Your email reputation is the most important factor for reaching your contacts’ inboxes.
Your reputation is mainly based on three factors:
1. Relationship history with your contacts
If your contacts open and click your emails, future messages from your domain (example@yourdomain.com) are more likely to reach the inbox. This history is independent of your IP or email marketing platform.
If contacts haven’t recently subscribed, ISPs will quickly notice negative behaviors (unsubscribes or spam reports), which can hurt your domain’s reputation.
2. Domain reputation
Even if you’re emailing new subscribers, ISPs consider your domain’s overall reputation. If Gmail users have ignored, marked as spam, or unsubscribed from your emails, Gmail may flag your domain as spam for all recipients. A positive reputation means your emails will consistently reach inboxes.
3. Other questions
Which IP are your campaigns sent from?
Like domains, IPs have reputations. However, the domain is the most important factor for inbox placement, whether you use a shared or dedicated IP.
Does email content matter?
ISPs check your message content for spam signals.
Are you on a blacklist?
Third-party organizations maintain blacklists for major ISPs. If you’re listed, you’ll usually get an email explaining why and how to be removed. Ignoring these steps can hurt your deliverability.
