|
When you send frequent email campaigns you run the risk of being identified as a source of SPAM. Your campaigns are more closely reviewed by SPAM filters and these filters sometimes mistakenly move legitimate messages into the wrong folder. |
 |
How can you keep your emails out of the SPAM folder? Having a good sender reputation will keep your emails out of the dreaded SPAM folder.
The components of a sender’s reputation are
- Sender authentication
- Whitelisting
- Contact list quality
- SPAM complaints
- Number of recipients
- Email tiers
Are you who you say you are?
Authenticating your From email address will maximize the deliverability of your emails and ensure your emails will not be marked as SPAM instantly conveying that your email can be trusted.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, use SenderID, DKIM and SPF authentication as a way to scan incoming emails for spam, forgery, and phishing. Emails that fail authentication are more likely to land in a junk of spam folder.
To help ensure your emails reach your recipients, email marketing best practice is to authenticate your From email address using one of these respected methods:
- SenderID - Sender ID
- SPF - Sender policy Framework (SPF)
- DKIM - Domain Keys Identified Mail
Each of these methodologies works by using technology that adds a digital signature to your email headers. This signature validates and authorizes your domain name in the eyes of the receiver. They do not authenticate your content or tell the receiver to treat your message differently.
Contact our Support Team to authenticate your email domain.
Whitelisting
Whitelisting and safe sender lists are similar terms that result in allowing email to flow through SPAM filters to the recipient email inbox. Safe sender lists target an email address while a whitelist can target an email address or domain. >
- Ask recipients to add your from email address to their contact list. This will help your messages to bypass the filters and land directly in the recipient’s Inbox.
- Encourage recipients to add the from address to the safe sender list in every email campaign you send out. Learn more about safe sender
- You can add the marketer to your Contacts. You should also consider adding Zift to your contact lists so that you receive your Test emails. Learn more about white lists.
Avoid SPAM Traps with Quality Contact Lists
Take the time to build and maintain your subscriber lists for the highest return on your investment and to avoid SPAM complaints. As a marketing automation platform, we are obligated to enforce anti-spam laws. This means we have some requirements you should be aware of in our Terms and Conditions of Use
If you have purchased a list, you are in danger. Purchased lists often contain inactive, useless email addresses that will only slow you down by causing bounces. Read Best Practices for Contact Lists.
Here are some ways to build a quality contact list:
- Only add subscribers who have specifically requested to receive your emails. Having a business relationship with an individual or a business doesn’t mean it’s okay to add them to your mailing list. If you automatically add contacts or if your sign up process is unclear, recipients may flag your email as spam.
- Before adding recipients to a contact list, ensure that you have the proper permission for each and every recipient on the list. Why? Without proper permission you run the risk of getting reported for SPAM or worse, being sued under anti-spam or privacy laws. The basic principle of permission is that you can only email people who have explicitly given you permission to contact them, and only about subjects that the recipient has agreed to. Focus on Sender Permissions and receive explicit permission before sending emails.
- Monitor your list for inactive subscribers. You can Suppress or create a Do Not Contact list of subscribers who have not opened in 3 months, 6 months or whatever time frame you are comfortable with.
- Direct people to sign up on a web form.
Manage SPAM Complaints
SPAM complaints are registered when someone marks the email they receive as SPAM or Junk. The notifications are sent to the email sender, ISP provider, and Zift. Zift123 will add the recipient email address to the Suppression List. If multiple people are complaining about your emails, it indicates that something is wrong!
Accounts that consistently generate complaints can be blacklisted by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Email Service Providers (ESP). Blacklisting is an ISP-initiated complete suspension of email traffic from a sending IP owned by our ESP. These IPs are volume-limited and a loss of IP is detrimental to all parties involved and represents a lost percentage of overall possible email volume bandwidth provided to Zift by our ESP. It is rare for an ESP to negotiate a reversal of an ISP IP blacklist. Therefore, gating partners with tiers is the safest way to check partner sender reputation health as they build email capacity.
Zift can’t fix why a subscriber complains. It is up to the partner to send out quality emails.
- Set the proper expectations with your subscribers. Sign up forms, landing pages, and emails are opportunities to set expectations for the content and frequency of content.
- Send only relevant content.
- Have subscribers opt-in to receiving emails. This will also help to eliminate invalid emails and people signing up solely for an incentive or bonus gift.
- Make is easy to unsubscribe.
- Email Best Practice has more recommendations
The Number of Recipients
You know that spammers send out emails in large numbers. ISP’s flag large volume sends. Using an email marketing services like Zift ensures that you can send all the emails you need. Each partner is granted a base number of emails. However it is not always enough. Zift will grant additional email credits based on sender reputation and email tiers.
Email Tiers
Each partner is granted a specific number of email credits per mailing per month. Zift Support can grant you additional credits based on need and your understanding of email guidelines dictated by Internet Service Providers and Email Service Providers. You can learn more about Zift Solution Tiers