Summary
Recovering email deliverability after sending cold emails and developing a low domain reputation requires a comprehensive strategy. The initial step involves ceasing cold email practices, as they directly contribute to reputation damage. Implementing email authentication using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential to verify sender identity and improve trust with ISPs. Warming up your IP and domain gradually, especially after low-volume periods, helps rebuild a positive sending reputation. Regular email list cleaning, removing inactive or invalid addresses, reduces bounce rates and strengthens sender reputation. Content should be engaging, relevant, and avoid spam triggers to enhance engagement rates, signaling to ISPs that emails are desired. Segmentation allows targeted messaging, while consistent sending volume prevents triggering spam filters. Monitoring sender score, using Google Postmaster Tools, and actively using feedback loops (FBLs) allows for identifying and addressing reputation and deliverability issues. Understanding factors contributing to your sender reputation, like IP and domain reputation, engagement metrics, and complaint rates is critical, as is diagnosing the specific cause of the problems in your sending practices, content, and list quality. While some technical aspects, like EHLO hostname mismatches, might exist, they might not be the core issue. Addressing complaints and removing subscribers who flag emails as spam is also key.
Key findings
- Stop Cold Emailing: Cease cold emailing immediately as it negatively impacts domain reputation.
- Implement Authentication: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate emails and improve deliverability.
- Warm Up IP/Domain: Gradually warm up your IP and domain to rebuild a positive sending reputation.
- Clean Email Lists: Regularly clean email lists to remove inactive addresses and reduce bounce rates.
- Improve Engagement: Send relevant, valuable content to improve engagement and signal a positive reputation.
- Avoid Spam Triggers: Avoid spam triggers in content to prevent emails from being flagged as spam.
- Monitor Sender Reputation: Monitor sender score and Google Postmaster Tools to identify deliverability issues.
- Consistent Sending: Establish a consistent sending volume to avoid triggering spam filters.
- Use Feedback Loops: Implement and monitor Feedback Loops (FBLs) to address spam complaints.
- Address Root Cause: Identify and address the root cause of deliverability issues (list, content, practices).
Key considerations
- Authentication Setup: Ensure proper configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to avoid authentication failures.
- Warm-Up Schedule: Develop a gradual warm-up schedule to increase sending volume incrementally.
- List Cleaning Frequency: Establish a regular schedule for cleaning email lists to maintain a healthy subscriber base.
- Content Relevance: Ensure email content is highly relevant and valuable to recipients.
- Spam Trigger Awareness: Educate your team on common spam triggers to avoid them in email content.
- Sender Score Monitoring: Regularly monitor sender score and Postmaster Tools to identify negative trends.
- Complaint Management: Actively manage spam complaints and remove complaining subscribers.
- Technical Compliance: Ensure emails comply with SMTP standards for proper formatting and delivery.
- Reputation Management: Actively manage sender reputation to avoid being flagged by SmartScreen Filter.
- EHLO Mismatch Importance: Don't focus on EHLO hostname issues before other more common problems are solved
What email marketers say
11 marketer opinions
After sending cold emails and experiencing low domain reputation, improving email deliverability requires a multi-faceted approach. The first step is to cease cold emailing, as it negatively impacts reputation. Authentication using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for verifying sender identity. Gradual IP and domain warm-up is advised, especially after periods of low activity. Regular list cleaning removes inactive addresses, and content should be engaging and avoid spam triggers. Segmentation, consistent sending volume, sender score monitoring and the use of list verification tools all contribute to improved deliverability.
Key opinions
- Stop Cold Emails: Discontinue sending cold emails to prevent further damage to domain reputation.
- Authenticate Emails: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate your emails and prove sender identity.
- Warm-Up IP/Domain: Gradually warm up your IP and domain to build a positive sending reputation with ISPs.
- Clean Email List: Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses and reduce bounce rates.
- Improve Engagement: Focus on sending relevant, valuable content to improve engagement rates and signal positive sender reputation to ISPs.
- Avoid Spam Triggers: Avoid using spam triggers in email content to prevent emails from being flagged as spam.
- Monitor Sender Score: Monitor your sender score to track your reputation with ISPs and identify potential issues.
- Consistent Volume: Establish a consistent sending volume and frequency to avoid triggering spam filters.
Key considerations
- Authentication Setup: Ensure proper configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to avoid authentication failures.
- Warm-Up Schedule: Develop a gradual warm-up schedule to increase sending volume incrementally over time.
- List Cleaning Frequency: Establish a regular schedule for cleaning your email list to maintain a healthy subscriber base.
- Content Relevance: Ensure your email content is highly relevant and valuable to your subscribers to improve engagement.
- Spam Trigger Awareness: Educate your team on common spam triggers and how to avoid them in email content.
- Segmentation Strategy: Develop a segmentation strategy to target specific groups of subscribers with relevant content.
- Sender Score Monitoring: Regularly monitor your sender score and take action to address any negative trends.
- Email List Verification: Consider implementing email list verification tools to identify and remove risky email addresses.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Litmus suggests monitoring your sender score using tools like Sender Score or Return Path to track your reputation with ISPs and identify potential issues affecting deliverability.
8 Feb 2024 - Litmus
Marketer view
Email marketer from Sendinblue suggests warming up your IP and domain gradually, especially after a period of low sending volume. This involves increasing sending volume slowly over time to build a positive reputation with ISPs.
31 Aug 2023 - Sendinblue
What the experts say
7 expert opinions
Improving email deliverability after sending cold emails and having a low domain reputation involves understanding the root causes, such as list quality, content, and sending practices, and actively working to improve sender reputation. Key actions include cleaning email lists, improving content relevance, gradually increasing sending volume, and implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Monitoring sender reputation factors like IP and domain reputation, engagement metrics, and spam complaint rates is essential. Actively participate in Feedback Loops (FBLs) to address spam complaints. Addressing technical aspects, note that while some technical configurations like EHLO hostname mismatches might exist, they are not always critical to deliverability problems. Consistent delivery of quality content is emphasized as a key factor in recovering email reputation over time, although recovery can take weeks.
Key opinions
- Identify Root Cause: Identify the root cause of deliverability issues, such as poor list quality, irrelevant content, or problematic sending practices.
- Improve Sender Reputation: Sender reputation is a composite of IP/domain reputation, engagement metrics, and spam complaint rates.
- Implement Authentication: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability and protect sender reputation.
- Use Feedback Loops: Feedback Loops are important for improving deliverability.
- Content Quality Matters: Sending good quality, relevant content is crucial for recovering email reputation.
Key considerations
- List Cleaning: Routinely clean email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses.
- Content Relevance: Ensure email content is relevant and valuable to recipients to increase engagement.
- Gradual Volume Increase: Gradually increase sending volume to avoid triggering spam filters.
- Reputation Monitoring: Continuously monitor sender reputation metrics to identify and address issues.
- EHLO Mismatch: The EHLO hostname mismatch may not be the primary cause of deliverability problems.
- Complaint Monitoring: Use Feedback Loops (FBLs) to monitor complaints from mail service providers.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that if enough people complain to Microsoft support about the EHLO mismatch, it might get attention, but it is unlikely to be influenced by one person.
18 Jun 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource states that Feedback Loops are a key component to improving deliverability.
2 Jun 2023 - Spamresource
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Improving email deliverability involves several key technical and monitoring aspects. Google Postmaster Tools is essential for monitoring your domain's reputation with Gmail and addressing issues. Adhering to SMTP standards, as outlined by RFC Editor, including correct email header formatting, is crucial. Microsoft's SmartScreen Filter evaluates sender reputation and content, impacting deliverability. Implementing Feedback Loops (FBLs) allows you to identify and remove subscribers who mark your emails as spam. DMARC implementation instructs mail servers on handling emails that fail authentication, preventing spoofing and improving deliverability.
Key findings
- Monitor with Postmaster Tools: Google Postmaster Tools allows monitoring of your domain's reputation with Gmail.
- Adhere to SMTP Standards: Follow SMTP standards for correct email header formatting to avoid spam filters.
- Understand SmartScreen: Microsoft's SmartScreen Filter evaluates sender reputation and content for spam filtering.
- Implement Feedback Loops: Feedback Loops (FBLs) help identify and remove subscribers who mark emails as spam.
- Implement DMARC: DMARC instructs mail servers on handling emails that fail authentication, preventing spoofing.
Key considerations
- Regular Monitoring: Regularly monitor Google Postmaster Tools for insights into deliverability issues.
- Technical Compliance: Ensure emails comply with SMTP standards for proper formatting and delivery.
- Reputation Management: Actively manage sender reputation to avoid being flagged by SmartScreen Filter.
- FBL Integration: Integrate and monitor Feedback Loops to address spam complaints promptly.
- DMARC Policy: Implement and monitor DMARC to enforce authentication policies and prevent email spoofing.
Technical article
Documentation from Google explains the use of Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your domain's reputation with Gmail. This allows you to identify issues and take corrective actions to improve deliverability.
6 Sep 2024 - Google
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft explains their SmartScreen Filter, which evaluates the sender reputation of the mail server and the content of the message to block spam.
4 Apr 2022 - Microsoft
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