Why Blocklistings Don’t Only Happen to Spammers

2 min read

Being blocklisted is an email marketer’s nightmare, but for many marketers it’s a threat that’s somewhat theoretical. Being caught on a blocklist is something that only happens to spammers and brands that don’t follow email best practices, right?

Turns out that this isn’t quite true. Being blocklisted is more common than you might think—and it can happen to legit senders, too. In 2017, over 15% of marketers said their emails had been blocklisted during the past 12 months, according to our State of Email survey.

How legit senders can end up being blocklisted

Even the best email programs aren’t perfect. That one little oversight, a technical glitch, or a human error—mistakes can happen, and sometimes they can cause a blocklisting.

GasBuddy’s marketers experienced just that. GasBuddy’s email team works hard to make their email program the best it can be, helping more than 4 million active subscribers find the cheapest gas, plan the perfect road trip, and stay safe when traveling by car. With a laser-focus on the subscriber experience and a team dedicated to sending truly relevant content, GasBuddy’s email program could very well be part of an email best practice playbook. Still, one day they found themselves on a blocklist.

“It’s paralyzing, really. Being blocklisted is something you’ve probably heard about, and know you don’t want to be a part of. But when it comes down to it, do you really understand the process around it?”
— Melanie Kinney, Email Marketing Manager at GasBuddy

Learn how Litmus Spam Testing helped GasBuddy identify the root cause of the blocklisting, and empowered them to promptly introduce a fix—with minimal impact to their email performance.

Read their story →

Bettina Specht

Bettina Specht is the Product Marketing Lead at Beefree.