Despite the popularity of instant messages and live chats, email is still indispensable for online businesses. Companies reach out to their clients in a variety of ways. Welcome emails thank them for registration, newsletters tell them about new products, and ‘abandoned cart’ reminders boost sales. E-correspondence contributes to loyalty and revenues, but third parties can undermine your efforts.
Whatever messages you send, they may land in the junk. This makes systems for IP and email checks crucial. Based on a powerful API, they verify up to 1000 emails per call. For instance, the IP blacklist database available on https://cleantalk.org/blacklists allows you to identify spammers and check your own status instantly. Such systems are essential: they protect your reputation and enhance the efficiency of your marketing efforts.
Overview of Threats
Today, spammers are increasingly creative and adept at breaking down typical defenses like CAPTCHA. They can flood your website and inbox with fake data to make it less competitive. As the performance deteriorates, customers will be less likely to return to the site, which will directly affect revenues. However, this is only one dimension of cyber threats.
Your website may be regarded as a spam source, too. For example, unethical SEO companies use dishonest promotion methods. They insert links into automated comments around the web. As a result, you see thousands of links in the reports, but none of them are credible. Search engines detect black SEO and impose strict penalties, while your ranking plummets.
Finally, your visitors may be to blame for blacklisting. Unfortunately, users may mark emails as spam if they do not remember signing up, or just do not like the content. For some people, looking for the unsubscribe link is too hard, so they simply notify the mail server.
Efficient Promotion of Your Site
With anti-spam protection, your address lists will be in order at all times. The success of any marketing campaign hinges on the accuracy of the data. If you send emails to addresses left by spammers, the effects are more serious than you may think. This is more than a waste of money.
Here is why blacklisting happens. Sending emails to fake addresses compromises you as the sender. Mail servers detect such activity automatically. Typically, your company’s address gets blacklisted. As a result, any messages sent afterward land in junk, if they reach the recipients at all.
How Blacklisting Works
Does this sound counterintuitive? You may suppose that fakes on your mailing list should have no bearing on your reputation. The logic of mail servers is different. If messages are sent to non-existent addresses, your own IP lands on the blacklists.
Such databases are updated all the time. They are based on automatic detection and reports from individual users. Eventually, the data reaches internet service providers that set filters against suspicious senders.
Any digital marketing campaign uses large numbers of addresses. Mass mailing always attracts the attention of Mail Abuse Prevention Systems. When your staff send the messages, they use a particular IP address and domain. If either of them gets reported, you end up on the blacklist.
Sources of Data
When emails are reported by users, rather than automation, the motives vary from laziness to frustration. To reduce the probability of rejection, make sure your emails look professional, and their content is useful. However, even the most talented marketers cannot prevent unfair reporting. Here are the most typical cases:
- The user cannot find the unsubscribe link or does not want to look for it.
- The user forgets they signed up for your service previously.
- The user is frustrated because they are receiving too many emails in general.
- User does not like the content of your emails for any reason.
Websites dedicated to spam prevention allow any visitor to add information to their databases. Luckily, one complaint will not cause your website to get blocked. This will only happen after 0.01% of all recipients report you as a spammer.
Take Measures Today
As you can see, fake email addresses disrupt marketing efforts and have a range of unpleasant implications. Your customers may never see your messages, as they will land in their junk folders. Emailing spammers is not innocuous. Some of these email addresses are also turned into ‘spam traps’, so using them is dangerous.
First, check that your mailing lists are in order. Every single recipient must be genuine. Using online services, you can check any IP address, domain, or email. This process is simple: just enter the identifier on the site and click on the search button. Then, do the same with your own IP, address, and domain. If these are legit, and the recipients are valid, you can be sure your campaign will reach the target audience.
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