When Requests Just Aren’t Working!  But I Asked Nicely…

By Julia, Deliverability Expert

If you’ve encountered the same block multiple times, it’s possible you’ve also encountered the reality that not every block will be mitigated…no matter how nicely we ask the servers & affiliated blocklists to do so.

Trust me – if it were up to us at Campaign Nucleus to unblock you, you’d be unblocked, like, yesterday. But, unfortunately, we do not have that power so we are at the mercy of the servers when it comes to avoiding and resolving blocks.

The majority of blocklists understand that “accidents” happen & are usually reasonable and hasty when resolving blocks… the first time. With that, they start to become a bit annoyed and less responsive when we continue getting blocked and submitting request after request for resolution.

The truth of the matter is: the servers blocked you for a reason & they will continue to do so until you resolve the issue that is triggering the block.

If you are continually hitting the same block, it’s possible you may need to adjust some of your practices to ultimately fix the issue.

The servers are dominantly looking at 2 things when deciding whether to block a domain and/or IP.

1. Your audience

Ask yourself:

• Did my recipient list opt-in to receive these emails? Disinterested recipients often lead to spikes in server complaints which hurt domain/IP reputation significantly.
• How did I gather these emails? Sometimes people of opposing values intentionally submit spam trap emails to opponent newsletters to cause issues with your messages delivering. The same can be true of expired emails as they can be reverted to spam traps – be careful of emails that were gathered many years before.
• Am I engaging my audience with my copy so that they are positively responding to my emails? Recipients not engaging with emails can lead to poor reputations, as well.

1. Your content

Ask yourself:

• Am I pushing too hard on controversial topics? While we are free to speak our values, sometime being super aggressive in our content can lead to an increase in user complaints.
• Is my picture to content ratio appropriate? Too many pictures without enough text can appear “spammy” to servers.
• Do I sound like a salesperson? Using phrases that over-promise or guarantee any level of success sometimes register as “spammy” due to the likely deceitful nature of the message.

At Nucleus, we do our best to avoid the grasp of censorship & will always support your content to the fullest. With that in mind, some things are out of our control and we hope the above information will help you to navigate the difficulties that we must maneuver to find the most success in sending our emails.

For more information, visit your Nucleus Resource Library