This is a guest post by Corina Leslie, PR Manager at ZeroBounce.
Many businesses use email to distribute content, nurture leads, and increase marketing ROI. While anyone can hit send on a message, not everyone knows the ins and outs of email marketing and how to make it profitable. Email is effective when it reaches your prospects and customers. However, lots of obstacles can prevent that–and email blacklists are among them.
What is an email blacklist?
Email blacklists are databases of IPs and domains associated with spam and spammy behaviour. Mailbox providers and anti-spam organizations maintain email blacklists to filter out and block spam senders. Lawful senders can get blacklisted too, if they don’t abide by email marketing rules. Getting blacklisted will put a halt to your email marketing efforts.
Let’s see how you can avoid being put on an email blacklist, so your campaigns land in your recipients' inboxes and boost your email conversions. Follow these five rules to keep your IP and domain safe and ensure an uninterrupted connection with your audience.
ProTip 1: Always use a valid email list
Poor email hygiene is a common reason why senders end up on a blacklist. It can happen to anyone, as data can degrade in less than a year. Bounces also affect email deliverability, so make sure your list is always valid.
ProTip 2: Build your email list using double opt-in
Double opt-in requires every new subscriber to confirm they’d like to receive emails from you by clicking a link. Setting it up with your email service provider is easy and helps you build a healthier email list. This subscription method prevents fake signups while giving your engagement a boost.
ProTip 3: Use a blacklist monitor
Do you want absolute peace of mind about your emails reaching your recipients' inboxes? A blacklist monitor may be the answer. These tools check your IP and domain against email blacklists daily and alert you if you’re found on any. Monitoring your status allows you to act as soon as you run into an issue—and fix it quickly.
ProTip 4: Test your email deliverability
Abiding by email marketing best practices is the right way to go about getting your emails delivered. If you’re looking for more reassurance, an inbox tester can go a long way. Before you send a campaign to your list, test your email deliverability to see if the campaign will land in an inbox. If it doesn’t, you can identify the problem and rectify it before launching your campaign.
ProTip 5: Stay on top of spam complaints
For mailbox providers, spam complaints are an indicator that your emails are not only irrelevant, but bothersome to recipients. It’s acceptable to get one spam report for every 1,000 emails you send. However, if your complaint rate is higher, you’re at risk of being blacklisted. Remember to remove complainers from your email list and never email them again.
Wrapping up: Avoid spammy behaviour
The purpose of email blacklists is to keep spam at bay, so any type of spammy behaviour can get you mistaken for a spam sender. To prevent that, stay away from practices associated with spammers, such as:
Sending emails to people who haven’t subscribed to them. Renting or purchasing an email database is never a good idea.
Including questionable words and phrases in your emails, especially in your subject lines (“Free money,” “Buy now,” and “Get cash!!!”).
Shortening your links to track clicks. Your email provider should provide you with data on clicks, so there's no need to shorten the links to your landing pages.
Sending a lot of emails at once and then disappearing for a long time, only to send another large batch a few months later.
Make every email count
Staying away from spam-like practices is key to avoiding email blacklists. However, building engagement and seeing success from your email marketing efforts requires more than that. To boost email ROI, strive to offer your audience something helpful in every email you send. Whether it’s a discount or an educational resource, your subscribers need to feel they’re getting something useful from your emails every time they open one. So, stick to the type of content you promised and make it worth reading. It is also important to send your content consistently. Following a schedule helps increase your email deliverability and builds awareness around your brand.
You can now validate email addresses stored in Zoho CRM to eliminate bounces, complaints, and spam caused by invalid or fraudulent email addresses.
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