Most of us send emails on a daily basis and, without even thinking about what happens next, we click on that ‘Send’ button trusting that our emails will get to where we want them to be, no questions asked. For email marketers though, the concern is always looming – will my email reach the target audience and how will it be received?

The proliferation of ‘junk’ emails, or spam, has put ISPs (internet service providers) and corporations to work developing spam filters and other ways to automatically qualify good emails from the bad. And, although the use of those tools can be seen as necessary and welcome by email recipients, legitimate eMarketers often find navigating past spam filters and blockers to be a challenging task.

This begs the question, what exactly are some factors used to determine if an email message is considered valid or is marked as spam by the ISPs? One of the major elements that can help forward your email through to the recipients’ mailbox or send it to the trash is your reputation. Yes, your reputation as an email marketer plays a big role. As a recent study concluded, reputation accounts for 77 percent of it in fact. ISPs take note of things like user complaints, volume and size of the email messages sent, the number of bounces, invalid addresses, and the content of emails including headings, links, and size of images within them.

Adding another twist in this mix of factors that make up your reputation as an email marketer is your subscribers’ responses to your email messages. ISPs consider past history of all messages sent by a particular sender and examine interactivity between the recipient and the sender’s emails. Activity such as sending an email to the trash before opening it, clicking on links within the email, sending a reply message, or reporting it to the ISP as spam are all factors that affect your reputation.

There are steps you can take to develop your reputation in a positive way. Here are a couple of tips for you.

List Management & Hygiene

Permission is powerful when talking about email lists. Make sure the people to whom you send marketing emails want to receive them. This simple yet important rule will help to keep your unsubscribe requests low and will offer you higher open and click-through rates. The best way to ensure your list contains email addresses of willing recipients is to develop your email contact list using a process called opt-in. This is a process where potential recipients must sign up to be included on your email list. In some cases, these recipients can confirm their membership to your list again via email in a process called double opt-in. Which ever opt-in process you use to build your lists, make sure it’s clear to the recipient that they will be receiving emails from you.

Additionally, make it easy for people receiving your emails to opt-out, or unsubscribe, to your list. If they no longer wish to receive your emails, having this option available to them via a clear and hassle-free process could prevent them from reporting your emails as spam. Respond to their requests by removing them from your lists immediately.

Regularly check your lists and weed out any invalid or inactive email addresses. Review your list for possible typos, missing characters or duplicated addresses. It may help to segment your list as well, separating responders from non-responders. By doing this, you will be able to better manage your eMarketing budget, create appropriate content for each segment and determine the frequency in which to send your emails. You’ll also help to build a positive reputation with ISPs.

Create Clean Code & Relevant Content

Elements within your email message matter to ISPs trying to filter or block possible spam. They are able to recognize characteristics of email content such as coding used to create the message, size of graphics, and embedded links. So, keeping your messages simple and free from superfluous coding, copy, or large graphics will help to distinguish your email from spam. Refrain from embedding audio files, large images or video within your emails.

Also, make sure you’re giving your audience what they’ve asked for when they originally signed up to receive your emails. If they’re expecting an informative e-newsletter from you or notification on new products and services, make sure that’s what is contained in your email. By straying from what was promised to them, you may lose their trust and provoke them to report your emails as spam. It’s also important to identify your business and the content of your email by delivering clear headers and subject lines. Personalize when possible.

Along with the points I’ve outlined above, the best advice I can give is to stay on top of email best practices and monitor your email marketing campaign closely. Email is a great way to build customer loyalty and keep the conversation between you and your audience going.

Best,

Steve