Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach customers online. This is true even when marketing to younger, more tech-savvy customers. That said, an email campaign won’t deliver the best possible return on investment if your emails aren’t reaching subscribers’ inboxes.
That’s why it’s important to it’s important to not only focus on maintaining a strong email reputation, but also understand how your sender reputation impacts the deliverability of your email content.
Also known as sender reputation, this metric refers to a score internet service providers assign to your business. Essentially, ISPs assign email senders a score based on a number of factors. The better the score, the better their email domain reputation. A low sender score may cause a service provider to divert your emails to the spam folders of recipients within their network. In some cases, the emails might not get delivered at all.
Maintaining a strong email reputation score is key to optimizing your marketing efforts. The information here will help you guard against harming your sender reputation this and maintain a high email sender score. By understanding how an email reputation gets damaged, you’ll be better equipped to prevent that from happening to you.
What Results in a Negative Domain Reputation?
There are several factors that can result in a low sender reputation score. If recipients often report your messages as spam, that will definitely impact your reputation. Low open rates will have the same effect.
So, too, will a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate is the result of sending emails to multiple addresses that are no longer valid on a consistent basis.
Sometimes this happens because an organization tried to cut corners by renting or buying an existing email list without checking it. However, it can also occur simply because email addresses “go bad” for a variety of reasons, and sending too many emails to these “bad” or invalid addresses results in a high bounce rate.
For example, if a subscriber to your email list signed up with a work address, that address may no longer be valid if they move on to a different company. Any emails sent to that address will bounce, thereby harming your email reputation.
The impact of bad data can lead to the damage of your IP reputation score. Before sending any marketing emails, check your list for invalid addresses and remove any you find. Keeping your subscriber list clean and avoiding bounce emails is essential for safeguarding your email sender reputation. You do not want to fall victim to the impacts of bad data.
Follow Essential Best Practices for a Better Email Reputation
You’re more likely to have a better email and IP address reputation if the people to whom you send emails actually engage with them. Taking steps to boost engagement will improve both your email domain reputation and the overall strength of your campaigns.
Luckily, there are simple steps you can take to achieve this goal, such as including a recipient’s name in the subject line of an email. Doing so can boost open rates by as much as 50%!
You should also segment your list into multiple, smaller lists. This makes it easier to ensure your followers are receiving content that’s relevant to their needs and tastes. It’s yet another effective way to improve your open rates.
For example, maybe your brand often sponsors events as part of an experiential marketing campaign. Not all followers will live close enough to the event venues to attend. If you send them alerts about events they can’t participate in, you’ll come across as spammy. This is bad for your email sender reputation in the long run.
On the other hand, if you segment your list so followers only receive relevant alerts, you’ll increase overall engagement. The more people open and interact with your content, the better for your email reputation.
Reduce Unsubscribe Rates, Watch Email Sender Reputation Score Soar
Your domain sender reputation will also suffer if followers unsubscribe from your list at high rates. This is another reason to segment your list. People are more likely to unsubscribe if they frequently receive irrelevant content from you.
That said, it’s also a good idea to solicit feedback from your followers. Finding out what they do and don’t like about your email marketing strategy helps you address their concerns before they unsubscribe.
You can collect feedback easily and improve your sender reputation by sending a survey. Increase the odds that followers will actually complete it by offering the chance to win a prize for doing so.
How to Improve Your Sender Score
Start by performing an email reputation check, also known as an IP reputation check. There are several sites where you can check your IP reputation to determine your score. Many of them score you on a simple 0 - 100 scale. Keep in mind: Staying above 70 is a smart goal to aim for.
Another way to protect your domain reputation score is to focus on providing your subscribers with quality, dynamic emails that offer genuine value. Don’t flood their inbox with constant promotional methods. Monitor your campaigns to find out how often you should send emails, and what types of content you should include. It’s also very important to make sure you’re only emailing people who consciously opted in to your list.
Finally, use an email verification tool to check your subscriber list before sending any messages. This kind of tool will help you remove invalid addresses from your list, which helps to preserve your IP reputation.
Again, email can still be an extremely powerful means of marketing your business. You just need to make sure you’re constantly focusing on how to improve your sender reputation. Prioritizing this factor through email reputation checks and the right tools ensures your emails actually reach the people you’re sending them to.