What are the best practices for handling typo traps and blacklists when sending emails?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What the experts say9Expert opinions
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.
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.
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.
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.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that typos should not be corrected in the ESP but at the source, such as the signup page.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.