Sign Up
log in

From Spam to Fam: Keys to a Sweet Sender Reputation

Share the Post:
Parakeet | Email sender reputation and deliverability can really make or break your campaigns. Let's look at why your emails might be getting ignored and what you can do to fix it.
Email sender reputation and deliverability can really make or break your campaigns. Let's look at why your emails might be getting ignored and what you can do to fix it.

Table of Contents

What’s Email Sender Reputation

Why Does Sender Reputation Even Matter?

The Main Ingredients of a Sender Reputation

8 Factors That Determine Your Sender Reputation

How Sender Reputation Affects Deliverability​

Four Tips to Keep a Positive Sender Reputation

How Parakeet Can Improve Your Sender Reputation

What's Email Sender Reputation?

Email sender reputation refers to how trustworthy and legitimate an email sender looks to Email Service Providers (ESPs), email clients, and spam filters. It’s an important factor in determining whether your emails reach recipients’ inboxes or get flagged as spam

Say you just launched your latest email campaign; it still needs to land in the prospects’ inboxes. ESPs are playing the role of digital bouncers, deciding whether your emails get VIP treatment or are denied entry.

ESPs give every sender a reputation score. The higher your score, the more likely your emails will make it past the velvet rope and into an inbox. But if your score’s in the gutter, you might as well be shouting into the void.

Your sender reputation is like a mash-up of your IP and domain reputation. Think of it as your email street cred – and trust me, you want to keep it super-duper squeaky clean.

Why Does Sender Reputation Matter?

A poor sender reputation makes your emails as welcome as a flat tire on a road trip. They might not even reach your prospects at all. Worst case? Your domain gets blacklisted, and you’re email outreach becomes persona non-grata.

So, how do ESPs decide if you’re spam or fam?

They look at stuff like:

  • Bounce rates
    • Are you sending to dead email addresses? ew.
  • Your sending history
    • Spamming folks 24/7? Red flag, my friend.
  • Engagement metrics
    • Are people opening and clicking your emails?
  • Unsubscribe rates
    • If everyone’s jumping ship, something’s fishy.
  • Spam complaints
    • Getting reported more often than a bad Tinder date? 😬 

The Main Ingredients of a Sender Reputation

IP Reputation vs. Domain Reputation: The Dynamic Duo

Let’s break it down further. Your sender rep is a tag team of two players:

  1. IP Reputation: The Bouncer. This is all about where your emails come from. Every computer or server has a unique IP address, like a digital fingerprint. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use this to decide if you’re allowed into the inbox club.
  2. Domain Reputation: The Cool Factor. This is about how you behave once you’re in. Are you sending relevant stuff? Do you know how to read the room and adjust your email frequency? It’s like your social skills but for email.

Both of these work together to determine if you’re inbox-worthy or spam-folder-bound

IP Reputation (Don't Let Others Ruin Your Party)

Your IP reputation is crucial for getting past the blockade most email servers put up. But here’s the kicker: if you’re on a shared IP address, you’re guilty by association. One bad apple can spoil the bunch when you don’t get to choose who your IP address buddies are.

Building a solid IP rep takes time, but it can go down the drain faster than you can say “unsubscribe.” So keep an eye on it!

Want to check your IP reputation? Try these cool tools:

  • Mailchecker: It’s like a health check for your emails. It evaluates domain and IP address reputation, authentication quality, code correctness, and other factors.
  • SenderScore: Get a rep score, just like your credit score! It provides a perfect sign of your email’s health.
  • BarracudaCentral: Find out if you’re on the naughty list. It checks whether an IP address is currently listed in their database.
  • TalosIntelligence: Sounds fancy, but they provide info on your IP address rep.
  • Spamhaus: The ultimate “Are you spammy?” test. You can check if your IP address is listed on their Blocklist (SBL) or Exploits Blocklist (XBL).

Domain Reputation (Your Email Personality)

Even if you’ve got a top-notch IP, a sketchy domain can still sink your ship. It’s like having a great outfit but terrible manners—you won’t get far.

Your domain rep is all about your long-term email behavior. Are you consistently cool, or do you have mood swings that freak out the ESPs?

How is Your Domain Reputation Calculated?

ISPs are always watching and judging, looking at how your domain behaves in people’s inboxes. Based on that behavior, they will give you a score, usually from 0-100. The higher the score, the better (duh).

Keep in mind that you don’t have just one reputation. Each ESP has its own opinion of you and will give their own scores. 

8 Factors That Determine Your Sender Reputation

1. Email Authentication (Your Digital ID Card)

Imagine trying to get into the hottest club in town—someone’s inbox. The bouncer, or mailbox provider, needs to know you’re legit. That’s where email authentication comes in—your VIP pass.

We’re talking SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; it may sound like a bunch of alphabet soup, but these are your secret weapons:

  • Sender Policy Framework (SPF): “Yep, I’m allowed to send from here!”. It provides basic protection against phishing. The downside is it’s easy to bypass so more protection is needed.
  • DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM): “This email is from me, I pinky promise”. It uses an asymmetric encryption key. It indicates whether the real sender sent a message from a given domain.
  • Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance (DMARC): “Here’s what to do if someone tries to impersonate me.” It guarantees that no one has impersonated your domain name and protects against fraudulent emails, phishing, and other cybercrimes.
 

Set these up right, and you’re wearing a “Trust Me” t-shirt in the email world. Plus, you’re giving the middle finger to those pesky spammers trying to crash your email party.

2. Bounce Rates

Bounces are like your emails doing a sad little boomerang back to you.

There are two forms:

  • Soft bounces: “Oops, try again later!” (Maybe the inbox is full or taking a siesta)
  • Hard bounces: “Nope, this address is dead as a doornail.”
 

Hard bounces are the real party poopers. Too many of these, and ESPs start giving you the side-eye, thinking you’re hanging out with a sketchy crowd (like bought email lists, ew 🤢) and you know what that means for your sender reputation…

Before launching an email campaign, take the time to check that your leads are validated. You can validate your leads for free right here at Parakeet. 

3. Engagement Rates

In email marketing, engagement is key. Opens, clicks, and (especially) conversions are signs that your content is resonating with your prospects.

But low engagement? That’s a red flag for ESPs, which could start sending your emails straight to spam.

The solution? Keep your content simple and interesting. Vary your sentences, be creative, and make it easy to read. Your prospects (and your sender reputation) will thank you.

4. Playing by the Rules

Just like following rules in school earned you the teacher’s approval, complying with email regulations boosts your sender reputation.

Laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR aren’t just random acronyms—they’re your key to staying on the “Nice” list. Respecting these rules shows you care about your subscribers’ inboxes.

Plus, it keeps you out of legal trouble. No one wants to end up on the naughty list—or in court 😨

5. Sender History (Your Email Credit Score)

Every email you send, every engagement you get (or don’t get) – it all adds up.

Consistently good behavior? You’re golden. But one too many spam complaints or an explosion of emails, and you might find yourself in email jail.

Slow and steady wins the race. Build trust over time, and don’t try to game the system. The email providers are watching…

6. Spam Complaints

Getting marked as spam is bad, bad news for your emails and your sender reputation. Once you get a bad rep, it’s really hard to fix. It’s easier to avoid the problem in the first place.

Gmail and Yahoo are getting tougher on emails. They don’t like it when people say your messages are spam

The solution? Send emails people actually want to read. How simple! 

7. Spam Traps

If you accidentally send emails to spam traps, it can seriously hurt your sender reputation. It’s like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar – the email gods won’t be very happy.

The best way to avoid spam traps is to use good email practices:

  • Only send to people who’ve signed up for your emails
  • Keep your list updated
  • Double-check those email addresses

A little prevention goes a long way

8. Unsubscribe Rates

When lots of people unsubscribe, it’s like everyone leaving your party early. It means your emails might not be very fun or interesting.

Gmail and Yahoo now make it super easy for people to stop getting your emails with just one click.

To keep people wanting your emails:

  • Send stuff they care about
  • Make your emails helpful
  • Don’t send too many emails too often (just be cool)

How Sender Reputation Affects Deliverability

We’re back to the entrance of the coolest club in town (AKA someone’s inbox) and your email is trying its best to get in. The bouncer (mailbox provider) keeps getting in the way and won’t let you in until your sender reputation has been checked and cleared.

Here’s the deal:

  • Good rep? You’re on the list! Your emails strut right into the inbox.
  • Bad rep? Sorry, champ. You’re stuck outside with the spam crowd.
 

The Domino Effect of a Bad Sender Reputation

Let’s break it down:

  1. Spam City: Get a reputation as a spammer, and you’re wearing a “kick me” sign in the email world.
  2. Blacklist Blues: Worst case? Your domain gets blacklisted. It’s like being banned from all the cool parties. Ouch.
  3. Account Suspended: Too many people yelling “Spam!” and your email marketing platform might put you in time-out. No emails for you!
  4. The Spam Filter Gauntlet
    Here’s where it gets tricky. Your email has to run the spam filter gauntlet before reaching the promised land of the inbox.
    Good rep? You breeze through like a VIP.
    Bad rep? You’re stuck in spam purgatory.

Inboxes are like elephants. They never forget. Once you’re labeled as spam, breaking out of that box is hard.

The Engagement Factor
But wait, there’s hope! Your past performance matters:

  • High open rates and clicks? You’re golden.
  • Crickets and spam complaints? Houston, we have a problem.

The more people love (and open) your stuff, the more likely you are to keep sliding into those inboxes.

Four Tips to Keep a Positive Sender Reputation

  1. Keep your lead list clean and authentic
    • Don’t buy email lists
    • Get subscribers naturally
    • Update your list often
    • Use double opt-in to make sure people really want your emails
  2. High engagement rates
    • Make your emails look (and sound) good
    • Write interesting stuff
    • Offer things people like
  3. Avoid spam triggers
    • Be careful with words like “free”
    • Write like a real person, not like AI or a pushy salesperson
  4. Maintain high deliverability rates
    • Check if your emails are getting to people
    • Fix problems quickly

How Parakeet Can Improve Your Sender Reputation

There are two main ways Parakeet can help give your sender reputation that much-needed boost.

  1. Smart Throttling – This is the dynamic throttling of emails per sending account and per domain level to prevent any blacklisting and maintain a strong sending reputation. It makes sure your cold emails get delivered by automatically switching and managing sending accounts while focusing on open rates. Check out our article on Smart Throttling for more information. 
  •  
  1. Dynamic Sending is where we don’t just send a second email to someone who didn’t open the first email. It’s as simple as it sounds.
 

Improve Your Sender Reputation

Try it for FREE today

Try it for free

Other Posts You Might Like...

Newsletter

Want the latest updates?

Newsletter

Want the latest updates?

Privacy Policy  |  © 2025 All rights Reserved  |  Terms of Use

Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use

© 2024 All rights Reserved