Despite the meteoric rise of social media and significant technological breakthroughs, email marketing remains the most effective business communication channel. With a record 4.73 billion projected users by 2026, which is over half the world’s current population, email is a reliable way of reaching people quickly.
However, the same reasons that make email suitable for business correspondence make it vulnerable to spamming. Hence, mailbox providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo employ safeguards to protect users against phishing, spoofing, and other unsolicited emails.
One of the primary reasons behind poor email deliverability is a low sender score. In this article, we will explore the fundamentals of email sender reputation, study the consequences of bad IP reputation, and learn how to gain the trust of internet service providers (ISPs).
What is Email Sender Reputation?
Email sender reputation or sender score, is a trust metric for your IP address. It’s how ISPs perceive sending domains and measure the likelihood of an incoming email being a security risk.
Hence, a good sender reputation guarantees email deliverability, while a poor sender score increases the chances of your emails landing in the spam folder. As a business owner, you must maintain a good sender reputation to deliver emails to your target audience consistently.
Experienced email marketers will tell you there’s a lot more to an effective email campaign than what meets the eye.
For instance, you might use responsive email templates, magnetic subject lines, optimized images, and accessible CTAs. But when you hit that send button, your message reaches the subscriber’s spam folder instead of the inbox.
Now that’s a total waste of your time, money, and critical resources, which is a reason for serious concern.
What are the Consequences of a Poor Sender Score?
A poor IP reputation score can have several detrimental effects on your email marketing campaigns. Here are three reasons why you need to maintain a good sender reputation:
Low Email Deliverability Rate
A poor sender score is the number one reason why your emails land in the recipient’s spam folder. Every email service provider verifies your trust rating before sending your message to the recipient. So, if your emails constantly trigger spam filters, it will affect deliverability rates, reduce engagement, and lower your brand’s reputation.
Increased Expenses
Every failed email is a wasted opportunity to convert prospects into paying customers. And you cannot measure the cost of a failed opportunity in dollars. But you can put a price on the cost of creating an email campaign.
For every email that lands up in the spam folder, you must send a fresh one. This doubles the amount of time and money you spend on a single campaign. And as every entrepreneur knows, time equals money. So, the expenses add up pretty quickly.
IP Blacklist
In extreme cases, frequent spam complaints, negative customer feedback, and consistently hitting spam traps can lead internet service providers to blacklist your domain and IP address. Therefore, none of your emails will reach the intended recipients, severely restricting your communication capabilities and damaging your brand reputation.
How to Check Sender Reputation
There are several reliable tools for measuring your sender score. These are our top choices, in no particular order:
Google Postmaster Tools
Postmaster Tools by Google is a free domain reputation checker that shows how much Gmail trusts you as a sender. The domain reputation dashboard uses color codes to indicate your IP reputation score. While deep red is a sign of a bad sender reputation, green signifies a good sender score.
Sender Score
Sender Score measures your IP reputation and suggests ways to increase customer trust. You can track overall performance based on several metrics, such as:
- MX Record
- SSL Certificate
- SPF Record
- Domain Owner
- Date of Issue
- Expiration Date
Talos Intelligence
Talos Intelligence by Cisco is a popular IP reputation checker that provides accurate information based on email volume and history. You can access real-time data by searching for the domain, IP, or network owner. However, Talos might not display results if you don’t send sufficient volume.
MXToolbox
MXToolbox is an intuitive reputation checker that executes hundreds of tests to ensure your system is performing optimally. The report calculates your sender score and highlights critical problems that you should address to increase sender reputation.
Increase Sender Reputation in 5 Easy Steps
Once you have a clear picture of what’s keeping you from increasing your email reputation, you can address the problems individually to start seeing results. Here are the best practices that will help increase and preserve your IP reputation in the long run:
Maintain Email List Hygiene
Invalid email addresses, spam traps, typos, and disengaged subscribers are the biggest enemies of email deliverability. Purging such bad actors from your subscriber list automatically increases your open rates and notifies ISPs that subscribers trust emails from your domain and IP address.
We recommend cleaning your email list every six months or before launching major marketing campaigns. Keep an eye out for a high bounce rate and unsubscribe rate, and remove dormant and invalid addresses to increase consumer trust.
Alfred is an intuitive tool that can help identify and remove risky email addresses, such as spam traps, catch-alls, disposable, and invalid addresses. Create a free account here and get your email list verified in under two minutes.
Simplify Unsubscribing
If people are interested in what you’re offering, they will make an effort to learn more about it. Trying to force your products or services down your subscribers’ throats will only motivate them to report you for spamming.
By simply letting people unsubscribe, you’re removing disengaged subscribers without the hassle of identifying them. This helps build trust with ISPs and increases sender reputation over time. Here are four ways to make unsubscribing easy:
- Use clear language (click here to unsubscribe, opt out by clicking here, etc.)
- Ensure the button works (remove broken links, fix clickability issues)
- Don’t force users to log in to unsubscribe
- Add an unsubscribe header
Use Double Opt-ins
Asking potential customers to verify their email addresses before adding them to your subscriber list might seem unnecessary. But this minor inconvenience is crucial for building a loyal audience that wants to hear from you. This additional verification layer ensures that new subscribers want to engage with your business. Thus improving the open, click-through, and conversion rates of your email campaigns.
Check If You’re on an Email Blocklist
Mailbox providers can sometimes mark your IP or domain as spam despite following the best practices. This is possible if you’re using a shared IP. Any emails you send while on a blocklist will end up in the recipient’s spam folder or, in extreme cases, remain undelivered. A high bounce rate will severely hamper your IP reputation. So, make sure you’re not on a blocklist before launching an email campaign.
Implement Email Authentication Protocols
Authentication protocols help internet service providers validate the email sender’s identity and ensure the message hasn’t been tampered with during transmission. Adding SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI to your DNS record helps ISPs validate your identity and email content. This ensures your emails are delivered to the recipient’s inbox instead of the spam folder.
Common Mistakes That Ruin Your Sender Reputation
Simply following email-sending best practices won’t keep you out of the spam folder if you continue making these 5 common mistakes. Now that you understand the “dos” of sending email, let’s familiarize you with the “don’ts.”
Don’t Send a High Volume of Emails Suddenly
If you suddenly send 5,000 emails one fine day, mailbox providers will notice the inconsistency. This is classic spammy behavior and will impact your email reputation. Instead, slowly build trust with your IP address before sending emails in bulk.
Don’t Send Content that Looks Like Spam
Mailbox providers can flag high-quality content if it looks like spam. So, avoid using spam trigger words and phrases like:
- #1
- Best price
- Double your income
- Fast cash
- Financial freedom
- Free money
- Act now
Don’t Email Disengaged Subscribers
Track metrics like open, conversion, bounce, and click-through rates to check if your subscribers are engaging with your content. If a subscriber hasn’t responded to your emails in six months, remove them from your email list. You can launch a re-engagement campaign and target disengaged customers with personalized content.
Don’t Use a Shared IP
Shared IP can be a good thing if you’re new to email sending and want to piggyback off of an existing IP address with a good reputation. However, this strategy can quickly backfire if other senders sharing your IP practice bad email habits. To avoid unnecessary complications, we recommend using a dedicated IP for business.
Don’t Buy Email Lists
Purchased email lists are a surefire way to destroy your sender reputation. Remember, the goal is to build trust. And the only way to do it is through consent. By pestering people who haven’t opted to receive your business correspondence, you’re throwing yourself under the bus.
Buying email lists will skyrocket spam complaints, even if all the leads are legitimate. But since most commercially available subscriber lists aren’t verified, they contain spam traps, invalid addresses, dormant accounts, and other fake contacts that damage your sender score.
Instead, ask for people’s permission before adding them to your email list. While this may require a little more effort, it will build customer trust, increase your brand reputation, and generate higher revenue in the long run.
Increase Sender Reputation and Meet Your Audience in the Inbox with Expert Guidance
The key to a good sender reputation is a low bounce rate and high open, click-through, and conversion rates. Following the above-mentioned best practices will help increase your sender reputation and ensure your emails are delivered to the recipient’s inbox every time. If you need help increasing your sender score, book a discovery call to learn how our experts can get you back into subscribers’ inboxes.
Head of Growth at Email Industries