Photo courtesy of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

If you send emails for library marketing, you may have been scared by recent articles on X, LinkedIn, and other marketing blogs that predict doom and disaster for email marketing in the coming months.

Last October, Gmail released this blog post, outlining changes coming to the algorithm they use to determine whether incoming emails make it into the regular inbox or go to the spam or promotions folder. Yahoo soon followed suit.

The response in the marketing world to these announcements took on a somewhat frantic tone.

“Are our emails going to be delivered?”

“What changes do we need to make to ensure we don’t end up in the junk folder?”

The short answer is that with a few small changes, your library emails will be delivered. Yahoo and Gmail want you to:

  • Authenticate your email
  • Enable easy unsubscribe
  • Reduce unwanted emails

Let’s go through each of these steps, beginning with authentication. Authentication means that your library’s email sender reputation is sound.

What is email sender reputation?

Email sender reputation is a score that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns to any organization that sends an email. The higher the score, the more likely an ISP will deliver emails to the inboxes of recipients on their network.

Like any algorithm, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other email providers use ranking signals to determine the folder in which your email lands—or if it’s delivered at all.

Here is what we know about those ranking signals, according to my research. Sources I’ve used for this post include marketing expert Michael Barber, Mailmeteor, and my co-workers in product management at NoveList.

Sender Authentication and IP Address Reputation

Sender authentication involves verifying the authenticity of the sender’s domain. The email providers are looking at past sending behavior coming from your IP address.

The bad news is that your library has very little control over either the sender authentication or the IP address reputation of your emails.

For example, MailChimp’s website says their customer’s emails, including those from many libraries, are sent from an IP address that is shared by multiple customers. If one or more of those customers send emails that negatively impact MailChimp’s overall IP address reputation, your library’s emails could be affected. Your library can purchase a dedicated IP address from MailChimp for an additional monthly fee.

Domain Reputation

Email service providers also consider the reputation of the domain name in the email address. The domain is the part of your email address behind the @ symbol.

The email providers look at past sending behavior and the overall quality of emails from that domain. Specifically, they are looking at 3 factors.

Spam complaints

Email recipients click the spam (or junk) button for three reasons:

  • They don’t realize the email is coming from your library.
  • They can’t remember signing up for your library’s emails.
  • They can’t find the unsubscribe link.

Get ready for a shock, because I’m changing my position on a major part of my email marketing advice.

In the past, I was a proponent of opt-out emailing for libraries. But because of recent changes in the algorithms used by Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo to sort messages…

Your library should make your emails opt-in. This ensures your emails are going to community members who want your content, which protects your sender reputation.

You can also reduce the likelihood that someone will mark your library emails as spam by making sure your “friendly from” line includes your library name. Add a first name to the friendly from (it doesn’t have to be a real person!) like “Angela from The Central Library.”

Make sure your reply address is a real email address as well. Let subscribers know how often you’ll be sending emails. And don’t send so few emails (yes, you read that right!) that subscribers don’t remember signing up!

Recipient inaction

When your email recipient either deletes your library’s email without opening it or leaves your library’s email sitting unopened in their inbox, that’s recipient inaction.

You can reduce recipient inaction by making sure your library emails are targeted to the audience that most want that information. Create interest groups and an opt-in page like this one from Delafield Public Library.

Letting your community members choose the information they wish to receive by email from your library will reduce recipient inaction and spam complaints against your library.

You can also reduce recipient inaction by spending time making sure your email subject line is as good as it can be.

Engagement metrics

Open rates and click-through rates play a significant role in email reputation. Higher engagement indicates that recipients find your emails valuable and relevant, leading to better deliverability. Low engagement metrics tell the email algorithms that that your emails may be unwanted or irrelevant.

One-click unsubscribe

The biggest change is that Gmail and Yahoo are asking marketers to add one-click unsubscribe. Most email marketing providers are addressing this issue and have plans in place to include one-click unsubscribe this year.

A fun tip to improve your sender reputation

Ask your library email recipients to reply to your emails! Marketing expert Ann Handley says this is actually the one important email metric you need to track.

To encourage your library email recipients to reply, ask for their feedback on a service within your email. Or ask recipients to reply with the name of a book they think should be included in your next booklist or book display. This is a chance for you to be creative!

You don’t have to respond to every email reply. But it is an opportunity to improve your sender reputation while gathering information that will help you to better serve your community.

PS You might also find this helpful

4 Simple Ways You Probably Haven’t Thought of To Boost Signups to Your Library’s Email Newsletter 

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