A domain reputation is distinct from an IP reputation in that the score is attached to your domain name (101: the name after the @ symbol in an email address) while IP reputation is associated with the digital address of the sending device. Both can affect your email’s deliverability depending on the server used by the recipient.
A house with a bad reputation.
“If you didn’t see the email I sent you, check your spam file. It could be in there.”
This is an incredibly frustrating and all too familiar phrase uttered by many a professional working during the digital age.
Spam filters and email safeguards are on the one hand a welcome filter that protects us from email-borne malware and spam bots, and keeps our inboxes from clogging up with erroneous junk like predatory messages from fictional princes.
On the other hand, important messages from new clients or solicited conversations trusted sales representatives may fall victim to hyper-vigilant programs, slowing business interactions and making it so we lose out on important deals.
If you find yourself asking target representatives to check their spam folder a little too often, it may be time to work on your domain reputation.
Think of domain reputation as a credit score indicating the trustworthiness of your organization’s unique email domain. Ranked on a scale between 0 and 100, this number indicates to receiving servers whether or not the sending domain is safe to route to the recipient’s regular inbox.
Domains with a score closer to 0 are considered unsafe, while those with a score approaching 100 are more likely to make it into the main folder.
A domain reputation is distinct from an IP reputation in that the score is attached to your domain name (101: the name after the @ symbol in an email address) while IP reputation is associated with the digital address of the sending device. Both can affect your email’s deliverability depending on the server used by the recipient.
The reputational score of a given domain is algorithmically calculated based on the performance of an email within the recipient’s inbox. This might be based on factors such as whether the email was opened, whether links were followed, or how soon the message was deleted after reception.
Your domain score is not a static number, and in fact may be radically different between two servers, such as Yahoo and Gmail. However the longer your domain has been around, the more your domain reputation score will begin to plateau barring intervention or a serious nosedive.
Your current domain reputation score will also influence your future score, as email servers will use this as a reference while checking the content of more recent emails.
Actions and attributes which may affect your domain reputation score include:
Even if you are experiencing optimal email deliverability, it’s always a good idea to keep tabs on your domain reputation. This gives you the opportunity to quickly address any problems as soon as they arise.
There exist a number of easy to use tools that will allow you to inspect and address your domain reputation with ease. We’ll take a closer look at a few of our favorites in a later section.
The main advantage to understanding your organization’s domain reputation score lies in keeping your email marketing content and sales outreach visible to your client representatives. Deliverability, interactivity, and visibility are all critical factors which enable long-term sales relationships emergent from initial B2B contact over email.
If your domain reputation begins to slip, this may provide clues which indicate a necessity to shift your strategy. Ideally, your content will be highly relevant to the recipient, and incite interaction that in the best case results in a conversion, and at least maintains a positive rep score.
Here are a few precautions you can take to keep your domain reputation and email deliverability high:
Let’s take a look at a couple implements you can engage to track your organization’s domain reputation.
Intricately is a cloud-based data solution that allows you to maintain a favorable domain reputation by helping you create effective, relevant marketing content for your leads. Intricately’s unparalleled client insights will let you know what your target needs and when they need it, so you can craft messaging that will invite positive interaction. Sign up for a free demo today to see what else Intricately has to offer.
Want a detailed look at the data insights available to your organization? Check out our other insight: What is Technographic Data?
In this chapter, we predict trends for 2020 based on our analysis of the global adoption of APM.
Our goal in this chapter is to emphasize the importance of APM for enterprises but also highlight new ways APM sellers should be thinking about their market.