On the surface, email is one medium that seems tailor-made for marketing. It provides a highly cost-effective way to reach targeted audiences quickly and drive them to action immediately. That’s why email marketing has revolutionized the way businesses interact with customers and prospects.
But using email effectively and appropriately requires diligence and responsiveness. As an email sender, maintaining a positive reputation is critical.
Email sender reputation is referred to as a “sender score,” and is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100. Email providers, such as Gmail or Hotmail, recognize this score as an indicator of trustworthiness. Your sender score can allow you to better manage your reputation by taking action quickly if a sudden change in your score occurs.
If for any reason an email provider believes you are sending spam, it will reject your email. The last thing you want as a marketer is to see your email campaign blocked and your sender name on a blacklist.
How does blacklisting occur? The majority of blacklisting takes place through an automated system. This means it is quite possible to inadvertently be rejected by an email provider, even though your email is perfectly legitimate. Businesses can also face rejection from frivolous marketing practices, such as sending to bad email addresses or not requesting opt-in.
Regardless of why a sender becomes blacklisted, becoming whitelisted or accepted by an email provider again can be extremely cumbersome. Each email provider has its own process to lift rejections, which can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks. During that time you may need to stop your campaign entirely and wait for approval from the email provider.
The best way to ensure your communications keep flowing is to monitor your reputation and work with an established email marketing platform or agency. By doing so, you will gain instant awareness of email delivery obstacles that improve potential conversions for marketing efforts.
At Jacobs & Clevenger, we send almost 10 million emails each year for our clients. That’s why we’re such strong advocates of quality control. Before we send any email campaign, it goes through a rigorous testing process. If you want to learn more about protecting your email sender reputation and avoiding the blacklist, please contact J&C.
Topics: Email Marketing
