In email marketing, delivering an email and getting strong email ROI is not as simple as it seems. It takes a lot more than just pressing send on your email campaign. Successful email campaigns are dependent upon a variety of factors. Your email deliverability can be damaged if you do not maintain a proper mailing list, built with relevant and up-to-date email data. It can also be damaged if you allow your content to diminish as well. In this article, we will explore what you can do to improve your email sender reputation if it is damaged.
Email Reputation Explained
An email sender reputation is determined by spam filters and receiving mail servers. They determine cumulatively over time the effect of your email campaigns. Your sender reputation is tied to the domain you send your emails from. This means your sender reputation follows any email that is sent out through your domain. You must take responsibility for your sender reputation and do what you can to improve it whenever possible.
Determine if Your Sender Reputation is Bad
To determine your sender reputation, you should look at your email results over time. The longer period of data you can look at, the more accurate your results will be.
When looking through this data, you need to look for patterns. If any irregularities arise, take note of them. A 20% open rate is standard for most emails, so take note if your email open rates are significantly lower than that or dwindling significantly over time. These two trends indicate that your sender reputation is declining.
Declining open rates are one of the clearest indicators that your sender reputation needs to be repaired. This situation is problematic because mail servers can take notice of the lack of engagement on your campaigns and block your emails from sending or mark them as spam. This lowers engagement rates even further, which can lead to a downward spiral for your email reputation.
The team at FrescoData is uniquely qualified to address issues with your sender reputation and work with you to build it back up again.
How to Acquire a Bad Sender Reputation
A bad sender reputation occurs as a result of the response your audience has to your email campaigns. Poor engagement in the form of high bounce rates and low open rates can cause your sender reputation to spiral downward. Also, keep in mind that low bounce rates and high open rates will have positive effects on your sending reputation in the long run.
It is important to understand how every decision you make regarding your email data sources, mailing list quality, and content affects your email marketing. The decisions you make can have both a positive and negative effect on your sending reputation.
How to Build a Strong Email Reputation
Good email results are the foundation of a strong sender reputation. Below we have outlined some of the basics that play a role in creating successful email campaigns.
- Send to High Quality Mailing Lists
The first step is to ensure that you are sending your emails to quality leads. Your email list should be built up with real contacts who have fully opted-in to receiving your campaigns. It is best to gather these emails through double opt-in procedures to ensure full compliance with global spam laws. You can either build this list yourself or purchase a mailing list filled with targeted leads through a high-quality data list provider like FrescoData.
- Send from your own domain
If you are managing the email campaigns for a business, you should be sending out email campaigns from either your own domain or a subdomain of that main domain. The reason for this is that free domain addresses like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail will not enable you to build your reputation as a sender. You will experience a much higher bounce rate this way.
- Send relevant and interesting content
Create segments for your email list and send these segments personalized, targeted emails. There are huge benefits for sending out personalized emails to different segments, one being that your content will resonate more with your audience. This will lead to higher engagement in your campaigns and make it less likely for you to be marked as spam. In the long run, personalization will lead to a better sending reputation.
Conclusion
Your sender reputation plays a major role in the deliverability of your emails. By following email best practices and carefully monitoring the performance of your campaigns, you can ensure you maintain a positive email sending reputation.
If you are trying to improve your sending reputation without seeing any positive results for your efforts, our experts at FrescoData can help.
