Overcoming a spam label by MailChimp
One of my clients did something ill-advised and their account got flagged by MailChimp as spammer.
Goodness that’s a tough call and the restrictions placed on the account are significant.
The good news is that I succeeded in untangling the situation and restoring the account. BUT it would have been better never to have got into that situation in the first place.
And so if you’re tempted to re-use an old mailing list, don’t. Digging out old lists from a few years ago who haven’t been mailed and who haven’t had a history on your account is a big risk. If your email service provider gets a higher than normal bounce or spam reporting rate, it will be noticed. I think ISPs are very vigilant at this time.
If you do want to re-use an old list, I suggest you create a separate audience and after the first mail-out has identified unsubscribes and bounces, then later merge it into your main audience so it doesn’t contaminate your good standing.
Good mailing list hygiene
Something to do today – run through your email list and check off whether you have everything in place to enable personalisation. Correct first name, last name, company name? No capitals? Can you deduce recipients’ names from their email address e.g. fred@xyz.com
Now start planning out your segmentation. Here are three easy segments for you to set up.
- Customers
- Prospects
- Industry groups
Focus on retention
For most direct marketing at these times, I recommend retention rather than acquisition. It’s easier to keep than acquire a new customer.
Three quick campaigns you can run
- Repurchases – a suitable date after the last event
- Best sellers – your top 20% of sales by product
- Referrals and testimonials – ask your customer to do ONE thing for you
Untangle a spam label by Mailchimp