Even if you haven’t been in the email marketing game for very long, you know that recipients marking your emails as spam can be the kiss of death for your marketing strategy. It’s just one of several factors that can decrease your email sender reputation, and that’s something you need to be aware of.
Your Sender Reputation is Like
a Credit Score
Your email sender reputation is an actual number assigned to your organization by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) because you market through email, and much like your personal credit score, the higher it is, the more opportunities you have to succeed in your marketing efforts. But if it gets too low, it can result in your messages being sent directly to spam or not being sent at all!
Your Actions Change Your Score
What kinds of factors play into the score changes?
What do you need to be aware of? Here are a few:
- Number of emails being sent
- Your open rate
- Number of email bounces
- Replies and Forwards
- Unsubscribes
- Recipients marking your messages
as spam or not opening them at all
as spam or not opening them at all
Any of these can push that number up or down, and before you start firing emails off, you need to make sure you’re doing all the right things at the right times.
Steps You Can Take
So what are some basic protections you can implement that’ll keep that precious number from falling into the danger zone?
Prune Your List
If email addresses are bouncing back as invalid or the recipients are simply non-responsive, just remove them from the list. It might feel like a lost opportunity, but keeping them on the mailing list can bring your score down and cost you many more prospects.
Send Confirmation Emails
If someone provides you with their information, send an email confirming that your marketing materials are of interest to them. It’s a very simple step that you can work into your sales funnel that makes sure you keep interested parties around while weeding out those who aren’t that into you.
Don’t Bombard the ISP
When you first start sending out to your carefully constructed lists, stagger the sends. Trust us on this. If your sends are too large right out of the gate, the ISP automatically gives it the side-eye. It views it as being suspicious because scammers employ similar techniques to get their scams in front of as many eyes as possible.
Start slow, gather data using A/B testing so you can fine-tune your strategy, and build up to the larger sends.
Utilize DKIM and SPF
Sender Policy Framework (SPF, but not the sunscreen stuff) is extra security for your email sends. It regulates which IP addresses can send emails from your domain. That way, no one can spoof you and scam people.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) serves the same purpose. No one can pretend to be you. It’s a unique signature that lets the recipient server know that it’s really you sending those messages. It’s an encryption key that can save your reputation score.
It’s worth noting that you are by no means required to use DKIM or SPF, but it’s an easy way to keep your domain verified and maintain the integrity of your sends; not falling prey to those who would co-opt your image for their own gain.
“What Can I Do If My Sender Reputation Falls Too Far?”
So you got blacklisted, and now your emails aren’t the effective marketing tool they were intended to be.
What’s your next move?
You can use blacklisting tools to make sure your Pardot IP hasn’t been blacklisted by going to Settings > Account information. If you find it has been blacklisted, you can contact Account Engagement (Pardot) support, and they’ll assign you a new one,
so all is not lost! You just have to keep up with your basic housekeeping!
