How to avoid email grey listing and spam traps in a proprietary search.

searcher profile

May 22, 2020

by a searcher from Harvard University - Harvard Business School in San Diego, CA, USA

I recently noticed a marked decline in email open rates and, through a series of tests, I've become convinced that my email domain has become grey listed, causing emails to land in spam traps or be returned as undelivered. Open rates have declined from ~40% to <10%. Have any others experienced this, and are you able to share how to resolve or avoid this situation?

5
8
232
Replies
8
commentor profile
Reply by an intermediary
from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, CA, USA
I've had concerns with this as well. I didnt see marked drop in email delivery that set off my concerns, just ongoing concerns that many emails were not going through to what I know are good email address, or too often getting into junk/spam folders. I found an IT consultant on Upwork that specializes in email delivery. He'll run some diagnostics, make sure you are configured correctly, analyze some of your outgoing marketing emails for spamyness, check if you are listed in spam dbases and try to purge you out if you are, give advice for changes etc.. He was about $50 an hour for about 3-4 hours of work. I can not say I've seen a marked improvement, but it was certainly piece of mind to know he had me all set up properly. Here is his profile on Upwork:
https://www.upwork.com/fl/andrewgenung3

Cliffords advice above is all good too and part of the process - but I wanted a little more and certainty I wasn't getting blacklisted.
commentor profile
Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, USA
Have you configured your DMARC, SPF, and DKIM settings? These are settings that prevent someone else from spoofing emails from your domain. If you don't have them configured properly, your domain will be viewed as higher risk and may be blocked (regardless of whether spoofing has actually occurred). You can check DMARC settings for your domain using a tool like https://mxtoolbox.com/dmarc.aspx. There are similar free online tools for the others.

You could also try running emails through Mail Tester or similar tools before sending to ensure your copy isn't getting you flagged (e.g. due to excessive exclamations/caps or certain keywords. Additionally, including greater email customization and/or an unsubscribe/opt out link may reduce the number of recipients that mark your email as spam.
commentor profile
+6 more replies.
Join the discussion