So You Want to Stay off a Spam Block-List? – The Fastest Planet Email Studio

I’m sure you will agree with me that it’s a MINOR nuisance to receive and delete emails we don’t want from our inboxes every day. As marketers who send thousands (if not millions) of messages per year, you and I have to agree that it’s a MAJOR threat to our email programs if we get flagged as the team who sends emails that people don’t want or expect. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to assume that as “people” neither of us want to receive emails unless they are valuable to us (modern spam). And, as marketers, I assume that we both want to establish and maintain respectful, value-driven relationships with the people we email.

It is crucial for the reputation of your email marketing program to avoid getting flagged by consumers and spam service organizations as someone who’s sending email people don’t want. If a spam service organization puts you on their block-list, it will damage your email sending reputation and bring your email operations to a halt in a matter of hours.

I wrote this article to help you think about how to build a great mailing reputation with your subscribers and the major email platforms. If you implement these practices you will greatly reduce the likelihood of ending up on a spam block-list.

What’s a Spam Block-List?

Email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail, MSN, and Yahoo! all have their ways of determining whether a marketer is sending valuable messages by watching how subscribers interact with them over time. They also rely on the opinions of spam service providers (like the Spamhaus Project). These organizations are objective, third parties, who monitor email sender behavior and report those who are doing spammy things. They have all kinds of methods for determining whether you as a marketer are abiding by the principles of permission-based email relationships. Most commonly, an email marketer like us will show up on a spam service orgaization’s radar when they detect that we are emailing one of their honeypot email addresses (disguised as, say skaterboy32@yahoo.com). When this happens, they will put you on a block-list and Gmail, MSN, and Yahoo! will know within minutes. Then, in my experience, they will stop delivering your messages to subscribers instantly. At this point, the damage is done – you now need to clean up your email practices, request delisting, and repair your reputation with the ESPs.

You might think you’ve had nightmares about work; but, in the realm of your email-sending career, this may be the worst you will ever have. This happened to a client of mine six weeks before Giving Tuesday one year. We couldn’t send a single message and fundraising season was bearing down on us. The good news is (and I’ll cover it in another post) we were able to repair their reputation and tighten up our targeting practices to bring them the most profitable year-end fundraising season ever.

The next part of this post will help you put your practices in perspective as you work to establish a strong email reputation.

First, Learn What Effective Practices Are

When I sent my first direct marketing email message in the year 2000, the email marketing landscape was the wild west. You could rent a list you bought from someone in Boca Raton and blast your messages to millions of people from a server in the IT closet, with zero repercussions. In 2024, the email marketing landscape for better or worse (mostly better) is much more tightly regulated and requires us as marketers to build strong relationships with our audience. Audience aside, the government can get involved if you’re not abiding by the rules they set for email marketers. If you’re new to managing email, here’s a good way to get a lay of the land, quickly.

It’s All About Reputation: As a human being, I hate receiving emails that I don’t want or worse, never asked for. Forget about what I don’t want…I DO WANT messages that:

I have asked for
Come from brands I trust, buy from, or donate to
Make me feel something
Improve my knowledge
Offer me opportunities and deals I wouldn’t get elsewhere
Entertain me
Find me at the right time in the right place
Respect that I can only consume much information in a day, week, and year

You probably have a similar list. When a brand does these things, generally, they will create and maintain a good reputation.

As a marketer, I realize that the things that I want are the things that most people want to see and interact with in their inbox. And, since I’m a respectful fellow, it’s my job to make sure my brand and clients develop and maintain good email reputations. I know that the people we send email to are watching and developing an opinion about our reputation. As well, I know that Gmail, MSN, Yahoo! and other email platforms are also grading my reputation as a sender. When it’s good, they put my messages at the top of a subscriber’s inbox. When it’s bad, they put them in the bulk or spam folder (or they don’t even deliver them at all).

If you take nothing else from this article, remember this, “To deliver a lot of email (and deliver it well) you need to worry a lot about your reputation.”

Learn About Anti-Spam Laws: You can’t plead ignorance to these spam block-lists, they simply will not care. Brush up on your knowledge of CAN-spam and GDPR regulations once a quarter, at least. Double-check yourself against these compliances and if you’re getting close to the limit on any of the points, adjust, fast.

Here are a few resources you should spend some time with:

Second, Prepare Your Stage

Before you send a single message, you’ll need to have a few things in place.

Implement Permission-Based Marketing: Always consider the golden rule of email marketing: play nice and get permission first. If you have permission and aren’t badgering your audience, this will reduce the likelihood of getting flagged as a dangerous or unwanted sender. Not to mention you’ll get a severely more engaged audience who is actually interested in hearing from you. Don’t be that person who crashes the party without an invite! You should go about getting permission in a few different ways.

Double Opt-In: Subscribers confirm their interest once they receive the first email. This is the single most important thing you can do to avoid getting on a spam block-list. Tell Don on the fundraising team that you understand that this will impact his lead gen costs, but in the end he will make more money from a deeply engaged audience.
Checking In: If they haven’t responded in a while, double check yourself to ensure they are still interested. Carefully targeted email reactivation campaigns are a moderately effective way to get people to stay engaged with your email program.

By sticking to permission-based marketing practices, you not only comply with regulations but also build a list of relatively higher engaged and interested subscribers than if you did not.

Tighten Up Your Forms and Avoid Rentals to Stay Away from Block-List Kryptonite: To stay far away from sending to spam kinds of email addresses, make sure every one of your inbound email signup forms has a CAPTCHA on them. Don’t rent or borrow lists either. I realize it’s an attractive way to bulk up your send volume, but it’s way too risky in 2024 unless you can 100% vouch for the practices of the people you’re borrowing it from. I’ll cover how to scrub your email file periodically to peel these names off your list later in this post.

Provide Easy Unsubscribe Options: Before they come to resent you, let them make the decision to leave. Include a visible and hassle-free unsubscribe link to every email. It’s like they say, if you love them set them free.. right? While this is a requirement to comply with anti-spam laws, you’re also maintaining a positive image in the eyes of your subscribers. If they feel trapped, they’ll never engage with your emails in the first place.

Authenticate Your Emails: This one is a little more technical, but worth the peace of mind, trust me. Authenticating your emails is like adding a trustworthy signature to your digital letters. Implement SPF and DKIM authentication to validate your emails and prevent spammers from impersonating you. This not only ensures your emails are genuine but also enhances your deliverability. Email providers and filters look for these digital signatures as a mark of authenticity, helping your emails sail smoothly into the inboxes without raising any suspicions.

Use a Reputable Email Service Provider (ESP): Picking the right Email Service Provider can make or break your credibility. This is a huge step, so think about it carefully and make sure you’re going with one that follows industry best practices. Most of these providers have established relationships with major email platforms and offer features like list management, authentication, and analytics. This can take the stress out of the previous points and leave it all with the ESP. But, can you rely on your email platform provider to coerce all of their other clients to implement great practices? If you’re on a platform using a shared set of IP addresses or server identities and some other marketer gets flagged by a spam block-list, you could all be in trouble.

Provide Clear Contact Information: To avoid the receiver from going straight to these spam-gods, give them all the contact information they need to address it with you first. Seeing this information will make it clear to them that you are real in the first place. It adds a human touch to your brand and the people in your audience know they can reach a real person if necessary. It’s a small detail, but it goes a long way in establishing credibility and building trust with your audience.

Again, ending up on these lists can cause a HUGE headache for your business and is a complete waste of time. Weave these strategies into your regular email marketing practices and you’ll be in good shape staying far away from the spam block-list.

Third, Write Valuable, Compelling, and (yes) Respectful Content

In 2006, as part of the creative process, we got excited to run our emails through what they called a “spam checker” which would score an email for the likelihood it would be marked as spam simply by the content. In 2024, that simple test won’t cut it. Instead, here are several tips to improve your email content to reduce the likelihood of a reader or an email platform like Gmail suspecting you of spam.

Clearly Identify Yourself: Consider getting a mysterious letter in the mail with no return address – you’d probably be a bit skeptical, right? The same goes for emails. We all know those sketchy email addresses with 400 letters and numbers following the no-reply. Try something else! Use a sender name and email address that people can recognize and trust. Dedicate a company email address to your email list. You want to be the friendly face in the inbox, not the shady character lurking in the shadows. A clear and identifiable sender name helps in establishing trust, making your emails more likely to be opened and less likely to be marked as spam.

Avoid Spam Trigger Words and Phrases: If it seems sketchy to you, it comes off sketchy to them. Including spam-trigger words and phrases is a rookie way of getting yourself straight onto the spam block-lists. Avoid using words like “FREE!” “URGENT!” “!!!!!!!!”… yes, even excessive use of exclamation points can set off spam alarms. We’ve all seen those emails. Don’t be that guy. Work to make your emails earnest and thoughtful, not a relentless sales pitch. They already want to be there.

Personalize Your Emails: Nobody likes being treated like just another face in the crowd. Use the information you have about your subscribers to tailor your content. Obviously you can’t custom tailor each email to each person, but try to section the audience off in groups at least. What side of the business have they resonated the most with in the past? What have they completely ignored? Try to tailor your copy, imagery, and send times to individual audience members.

Fourth, Set it But Don’t Forget It

You can’t just think about these things once, assume you’ve checked all the boxes, and never worry about your reputation again. Instead, you’ve got to stay on top of things in order to maintain the best reputation you can.

Monitor Email Engagement Metrics: Keep an eye on your stats – you want them to be high! Look at open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates to gauge the health of your email campaigns. High bounce rates and low engagement rates should concern you. If one email flops, make sure the next one doesn’t. If you’re ignored too regularly those spam block-lists will be on your heels. Strong engagement stats not only keep your business moving, but they’ll keep you out of the spam spotlight.

Remove the Dead Weight: An inactive email list is just a bunch of clutter and a waste of resources. High bounce rates and a large quantity of inactive users can send red flags soaring to the major email platforms. Deactivate people who haven’t opened OR clicked in the last 24 months (12 is aggressive, but will produce better results in February of 2024). A clean and well-maintained list improves your stats across the board and ensures you’re engaging with those who actually want to see it. Remember, you can always target these deactivated email addresses with your ad campaigns using what most of them call a “custom audience.”

Regularly Clean Your Email List: Beyond simply archiving or removing bouncing and inactive users from your list, you can ensure you’re sending to highly likely engagers by running your list through a validation service like ZeroBounce. These services will sort your email file into the best and worst to send to. You can then make decisions about how to upload these classifications to your email platform or remove the worst performers from your file entirely. Perhaps even more importantly, they will find many block-listed addresses from places like Spamhaus, which are like kryptonite on your file. We do this for many clients at least once per year.

What’s Next?

Make sure your teams are adhering to these strong principles to ensure you maintain a great reputation. Need more help? Get in touch and let our team help you sort things out and make a plan for success.

If you take nothing else from this article, remember this, “To deliver a lot of email (and deliver it well) you need to worry a lot about your reputation.”