What to do if relisted on Spamhaus SBL due to old email list?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from WebHostingTalk.com suggests that you need to find out if your IP address is listed on a blacklist. They suggest checking with sites like MultiRBL or MXToolbox.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that cleaning your list and implementing a double opt-in policy is key. They explain that scrubbing the list for invalid emails reduces bounce rates and using double opt-in prevents the addition of low-quality or bot generated emails.
Email marketer from Email On Acid recommends that to fix the problem that resulted in being listed, you need to ensure you have fixed the issue causing the spam, such as removing spamtrap emails from your email list.
Email marketer from gmass.co responds to warming up your email list by segmenting your list by user engagement and starting with your most engaged users. This involves segmenting your email list based on user engagement and prioritizing sending emails to your most active and engaged subscribers first.
Email marketer from MailerLite.com shares that you should segment your email list, they share that recency-based segmentation is a good start. Then target your engaged users, and remove unengaged users. They explain this limits the chance of sending to spam traps.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that improving and maintaining your sender reputation involves consistently sending valuable and engaging content to your subscribers, adhering to email best practices, and avoiding practices that can harm your reputation, such as sending unsolicited emails or ignoring unsubscribe requests. They explain that a positive sender reputation signals to mailbox providers that you're a trustworthy sender, improving the likelihood of your emails reaching the inbox.
Email marketer from emailgeeks.com explains that the only way to keep from being listed again, is to not send emails to addresses that result in them being added to the list. That means, focusing on those users that are known to be engaged.
Marketer from Email Geeks states that being on Spamhaus is really bad and it's a list hygiene issue, not a segmentation issue. He recommends needing a seriously aggressive list hygiene cycle and to look at where the email addresses came from. He also suggests segmenting by engagement: Now -> 30day engaged, expanding to 60 then 90 days, but not going past that. He shares research that less than 1% reengage after 122 days with regular mailings.
Email marketer from Sender.net shares a good practice is to let people double opt-in to your email list. By requiring double opt-in, you're ensuring that the people who are joining your email list are genuinely interested in what you have to say.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource.com explains that being listed on Spamhaus is often due to spam traps, high complaint rates, or compromised accounts sending spam. This means reviewing your sending practices, list hygiene, and security measures is crucial.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that removing spam traps and cleaning your email lists is important. It suggests regular list hygiene practices, including removing inactive subscribers and validating email addresses, to minimize the risk of hitting spam traps and being blacklisted.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if you got relisted on Spamhaus SBL, it means you sent more mail to an address that Spamhaus controls and that whatever you did previously wasn't sufficient to remove recipients without real permission. She recommends stopping sending mail to people that did not actively ask to receive mail from you.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost shares that using a email validation service is beneficial. This involves integrating a service or tool that verifies the authenticity and deliverability of email addresses on your list. By validating email addresses, you can identify and remove invalid, inactive, or potentially harmful addresses, reducing bounce rates and improving overall email deliverability.
Documentation from support.google.com explains that you should only send wanted email, this improves sender reputation. They share you should give users the ability to unsubscribe and to make it easy to unsubscribe.
Documentation from Microsoft.com answers that obtaining user consent is an important practice to keep mail out of spam. This involves explicitly asking users for permission to send them emails, rather than assuming consent. It helps ensure that recipients are genuinely interested in receiving communications, reducing the likelihood of emails being marked as spam.
Documentation from Spamhaus.org explains that to be delisted from the SBL, you should review your systems for vulnerabilities, secure them, identify the source of the spam, stop the abuse, and then request delisting via their website. They also state continued listing after a previous delisting suggests the underlying problem was not resolved.