Did you know that an automated out of office message (OOO messages) or autoresponder vacation message can hurt your email deliverability? In fact, there are a few different ways that those automatic out of office messages can hurt your email delivery, and for that reason, we advise you not to use them at all or, if you must, to use them very, very carefully.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/how-vacation-reply-messages-can-hurt-your-deliverability/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

Our reverse DNS tool allows you to do a reverse DNS lookup on any IP address and see the reverse DNS (rDNS) value, i.e. you can see what domain sits at that IP address (this is why it is sometimes referred to as a “reverse IP lookup tool”). Reasons that you may want to do a reverse DNS lookup are many, however in the context of email you want to be sure that the IP address through which you send email is associated with your sending domain.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/free-tool-lets-you-check-whether-your-reverse-dns-rdns-is-set-up-properly/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

Do you need to get consent from your customers before adding them to your B2C email marketing list? Building your B2C email list with consent is very important to your bottom line. (B2C stands for “business to consumer” or “business to customer”.) There are many examples of when you can do something, but perhaps shouldn’t, and nowhere is this more evident than in what is permitted by the CAN-SPAM Federal email marketing law. For the purposes of this article in particular we are going to be talking about adding a customer’s email address to your marketing mailing list without asking them first, and hopefully convincing you that you should always get consent before adding them to your B2C email list.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/retailers-do-you-ask-before-adding-a-customer-to-your-marketing-email-lists/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

Do you know what your DMARC policy is, or if you even have a DMARC record? Of the authentication mechanisms (DMARC, SPF, DKIM) SPF and DKIM are important resources to authenticate different aspects of your email flow, but it’s important to have a DMARC record stating your DMARC policy as well. This is because your DMARC policy (contained in your DMARC record which is a text record within your DNS records) tells email receivers what they should do with email that claims to be from you but that fails SPF and/or DKIM.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/how-to-set-up-dmarc-email-authentication/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

Do not use a noreply email address in the email you send out; just don’t do it. Don’t send out email with a noreply email address as the ‘from’ email address, don’t send out email from an address that can’t accept replies, just don’t go near any type of noreply email address at all. Here’s why. Besides being the opposite of best practices, think about what happens if you reply to a noreply email. When someone to whom you send email doesn’t notice the noreply email address from which you sent the email, they will reply and either get a bounce (frustrating) or get no response (also frustrating). And if they do notice the noreply email address, that on its own will frustrate them. Why would you want to frustrate your customers, leads, or others to whom you are sending email?

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/do-not-use-noreply-or-dontreply-as-your-from-return-address-in-email/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

Of the current email authentication mechanisms, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, DKIM seems to be the most confusing for people (this is why we offer a human-powered DKIM checker, contact us for a free DKIM check). What is a DKIM selector? What are the DKIM tags? How does one create a DKIM record? Is there a good DKIM record generator? Here is a plain English explanation of DKIM, and a breakdown of the anatomy of a DKIM record.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/dkim-explained-how-to-set-up-and-use-domainkeys-identified-mail-effectively/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

SMTP codes can be so confusing, especially those SMTP response codes and SMTP error codes like the dreaded SMTP error 550. These are often returned in bounced email, such as “550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable” or “550 5 2 1 mail from refused spam site.” They are in response to SMTP commands that have ‘gone wrong’ between your email server that sent the email, and the receiving email server that is unable to deliver it (or refuses to deliver it) for some reason. But what exactly do they mean? Why should you care and what should you do? And why do we say that SMTP error 550 is dreaded?

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/what-those-smtp-error-codes-mean-and-why-you-should-care/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

“Which copyright date should be on a website?” someone asked us recently. People are often confused about which date they should use as their copyright date on a website. In fact, a whole lot of sites have the wrong copyright date on their website. As an Internet policy institute, and because our CEO is an Internet policy lawyer, we often get questions unrelated to our core offering of email sender certification and deliverability services, and we are happy to answer them if we can. The answer to this one is actually really easy, and will make perfect sense to you once we explain it.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/which-copyright-date-should-you-use-on-a-website-odds-are-good-that-you-have-it-wrong/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

You may be surprised to learn who comes out the winner in the plain text email vs HTML match. Whether you go plain text email or HTML can impact many things, including deliverability and engagement, which of course are the most important rates for your email campaigns. Digital marketing solutions provider Vendasta actually conducted research on which gets not just better deliverability, but better traction in terms of response when it comes to HTML vs plain text emails, and what they found may seem counter-intuitive. (In case you’re not sure whether the email you are sending is HTML email, basically if it’s not plain text, then it’s HTML. Using a template? It’s HTML. Using email stationary? It’s HTML.)

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/which-really-is-better-plain-text-email-or-html-email-the-answer-may-surprise-you/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com

If you are looking for re-engagement campaign examples, look no further. Properly conducting an email re-engagement campaign, and following re-engagement campaign best practices, is critical to your email deliverability. One misstep and all of your email can start going to the spam folder, if not being outright blocked as “spam”. In our knowledge article about How to Revive, Warm Up, and Re-Engage an Old Mailing List without Getting Into Trouble we highlight six points that are key to conducting an effective re-engagement campaign. These include removing non-openers, making sure your that authentication is set up correctly, minimal formatting, compelling subject line, brief content, and a surprise 6th step. Then, once you have conducted your successful re-engagement campaign, it’s important to consistently email those re-engaged subscribers! Below is a real-life re-engagement email campaign example, showing how doing this carefully and correctly, and following these points, can lead to success.

Prefer to read it instead of listen to it?  Do that here: https://www.isipp.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-how-to-do-a-reengagement-campaign-for-optimum-email-deliverability/

The Everything Email Marketing blogcast is provided by Get to the Inbox by ISIPP SuretyMail, the founder of the email deliverability industry. For more information about how we can help you get to the inbox go to GetToTheInbox.com