How to Avoid IP and Domain Blacklisting

A blacklisting of your IPs or domains can be the death knell to your business. If you’re blacklisted, your emails will never reach your subscribers inbox, your marketing revenue will dry up and all the money you invested in list-building will be for naught. But there is a simple way to avoid IP and domain blacklisting that every email marketer should know.

Before we show you how easy it really is to avoid being blacklisted, let’s discuss what blacklisting is, and why it’s so bad for business.

Blacklists are a collection of email, IP and web domain addresses that have been flagged as spam senders. Most email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) use these blacklists, which are public, in an effort to diminish spam emails from “junking” up inboxes.

This is done by blocking the messages from the blacklisted IP’s or domains from ever reaching their intended recipients. Instead, the messages bounce back until the IP/domain is removed from the blacklist – which is an often time-consuming and costly task. And if you reach this point, you’re business may already be on life support.

Now, most blacklisting’s are triggered by spam traps and spam complaints. If a certain amount of traps are hit (or complaints made) within a certain timeframe, an email provider like Gmail or Yahoo will detect the originating IP/domain address… and block it. Stopping emails from reaching the intended recipients. Even if the vast majority of that blacklisted IP/domain contain opted-in subscribers who love your material, being blacklisted means nobody gets your messages. Not even your best buyers.

That’s right. Even if your list is all opt-in subscribers, a few spam traps and complaints can shut you down. Worse, if you’re received spam complaints and never removed the complainer from your list, you could be looking at serious fines – on top of the lost revenue.

So how do you avoid IP and domain blacklisting, preventing a complete shutdown of your online marketing business?

One word, cleanliness.

A clean list, devoid of spam traps and complainers will keep your IPs and domains on the good side of ESPs and ISPs, allowing you to continue what matters most; in-boxing your emails and growing revenue.

Now here’s the easiest way to avoid IP and domain blacklisting…

First, never send emails to a recipient who has hit the spam button. It’s a big no-no. Remove them immediately.

Second, remove all the spam-traps and known complainers from your lists. This is a little trickier, as spam-trap email addresses look like real addresses and never hit a spam button. You can’t detect them with the naked eye.

However, EmailOversight, can remove all these traps for you! Our email validation and hygiene technology can detect every spam trap and automatically remove them from your lists. Better yet, EmailOversight keeps a global database of known complainers.

What’s a known complainer?

These are real email addresses of real subscribers who no longer want your messages. But instead of opting-out of your lists, they hit the spam button. And they do this regularly causing poor sender scores… inching you closer to blacklisting. But while you won’t know who these subscribers are, until it’s too late, we do!

Our database of known complainers is incredibly accurate. When you use EmailOversight’s email validation and hygiene tech (available right HERE) we’ll remove these addresses before they have the chance to claim spam. We already know who is likely to hit the spam button. And we can get them off your lists before they do it. And do it they will.

After your lists are scrubbed clean of spam traps and known complainers, you’ll see a strong increase in your deliverability, and the chances of you being blacklisted will go down substantially.

But…

Spam traps and known complainers continually find their way into email lists. So even if you’ve cleaned them out, you must continue to ensure they never get back on. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself in the same situation over and over.

Here’s how to avoid IP and domain blacklisting after you’ve used EmailOversight’s email validation and hygiene technology:

Use EmailOversight’s email validation and hygiene API.

Our API is a simple plug-in that goes on all your email harvesting/lead-gen pages. In real-time, our API will remove spam traps and known complainers before they enter your lists. Before a single email (with the potential to shut down your business) is ever sent to them.

The simple two step process to avoid IP and domain blacklisting

1. Use EmailOversight’s email validation and hygiene technology to scrub clean your existing email lists. We’ll get rid of all the problem addresses that can lead to blacklisting.
2. Use EmailOversight’s API to ensure every new name entering your lists are clean, non-complainers who you can send to with confidence. The API assures you’ll never have to deal with spam traps or known complainers to begin with.

Avoiding IP and domain blacklisting is easy. However, if your email marketing business is ignoring these two simple steps, you’ll soon find all of your email efforts dead in the water, and your business shuttered.

EmailOversight can not only save your business from blacklisting death, but we can help you reach more inboxes and boost revenues. We offer you the easiest, most cost-effective way to assure your messages reach your subscribers, keeping your business where it belongs… alive and well, generating revenue and profit!