You probably know spam traps are bad but are you sure you don’t have any in your list?
Spam traps are email addresses used to lure spammers and block unsolicited commercial emails. The trouble is, sometimes they catch marketers too. Spam traps can affect your deliverability, sender reputation, and campaign ROI. Worst case scenario: They land you on blacklists, meaning all emails will be flagged as spam and will either be rejected, bounce, or go straight into the spam folder. Your emails might never get delivered no matter how good your content is.The bad news is that you likely have spam traps in your list right now. The good news is that breaking a few bad habits can improve your deliverability and keep you off the blacklist.
How Email Threats Happen
Spam traps creep into your list in a number of ways. Typos, either from your team or your customers, result in bad email addresses but are also the source of spam traps. Expired email addresses can become spam traps after a period of inactivity. Additionally, purchasing a list might mean you’ve acquired email threats. Because list sellers make money on volume and acquire scrapped data, honeypots and spam traps can easily find their way into your list.
Your sending habits also affect your susceptibility to spam traps and blacklisting. Here are three bad habits that can lead to trouble.
Bad Habit #1: You Send to Everyone
You have a great product and a great message, so naturally, you want to tell everyone. But those who aren’t interested in your offer will opt-out or worse flag your message as spam. Sending to old, inactive emails will hurt your reputation as well in the form of bounces, recycled traps, and complainers. Focus your efforts on verified, opted-in addresses in your target segment.
Bad Habit #2: You Send to Purchased Lists
Marketers will often purchase a list and assume it’s clean. Beware. Purchased email lists can contain harvested or scraped addresses and seeded trackers. You might think hitting one spam trap out of 10 million records can’t do much harm, but even that one spam trap can dramatically affect your sender reputation. As a best practice, avoid purchasing lists and instead look towards enhancing your organic customer contact points with a data enhancement provider. If you absolutely must purchase a list, tap a hygiene company to help you navigate away from the threats.
Bad Habit #3: You Rely on Sending Only to Responders
While mailing to responders and double opt-ins is good email practice, it is important to recognize that spam traps can receive, open, and click. That means your “responder” might just be a spam trap. A bot can also be automated to open your emails. Even an authentic responder can go stale over time, transforming into a spam trap. Regular list hygiene can help you identify threats and cross referencing purchaser data instead of responder data will yield safer results.
Your offers can’t convert if they never reach your target audience. Break these bad habits and perform regular list hygiene and verification to stay off the blacklist and ensure your messages get delivered.
If you would like to learn more about Webbula’s list hygiene and verification, click here or call 888.993.2285.
