Goodbye SPAM, hello deliverability

Nobody wants their emails to end up in the SPAM folder, especially not a business; in fact, this is one of the biggest pitfalls of an email marketing campaign.

The key to avoiding this is building a good reputation as a sender, i.e. making sure that the information about you on the internet, linked to a specific domain or IP, is positive. Internet service providers (ISPs) analyse your past and present behaviour and how the recipients of your emails react (the recipient may decide to send your email to the SPAM folder if you make a mistake and send content that is not relevant, for example).

But the problem is that each provider manages its own SPAM lists and has its own criteria; some of which are especially strict.

Therefore, many legitimate emails are still being “punished” and classified as SPAM, hindering their deliverability.

So what should you do to make sure your emails reach your recipients’ inboxes?

Tips to improve your reputation

Content is one of the main areas where you have to take great care, but we’ll leave that for another time, to give it the attention it deserves, and we’re going to give you five tips for the actual sending of emails, to bypass ISP filtering systems and greatly reduce the chances of being considered “trash”.

1. Limit what you send: if you send the same recipient emails too often, it’s very likely that you will be considered SPAM.
2. Check your databases properly on a regular basis to remove any incorrect records that cause emails to bounce back.
3. Use reliable servers with sufficiently large IP ranges to allow you to send bulk emails without being considered SPAM. LINK Mobility has 400 IPs (all with a good reputation), so emails are sent quickly and at the rate required by ISPs.
4. Always indicate the subject of the email and your identity as the sender.
5. Include a link with an option to unsubscribe and provide a valid address for the recipient to use.

DMARC records come into play

Another of the most effective ways of reducing the likelihood of an email becoming SPAM is by implementing identification records such as the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) or the DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), which adds a digital signature.

These are very effective control and validation systems if they are properly configured, but they are becoming obsolete and email providers do not fully trust them. The DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) email authentication method goes further. It has to be used jointly with DKIM or SPF because it is used to inform the target server how to proceed if either of the other two fails and detects something fraudulent. For example, how to handle emails without signatures (not certified) or incorrect emails that use the sender’s domain name.

The whole issue about different records is rather complex and may lead to us getting bogged down in explanations that are perhaps overly technical but, ultimately, the one thing that you have to bear in mind is the importance of using increasingly advanced technologies to bypass anti-SPAM filters.

Therefore, letting an outside company take care of your email marketing campaigns is a wise step, as this type of company has a lot more resources and tools to get the best results.

At LINK Mobility we comply with all of the standards to achieve this goal and, especially as we work with banks and other types of companies that require extremely high security levels for the emails that they send, we are constantly evolving in this regard.