Emailing Your List – Get Your Reputation on Track!
There are so many Email services and “Gurus” out there trying to sell you into a huge multi-thousand dollar program to “Fix Your Email” inbox and placement.
Well the average business really just needs to start with the basics, they can even do themselves!
These boil down to 2 KEY items to be handled:
- Email Reputation
- Email Content
Email Reputation
First thing to check is that your sending service and domain are properly authorized and in sync. This is as simple as adding their required “DMARC” “DKIM” and/or “SPF” records to your DNS system. Most CRM and Mailing services have their own guide and text records posted for your ease.
Now those items may sound crazy techy or complex, but they are very simple in their function. The short version is they tell the ESP that “The Sending System” is authentic/authorized to “Send As” the email address/domain in use. This adds a little boost to your overall “Email Reputation”.
The next thing to do is to get Google Postmaster in place to help you monitor your overall email status. IF you are using a dedicated IP you cna monitor it there as well, most CRM and Email services work off pools of IP Addresses, so not all users will get that data.
Once you have all the above more technical items handled, then you can move to the below, easier items.
I recommend signing up for the MX Toolbox Free Services. This will give you a regular monitor email for the general “Black Lists” of the Email world. Do not freak out though, many times you may find you have fallen onto a “Blacklist” for some reason and the next mailing you are off again. This is normal, as long as you have a good Email Reputation, you will not stay on lists for long.
You should also add “[email protected]” to your sending list to get their free Deliverability Reports. These reports are “Replied/Sent” to your “Sending” email address when an email is received. So be sure you have forwards/filters in place to get them sent to your team.
Email Content
The other big area the average emailer gets into trouble is just their basic content. Now most CRM and Email systems have their own internal “Spam Checkers” which are a great help, but sometimes you need an additional check OR just want to check your content before building your emails.
The first item to check is your “Subject Line” you may like your flashy “FREE OFFER” words, but they could get your email dropped in SPAM.
A few services I have made use of are:
Once you have a good clean subject line, then you can get the rest of your content a second look. I make use of a nice free service called Mail Tester, that lets you test a few emails a day without charge and gives you a nice report to help guide fixing up your emails.