 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks shares that making up email addresses, even when fixing typos, is always bad. She mentions the need to check if the data from lead forms is valid to avoid sending mail to random third parties.

June 2022 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
5Technical articles

To effectively handle typo traps and blacklists, email senders should focus on authentication, validation, sender reputation, and ease of unsubscribing. Authentication using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial, along with sending from a consistent IP address and maintaining a consistent sending rate. Verifying email addresses at the point of entry (signup) using input validation helps prevent typo-related issues. Avoiding URL shorteners and ensuring the 'from' address accurately reflects the sender's domain are also recommended. Implementing confirmed opt-in (double opt-in) ensures recipients genuinely want to receive emails. Finally, List-Unsubscribe headers should be implemented to allow recipients to easily unsubscribe, reducing spam complaints.

Key findings

  • Authentication: Authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability.
  • Consistent Sending: Send from a consistent IP address and maintain a consistent sending rate to avoid triggering spam filters.
  • Input Validation: Verify email addresses at the point of entry (signup) to prevent typo-related issues.
  • Avoid URL Shorteners: Avoid using URL shorteners in your emails, as they are often associated with spam.
  • Accurate 'From' Address: Ensure that the 'from' address accurately reflects the sender's domain.
  • Confirmed Opt-in: Implement a confirmed opt-in process (double opt-in) to ensure recipients genuinely want to receive emails.
  • List-Unsubscribe Headers: Implement List-Unsubscribe headers to allow recipients to easily unsubscribe.

Key considerations

  • Proactive Validation: Focus on validating email addresses early in the process to prevent issues down the line.
  • Sender Reputation: Maintain a positive sender reputation by adhering to best practices and avoiding spam triggers.
  • User Experience: Prioritize user experience by providing easy ways to unsubscribe and ensuring emails are relevant.
  • Compliance: Comply with email marketing regulations and best practices to avoid being blacklisted.
Technical article

Documentation from Microsoft Support recommends that senders avoid using URL shorteners in their emails, as they are often associated with spam. They also advise ensuring that the 'from' address accurately reflects the sender's domain.

March 2024 - Microsoft Support
Technical article

Documentation from RFC explains that verifying email addresses at the point of entry (e.g., during signup) can help prevent typo-related issues. They highlight the importance of input validation and standardization.

January 2023 - RFC
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost recommends implementing List-Unsubscribe headers. These headers allow recipients to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list directly from their email client, reducing the likelihood of them marking your emails as spam.

December 2021 - SparkPost
Technical article

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help advises to authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. They also recommend sending from a consistent IP address and keeping your sending rate consistent to avoid triggering spam filters.

April 2023 - Google Workspace Admin Help
Technical article

Documentation from Spamhaus recommends implementing a confirmed opt-in process (double opt-in) to ensure recipients genuinely want to receive emails. They also suggest monitoring blocklists and addressing any issues promptly.

June 2024 - Spamhaus