If I'm just starting to send email, how can I build a good reputation?

Your email reputation works a lot like your credit score. When you haven't sent any email, you don't have a bad reputation, but you don't have a good one either. And no ESP will let you send a million emails to its mailboxes, just as nobody will give you a credit card with a huge credit limit when you graduate from university. There needs to be a performance history for you to build a reputation. We use algorithms for our new senders that automatically queue your emails and send them at rates that satisfy ESPs, increasing those rates as your sending reputation grows.

Some of the factors that help you build a good reputation faster and increase deliverability are:

• Limited spam complaints and bounces.
• Including the option for recipients to unsubscribe.
• Recipients engaging positively with your emails: reading, replying, forwarding and adding your addresses to their contacts.
• Following ESP guidelines on sending rates.
• Paying attention to ESP feedback to slow down or stop sending for a while.
• Having good content (see below for more content tips).

Also consider letting your users reply to your emails. Having meaningful email conversations with your audience will do wonders for your reputation as a member of the email community.