What happens when you put a lot of effort into crafting the perfect email only to have it go straight to the spam folder? There was no engagement, no conversions, and a whole lot of wasted time. This scenario is all too common for businesses with a poor email reputation. Whether your emails are getting marked as spam or your deliverability rates have taken a hit, figuring out how to fix the problem can be frustrating. This article will explore how to fix your email reputation to get your emails back on track. You’ll learn how to restore your reputation, maintain a healthy score, and ensure your emails land where they’re supposed to—your readers’ inboxes(inbox delivery). 

Inframail has the tools to restore your email reputation and keep it healthy. Our email infrastructure helps you send emails from a dedicated IP address to help you build your reputation from a clean slate. A strong email infrastructure can improve deliverability rates, enhance engagement, and protect your brand’s credibility.

Table of Content

• What is Email Reputation and Why It’s Important

• 13 Ways to Fix Email Reputation Quickly

• 5 Top Strategies for Effective Email Reputation Management

• Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

What is Email Reputation and Why It’s Important

Your email reputation is more than just a technicality—it's your digital handshake, your first impression in the vast world of cyberspace. But what happens when that handshake feels a bit... clammy? Don't fret! We're here to help you fix your email reputation and get back in the good graces of inboxes everywhere.

What is Email Reputation?

Email reputation, also known as sender reputation, is a factor that can determine the success of email marketing campaigns. It’s essentially a score that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Email Service Providers (ESPs) assign to an organization or individual sending emails. 

This score is based on several factors, such as:

• The quality of the content 

• Frequency of the emails sent 

• Bounce rates 

• Recipient engagement (like open and click-through rates) 

• The number of spam complaints received 

A high score (around 90/100) indicates a good email sender reputation and emphasizes that emails are valuable and desired by recipients. As a result, it provides better email deliverability rates and visibility in recipients’ inboxes. 

An Example of Email Reputation in Action 

You run an online retail business and regularly send promotional emails. If your emails are well-crafted, relevant to your audience, and sent at a reasonable frequency, recipients are more likely to engage positively. This engagement signals the ISPs that your emails are trustworthy and should be delivered straight to the inbox.

Conversely, if many recipients mark your emails as spam, and you land in the spam folder, use clickbait subject lines, and work on invalid email addresses.

The Importance of Monitoring Sender Score and IP Reputation for Effective Email Marketing

Then, you can get a low sender score, harm your email reputation, and lead ISPs to filter your email to spam folders. This can drastically reduce the efficiency of your email marketing efforts. If a sender owns many domains and each has a dedicated IP address, they all have their IP reputation.

So, maintaining a good email reputation is essential for ensuring that your messages reach your audience effectively.

What Are Domain Reputation and Sender Score?

Both domain reputation and sender score are like credibility in email marketing. Keep them high, and you’ll see better engagement with your emails. Let them slip; you might find your messages ghosted by those inbox providers.

Domain reputation measures the trustworthiness of your website’s domain, especially regarding email sending. It works as a trust score that inbox providers (like Gmail or Outlook) assign to your domain based on your email habits. If you send out emails that people find valuable and engaging, and you avoid practices like spamming with irrelevant messages, then you can get a solid email domain reputation. This applies to transactional emails too–they can drive spam complaint rates sky-high as well. 

Understanding Sender Score: How It Affects Email Deliverability and Engagement

Case in point: You’re sending out many invitations to a big event. Now, if you’ve got a good opinion about myself, people are likelier to open your invites and accept my invitation. That’s pretty much how domain reputation works in email marketing.

Sender score: An individual grade in the email area. It’s a number, typically from 0 to 100, indicating your email-sending practices' reliability. The higher the sender score, the better the results and email deliverability. Conversely, you will get more engaged users, and your mail servers will reflect that.

Case in point: You’re running a small business and regularly send out newsletters to your customers. Imagine your score is 92 out of 100, which is pretty good. This high number suggests that you’re doing things right and subscribers are opening and engaging with your messages.

Why is My Email Reputation Going Down? 

There could be many reasons why your email reputation is going down. For sure – something in your email practices might be off track. 

• One common reason could be high bounce rates. This happens when you send emails to addresses that no longer exist or are incorrect. 

• Another big red flag for email providers is sending emails to a spam trap. These are email addresses specifically set up to catch spammers, and hitting them can seriously harm your reputation. 

• Also, if recipients frequently mark your outgoing emails as spam, it signals inbox providers that your content might not be welcome or important, or that your sending volume is too high. High spam rates can hinder your email performance and it becomes harder to send legitimate emails later on. 

• Another reason can be sending messages to fake or invalid addresses. It doesn’t work for a good sender score and reputation as well. There are a lot of email deliverability issues stemming from this source and every good email marketer should invest in a validation tool to prevent them from happening. 

• Don’t forget about the content itself, too, using spam trigger words in your subject lines or email body can lead to your emails being flagged as spam. 

Sometimes, gaining a bad sender reputation and harming your marketing emails doesn't take much. The damage isn’t always great, but all it takes is, for example, more and more people giving your emails to spam, and you’re already making things worse. 

Related Reading

• Why Are My Emails Going To Spam
• Email Deliverability Rate
• Email Monitoring
• Email Deliverability Issues
• Email Quality Score
• Bounce Rate in Email Marketing
• How To Avoid Email Going To Spam
• Why Do Emails Bounce
• SPF or DKIM
• How To Check If Your Emails Are Going To Spam
• Email Sender Reputation

13 Ways to Fix Email Reputation Quickly

1. Clean House: Scrub Your List

Start by thoroughly cleaning your email list. This means: 

• Removing inactive subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails in months 

• Fixing or removing incorrect email addresses to reduce bounce rates 

• Saying goodbye to any purchased lists (yes, we know you have them – it's time to let go) 

• Implementing a sunset policy to remove unengaged subscribers gradually. 

Remember, when fixing your email reputation, a smaller, engaged list is far more valuable than a large, unresponsive one.

2. Focus on Engagement: Quality Over Quantity

Create content that your subscribers want to read. This means: 

• Personalizing your emails based on subscriber preferences and behavior 

• Using segmentation to ensure we're sending relevant content to the right people 

• Crafting compelling subject lines that encourage opens without being clickbait 

• Providing value in every email, whether it's information, entertainment, or exclusive offers 

Remember, the goal is to train ISPs to see your emails as wanted and valuable to recipients.

3. Implement a Double Opt-In

Consider implementing a double opt-in process for new subscribers. This extra step might seem like a hurdle, but it ensures that only genuinely interested people join your list. Plus, it's a great way to show ISPs that you're playing by the rules and only sending to people who explicitly want your emails.

4. Establish a Consistent Sending Schedule

Consistency is crucial. Establish a regular sending schedule and stick to it. Erratic sending patterns can raise red flags with ISPs. Whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, find a rhythm that works for you and your audience. This predictability helps your subscribers and email providers know what to expect from you.

5. Monitor Your Metrics

Keep a close eye on your email metrics. This includes: 

• Open rates 

• Click-through rates 

• Bounce rates 

• Spam complaints 

• Unsubscribe rates 

These numbers are the pulse of your email reputation. You should see these metrics improve as you implement changes–a sign that your reputation is on the mend.

6. Authenticate Your Emails

Implement proper authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These technical measures help ISPs verify that your emails are legitimate and haven't been tampered with, which can significantly boost your reputation.

7. Provide Easy Unsubscribe Options

Make it simple for recipients to opt-out if they no longer want to receive your emails. It may seem counter-intuitive, but an easy unsubscribe process can help your reputation by reducing spam complaints.

8. Test, Test, Test

Before sending to your entire list, test your emails with a small segment. This allows you to catch any potential issues—like broken links or rendering problems—before they impact your wider audience and reputation.

9. Advanced Tactics for the Email Aficionado

Once you've mastered the basics, consider these advanced strategies to boost your email reputation further.

10. IP Warming

If you use a new IP address, gradually increase your email volume. This process, known as IP warming, helps establish a positive sending history with ISPs.

11. Content Optimization

Use tools to analyze your email content for potential spam triggers. Avoid excessive use of words like "free," "buy now," or "click here," which can set off spam filters.

12. Engagement Segmentation

Create segments based on engagement levels and tailor your sending frequency accordingly. Your most engaged subscribers might welcome daily emails, while others prefer a weekly digest.

13. Feedback Loops

Sign up for feedback loops with major ISPs. This allows you to receive notifications when subscribers mark your emails as spam, allowing you to remove them from your list promptly.

Related Reading

• DMARC vs DKIM
• Importance Of DMARC
• What Is a Soft Bounce Email
• Email Deliverability Checklist
• What Affects Email Deliverability
• Why Is Email Deliverability Important
• Email Bounce Rate
• Improve Sender Reputation
• Email Hard Bounce
• Email Deliverability Tools
• Email Deliverability Best Practices
• Best Email Domains

5 Top Strategies for Effective Email Reputation Management

1. Protect Your Email Reputation: Be Proactive and Aggressive 

There is no substitute for a strong email reputation. Without it, your email campaigns will fail. The good news is that you can adopt a proactive strategy to protect your sender score before any damage occurs. This approach is a bit aggressive, as it thoroughly inspects your email reputation and defines and eliminates weaknesses of your tactic. 

Optimizing Email Campaigns: Best Practices for Technical Settings, Segmentation, and Hosting

Start by examining every key aspect of your email campaigns: 

• Technical settings

• Segmentation

• Body copy

• Subject line

• Email cadence

Every detail that does not align with industry standards and best practices is a potential drawback that drags you down.

Revisit your hosting provider. Ensure your IP reputation is clean. If budget allows, choose a dedicated server over a shared one. If not, then monitor its health regularly. Do not shy away from changing your provider if something is wrong. 

Domain Warm-Up and List Maintenance: Essential Steps for Protecting Your Email Reputation

Then, get your domain ready. Warming up is one of the best practices to protect your email reputation. It works great for startups with fresh domains and well-established companies that have previously experienced deliverability concerns.

Monitor and refine your email practices to deliver high-quality, relevant content. Minimize spam trigger words in the subject line and body copy. Clean your subscription list regularly to remove bounced, lapsed contacts and spam traps. Check blacklists to comply with their recommendations and stay away from their databases.

2. Perfect Your Email Reputation: Get It to the Next Level 

What if your reputation is above average but still not as good as you want it to be? The time has come to perfect your email reputation management. As they say, there is always room for improvement, especially in email channels prone to constant changes and fluctuations.

This strategy is trickier than the previous one because the sender score builds over time. You must develop long-standing tactics that eventually increase your email reputation and trust with ISPs and providers. 

Gradual Strategy Refinement: Improving Your Email Reputation Without Sacrificing Trust or Deliverability

Start by examining your current strategy. It is crucial to define areas for improvement. These can be one or several factors. Focus on them and decide what measures to take. It is advisable to introduce enhancements gradually to not compromise your sender score, deliverability metrics, and trust. It is easy to lose your points. Therefore, it is crucial to build on what you have and stick to practical solutions for your company. 

Optimizing Email Content and Engagement: Personalization, Segmentation, and Best Practices

For instance, if you have an average engagement rate, the time has come to revisit and optimize your content strategy. Ask yourself, what can you do to get a positive response from my subscribers? What will encourage them to interact with the brand more actively? Many factors influence that. Therefore, the best decision is to capitalize on the niche’s best practices.

At a minimum, analyze my subscriber’s preferences, behavior, and needs. Create profiles to segment your subscription list accurately. Use professional platforms to create hyper-personalized emails. Make the design look eye-catching and modern with Postcards. Define the perfect email cadence. Finally, analyze each step you take to see whether you are moving in the right direction. 

3. Maintain Your Email Reputation: Don’t Get Complacent 

What if you are delighted with your email reputation? Do not think that your job here is over. Believe it or not, you cannot sit and relax. You may quickly lose your hardly-earned email reputation within a night if a blacklist catches you. The time has come to adopt a supporting strategy that will keep your email reputation nice and shiny and minimize scenarios that may lead to failures. 

The good news is that there are proven techniques to develop effective email reputation management for such scenarios. Follow these best practices: 

• Perfect the opt-in process. Use a double opt-in procedure with personalized emails. It establishes healthy customer relationships from the first interaction while meeting GDPR and CAN-SPAM regulations. 

• Simplify the opt-out process. Ensure your subscribers may quickly delist themselves without extra steps. This law is not only for companies operating within U.S. and EU borders, but it is also a great practice to avoid spam folders and complaints. 

• Keep a vigilant eye on laws and implement changes right away. GDPR and CAN-SPAM are constantly improving to fight cyber-attacks efficiently and create a safe environment in the email channels. Ensure your email marketing strategy, campaign, and email content comply with their current regulations and standards. 

• Provide a preference center for subscribers. Add the link to this page to every email you send to subscribers. It will minimize spam complaints and unsubscribe rates and cement relationships between the brand and clients. 

• Authenticate your email domain. Ignoring technical settings is the easiest way to tank email reputation and destroy trust with ISPs. Set up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF correctly to validate the email and secure connection with subscribers. If you are in doubt or lacking in skills, use professional platforms. They will do all the heavy lifting for you. 

• Proper IP allocation is one of the trickiest tasks because if you use a shared I dedicated server. 

• Adopt a proactive email reputation management strategy: 

  • Stay informed

  • Track metrics

  • Avoid blacklists at all costs

4. Recover Your Email Reputation: It’s Not the End of the World 

A tarnished email reputation is the worst scenario that any brand could have. However, it happens all the time. Just one slip may bring drastic consequences. Sometimes, this aftermath nullifies everything. The good news is nothing is beyond repair. Pull yourself together and develop a recovery plan for email reputation. 

Analyzing Email Campaign Metrics and Identifying Technical Issues for Reputation Recovery

Like the previous strategies, companies must start with a thorough analysis of the current situation. It is imperative to find the cause of the problem. You may narrow the searches dramatically with professional platforms and tools like Unspam. Check out the error log and contact your provider to find the technical roots of the problem.

Then, rigorously assess your current email practices. High bounce rates, an excess of spam complaints, engagement issues, and a decline in open rates may pinpoint the root causes of your reputation drop. These indicators offer insights into the health of your email campaigns. 

Ensuring Email Authenticity and Delisting from Blacklists for Better Reputation

Afterward, check email authentication. Use Unspam to see whether they are correct. If the legitimacy of your emails to ISPs is under concern, you must eliminate this.

Check blacklists. Focusing on the big players is highly advised since they impact email reputation the most. Visit Spamhaus, Spamcop, and Barracuda. Being listed in one of them may be the leading cause of the decline in email reputation. Engage in the delisting process and implement post-delisting actions. 

5. Fortify Your Email Reputation: Build Defenses for the Future 

The last strategy for creating effective email reputation management is adopting practices to fortify your tactic. It is not about improvement; it is about reinforcement. You may have a perfect email marketing plan, but you must reinforce its efforts through reliable partnerships to protect it from going wrong. In this case, you need professional email marketing software and tools. 

Maximizing Email Marketing Success with Advanced Tools and Automation

Professional email marketing tools like email service providers, deliverability tests, spam checkers, AI instruments, and blacklist monitors provide brands with a solid foundation to build, grow and maintain email reputation using the most reliable practices and algorithms.

They have everything businesses need to plan, execute, and analyze successful email campaigns and ipso facto achieve marketing goals. They maximize the potential of email marketing efforts with automation, personalization, AI, and other high-end solutions. 

Leveraging Emerging Tools and AI in Professional Email Marketing

The niche of professional email marketing instruments is constantly replenishing and upgrading. You may find assistance in addressing every issue you have with email marketing. 

For instance, you may define the current sender score, conduct deliverability tests, check emails on spam, test authentication, visit IP and domain blacklists on schedule, locate areas for improvement, use AI to generate content and build fully responsive, mobile-friendly, and inclusive email design within minutes. 

Choosing the Right Email Reputation Management Tools for Your Business

Finding the right tools to fortify your email reputation management is crucial. Do not immediately fall for prominent and popular names, though they certainly have something to show off. Sometimes, your company needs a unique personal approach from a small service. Sometimes, new names in the niche offer one-of-a-kind solutions.

Therefore, monitor services and products in the area, examine their features and capacity, and choose those that complement your marketing efforts within your company’s budget.

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

Inframail offers an email infrastructure tool that lets users set up and manage their cold email infrastructure quickly and efficiently. The tool features unlimited Microsoft-backed inboxes with lightning-fast deliverability to help your outreach emails land in the right place. 

Inframail's email infrastructure tool automatically configures all the technical settings to ensure your cold emails reach more prospects. It’s perfect to scale their email outreach without the usual headaches associated with email deliverability for: 

• Agencies

• SDRs

• Recruiters 

Related Reading

• Email Monitoring Software
• Soft Bounce Reasons
• Check Email Deliverability Score
• Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email
• SalesHandy Alternatives
• GlockApps Alternative
• MailGenius Alternative
• MxToolbox Alternative
• Maildoso Alternatives