Improve Reputation and Increase Email Deliverability

Results of a recent study by Return Path indicate reputation, not content, is to blame for low email deliverability rates.

by Helen Leggatt

With more spam being sent than ever before, and the holiday season causing email activity to spike, email campaigns are suffering from more soft bounces and connection time-outs than usual.

But there’s another reason your emails might not reach recipients - your reputation as a sender. Return Path’s recent study showed that sender reputation was responsible for 77 percent of delivery failures, with a further 6 percent affected by the reputation of the domains featured in the body of the email message.

With just 17 percent of emails undeliverable due to content it’s time email marketers got to grips with their reputations.

"Companies need to be vigilant about their email reputations,” said Craig Spiezle, director of business planning and strategy for Microsoft's Windows Live Safety group (via IMNewswatch). “Reputation, when applied to validating a sender’s identity via Sender ID, is growing in importance in how Microsoft, the industry and corporate networks are improving the deliverability of legitimate email, keeping spam from user's inboxes and protecting users from malicious online threats.”

To this end, Return Path has launched SenderScore.org, a free website that publishes corporate e-mail reputations from the perspective of Internet service providers and e-mail recipients.

Tags: content, email, email deliverability, email filtering, email marketing, ISP, reputation, sender score