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How to start email campaigns and avoid getting into spam?

How to start email campaigns and avoid getting into spam?

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Email marketing is an effective tool for interacting with the audience, if you work with it correctly. After all, it loses its meaning if your letters immediately fly to the Spam folder. There are many reasons why they might be there. Today we will talk about preventive measures that will help to avoid this problem.

Introduction: how to get into inbox

Not all emails end up in the inbox. This is the result of the mail systems algorithms. In order for the algorithms to skip a letter to the Inbox, it must meet a number of requirements that it is advisable to familiarize yourself with before launching the first mailings:

Also, when starting email newsletters, special attention should be paid to:

  • technical settings and domain reputation;
  • base quality;
  • message content.

Let's consider each item in more detail.

Technical settings and domain reputation

You need to send mailings on behalf of the company only from a corporate address - no free domains like [email protected]. Therefore, be sure to set up a corporate domain and an email address on it. Mail.ru и Yandex, for example, provide the opportunity to place corporate mail on them for free.

The so-called domain reputation plays a big role in launching mailing lists. If earlier spam was sent from it, then mail services could blacklist it. Before launching mailing lists, make sure that your domain is not included in them. For example, the DashaMail service automatically performs this check when you set up your sending domain. If it turned out that your domain is on one of the blacklists, you will see recommendations on how to get out of there.

How to start email campaigns and avoid getting into spam?

To check the reputation, you can also use services like Sender Score or Talos Intelligence from Cisco.

An important point: mail systems algorithms analyze not only the domain from which letters are sent, but also the domains of links in sent messages. If the email contains links to sites from the black list, then the sender is most likely a spammer. The consequences will be appropriate.

In addition to domain reputation, mail systems analyze domain security settings. In particular, the presence of configured SPF, DKIM, DMARC records. Here's why they're needed:

  • SPF - in fact, this is a list of trusted servers from which the sender sends his messages. In this list, you need to put the servers of the email distribution systems that you use;
  • DKIM - digital signature of the domain, added to each letter;
  • DMARC - this record tells the mail system what to do with the letter, which, after checking SPF and DKIM, was found to be fake. It can be blocked or sent to Spam.

After setting up your sending domain, be sure to set up postmasters to keep track of exactly where your emails go and what recipients do with them.

Here is a list of the main postmasters:

After the technical settings are completed, you can proceed to work with the subscriber base.

Improving the quality of the subscriber base

Of course, buying address bases instead of legal collection using a double opt-in approach is a sure way to get into trouble, so you don’t need to do this. But problems can arise even if you legally collected subscribers, but it was a long time ago and you didn’t send mailouts or there was a long break in working with this database.

Firstly, non-working addresses could accumulate in such a database and spam traps. It must be cleaned before you start sending mailings on it.

Clearing the subscriber base manually is difficult. But there are tools to solve this problem. For example, built into DashaMail validator checks the subscriber base, removes incorrect addresses, as well as addresses from which there is a high probability of complaints. Working with the database after cleaning with a validator reduces the likelihood of damaging your reputation and getting into Spam.

Secondly, subscribers could forget that they agreed to receive mailings and start actively complaining about spam. What this will lead to is clear. Therefore, the first email campaign requires especially careful preparation. In the first letter, it is appropriate to recall how the subscriber agreed to receive the newsletter, as well as give reasons why the newsletter is worthy of his attention in the future.

Content work

Whether or not a letter is included in Spam is also affected by its content. For example, mail systems do not like excessively large number of pictures in letters. At least 20% of your email should be text.

Also, spam filters react sharply to words that are often found in unsolicited emails, such as “earnings”, “cryptocurrencies”, and spelling in capslock. You should not use full links in the text, they should be made in the form of text with a hyperlink. You should definitely not use shortened links and attach files to the letter (if you need to attach them, it's easier to give a download link).

As for the layout of email templates, you should not use JavaScript, Flash, ActiveX and external CSS styles. Nothing better than tabular layout in terms of spam filters has yet been invented. It is also a good idea to send two versions of emails: HTML and plain-text.

To help email marketers, DashaMail offers a built-in service StopSpam - it automatically checks the content of the letter and reports whether it will fall into the "Spam" in the mail services Mail.ru and Rambler.

It is also important to analyze user interactions with mailing lists in a timely manner. If many unsubscribe after each email, this is a sure sign that the subscription does not meet the expectations of the recipients. We need to change the content.

What else: "warming up" the domain

The three points described above are like three whales for a competent start of mailings, but this is far from all that needs to be taken into account. When launching mailings, it is necessary to carry out the so-called warming up of the domain. Let's talk about this in more detail.

If you are launching mailing lists from a new domain, or if the domain has been around for a while, but there have been no emails from it for a long time, preparatory work is needed. It boils down to starting to send letters gradually, increasing the volume of messages sent.

That is, at the very beginning, a limited segment of the most loyal subscribers receives the newsletter. Step by step, the volume of sending can be increased, but smoothly, avoiding jumps in activity. Each day, message traffic can be increased no more than twice (preferably less): 500 letters were sent on the first day, 1000 can be sent on the next day, then 2000, 3000, 5000 and so on.

An important point: the degree of “warming up” of the domain must be maintained. Mail systems don't like sudden surges in activity, so it's worth observing the regularity of mailing lists.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we summarize the main points that will help you get started with mailing lists and avoid getting into Spam right away:

  • Pay attention to technical settings and reputation. There are a number of settings that need to be made in order for mail systems to skip letters. It is also important to check the reputation of a domain and work on improving it.
  • Work with the subscriber base. Even if you use double opt-in, you need to constantly monitor the state of the database, select segments of inactive users and reactivate them separately.
  • Follow the content. Follow the best practices for preparing letters, and also track the reaction of subscribers: if people unsubscribe from the mailing list, then the content does not meet the needs and needs to be changed.
  • "Warm up" the domain. You can’t just pick up and start sending a lot of letters. After long pauses or in the case of a new domain, you must first “warm up”, sending letters in small batches and gradually increasing activity.
  • Use technology. Doing everything manually is hard. Automate what you can. At DashaMail, we try to help with the essentials by providing the appropriate tools for reputation checks, database validation, and content evaluation. We also moderate all mailings of companies that are just starting out and help to comply with all the requirements of mail systems.

To keep abreast of current trends in email marketing in Russia, to receive useful life hacks and our materials, subscribe to DashaMail Facebook Page and read our blog.

Source: habr.com

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