If you run a quick Google search on the factors that impact your email deliverability, you'll likely see the same common elements pop up: email list quality, ESP, sender reputation, and email content.
Wait—what is an email sender reputation? How do you check your reputation in the first place? Are there any practices to maintain a good sender reputation?
These are the questions we'll answer together in this article without overwhelming you with irrelevant technical jargon.
Okay, we can already tell this is going to be a long one, so you might want to grab a bowl of pineapple 🍍 slices before diving in.
Happy reading! 🗞️
What is an email sender reputation?
Email sender reputation, which you might also hear referred to as sender score, is the rating that email sending providers assign to your email sending IP address. This rating measures how likely your emails are to land in recipients' inboxes and directly impacts your overall email deliverability.
It goes without saying that a good sender reputation means ESPs (email service providers) trust your emails and are more likely to be delivered to their customers' inboxes, and on the flip side, a poor reputation means your emails could end up in the spam folder because ESPs simply don't want their customers flooded with spammy emails.
Which metrics determine sender score?
Now, you're probably thinking things like “what are the metrics that determine sender reputation?” Well, there are many. Let's get into them one by one.
Bounce rates
If your emails frequently fail to be delivered and often bounce back because you're sending them to invalid addresses (which might suggest you're buying email lists), it can seriously damage your sender reputation.
Engagement rates
This metric refers to the performance of your email marketing campaigns. High open, click-through and reply rates indicate that your emails are relevant and wanted and will boost your reputation, while low open rates suggest your emails aren't engaging enough, which can lead ESPs to mark your emails as spam.
Sender history
Sender history is basically your email activity over time, so if you're sending a lot of emails each day, it can be perceived as a warning sign by ESPs, and your emails might not reach inboxes. Because, after all, ESPs want to keep their customers' inboxes spam-free.
Spam complaints
You don't need to be a seasoned marketer to know that recipients can mark any email as spam, and as you'd expect, each time someone sends your emails to the spam folder, your sender reputation will take a significant hit.
High unsubscribe rate
When a high number of individuals unsubscribe from your emails, ESPs might see it as a red flag, and they could assume you've bought email lists or you're simply not offering much value to your subscribers.
How can you check your sender reputation?
You may think: "Okay, everything is clear so far, but how do I check my sender reputation?" Well, to understand how mailbox providers (MBPs) view you as a sender and check your domain reputation, your best option is to use tools designed specifically for that purpose:
Gmail Postmaster: this tool is built by Google, it offers insights into your domain's reputation with Gmail, and allows you to keep track of any issues like spam complaints and delivery errors.
Microsoft SNDS: this Microsoft service offers data on your sending IP's reputation and delivery performance with Outlook and other Microsoft email services.
Sender Score: This tool rates your IP reputation on a scale from 0 to 100. Needless to say, the higher your score, the better your domain's reputation with MBPs.
How can a good email sender reputation improve email deliverability?
Now that we have established what an email sender reputation is and what determines its score, let's get to know its impact on email deliverability.
We hate to sound like a broken record, but we'll say this one more time, when you maintain a good sender score, there's a higher chance that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and ESPs will deliver your emails because they trust that your content is valuable to their subscribers.
Even better, when you maintain a good sender reputation, your email marketing campaigns are less likely to be flagged by spam filters across different ISPs and will seamlessly reach your subscribers.
And this will create some sort of snowball effect: because when the emails land in the inbox, they are more likely to be opened, and a higher open rate signals to ISPs that your emails are relevant and engaging to recipients. The end result of all this? An even stronger sender reputation.
And with a stronger sender reputation comes higher response rates. And with higher response rates, more chances of attracting customers.
Five practices to improve your email sender reputation
You've learned the factors that determine your sender score and the way to check it. Congratulations, but you're not done yet!
Now, let's move on to the more complicated part. How to improve your email sender reputation.
Let's start the hands-on work!
1. Maintain a clean email list
Running email marketing campaigns in the dark without knowing who your recipients are or what interests they have is like flying blind, and that's why buying email lists is a huge red flag 🚩 for ESPs and ISPs that will result in high bounce and unsubscription rates.
And just a friendly little tip here: regularly check for invalid email addresses and remove inactive subscribers because corporate emails keep changing all the time, and not having an updated contact list can end up affecting your reputation.
2. Authenticate your emails
If you're facing some challenges with deliverability, starting with email authentification might be your best bet! For those out of context, authentication involves using specific protocols to prove that your emails are genuinely coming from you and not from someone pretending to be you.
Pick one of the industry-standard authentication protocols, like SPF, a DKIM checker, or DMARC, to verify your emails and help ISPs confirm that your messages are legitimate and trustworthy.
3. Avoid spam triggers
This one is a big piece of the puzzle that probably gets talked about less than it should: spam triggers. ESPs actually have a list of words that trigger spam filters.
Using words like "Free," "Earn money," or "Guaranteed" can get your emails sent to the spam folder—or worse, not delivered at all. These terms are often associated with salesy or even fraudulent emails.
But don't get us wrong—ESPs and mailbox providers are smart enough to analyze the context. If your email genuinely includes offers or valuable digital services or products, it's totally okay to use the word "free" (or even all three).
4. Segment your audience
People love personalization, so instead of sending the same content for everyone on your list, go the extra mile by segmenting your audience based on things like subscriber behavior and preferences. And it's not as tough as you think; there are plenty of tools out there that can do the heavy lifting for you, like HubSpot or ConvertKit.
When you segment your audience, you'll see how your subscribers get excited to hit that reply button and engage with the content you shared with them, which ends up boosting your reputation—bringing us to our next point 👇
5. Add engagement elements
You could say that there are email marketing campaigns that can succeed without a
visually appealing email design, and sometimes they do—but that's definitely the exception, not the rule.
Beefree is one tool that can help you design eye-catching email templates with simple drag-and-drop actions in seconds and get your open and click-through rates through the roof. No steep learning curve 🎢 or endless onboarding videos needed. Go ahead, give it a go!
Final thoughts
That's all for now. Appreciate you sticking with us till the end!
We think by now, one thing is clear for you. Having a strong email sender reputation is powerful enough to improve your email deliverability and ensure your marketing campaigns hit your subscribers' inboxes and convert them!
We hope this article helps improve your email sending reputation — we'd love to hear what you implement!
Oh, and while you're at it, why not explore Beefree’s email templates 🐝? It's just a click away!
Wish you good luck, a strong sender reputation, higher engagement, and more customers! 😉
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