How to get a bad rep with readers 😠😠😠

Even with the best intentions.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, Your call for MOARRR info on Facebook Ads was heard loud and clear here at DG Towers, so look forward to something on that topic next week. Today, we are looking at something a little different – sender reputation – and specifically what causes you to get a bad rep in the world of email. We spent the summer looking at email best practices – and make sure to catch up on those episodes at the Email Archive if you spent your summer juggling puppies and popsicles instead. But this week we are going to look at the opposite: the things people do which cause their emails to go a-wandering. What Is Sender Reputation? Sender reputation is a little like your credit score. All sorts of things feed into your sender reputation, which can improve or worsen your score. Both actions you take, and actions your readers take (or don't take – as we will see). When author talk about deliverability and open rates, they tend to focus too much on their provider (like ConvertKit or MailerLite or Mailchimp or whoever) and way too little on what they are doing to affect deliverability. The bald truth is that most email services are generally very competent at getting your emails delivered. But whether those precious emails drop into Promotions or Spam or even get zapped before arrival is generally down to things you do… or things that readers do, if you want to be exact about it. Of course, what you do has a huge influence on what readers do! I'll give you specifics in a moment, but the important point to remember is that deliverability is largely in your control. Following best practices – which we covered at length over the summer – will improve reader engagement (open rates, clicks, response, sales, etc.). This will, in turn, improve your sender reputation, which will further increase the proportion of emails that make it into your readers' inboxes, which will further increase all that good stuff (opens, clicks, replies, book sales). It can be a virtuous circle. At the other end of the scale, engaging in questionable practices will tank your sender reputation, making it more likely that your emails will end up in Promotions or Spam or even not get delivered at all. Mirroring the above, that can become a vicious circle where falling open rates and clicks and replies further worsen your sender reputation, and lead to more emails not getting delivered to readers who want to receive them, and so on and so forth until... vodka. Flopping around in the middle, I suspect, is the great majority of mailing lists. These maybe don't engage in explicitly shady practices, but – unwittingly, perhaps – can do a variety of things which don't help their sender reputation. Often, they muddle on with tepid engagement and rather deflating results until they get sick of email marketing and decide to spend their time on something else instead (wondering if these braggarts with five-figure lists and 60% open rates are talking through their raspberry berets). There are some long-running, and occasionally heated, debates in the world of email marketing about things like list-culling and double opt-in. Regular readers will know that I'm firmly in favor of both (even if I tend to be conservative with the former). And if you look at things strictly through the prism of sender reputation, the evidence for doing both would seem to be clear. But just so I don't poke two hornets' nets at once, let's just say there are differing views on those subjects, and this isn't intended to be a complete debate or the final word on the topic – just giving the view from the perspective of maintaining a good sender reputation here. As with many things, there's a trade-off. (If you don't know what those jargony things are back there, list-culling is the process of removing disengaged subscribers from your list, and double opt-in is the process of getting subscribers to confirm their subscription before adding them to your list.) OK, without further doo-doo, these are some of the things that can tank your sender reputation. And I mean the things under your control, not the technical bits that your email service provider will handle around actually getting your emails accepted for delivery. Reader Actions That Hurt Sender Reputation Opening your email but marking it as Spam. Moving your opened email to the Spam folder. Moving your unopened email to the Spam folder. Leaving your emails unopened. Deleting your emails unopened (readers deleting them opened is neutral). Unsubscribing from your list without opening the email (if they unsubscribe after opening, it's neutral, as with you unsubscribing them at your end). These are the negative signals that every reader on your list can potentially send, which can worsen your sender reputation. (Positive signals are what you might guess: opens, clicks, replies, and also adding to Contacts btw.) Reader Influence Triggers And here's a list of things that you can potentially do, to trigger those reader actions above. Buying email lists. Adding subscribers to your list without their explicit permission. Not using double opt-in. Being boring, obnoxious, offensive, clickbaity, sleazy, or unfunny (these things can be very subjective of course). Not providing sufficient value (your email might be free, but everyone's time is valuable). Never culling your list. Not onboarding readers properly. Not giving readers the freebie (or whatever) you promised. Not setting expectations appropriately during either onboarding or your list-building marketing - regarding both content and frequency. Regarding the first two above, emailing anyone without permission is not just illegal in many countries you will be operating in (such as the EU and the UK), but is also widely considered to be unethical. It's also pretty stupid because it will tank your sender reputation in multiple ways simultaneously. Not only will you trigger many of the reader behaviors flagged above en masse, you will also get a spike in bounce rates, which will further worsen your sender rep. Double Opt-In & List Culling It's similar-ish for double opt-in. If you don't use it, you will get more sign-ups. But you will also get more sign-ups with spelling errors or other mistakes, which will lead to a spike in bounces, which will harm you sender rep. Additionally, you will get junk sign-ups, and a surprising amount of spam sign-ups from bots and perhaps from malicious competitors as well. (The latter is not fun, let me tell you.) As for list-culling, without wading into that debate fully, let me just specifically explain what happens to sender reputation when you never cull your list, as some people advise. And then you can make your own decision. No matter how well you run your list, some people will become disengaged over time. People lose their passwords, or their jobs (and the accompanying work email address). Or sometimes they even shuffle off this mortal coil. Others may simply lose interest in your books, your newsletters, your genre, or in reading novels in the middle of a slow-motion apocalypse. So far, so obvious. But here's something people might not know. A chunk of your list might actually want to get your emails, but for whatever reason they aren't seeing them. For example, they may have started dropping into Spam or Promotions, never to be seen by those willing readers. And then the messages get deleted after 30 days, and you as the sender get a ding to your sender reputation when the message eventually gets deleted unread. And then because this (willing, remember?) reader didn't engage with your email last time, because they didn't see it, Gmail decides to keep putting your message in Promotions or Spam, and you just keep getting dinged. Whatever the reason someone is disengaged, having them on your list will hurt you – and it will do so in a cumulative way over time. Not convinced yet? Maybe this will do the trick: most damaging of all might be what are known as spam traps or honeypot traps. Email service providers create spam traps to catch unscrupulous senders – the kind of people who might engage in shady practices above like buying email lists. But spam traps can affect everyone. Another common type of spam trap is where a dormant email address is recycled by an email service provider – and this is the kind of thing that can really hurt someone who never culls their list. Just so we are clear, I'm not suggesting that you simply cull readers from your list if they seem to be disengaged. This is a topic worth an email in itself – or just go and read Newsletter Ninja if you want to get really good at this stuff – but what I do suggest in simple terms is attempting to re-engage these readers first. There are a variety of ways to do this, and it can be quite effective. However, if the re-engagement process fails for a cohort of readers, then I suggest that you consider culling them (and that's a multi-step process, not a simple deletion – for example it often involves sending a Stay/Go email which is pared back and primed for maximum deliverability, i.e. with minimal links and images and spammy words). I guess we will talk about list-culling and re-engagement in more detail another time but do see Newsletter Ninja for good stuff on that and for great advice on email generally. Best Practices & Takeaways The real takeaway here is this: it's all about readers. How readers react to your emails will ultimately determine your sender reputation, which in turn has a big impact on how many of your emails actually get seen by readers, instead of hidden in Promotions, or tarred-and-feathered in your Spam folder, or even not delivered at all. And the best way to a good reputation is through delighting your readers. Don't worry about checking your sender reputation anywhere - there isn't a publicly available universal score you can check as each ISP determines this separately and most don't share (and those that do are generally super vague). There are a variety of tools out there, but none of them are that accurate or comprehensive (if you really want to check one reliable source, Google's Postmaster Tools will give you an extremely vague indication of what your reputation might be in the eyes of Gmail – not other providers). Instead, keep your focus on best practices and do what you can do minimize those negative reader actions above – but at the same time don't fret too much over a handful of unsubscribes or even spam reports. You will always get some, especially as your list grows. Those best practices: make sure the only people on your list are people who actually want to be on your list, stay in touch with your subscribers regularly, put value in every email, and always try to entertain, delight, amuse, or inform your readers, as appropriate for your list. Same as it ever was. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Denise LaSalle with A Love Reputation. ​ Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​