Posted in All on Dec, 10 2020.
Email marketing continues to be the top driver of online conversion. It is important for every brand to build a strong sender reputation so that their emails don't get into spam.
Sender reputation is essentially based on the score ISPs give, which indicate whether subscribers actually want to receive your emails. Also, they look for whether emails are getting opened and clicked regularly. To them, a trusted and ideal sender is one that sends a consistent volume of emails with high engagement, on a frequent basis.
1. Set up an email subdomain
Subdomains are a necessary part of achieving good long term email deliverability. They let you separate out your sending reputation for different types of emails
What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is the child domain. It comes before the main domain, to indicate that it’s a subsection of that main domain.
For example, in the hello@mail.brandname.com email “mail” is a subdomain.
You can put anything you’d like in front of the @ symbol.
Why are subdomains necessary for good deliverability?
Subdomains let you separate out different types of emails (like marketing and transactional emails) from your parent's domain. This ensures that marketing mistakes don’t affect the reputation of your main domain.
2. Ensure that you have a clean list
We recommend isolating inactive subscribers so you can hone in on the best way to re-engage them.
3. Leverage segmentation to send targeted emails
Segment your customers by engagement levels, demographics, interests, purchase behavior
4. Leverage email automations
Automated email campaigns are one of the easiest ways to send hyper-targeted emails, since they trigger off of unique customer’s actions. Every email strategy should have a welcome and winback automation set up.
Welcome automations
A welcome email automation is the first email or series of emails a new subscriber gets, triggered upon signup. This is the first interaction a new subscriber has with your brand, and it’s the first thing ISPs will use to grade your sender reputation.
#Winback automations
Winback automations are designed to re-engage subscribers who have become inactive. These emails pull out all the stops to win back inactive subscribers, and thus increase the chances they’ll actually re-engage.
5. Manage sending volume over time
Remember, ISPs are constantly grading your sends and engagement, and are on the lookout for suspicious activity like erratic spikes in sending volume. To maintain a healthy sender reputation, it’s best to send small chunks a few times a week vs one large send once a week.
Source: Email Deliverability: 5 Ways to Build a Strong Sender Reputation, by Cynthia Dam. Shopify Partners Blog
