What's Your Reputation

The latest buzz word in email marketing is reputation. Many industry experts agree that it is the key to deliverability, meaning it is what gets your emails delivered and read.

So, how do you manage it?

There are two audiences who care about your reputation. First are the ISPs. These are the people and computers at Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo!, among others, who make the rules about what email gets delivered and what email doesn’t. Whether you have an external email vendor or are using your campus IT shop, they should be monitoring and adhering to best practices such as:

Sending email to accurate and “live” email addresses from a consistent sender and from a consistent IP address
Managing your bounces and unsubscribes; don’t send to bad addresses
Sending emails in short spurts
Employing SPF and Domain Keys authentication to prove you are a legitimate sender
Using double opt-ins when asking students and parents to subscribe; this validates their email address
Managing your ISP relationships and creating feedback loops for them

The latest statistics show that neither Gmail nor AOL filter based on content. While Earthlink, Yahoo!, and Hotmail focus only 20% of their attention on email content, instead these major ISP are deciding whether or not to deliver your email message based on your reputation.

Yet, paradoxically, it is content that can improve or diminish your reputation because open rates and click through rates affect your overall reputation. So, the second audience, when it comes to understanding email reputation, is your readers – the people who open and click.

To improve open rates and click thru rates, your email content should be:

Timely – don’t send too often or not often enough
Relevant – prospects want to read the information
From an easily recognizable sender – make sure a recognizable name is in the “from” field.

Think about your email marketing reputation as a relationship. One way to build this relationship is to provide educational information to help prospects and their families understand the complexities of the admissions process. And, make sure you are not just sending email for your own “business” needs.

Please contact us for more information on email deliverability and email reputation.

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