Summary
Rehabilitating sender reputation after a block requires a comprehensive strategy encompassing immediate action, thorough investigation, list hygiene, content optimization, authentication, and gradual re-engagement. Key steps include immediately stopping sends, purging unengaged subscribers, analyzing the root cause of the block, implementing robust authentication, and warming up IPs gradually while maintaining consistent sending practices. Monitoring spam rates, feedback loops, and blocklist status is also crucial.
Key findings
- Immediate Stop: Immediately cease sending emails if you're blocked to prevent further damage to your sender reputation.
- List Hygiene is Paramount: Cleaning your email list by removing inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and invalid addresses is critical.
- Authentication is Essential: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial to verify your legitimacy and improve deliverability.
- Content Matters: Audit and optimize your email content to avoid spam triggers and ensure relevance to your audience.
- Gradual Warm-up: If you have a new IP or have been blocked, gradually increase your sending volume to rebuild trust with inbox providers.
- Identify Blocklist: Identify the specific blocklist you are on and rectify the issues that caused your IP to be added.
Key considerations
- Engagement: Focus on sending to engaged subscribers to avoid being marked as spam.
- Segmentation: Segment your audience to send relevant content, increasing engagement and reducing spam complaints.
- Spam Triggers: Be aware of elements that may trigger spam filters and remove them from your content (excessive caps, certain words etc).
- Feedback Loops: Monitor feedback loops and promptly address complaints.
- Sending Domains: Check outbound domains for good standing to ensure they aren't a point of concern.
- Postmaster Tools: Postmaster tools should be used to track domain reputation.
- Monitor SRD: Use SRD to identify if there are any issues with IP addresses.
What email marketers say
9 marketer opinions
Rehabilitating sender reputation after being blocked involves a multi-faceted approach focusing on list hygiene, content quality, authentication, and gradual re-engagement. Key strategies include removing unengaged subscribers, cleaning lists to reduce bounce rates, authenticating sending domains, crafting relevant content, warming up IPs gradually, and addressing the root causes of blocklisting before requesting delisting.
Key opinions
- List Hygiene: Removing inactive subscribers, cleaning lists of hard bounces, and verifying email addresses in real-time are critical for maintaining a healthy sender reputation.
- Content Quality: Creating high-quality, relevant content tailored to segmented audiences reduces spam complaints and increases engagement.
- Authentication: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC helps inbox providers verify your identity, improving deliverability and trust.
- Gradual Re-engagement: Warming up IP addresses gradually and sending emails in smaller volumes helps re-establish a positive sending pattern with inbox providers.
- Blocklist Resolution: Identifying the specific blocklist and addressing the issues (spam complaints, high bounce rates) that led to the listing is necessary before requesting delisting.
Key considerations
- Inactive Subscribers: Regularly remove subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails to prevent damage to your reputation.
- Spam Triggers: Audit email content for elements that could be perceived as spammy, such as excessive capitalization or specific keywords.
- List Segmentation: Segment your email list to send targeted, relevant content to different audience groups.
- Bounce Rate: Continuously monitor your bounce rate and promptly remove hard bounces from your list.
- Root Cause: Identify and fix the underlying problems that caused your blocklisting before seeking removal from blocklists.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Litmus shares that a key element to ensuring your email lands in the inbox is list hygiene. Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers. You should also target only permissioned email addresses.
3 Oct 2023 - Litmus
Marketer view
Email marketer from GMass explains that one should authenticate your sending domain using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Authentication helps inbox providers verify that you are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain and improves your sender reputation.
30 Oct 2022 - GMass
What the experts say
8 expert opinions
Rehabilitating sender reputation after being blocked requires immediate action, careful investigation, and consistent practices. Stopping sending immediately and purging unengaged subscribers is crucial. Identifying and addressing the root cause of the block, including cleaning mailing lists, checking linked domains, and authenticating email, is vital. Maintaining consistent sending practices is key to long-term reputation management.
Key opinions
- Immediate Cessation: Immediately stop sending emails upon noticing delivery issues to avoid further damage to your sender reputation.
- List Purging: Purge your subscriber list to remove unengaged users and those receiving emails in their spam/bulk folder.
- Root Cause Analysis: Investigate the underlying causes of the block, such as spam complaints, domain issues, or authentication failures.
- Authentication Implementation: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate your email and improve deliverability.
- Consistent Sending: Maintain consistent sending practices to avoid triggering spam filters and damaging your reputation.
Key considerations
- Blocked Status: Understand that being throttled or receiving a TSS04 error indicates a portion of your audience is marking your emails as spam.
- Mailing List Cleaning: Focus on removing invalid addresses, unsubscribing disengaged users, and segmenting your audience.
- Linked Domains: Investigate domains linked in your emails, including plain text mentions, as they can contribute to deliverability issues.
- Blocklist Removal: Identify the specific blocklists affecting your deliverability and take corrective actions based on their requirements.
- Volume Spikes: Avoid sudden volume spikes in sending as they can damage your reputation.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource recommends implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate your email. These measures help inbox providers verify your legitimacy and improve deliverability.
26 Jan 2024 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that cleaning up mailing lists is crucial for sender reputation. They recommend removing invalid email addresses, unsubscribing disengaged users, and segmenting your audience based on engagement levels.
9 Feb 2022 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
3 technical articles
Rehabilitating sender reputation involves monitoring key metrics, maintaining consistent sending practices, and ensuring proper authentication. Google recommends reviewing spam rates and feedback loops, while SendGrid emphasizes consistent volume and low bounce rates. Microsoft highlights the importance of avoiding blocklists and providing a clear unsubscribe process.
Key findings
- Spam Rate: High spam rates negatively impact sender reputation, requiring close monitoring and mitigation.
- Authentication: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for verifying sender legitimacy and improving deliverability.
- Consistent Volume: Maintaining a consistent sending volume and avoiding sudden spikes prevents triggering spam filters.
- Bounce Rate Management: Monitoring and promptly addressing bounce rates by removing invalid addresses is essential.
- Blocklist Avoidance: Ensuring your sending IP address isn't on any blocklists is critical for deliverability.
Key considerations
- Postmaster Tools: Utilize Google Postmaster Tools to monitor spam rates and feedback loops.
- Sender Reputation Data (SRD): Use Microsoft's Sender Reputation Data (SRD) to monitor your IP's reputation.
- Unsubscribe Process: Implement a clear and easy-to-use unsubscribe process for recipients.
- Feedback Loops: Pay attention to feedback loops to identify and address recipient complaints.
- Engagement Monitoring: Track recipient engagement metrics to understand how your emails are being received.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft shares that to avoid emails landing in junk, ensure your sending IP address isn't on any blocklists. Use Sender Reputation Data (SRD) to monitor your IP's reputation. Implement a clear unsubscribe process for recipients.
20 Apr 2022 - Microsoft
Technical article
Documentation from Google explains that to fix email delivery issues, you should review the 'Spam Rate' and 'Feedback Loop' in Postmaster Tools. High spam rates directly impact your sender reputation. Also, ensure proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is set up.
26 Apr 2022 - Google
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