A clean list is a healthy list. Regularly maintaining your email list is crucial for healthy deliverability. Sending to invalid or unengaged addresses signals to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that your sending practices are poor, leading to lower inbox placement. Follow these key practices to keep up list hygiene.
- Email verification services: Utilize a reputable email verification service such as Webbula before sending your first email to new contacts, and periodically for your existing list. These services check for invalid email formats, disposable email addresses, and non-existent domains, ensuring your addresses are legitimate and deliverable.
- Remove hard bounces immediately: Hard bounces indicate a permanent delivery failure (e.g., an invalid email address, a non-existent domain). Your email service provider (ESP) should automatically suppress these, but it’s important to monitor and ensure they are permanently removed from your active sending list to prevent repeated attempts that signal poor list health.
How to Find and Remove Spam Traps
After verifying your contacts, it’s crucial to run that list through a specialized cleansing service designed to identify and remove spam traps. Spam traps are email addresses used by ISPs and anti-spam organizations to identify senders with poor list hygiene. Sending to a spam trap can severely damage your sender reputation, leading to blocklisting and drastically reduced deliverability. Keep these types of spam traps in mind:
- Pristine spam traps: These are the most dangerous. They are email addresses that have never been valid or used by a real person. They are created solely for the purpose of catching senders who are scraping websites, purchasing lists, or engaging in other illicit list-building practices. If you hit a pristine spam trap, it’s a strong indicator to ISPs that your acquisition methods are questionable, and your sender reputation will take a significant hit.
- Typo spam trap – A typo spam trap is an email address with a common misspelling of a legitimate domain, used to identify senders with poor list hygiene. These traps are designed to catch emails sent to addresses like “gmial.com” or “hotnail.com” instead of the correct “gmail.com” or “hotmail.com”. Hitting these traps can negatively impact sender reputation and email deliverability.
- Recycled spam trap – A recycled spam trap is an email address that was once a legitimate, active address used by a real person, but has since been abandoned and repurposed by an email provider as a trap to identify senders who are not properly managing their email lists. These traps are particularly problematic because they indicate a lack of list hygiene and can significantly harm a sender’s reputation.
Follow these best practices to avoid spam traps:
- Never purchase or rent email lists. These are primary sources of spam traps.
- Always use a double opt-in process for new subscribers, ensuring genuine consent.
- Rigorously maintain list hygiene by regularly removing unengaged subscribers.
- Utilize a reputable email cleansing service specifically for spam trap detection after initial verification and as part of your ongoing list maintenance.
Ultimately, a great email deliverability strategy is a continuous process. It starts with how you get contacts and continues through every stage of their journey with you. By building a high-quality list from the get-go, keeping it clean, welcoming new subscribers with a great email series, and then sending emails based on how engaged they are, you can build a strong reputation as a reliable sender. Remember, a clean and engaged list is your most valuable asset—and consistent, smart list management is the key to always landing in the inbox.
To learn more about our Deliverability Services, contact us. Current customers, reach out to your customer success manager or account manager directly!