What is Sender Reputation?

It's an invisible force that impacts your email deliverability

In the email marketing game, the sender's reputation is huge. I mean humongous and, I'd suggest, not really well understood (or appreciated) by some folks new to the business.

Sender reputation is a critical factor in email deliverability. The factor is an overall assessment of:

1. an email sender's trustworthiness, plus
2. the quality of the sender's email practices, plus
3. the quality of the email service providers (ESPs) and mailbox providers. 

A positive sender reputation is essential for ensuring your emails reach recipient inboxes instead of spam folders.

The sender reputation secret sauce 

Key components that contribute to a sender's reputation include:

Spam Complaints

• High numbers of recipients marking your email as spam will negatively impact your sender reputation. The big brains at Google suggest a good spam rate is 0.10 % or less.
• To keep your spam rate low, email people who opted in to receive them.

Bounce Rates

• A big bounce rate, especially a large number of hard bounces (due to invalid email addresses), can negatively affect your reputation. 
• Regularly clean and maintain your email list to reduce bounce rates.

Email Authentication

• Properly configure authentication mechanisms such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) to prove the legitimacy of your emails.
• Authentication helps prevent email spoofing and phishing attempts, positively impacting your reputation.

Engagement Metrics

• Positive engagement metrics, such as high open rates and click-through rates, contribute to a positive sender reputation.
• Send relevant and engaging content to keep recipients interested.

Volume and Consistency

• Sudden spikes in email volume or irregular sending patterns can be considered suspicious and harm your reputation.
• Maintain a consistent sending schedule to build trust with mailbox providers.

User Interaction

• Encourage recipients to interact with your emails by opening, clicking, and replying.
• Positive interactions signal to mailbox providers that your emails are wanted and relevant.

Spam Traps

• Hitting spam traps (email addresses specifically created to identify spammers) can severely damage your reputation.
• Regularly clean and update your email list to avoid sending to inactive or outdated addresses.

List Quality

• A high-quality, permission-based email list positively influences your reputation.
• Avoid purchasing or using third-party lists, which often contain outdated or invalid email addresses.

A positive sender reputation is crucial for achieving high email deliverability rates. Mailbox providers use sophisticated algorithms to assess these factors and determine whether to deliver your emails to the inbox, divert them to the spam folder, or block them altogether. Monitoring and actively managing your sender reputation are key practices for successful email marketing.