Black Friday/Cyber Monday are upon us!

Hey Bonfirers! I have been lax in my posting here and wanted to share a recent post I made on LinkedIn in case it helps!

Everything is relative. Even sender reputation! Is yours strong enough to shoulder the (quickly approaching 😩) busiest season of the year?

The ability to reach the inboxes of your subscribers depends on a ton of factors, some of which we can't even see and don't know about! FUN! In the absence of that information, we have to concentrate on the things we can control like list quality, mail frequency, volume, and content.

When you regularly send to the same folks over and over again, you establish a reputation in relation to that behavior. But when you suddenly send way more than that, the mailbox providers grow concerned (and with good reason!). From a spam filtering & security standpoint, a marked increase in the amount of mail from your domain could mean that an intern made a mistake, or a malicious party has gained access to your credentials and is leveraging your reputation to send out spam or phishing attempts. Mailbox providers might delay delivery to recipients in excess of your usual amount traffic, and/or filter it as spam in an effort to protect your mutual customers.

If you want to successfully reach a larger number of subscribers in a timely manner, these tips will give you a boost:

📝 Plan ahead. Create a realistic plan that allows ample time to reach your goals, especially if you'll be widening the audience to include less-engaged contacts.

⚠ Give everyone a heads up. If users will be receiving mail more often, let them know beforehand so they can update their preferences or opt out. Some subscribers may love hearing from you, but only occasionally. An unexpected or unwelcome uptick in messages could contribute to increased spam complaints or decreased engagement, both of which are barriers to continued inbox placement. You can also notify mailbox providers that you'll be sending more mail, which could be helpful context for future filtering decisions.

🐢 Go slowly. Increase your sends gradually, giving the providers and your subscribers time to react.

🖥 Monitor results closely. Keep an eye on delivery, bounce, open, complaint, and (if you have 'em) delay rates. Is mail being delivered? Quickly? Are recipients engaging? Positively?

🎓 Learn from those results. What do the outcomes mean about how you should proceed? Should you keep going, or should you reassess your goals? Let the data guide your decisions.

🍰 Have a treat. This isn't really deliverability advice, but holiday sending during an election year will definitely be challenging, so be nice to yourself and have a piece of cake or a cookie (or some garlic bread if you're a savory girlie/boyee).