What steps should I take to improve email deliverability with a large, unengaged contact list and high bounce rates?

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog responds that personalizing your emails can significantly improve engagement. Use the subscriber's name, location, or other relevant information to make the email more relevant and engaging.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that you’re going to have to get some control over the chaos. For that you’ll need data to sell people that there’s a big problem. The metrics in SendGrid, the blocks, the bounces, the engagement, the domain reputation in google postmaster tools likely pinned at bad which can be helpful when trying to persuade someone to tap the brakes. You can sell management on tapping the brakes and gaining control of the chaos.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests verifying the domain with Google Postmaster and Microsoft SNDS. Advises if it’s a B2C list, those two likely make up 60%+ of your list so you better find out what they think of your send streams.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog suggests segmenting your email list based on engagement levels, demographics, or other relevant criteria. This allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups of subscribers, increasing engagement and reducing bounce rates.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that the first thing to do is check the Suppression/Block list and analyze the bounce error codes. They suggest list hygiene and/or tracking if certain mailbox providers are blocking emails and for what reason(s).

Email marketer from GMass Blog shares A/B testing your email subject lines to see what resonates best with your audience. Use clear, concise, and engaging subject lines that accurately reflect the content of your email.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog emphasizes using responsive email design. Ensure your emails look good on all devices and email clients. Optimize images and keep your email design clean and simple.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests that after cleaning your list, use a reputable email verification service to identify and remove invalid or inactive email addresses. This helps reduce bounce rates and improve your sender reputation.

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that cleaning your contact list is crucial. Remove unengaged subscribers (those who haven't opened or clicked in a while) and invalid email addresses. This reduces bounce rates and improves your sender reputation.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests checking to see if opt-outs are being honored and if there are CAN-SPAM violations. For the longer term, they advise mapping out a strategy to separate out business lines across accounts.

Marketer from Email Geeks advises to stop buying lists and only send to people who explicitly requested contact.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that if you're using a new IP address or haven't sent emails in a while, warm it up gradually. Start by sending small volumes to your most engaged subscribers and gradually increase the volume over time. This helps establish a positive sending reputation.

Email marketer from Sender Blog shares implementing double opt-in for new subscribers. This ensures that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails, reducing the likelihood of spam complaints and improving engagement.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor Blog advises to avoid using spam trigger words in your email subject lines and body. These words can trigger spam filters and prevent your emails from reaching the inbox. Use a spam checker tool to identify potential trigger words.

Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog emphasizes the importance of email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols help verify the sender's identity and prevent email spoofing, improving deliverability rates.

Marketer from Email Geeks advises that priority number one is to stop bad data from coming in, and then concentrate on cleaning up the existing data.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that the first source of data is rejection rates (“bounces”), ideally broken down by list and recipient domain. Suggests this will start to tell you what sources of addresses have bad addresses and where you’re blocked. Also feedback loop data from those few ISPs that send it.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that implementing a robust email validation process is crucial. This involves verifying the syntax, domain, and mailbox existence of email addresses before sending, significantly reducing bounce rates and improving your sender reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that there is no one thing to fix the problem. Suggests suppressing all mail to the probably purchased addresses while you catch a breath and talk to your boss about how much backing you have to set policy. Setting and enforcing policy and cleaning up your data and reputation so as to build a sustainable email setup moving forward is likely a multi-month job.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that ensuring proper email authentication with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential. These protocols help verify the sender's identity and prevent malicious actors from spoofing your domain, improving deliverability and protecting your brand reputation.

Expert from Email Geeks advises scheduling some time with the email leads in each line of business to have a relaxed chat about how they’re using email and how it’s working out for them. That’ll probably give you an idea of which lines of business are basically OK and can be ignored for now, and which ones to pay attention to, as well as giving you some context for the numbers you pull out of the list metrics.

Expert from Email Geeks shares if you have click data, that’s good too as it will point out the recipients who are interacting with your mail, and is a sign they actively want it.

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that focusing on list hygiene is paramount. Regularly remove inactive subscribers and those who haven't engaged with your emails in a significant period. This helps maintain a healthy list and signals to ISPs that you're a responsible sender.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that image load data (“opens”) can also give you a lot of info. If you’re at the point where you’re just trying to stem the bleeding then suppressing (temporarily, while you dig deeper) every address that’s never loaded an image isn’t a terrible idea.

Documentation from RFC explains implementing Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records. SPF records specify which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain, helping to prevent spoofing and improve deliverability.

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help emphasizes adhering to their bulk sender guidelines. This includes authenticating your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; keeping your spam rate low; and making it easy for users to unsubscribe. Meeting these requirements improves your chances of reaching the inbox.

Documentation from Microsoft recommends Sender Reputation Data (SRD) to give senders more visibility on their IP and domain reputation. This enables senders to proactively identify and address potential issues, improving overall deliverability.