7 Tips to Improve Your Sender Reputation

Post on 16-May-2015

1.124 views 3 download

Tags:

Transcript of 7 Tips to Improve Your Sender Reputation

7 Tips to Improve Your Sender Reputation

Presenters: Carly Brantz and Paul Kincaid-Smith

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Carly Brantzcarly.brantz@sendgrid.com

@carlybrantz

Paul Kincaid-Smithpaul@sendgrid.com

@cyclingup

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

“We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.”

-American Indian Proverb

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What is Email Reputation?

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Why Should I Care About Email Reputation?

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Where Does Reputation Fit In?

How Email Appears to Work

Sender’s Outbox Recipient’s Inbox

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Where Does Reputation Fit In?How Email Actually Works

Sender’s Outbox Recipient’s Inbox

Sender’s Mail Server (MTA)

The Internet

Recipient’s Mail Server (MTA)

Anti-Spam Filter

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Where Does Reputation Fit In?

Recipient’s Inbox

The InternetRecipient’s Mail Server (MTA)

Sender’s Outbox

Sender’s Mail Server (MTA)

Feedback Loop

Reputation Data

Anti-Spam Filter

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

How Can I Improve My Sender Reputation?

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#1: Minimize Complaints

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

How do recipients complain?

• Mark the message as spam via email client’s “This is Spam” button

• Email a complaint to abuse@

• Submit complaints to 3rd party spam detection systems (e.g. SpamCop, Cloudmark Authority)

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Keep spam complaints low by:

1. Sending the right message

2. To the right person

3. At the right time

4. With the right frequency

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#2. Send Relevant Content

“I have a hundred and seventy-three thousand, six hundred and eighty-two unread emails. You tell me what I have to live for.”

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

• Send a welcome message

• Make it easy to unsubscribe

• Make sure your emails are clear and branded

• Use past interaction and sales

Manage Expectations

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinarTuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#3: Send at a Consistent Volume

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Don’t mail too much... Or too little

• Warm up your IP -- establish trust

• Use the appropriate mail frequency

• Be consistent

• Erratic sending is a red flag

• Transactional emails must be timely

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#4: Keep Bounce Rates Low

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What is a bounce?

1.Hard Bounce- Knock knock. Go away, don’t try again.

2.Soft Bounce- Knock knock. Come back later.

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Bounces affect reputation

• Purchased lists often contain many defunct addresses. When spammers send to those lists, bounce rates are high

• If your bounce rates are high, you may be mistaken for a spammer.

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Bounce guidance

• Red flag if bounces over 10%

• Keep bounces low by:

- Regularly removing bounced addresses from your list

- Find the right sending cadence

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#5: Stay Off Blacklists

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What is a blacklist?

• Receivers use BLs to identify abusive senders quickly and cheaply

• IP blacklists -- lists of IPs that spam

• Domain blacklists -- lists of domains found in spam content

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

How do I stay off blacklists?• Don’t send to purchased lists

• Ensure your recipients want the email you send them

• Use reputable ESP that provides you with clean IP addresses

• Don’t get exploited by hackers -- system security is essential

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What do I do if I get blacklisted?

1. Identify the error that led to complaints or spam traps

2. Reform your sending practices

3. Petition for delisting

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#6: Avoid Spam Traps

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What is a spam trap?

• An email address that doesn’t send mail but identifies spammers who send it mail

• Two types of spam traps

1. Pristine

2. Dormant

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

How do you avoid spam traps?

• Don’t purchase lists

• Ensure permission via confirmed opt-in

• Segment your list by engagement

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

#7: Let An Expert Do The Heavy Lifting For You

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Infrastructure Reflects Your Business

• The way you send tells ISPs a lot about you

• Infrastructure issues are easy to fix

• Home grown systems are susceptible to problems

• Common problems are around authentication and server configurations

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Why SendGrid?

We make email delivery simple and easy for developers everywhere.

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

What Our Clients Are Saying

“Marrying the SendGrid Platform with SoftLayer's offering in both Infrastructure as a Service and Cloud Computing really does give the customers the most robust, turnkey

offering available to the market today.”

“We’re now enjoying email delivery rates of 96% and have saved thousands of dollars in engineering resources.”

“Their account management team is responsive and proactive, providing us with the space we need to focus on strategic plans, rather than day to day email management.”

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Key Takeaways

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

• Upcoming Webinar:

- “Tips and Tricks to Stay Out of the Spam Folder”

• SendGrid’s Deliverability Guide

• SendGrid’s Blog

- www.sendgrid.com/blog

Learn More

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Questions?

Tuesday, April 24, 12

#SGWebinar

Carly Brantzcarly.brantz@sendgrid.com

@carlybrantz

Paul Kincaid-Smithpaul@sendgrid.com

@cyclingup

Tuesday, April 24, 12