Your sender score and IP reputation are critical to the success of your email marketing campaigns. They impact your deliverability, open rates, and ultimately, your ability to reach your audience.

If you’re struggling with low deliverability or high bounce rates, it’s time to take action to improve your sender health. Here are 6 ways to improve your sender score and IP reputation:

1. Prioritizing List Hygiene

Remove invalid email addresses, inactive subscribers, and other issues that can affect deliverability. This process, often called “list scrubbing,” involves identifying and removing addresses that are no longer active or have a high probability of bouncing.

You can use email verification tools to check the validity of email addresses and identify potential spam traps. Regularly cleaning your email list (cadence varies based on size of list and methods of acquiring list) can significantly improve your sender reputation and deliverability rates.

Helpful Tip: Front-load your list hygiene efforts with smart acquisition. Double opt-ins and automated email verification are non-negotiable for long-term email success.

2. Segment Your Email List

Create targeted segments based on engagement levels and tailor your approach for each group. This can help improve open rates and reduce spam complaints.

For example, you can segment your list into active subscribers, inactive subscribers, and new subscribers. You can then adjust things like cadence or content strategies based on these engagement levels (i.e. sending more frequent emails to highly engaged subscribers and re-engagement campaigns to inactive subscribers).

3. Maintain Consistent Sending Practices

Establish a predictable and consistent sending pattern to build trust with email providers. Avoid sudden spikes in email volume, which can trigger spam filters. We often get asked how often we should be sending emails to our customers. There are a lot of factors to consider but ultimately consistent sending patterns help email providers recognize you as a legitimate sender and improve your deliverability rates. The sweet spot is usually anything from 2-3 times per week, to once a month. If you’re sending less than one email per month, deliverability may be an issue for you.

4. Review Your Email Content

To ensure your emails reach the inbox and avoid being flagged as spam, it’s crucial to pay close attention to both the content and structure of your emails:

1. Avoid Spam Triggers: Refrain from using excessive capitalization (ie extreme amounts of ALL CAPS), exclamation points, and words commonly associated with spam.
2. Image-to-Text Ratio: Strive for a balanced ratio of images and text. Too many images with minimal text can trigger spam filters.
3. Concise and Relevant Content: Keep your email content focused and relevant to the recipient. Avoid lengthy, rambling messages.
4. Personalization: Whenever possible, personalize your emails to show the recipient that the message is specifically intended for them.
5. Mobile-Friendly Design: Design your emails to be responsive and display correctly on various devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
6. Image Optimization: Ensure images are optimized for web use by compressing file sizes and including descriptive alt text.
7. Clean and Simple Layout: Use a clear and organized layout that is easy to read and navigate.
8. Include a Clear Unsubscribe Link: Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails by including a clear unsubscribe link. This reduces spam complaints and maintains a healthy email list.

5. Set Up the Right Sender “Mechanics”

Think of your sender mechanics as the foundation of your email program. These behind-the-scenes elements ensure your emails reach the inbox and contribute to a positive sender reputation. Here’s a breakdown of essential components:

1. Google Postmaster Tools: If Gmail is a significant part of your audience, Google Postmaster Tools is a must. It provides detailed insights into how Gmail views your emails, including data on delivery errors, spam complaints, IP reputation, and authentication. Use this data to pinpoint deliverability issues and maintain a healthy sender score with Gmail.
2. Deliverability Monitoring Tools: Several tools offer comprehensive deliverability monitoring. These platforms provide real-time data on your sender score, IP reputation, Inbox Placement Rate and other key metrics. Here are some popular platforms you can consider for this: Validity, SendView, Everest, and Edatasource.
3. Email Authentication: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication methods. These act as digital signatures for your emails, verifying that they are genuinely coming from you. This not only improves deliverability but also protects your domain from unauthorized use. Here are some tools you can consider for this: BriteVerify, NeverBounce or XVerify.
4. Dedicated IP Address: While shared IP addresses are common, especially for smaller senders, consider a dedicated IP address as your email program matures. This gives you more control over your sender reputation, as you’re not sharing an IP with other senders. However, remember that a dedicated IP requires careful management to maintain a good reputation.

6. On-Going Reporting & Analysis

By setting up these sender mechanics mentioned above correctly, you’ll have the tools you’ll need to proactively monitor your deliverability performance and enable your team to course-correct when necessary to avoid larger issues such as blacklisting. Some key metrics to review regularly include:

1. Bounce rates: High bounce rates, both hard and soft, can signal problems with your email list or content. Hard bounces indicate permanent delivery failures, often due to invalid email addresses. Soft bounces are temporary issues, such as full inboxes or server problems. Regularly monitoring and addressing bounce rates can help improve your sender reputation.
2. Spam complaints: A significant number of spam complaints can severely damage your sender reputation and may even result in blacklisting. It’s crucial to monitor spam complaint rates and take immediate action to identify and resolve the causes. This may involve reviewing your email content, list acquisition practices, or opt-in & opt-out processes.
3. Engagement Rates: While not a direct factor in sender reputation, low open rates & click rates can indicate that your emails are not relevant to your audience. This can lead to recipients marking your emails as spam or simply ignoring them, which can indirectly impact your sender score. Optimizing your email content and subject lines can help improve engagement and reduce the risk of negative actions.

Ultimately, Email Deliverability is not just a technical matter.

It’s a reflection of your commitment to providing a positive and valuable experience for your subscribers. By prioritizing list hygiene, sending relevant content, and respecting your audience’s preferences, you’re not only improving your deliverability but also building stronger relationships with your audience which will ultimately drive business results.

Ready to take your email marketing to the next level?

SH/FT can provide a complimentary high-level deliverability review to give you some early insights on how to improve your sender health. Talk to us today to learn more.