How do you maintain a good sender reputation?

If you want your email marketing campaigns to reach your subscribers' inboxes and avoid spam filters, you need to maintain a good sender reputation. Your sender reputation is a score that email service providers (ESPs) assign to your domain and IP address based on various factors, such as your bounce rate, spam complaints, engagement, and authentication. A high sender reputation means that your emails are more likely to be delivered and trusted by your recipients. A low sender reputation means that your emails are more likely to be blocked, filtered, or ignored by your recipients. Here are some tips on how to maintain a good sender reputation and improve your email marketing deliverability.

Monitor your metrics

One of the first steps to maintain a good sender reputation is to monitor your email marketing metrics regularly. You should track and analyze your open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, spam complaints, unsubscribes, and delivery rate. These metrics can help you identify any issues or trends that may affect your sender reputation and take corrective actions accordingly. For example, if you notice a high bounce rate, you may need to clean up your email list and remove invalid or inactive addresses. If you notice a high spam complaint rate, you may need to review your content and subject lines and ensure that they are relevant and compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act.

Segment your list

Another way to maintain a good sender reputation is to segment your email list based on your subscribers' preferences, behaviors, and interests. Segmentation allows you to send more targeted and personalized emails that match your subscribers' needs and expectations. This can improve your engagement, loyalty, and conversions, as well as reduce your bounce rate, spam complaints, and unsubscribes. You can segment your list based on various criteria, such as demographics, location, purchase history, activity level, or email type. For example, you can send different emails to new subscribers, loyal customers, or inactive subscribers.

Use a double opt-in

A double opt-in is a process that requires your subscribers to confirm their subscription by clicking on a link in an email after they sign up for your list. This helps you verify that your subscribers are real and interested in receiving your emails. It also helps you prevent spam bots, fake accounts, or typos from joining your list and hurting your sender reputation. A double opt-in can also increase your engagement, trust, and retention, as your subscribers are more likely to open and interact with your emails. To use a double opt-in, you need to set up a confirmation email that contains a clear and compelling call to action that prompts your subscribers to click on the link.

Authenticate your emails

Authenticating your emails is a way of proving to the ESPs that you are the legitimate sender of your emails and that they are not spoofed or forged by someone else. This can help you protect your sender reputation and avoid being marked as spam or phishing by the ESPs or your recipients. There are several authentication protocols that you can use, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols use different methods to verify your domain and IP address and to align them with your email headers. To authenticate your emails, you need to configure your DNS records and add the relevant authentication codes to them.

Test your emails

Before you send your email campaigns, you should test them for various aspects, such as design, content, functionality, and deliverability. Testing your emails can help you ensure that they look good, work well, and reach your subscribers' inboxes. You can use various tools and methods to test your emails, such as email preview tools, spam checkers, email validators, and test sends. These tools and methods can help you detect and fix any errors or issues that may affect your sender reputation and your email marketing performance. For example, you can test how your emails look on different devices and browsers, check if your links and images work properly, validate your email addresses, and check if your emails pass the spam filters.