How can you improve a bad domain reputation for email sending?

Key findings

• Possibility of recovery: A bad domain reputation is recoverable with the right techniques and consistent effort. It's a matter of time and methodology.
• Root cause analysis: Identifying the underlying reason for the poor reputation (e.g., mistaken re-subscription of unsubscribers, poor list hygiene, aggressive sending) is the crucial first step. Without this, efforts to improve may be ineffective.
• Recipient behavior: Poor domain reputation primarily stems from recipients signaling to mailbox providers (like Google) that they do not want the mail. Changing recipient behavior through relevant content and proper consent is key.
• Time and effort: Recovery is not instantaneous; it requires sustained commitment to improved practices over time. There are no magic bullets for quick fixes.

Key considerations

• List quality: Aggressive or questionable list acquisition methods (like third-party opt-ins, co-registration, or scraped lists) can lead to consistent high spam rates, indicating a fundamental problem rather than a one-off migration error. Ensure your list hygiene is impeccable.
• Recipient engagement: Focus on sending content that your recipients genuinely want and find valuable. This involves proper segmentation and avoiding sending to inactive or unengaged contacts.
• Compliance and consent: Verify subscriber sign-up processes and ensure compliance with anti-spam laws. Even unintentional re-subscriptions of opted-out users can lead to significant complaints and legal issues (not just deliverability problems).
• Monitoring and transparency: Utilize tools like Google Postmaster Tools (GPM) to monitor spam rates, and be transparent about sending practices. Understand that GPM data often shows a historical trend, highlighting that issues can persist over time. Regular monitoring can help improve your Google email reputation.

Key opinions

• Recoverability: It is absolutely possible to recover from a bad domain reputation, but it requires both time and the correct techniques to implement.
• Addressing the 'bad thing': The first step to improvement is identifying and stopping the practices that led to the bad reputation. This could range from fixing unintentional errors like re-subscribing unsubscribers to addressing more systemic issues.
• Long-term commitment: Recovering reputation is not a quick fix; it can take several months of consistent effort, including segmentation and sending engaging content to genuinely interested recipients. It might take up to 5 months to see significant change.
• Honesty with clients: Marketing managers often struggle to acknowledge the true source of deliverability problems (e.g., purchased lists), making client education and clear expectations about cost and time essential.

Key considerations

• List cleansing: Be prepared to drastically cull email lists, potentially reducing them by half, to remove unengaged or problematic subscribers. This is a critical, albeit sometimes difficult, step towards improving sender reputation.
• Subscriber acquisition audit: Proactively verify how subscribers are opting in. This includes manually signing up to see the process firsthand, as relying solely on client assurances can be misleading given a history of deliverability issues.
• Segmentation strategy: Refining segmentation to target only genuinely engaged users is vital for recovery, especially after initial issues (e.g., warming up with inactive users), to improve overall email deliverability.
• Client commitment: The success of reputation recovery heavily depends on the client's willingness to follow recommendations and make fundamental changes to their sending practices, even if they desire a 'magic bullet' solution. Building good domain reputation takes time and consistent effort.

Key opinions

• Root cause is 90% of the solution: In deliverability, a thorough root cause analysis accounts for a significant portion of the solution to a reputation problem. pinpointing why recipients don't want the mail is paramount.
• Recipient-centric approach: Domain reputation directly reflects how recipients interact with your mail. Changing how recipients react (e.g., fewer complaints, more opens) is what ultimately changes your domain's standing.
• Beyond migration errors: A consistently high spam rate is rarely attributable to a single migration mistake. It usually indicates broader, ongoing issues within the sender's practices or business model.
• No magic bullet: Many senders with poor deliverability want a quick fix, but genuine improvement requires a commitment to fundamental changes, sometimes involving a radical re-evaluation of their opt-in strategy.

Key considerations

• Understanding unwanted mail: If recipients signal that they do not want your mail, it could necessitate removing recipients, altering sending cadence, or making other significant adjustments. Poor domain reputation with Google is a clear indicator of unwanted mail.
• Legal implications: Mistakenly re-subscribing unsubscribers can have severe consequences beyond deliverability, including potential lawsuits for breaking anti-spam laws, such as CAN-SPAM or GDPR.
• Third-party opt-in skepticism: Be wary of claims of third-party opt-in services or co-registration, as these often provide lists that are 'just barely' compliant but lead to deliverability problems.
• Patience and persistence: Recovering reputation takes time. For example, Google Postmaster Tools only show 120 days of data, but issues can extend much further back, requiring sustained efforts to recover email domain and IP reputation.

Key findings

• Authentication is fundamental: Proper implementation of email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is consistently cited as a primary factor in establishing and maintaining trust with mailbox providers. This helps receivers verify the sender's identity.
• Permission-based sending: Only sending to subscribers who have explicitly opted in (preferably through a double opt-in process) is crucial. This minimizes spam complaints and engagement issues that harm reputation.
• Consistent and relevant content: Mailbox providers assess content relevance based on subscriber interaction. Sending valuable, expected content on a consistent schedule reinforces positive engagement.
• Volume management: Sudden, large spikes in email volume or rapid increases in sending frequency are often flagged as suspicious. Gradual ramp-up and consistent sending patterns are advised, especially for new domains or after a reputation hit.

Key considerations

• List hygiene: Regularly cleaning email lists to remove inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and known spam traps is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and avoiding blocklists.
• Monitoring deliverability metrics: Paying close attention to metrics like open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and especially complaint rates (via feedback loops and tools like Google Postmaster Tools) provides vital insights into subscriber engagement and potential issues. This can help with understanding Google Postmaster Tools.
• Easy unsubscribes: Providing clear and easy ways for recipients to unsubscribe helps prevent them from marking emails as spam, which is more damaging to reputation.
• Avoiding blocklists: Maintaining good sending practices is the best defense against being added to email blacklists or blocklists. If a domain is listed, delisting can be a lengthy process.