Email Sender Reputation & Warming Up A New Email Address
Good morning!
Welcome & thank you for stopping by my blog!
I recently set up a professional email address rather than personal, so I thought I’d tell you what I’ve learned about email sender reputation and how to warm up my new email address.
What does that mean? I used to send emails from my personal g-mail account. Now, my email is nakinalawson@ something based on my custom domain-NakinaLawson.com. In order to avoid spam from bots, I won’t share my email here. But, of course, you’re always welcome to contact me by responding to an email, going to the contact section of my blog, or commenting on my blog.
Email Sender Reputation
As someone that sends email you will have and build what is known as an “email sender reputation.” The way your subscribers react to your emails determines your score. Email service providers track this and will hold a sort of “score” for your reputation. Spam complaints, bounce rate, and open rate affect your score negatively. A high open rate positively affects your score.
This reputation will dictate what happens with your emails when you send them to those on your email list. A negative score will impact your sender reputation and as a result make it difficult for future emails to reach your subscribers’ inboxes.
The goal is to achieve and maintain a great sender reputation so that you can reach inboxes and get the best possible results from your efforts.
I wrote a previous article on how to avoid the Spam folder and this one on getting an email opened.
Today, we’ll review “warming up” a new email address.
Warming Up Your New Email Address
A new email address does not have a score because it has never delivered emails. You have to earn a good reputation. It is similar to trust in that it’s earned over time.
So, you start by warming up your email.
You must not begin by mass emailing to lots of subscribers. This puts you at risk instantly. Instead, in the first 2-4 weeks of sending emails, only send to engaged recipients.
Ease into it. Begin by earning a superb score to start. Here are five tips:
- Have people who know you subscribe to your new email list. The better people know you, the more likely they will engage. This will warm up your new email address with a good score.
- Set clear expectations with your subscribers concerning when and why you will email them and stick to it. You can communicate this when they sign up.
- Keep an eye on metrics and learn lessons from them: open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, complaint rates. FYI, bounce rate is when an email is undeliverable for some reason. You can delete those from your list.
- Be consistent in your communication. If you write seldomly, your subscribers will forget who you are or at least why they were interested. If you’ve built your list in the right way, remember you are letting these people down if you don’t communicate with them.
- Keep your email list clean. This is the process of removing inactive, bounced, and unengaged contacts from your list. This will ensure you are only sending emails to engaged subscribers and those unengaged won’t harm your reputation.
Benefits of Affiliate System
I’ve mentioned Affiliate System previously. It’s a software system built specifically for affiliate marketers my mentor, Dean Holland, has created. I’m lucky enough to be in the beta program. It is not yet available to the public, so I’m sharing what I get excited about as I begin using it.
Regarding email, Affiliate System automatically marks any bounced emails or email reported as complaints as Do Not Disturb. The system will no longer allow you to send to those email addresses. This way, you won’t inadvertently hurt your reputation by sending to them again. It’s a built in safeguard.
Also, there’s a screen where you can see the numbers of sent, delivered, opened, clicked, complained, bounced, unsubscribed, and failed emails in one glance. Now that may sound like too much, but what is exciting is it’s easy to read and understand in a glance! Sound like something that might be beneficial? You bet!
Building a Fan-Focused Email List
Consider how you will build an email list.
You’ll need to have a form for people to enter their email address.
What information should you ask for? In general, the less information you ask for, the more likely people will fill out the form.
Though, of course, the more information they fill in, the more serious they are about being on your list. Wanting to have serious subscribers, the question of what you will require on your form is something to seriously consider.
My form that I’ve built in Affiliate System, for example, requests a first name and an email address. I made it so the email address is required and the first name is optional. I requested the first name, so I can address my subscriber by name in emails. Of course, every one knows this is an automated process, but it is a signal that I care to have a more personal connection. I’d rather have it than not.
Now, how do you get these emails? Of course, if someone purchases a product from you, you will get their email at that time. However, it’s important to get the email address early on in the relationship, so you can build the relationship that will lead to a purchase.
To get an email you’ll need to offer something of value in exchange for it. That’s exactly what a lead magnet is. Think of this as a magnetic way to draw people in. Because they want what you are offering, they will give you their email address.
I’ll write a post about lead magnets next week. Also, I’ll review when it may be beneficial to use a confirmed opt-in for your email list.
Conclusion
Were you aware there was such a thing as warming up an email address? I wasn’t.
Do you have any other tips for warming up a new email address? Do you have any tips for increasing engagement?
Please leave a comment.
Ciao for now,
Nakina
Hi Karina
Great post about email. It had a lot of great information. Can’t wait wait to read about lead magnets.
Thank Sandy
Sandy recently posted…My 6th Post – Find Someone You Can Get To Know, Like And Trust!
Fantastic, Sandy! I’m so glad to hear you found it helpful!
Excellent post. Thank you for sharing all these great tips on improving your email sender reputation.
It may also be a good idea to use double opt in because a lot of times, people enter fake email addresses. Using double opt in can eliminate this problem.
Alan Lim recently posted…This Ad Generated 500+ Sales
You read my mind, Alan! Next week I’m planning to write about the value of double opt in and lead magnets.
I hadn’t heard the tip about the fake email addresses. Good point!
Hi thanks for the info,
Here is my tip
Regularly clean your email list to remove invalid email addresses, hard bounces, and unsubscribed contacts. A clean list is essential for maintaining a good sender reputation.
Tony Simms recently posted…A Picture Paints A Thousand Lawsuits
True!
Thanks for that, Tony!
List hygiene is an easy way to ensure I’m not harming my sender reputation. That is, it’s something I’ve got control over. I like that!
Nakina, thank you for that. It’s a really good summary of warming up your email. As this is a new thing against the new email rules is very important that you brought this up. I’m sure there’s many many people that don’t know anything about this let alone what to do about it. So you’ve explained it really well and what actually needs to be done. Very useful and lots of value. Thank you so so much thanks, Atif
Atif Perwiz recently posted…I’m no good at this – no value to offer you!
You’re welcome, Atif! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I know I had no idea about warming up a new email address.
I’m glad you found it useful!
Excellent summary of email marketing in this new age. I hope I can remember all the gems you present here! I will refer back! 🙏🏾 namaste
Hi, Karen! So glad you found these tips helpful. I’m glad to hear you will be back 🙂
Hey Nakina…Excellent Post, full of great tips and important information about how to ensure your email sender reputation is meeting all of the new standards set by Google and Yahoo. You have covered it well!
Thank you for sharing and providing awesome value to those who read your post…like me 😁
You’re welcome, Karen! Glad to do it!
You know when you think you know something, you are not as focused so I am happy when I can view other people’s blogs and learn something new, I discover that oh no, I did miss something (in the haze of thinking, I know that so I can let my mind wander) …. Thanks for good & thorough break down of email reputation & email list.
Eleanor Hope recently posted…Affiliate Marketing2. Build Community
I definitely know that feeling! I’m glad you found it useful 🙂
This stuff can be so complicated 🙂 and add a lot of extra work, but I guess it’s what real relationship is about. One would never thing about warming up email, what is that about…Thank goodness there are mentors to walk us through these things 🙂
Denny
Denny Medeiros recently posted…Day 109 – Do It Right, Make It Last! 👍
Hi, Denny! What a good point! Building a relationship with our list is like building a friendship – of course it is work!
It’s so easy to forget the people aspect when focused on building an online business.
And, I agree, having a mentor is the way to go! I hadn’t come across this concept on my own and I’ve been at it for a year.
I had no idea!