Here is a simple equation that should help you adhere to
email marketing best practices:
Send the right message (send only relevant, professional content)
To the right people (use a clean, segmented list)
At the right time (warm-up your IP, send in regular intervals, do not over send)
If you follow this equation, you are well on your way as a successful email marketer.
How to monitor message delivery and sender reputation
Delivery reports should be closely monitored for blocks and deferrals. All deliverability problems should be handled promptly by first correcting the mailing practice that caused the problem, and then contacting the ISP (internet service provider) or blocking organization to get the block lifted. More times than not, the contact method is included in the bounce reason.
Take time to make sure that addresses in the top domains within your mailing list are actually opening your message. For example, if your mailing list is 15% yahoo.com addresses, but only 3% of your opens are from yahoo.com members, you may have messages bouncing or going to the bulk folder. Hotmail is notorious for filtering messages, meaning that they do not deliver the message to the recipient, but they do not bounce it back to the sender. An easy way to determine if this is happening is to look at the open report. If you don't see any opens, chances are the messages are not being delivered.
