Email reputation monitoring is one of the most important aspects of email marketing. If you have a good email reputation, your email campaigns will be delivered to the inboxes of your subscribers. However, if you have a bad email reputation, your email campaigns will be sent to the spam folders of your subscribers, or they may never even be delivered at all. In this blog post, I will discuss why email reputation management is so important, and how you can help ensure your email reaches your audience.
The Importance of Email Reputation Monitoring
Email reputation is determined by a number of factors, including the IP address that your email is sent from, the domain that your email is sent from, and the content of your email. If any of these factors are flagged as spammy by email providers, your email reputation will suffer. This can lead to deliverability issues, and it can make it difficult for your email to reach the inboxes of your subscribers.
Use a Dedicated IP Address
One of the best ways to help ensure a good email reputation is to send email campaigns from a dedicated IP address. A dedicated IP address is an IP address that is used exclusively for your sending of email. This ensures that your email reputation is not damaged by the actions of other users on the same IP address. It also allows you to build a good email reputation over time, as your emails are more likely to be delivered to the inboxes of your subscribers if they are coming from a dedicated IP address.
Monitor Your DNS (and Related) Records
Domain Name System (DNS) records are used by email providers to determine the reputation of a domain or IP address. There are a number of DNS records that you can check to help you monitor your email reputation. Some of these records include the following:
MX Record
This record points to the email server for a domain and is used to determine where email should be delivered for a domain. Email providers use this record to see if a domain has a good email reputation.
If the email server’s MX record is not pointed to a good email provider, then it may likely have a bad email reputation. This can lead to email being blocked or delivered to the spam folder.
SPF Record
This record indicates which IP addresses are authorized to send email on behalf of a domain. Again, this is important because it helps email providers determine the reputation of a domain or IP address. It helps you avoid unauthorized email being sent using your domain.
DKIM Record
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a email authentication system used to verify the email sender. The sender’s email address is cryptographically signed, which allows email providers to check that the email was actually sent from the authorized address. This helps prevent email spoofing and phishing attacks, as well as improve email deliverability rates.
To set up DKIM, you need to generate a public and private key pair. The public key is published in the DNS record for your domain, and the private key is used to sign outgoing email messages.
When an email is sent from your domain, the receiving email server will look up the DKIM DNS record to fetch the public key. It will then use the public key to verify the email signature. If the signature is valid, it means that the email was most likely sent from the authorized address and was not tampered with en route.
Monitoring your DKIM record is important to ensure that your email messages are being delivered correctly. You can use a tool like MxToolbox to monitor your DKIM record and get alerted if there are any changes.
DMARC Record
This record is used to help email providers determine whether or not an email is legitimate.
One of the most important factors in email reputation is your DMARC record. This record is used to help email providers determine whether or not an email is legitimate, and it can also be used to block email that does not pass DKIM or SPF checks.
If you’re not familiar with DMARC, it stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance. It’s a policy setting that tells email providers what to do with email that fails authentication checks.
A good DMARC record is important for two reasons:
- It helps email providers determine whether or not an email is legitimate, which can improve your email deliverability.
- It can be used to block email that does not pass DKIM or SPF checks, which can protect your recipients from spam and phishing attacks.
If you’re not sure how to set up a DMARC record, there are plenty of resources available online. Once you have a DMARC record in place, you can start monitoring your email reputation.
BIMI record
This record is used to verify the email address of the sender. The BIMI record contains a hash of the email address of the sender, and this can be used to verify that the email address is valid.
Resources for Email Reputation Monitoring
In addition to using a dedicated IP address, you should engage in email reputation monitoring regularly. There are a number of websites that allow you to do this, including SenderScore, Return Path, and Email Reputation Monitor. Email reputation monitoring will help you identify any problems early on, and it will allow you to take steps to improve your email reputation if necessary.
Here’s an easy reference list of resources you can use for email reputation monitoring:
MXToolBox is a website that allows you to monitor your email reputation. It provides detailed reports on your email deliverability, and it can help you identify any problems early on. You can use MXToolBox to check your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, as well as track your email Real Delivery Times.
The Sender Score website provides information about email senders and receivers. It can help you identify email senders that have a good reputation, as well as email senders that have a bad reputation. This can be helpful for improving your email deliverability rates.
The debouncer website is a tool that can be used to monitor your email deliverability. It provides detailed reports on your email deliverability, and it can help you identify any problems early on. You can use the debouncer website to check your email bounce rates, open rates, and click-through rates.
The Postmaster Tools by Gmail are a set of tools that allow you to monitor your email reputation. You can use the Postmaster Tools to track your email bounce rates, open rates, and click-through rates. You can also use the Postmaster Tools to identify any email senders that have a bad reputation. This can help you improve your email deliverability rates to Gmail based accounts.
The BarracudaCentral tool provides information about email senders and receivers. It can help you identify email senders that have a good reputation, as well as email senders that have a bad reputation. This can be helpful for improving your email deliverability rates, and pinpoint issues.
The Talos website provides information about email senders and receivers. It can help you identify email senders that have a good reputation, as well as email senders that have a bad reputation. This can be helpful for improving your email deliverability rates, as you can also see other senders that are on the same network as your IP address.
The Cyren website provides email sender and receiver data. This helps you identify email sender reputation (so that you can follow up on any issues). In turn you can help improve your deliverability rates.
The IPVoid website provides email sender and receiver data. This helps you identify email sender reputation so that you can improve your email deliverability rates.
The MailTester website allows you to test the email deliverability of your email campaigns. You can use the MailTester website to test your email SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. You can also use the MailTester website to track your email Real Delivery Times.
Finally, it is important to remember that a bad email reputation can have a serious impact on your email campaigns. If your email reputation is poor, your emails may be sent to the spam folders of your subscribers, or they may never even be delivered at all. This can lead to a drastic decrease in email open rates and click-through rates, and it can ultimately damage your business. This underlines the need to ensure email reputation monitoring is part of your email campaign.
Conclusion
If you want to ensure that your email campaigns are successful, email reputation monitoring is essential. By taking steps to monitor and then improve your email reputation, you can help ensure that your email reaches your subscribers and that your campaigns are as successful as possible.
You can learn much more about email reputation monitoring, by visiting our Small Business Email Marketing posts. As well as find out further about Email Sender Reputation.