The first thing we must establish is what is Reputation, commonly prefixed with the terms "Email" or "Sender". Your reputation, simply put, means does the internet service provider
(ISP) trust and want your emails? Every time you send out an email it affects your reputation. You're probably thinking you're an honest individual with good intentions and you have
done nothing wrong. Perhaps you're right. But ISPs follow their own internal logic to determine if your email can be trusted. These programs don't know your personality or trustworthiness,
they never met you face to face or looked you in the eyes. Each ISP maintains their own list and scoring system on your reputation and there are three main categories that influence your reputation.
Email Configuration
Is your email configured properly? These are the most common mistake and the most easy to fix that cause senders to lose reputation.
Did you configure your:
Message Content
How do you structure your email? Do you use a lot of links or images? Do you use spam-like keywords? Do you use colored text and bolded fonts? Are you emails short?
Spam filters analyze your email and score it based on it's content. Read the article
How to Avoid Spam Filters to learn more.
The more conditions the spam filters recognize and flag the lower your reputation will be.
Recipient Feedback
You did everything right. Things are configured, you structured your message properly, and you sent it off! Now comes the last critical step in the process. Securing your reputaton as a good sender.
Not everyone will be happy receiving your email.
Did you:
- Follow the CAN-SPAM Act and provide an easy way for people to opt out?
- Sign-up for Feedback Loops with all the known email providers that have them?
- Process all of your bounced emails and remove them from your list?
Everything combined is factored into your reputation score. It's much easier to hurt your reputation then repair it so you must be vigilant about keeping it healthy.
Source: Unlock The Inbox