The most common reason to end up on a blocklist is due to sending to a spam trap that is being monitored by that provider.

Sometimes, but not always we will be able to identify either the email campaign that caused the listing or the time frame when the email was sent. We can then work out which list contained the trap or traps.

1. The first thing that needs to happen is for you to stop sending to that list.

• This is important because at this stage we don't have any idea which of these contacts have caused the listing and continued sending may make things worse.

2. Then we need to try and identify which emails are the most likely culprits and suppress them.

• Contacts that you do not recognise
• Contacts where you don’t have a pre-existing relationship
• Contacts for whom you have no or very few further details
• Contacts who are very old and who haven’t engaged with your emails for a very long time or perhaps have never engaged.
• Contacts who have a very dodgy looking email address
• Contacts with spelling errors in their email address
• Contacts that you have no consent to mail
• Contacts who are brand new where this may be the first time you are emailing them

3. Once you have taken the above step to suppress the contacts, let us know. Then we will reach out to the provider on your behalf and request they remove the listing.

4. Sometimes it can take a few days for them to remove the listing. Until we have confirmed to you that this has occurred we recommend not sending to the rest of the list.

How to avoid ending up on a blocklist in the future

Ending up on a blocklist does indicate that you will want to change some of your data practices. Below are some suggestions to consider as preventative measures. You can also follow the best practices here to improve your deliverability.

• Introduce a sunsetting policy – Build a program to reengage contacts when they haven’t engaged with your emails for some time. If they still don’t engage then suppress them. Defining the rules of this type of policy is worth discussing with your Account Manager.
• Keep an eye on auto replies that say a contact has moved companies - try and find out where they've moved to and suppress those emails.
• Build in a confirmed/double-opt-in for any new email sign-ups from every source. Particularly with riskier sources like online forms that don't have captchas.
• Use an email verification tool that does a live lookup when someone subscribes.
• Only add contacts to your list if they have explicitly consented to receive emails.