Successful email marketing is built on trust. Your subscribers trust you to deliver timely, relevant, and engaging emails. As a marketer, it’s your job not to disappoint these people.
Trust in email marketing is hard-won and easily lost. Losing the trust of your email subscribers can have significant consequences. In the short term, this might mean a reduction in email engagement and website conversions as your emails are ignored. In the long term, it could result in subscribers leaving your lists, spam complaints, and your email deliverability falling off a cliff.
In this article, we’ll share how to build and retain email trust and what to do if that trust is lost.
Set the Tone from the Start
Defense is the best form of attack. This means being smart from the get-go.
In email marketing, this requires committing to the following strategies from day one:
- Being Upfront and Honest: Transparency is key. Let your subscribers know exactly what they are signing up for. Inform them about the content they can expect to receive from you, the frequency of emails, and the value they will gain from their subscription. This honesty will reassure your subscribers and build trust from the start.
- Segment Your Lists: Resist the temptation to throw all your subscribers into a catch-all bucket. Instead, segment your subscribers into targeted lists based on product interest or other clearly defined criteria. This strategy, coupled with marketing automation technology, empowers you to optimize your segmentation process and gain better control over your email marketing strategy.
- Deliver On Your Promises: Your subscribers trust you to deliver what you’ve promised. Don’t be tempted to deviate from the agreed scope of your email campaigns. This commitment to your promises shows your responsibility and dedication to your subscribers, and it’s a key factor in building and maintaining their trust.
- Manage Your Lists Carefully: Email marketing technology will help you manage your email list subscriptions efficiently, effectively, and in line with global privacy regulations. Don’t be tempted to use spreadsheets and standard email tools like Gmail or Outlook to manage this process. You’ll drop the ball and potentially find yourself in a whole heap of trouble.
But What If You Can’t Set the Tone?
It’s a great question, and we totally get it. Too many email marketers inherit a hot mess of email lists, with absolutely no idea of how these names were acquired, and are expected to run with it. Our best advice in this situation is to stop and start again.
While this “tough love” advice might sound counterintuitive, continuing to send to a chaotic or poorly managed list will deliver less-than-optimized results, damage your reputation, and potentially expose your organization to legal consequences (particularly in this post-GDPR era).
Understanding the Risks: Why Bad Email Practice Leads to Poor Deliverability
Deliverability and reputational issues typically stem from poor email practices. These often include:
- Weak Authentication: While not immediately apparent, this is your first port of call if your emails are landing in the spam folder. Not using authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC will make your emails more susceptible to being flagged as spam.
- High Spam Complaints: ISPs take spam complaints as a significant red flag. Get too many of these (and it doesn’t take a considerable number), and you may find ISPs throttle back or even block your emails, leading to poor deliverability.
- Low Engagement Rates: This is a sign of low quality or irrelevant content. If your emails consistently receive low open and click rates, inbox providers may view them unfavorably, which impacts deliverability.
- Poor List Hygiene: Why are you still sending emails to that subscriber you collected five years ago and have never seen an engagement from? Sending emails to outdated, unengaged, or purchased lists (never buy a list) will lead to bounces and spam traps and ultimately kill your sender reputation.
- Inconsistent Sending Patterns: Sudden spikes in email volume can trigger red flags with some email providers. Maintain a consistent cadence if you want to retain good deliverability.
5 Steps to Recover Your Email Reputation
1. Identify and Fix the Root Cause
The first step in recovering your email reputation is understanding why your deliverability has dropped. Start by analyzing key metrics such as:
- Bounce Rates: High bounce rates indicate that you are sending emails to invalid or outdated addresses.
- Spam Complaint Rates: If a significant number of recipients are marking your emails as spam, it’s a clear sign that your content, frequency, or sender reputation needs improvement.
- Open and Click Rates: Low engagement metrics suggest that your emails are not resonating with your audience.
- Blacklist Status: Check if your domain or IP has been blacklisted by using tools like MXToolbox or Spamhaus.
2. Authenticate Your Emails
Authentication helps email providers verify that your emails are coming from a trusted source. Ensure the following protocols are set up correctly:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Defines which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails, proving they haven’t been tampered with in transit.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Helps ISPs determine how to handle emails that fail SPF and DKIM checks.
Proper authentication not only enhances security but also reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.
3. Clean Your Email List
A healthy email list is essential for good deliverability. Regularly clean your list by:
- Removing Inactive or Unengaged Subscribers: If subscribers haven’t interacted with your emails in several months, consider segmenting them for a re-engagement campaign or removing them altogether.
- Eliminating Duplicate and Invalid Addresses: Use an email validation tool to detect and remove outdated or incorrect email addresses.
- Implementing Double Opt-In: Require subscribers to confirm their email addresses before being added to your list. This reduces the likelihood of spam complaints and ensures higher-quality engagement.
4. Improve Email Content and Engagement
Engaging emails are less likely to be marked as spam and more likely to be opened and clicked. To enhance engagement:
- Personalize Your Emails: Use dynamic content, including the recipient’s name and past interactions, to make messages more relevant.
- Write Compelling Subject Lines: Avoid clickbait but create curiosity-driven subject lines that encourage recipients to open your emails.
- Provide Greater Value: Whether it’s educational content, exclusive deals, or industry insights, ensure every email serves a clear purpose for your audience.
- Optimize Send Frequency: Over-emailing can lead to fatigue and spam complaints, while under-emailing can result in lower engagement. Find a balance based on audience behavior.
5. Implement Re-Engagement Campaigns
Inactive subscribers can harm your sender’s reputation. Run a re-engagement campaign to win them back:
- Send a Friendly “We Miss You” Email: Remind inactive subscribers about your brand and encourage them to stay connected.
- Offer Exclusive Content or Discounts: Incentives like special promotions or valuable resources can reignite interest.
- Ask for Preferences: Allow subscribers to customize the frequency and type of emails they receive.
- Provide an Easy Opt-Out: If a subscriber remains unresponsive, it’s better to remove them from your list rather than risk spam complaints.
Get these five steps right and you’ll be well on your way to restoring your reputation as trustworthy email marketing professional and ensure your campaigns don’t land in the spam folder
Learn More
To learn more about how the emfluence Marketing Platform can help you manage your email marketing reputation and deliver more relevant and timely emails that your subscribers trust and engage with positively, book a demo, register for a free 14-day trial of our email marketing software, or schedule a call with one of our email marketing experts at expert@emfluence.com.
