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An email campaign can be perfect, yet still end up in spam. Up to 95% of email senders are technically perceived as spammers according to Mailkit statistics. Why? Because they lack reputation, technical setup, and a relevant database. Even legitimate companies, therefore, end up in spam. The reason could be poor sender reputation, an overcrowded database, or missing technical configuration.
Due to the avalanche of unwanted messages, email service providers are increasingly strict, and even legitimate business communication often ends up in the trash. Spam isn’t just ads for suspicious pills. “Unwanted mail is anything the recipient doesn’t want,” states Jakub Olexa from Mailkit.
It’s precisely the user’s subjective perception that is crucial for email providers. According to David Finger, director of the Email.cz division at Seznam, sender reputation isn’t determined only by message content but mainly by how recipients handle your emails.
“If users don’t read your emails, delete them, or mark them as spam, the sender’s reputation drops. And poor reputation means your messages might not reach the inbox at all,” he confirms.
A million contacts in the trash saved hundreds of thousands
Dominik John from Notino described the company’s bold move when they decided in 2018 to remove more than a third of all email contacts, totalling more than a million addresses. “This step saved us 700 thousand crowns (approximately 28 thousand euros) in the first year on costs associated with sending and simultaneously improved our campaigns’ reputation and deliverability. We continue this effort and regularly clean our databases,” John explains.
Livesport has a similar experience; its websites and applications are visited monthly by more than 100 million users worldwide. “We reduced mailing by 85%. Out of one hundred million contacts, only about 15 million remained. Nobody wants users to receive emails that aren’t relevant to them. That was the main reason why we cleaned the database,” admits Kristýna Slouková, marketing specialist.
Purchased lists? The road to hell
Warning signs are clear: low open rates, high spam marking, or even blocking by providers.
“When you buy a database, you have no relationship with the recipient. And the recipient has no relationship with you,” Olexa explains. “This is something that very quickly destroys reputation. Anti-spam filters recognise that you’re using a questionable database,” he adds.
Even though it intuitively seems that email content is most important, the opposite is true. According to Olexa, the foundation lies in technology. “First, technology must be in order; then content can be improved,” he emphasises.
At Livesport, which sends to more than 50 countries, they experienced this firsthand. “All last year we tried to improve design and copy, but our open rate kept declining,” recalls Kristýna Slouková, adding, “We therefore conducted an audit of technical solutions and databases, which showed us how to set things up correctly.”
Emailing isn’t carpet bombing
Jakub Semotam from Kiwi.com points out that the biggest mistake is trying to send as many emails to as many people as possible. All panellists agreed on this: personalisation, segmentation, proper timing, and customer knowledge are the foundation of proper emailing.
“Kiwi, for example, uses AI to send personalised content to each customer based on travel destination, length of stay, or number of travelers,” says Jakub Semotam.
Open rate has no predictive value
Email open rate was long the basic success metric. Today it’s more of a confusing number. “Emails are opened by bots or security scanners. Open rate doesn’t have much predictive value. Instead, I recommend tracking conversions and recipient behaviour on pages, and for open and click rates, only the trend over time,” Olexa advises.
Experts emphasise the importance of collaborating with professionals and taking a systematic approach to email marketing. “Without quality data, proper contact hygiene, and professional know-how, you can’t have good reputation or deliverability,” Jakub Semotam summarised.
Article based on a press release.
