The sender reputation is the key in email marketing warfare. You may have impeccable content and irresistible offers, but it won’t matter much if your messages never reach your recipients’ inboxes. Yes, a bad sender reputation can quickly turn your campaigns into failures, endangering relationships with your clients as well as your conversions. This guide explains how to recover and maintain a good sender reputation to optimize your email performance.
Understanding sender reputation
It corresponds to how ISPs and ESPs perceive your company and your messaging practices. The better your reputation, the more likely your emails are to reach their target. Conversely, a poor reputation can lead your communications directly to the spam folder or even be simply blocked.
This sender reputation is built from different factors:
- The spam complaint rate;
- The quality of your contact lists;
- The bounce rates;
- The frequency of sends;
- The engagement of recipients.
Understanding these elements allows better targeting of potential issues and effectively correcting them.
What about the sender score and domain reputation?
Sender reputation is influenced by elements like the sender score and domain reputation. The sender score is a rating from 0 to 100, assigned by an ISP to a company’s IP address and domain. Domain reputation is also a crucial indicator that reflects how ISPs perceive all your sending activities from a particular domain. A solid domain reputation enhances your deliverability chances.
Assessing your sender reputation’s status
Before improving anything, you need to assess your current sender reputation status. Here’s how:
Use reputation monitoring tools – Platforms like Sender Score, Google Postmaster Tools, Yahoo Sender Hub, or Microsoft’s, allow you to get a precise overview of your reputation.
Monitor your bounce and complaint rates – A high bounce rate indicates that your lists aren’t clean enough, while a high complaint rate is often related to poor targeting or content considered intrusive.
Analyze your engagement rates – Indicators like open, click, and conversion rates are also critical. Low rates often signal that your campaigns aren’t meeting your audience’s expectations.
To know your sender score, you can use online tools like Sender Score, ReputationAuthority, or BarracudaCentral.
Steps to take if you have issues with your sender reputation
Found that your reputation is negative? No panic! Here’s an action plan to reverse the trend and restore your sender image:
1) Diagnose the causes of poor reputation
What is causing your poor reputation? Identify the exact reasons that led to this degradation. It can be due to a high bounce rate, a large volume of unsubscribes, or spam complaints. Use analysis tools to isolate the problems, such as deliverability and reputation reports.
2) Reduce sends and opt for a “warm-up”
Temporarily decrease your sending volume. The idea is to gradually regain the trust of mail servers by proving that your messages are well-received and relevant. This can involve a warm-up strategy, which consists of heating your IP and gradually increasing the number of emails sent.
3) Implement a list cleaning strategy
A major factor affecting sender reputation is the quality of contact lists. If your lists contain invalid or inactive addresses, your bounce rate will be high, progressively destroying your reputation. To remove these contacts, use a specialized verification service like Captain Verify and the email cleaning.
If desired, send a re-engagement campaign to inactive subscribers to see if they still want to be on your list. For those who don’t respond or engage, it’s better to remove them.
Ensure your lists only contain valid and engaged recipients by using double opt-in. This will significantly reduce complaint risks and improve delivery rates.
4) Establish authentication protocols
The authentication of your emails is crucial to strengthen ISPs and ESPs’ trust in your sends. Ensure your messages are correctly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These three protocols are your best allies.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework) validate that emails come from authorized servers. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) lets you control the policies applied.
This assures email service providers that your messages are legitimate and reduces the chances of them being marked as spam.
It may also be useful to opt for a tool like Sender Reputation Monitoring to track your domain and IP reputation to react quickly in case of a problem.
5) Improve the quality of the content sent
Prioritize relevant and personalized content that meets your subscribers’ expectations. Remember that your communications should provide added value, whether informative, entertaining, or promotional.
To pass inbox filters, avoid practices that might be perceived as suspicious, like misleading subject lines or excessive use of capitals.
5) Control bounce rates and adjust your sending frequency
Keep an eye on feedback and open rates for each campaign to adjust your strategy. If certain time slots or sending frequencies perform poorly, adapt to avoid overloading your subscribers.
6) Monitor your reputation’s evolution
Regularly use reputation tracking tools to see progress and adjust your strategy if necessary. Several platforms, like Google Postmaster Tools, allow checking if your actions have a positive impact.
Also, consider signing up for Feedback Loops (FBL) provided by ISPs to receive information when a recipient marks your emails as spam. You’ll then have the opportunity to act promptly and remove the concerned address from your list.
By adopting a rigorous approach and implementing these practices, you can gradually restore your sender reputation and thus enjoy better deliverability and a stronger relationship with your audience.
