All Major ISPs (Internet Service Providers - Yahoo!, AOL, GMail, MSN) have added “Domain Reputation” to anti-spam systems

What does this mean? This means that in addition to your IP address, the ISPs will also look to user-generated metrics for each sender when deciding whether to send your emails to the inbox or bulk folder. They will look to domain (or sender) reputation based on these metrics in their spam-filtering process.

What are these metrics? The key ones are:

• “This is spam” complaints: when a customer hits the spam button in response to an email they get in their inbox.
• “This not spam” votes: this is when a customer tells the ISP that a message delivered to the SPAM or bulk folder is actually not SPAM.
• Spam trap hits”. A spam trap is when a SPAMMER takes over an inactive or dormant email address. If your list hits a lot of spam traps, this will negatively impact your domain reputation.

So what do these metrics mean in terms of your E-Mail marketing program? The key thing to remember that all of these metrics are user-generated, so SPAM is in the eye of the beholder.

Treat your inactive subscribers differently. Mailing to a lot of inactive email addresses will impact your sender reputation. Periodically monitor who is inactive – who hasn’t opened an email in 6 months – segment them out and run a win-back campaign. If you don’t win them back, don’t continue to email them.

Monitor your SPAM metrics. In addition to clicks and opens, look at your SPAM complaint rate.

Send RELEVANT and timely messages so that your subscribers continue to remain engaged with your emails.

Exclusive Concepts offers Precision email marketing to help you deliver relevant emails – that is the right message to the right person at the right time.

Contact us for a free E-Mail Audit!