Since Google and Yahoo announced major changes to email deliverability in early 2024, many events, especially those that make seasonal announcements (like festivals) are facing a huge deliverability road-block when it comes to sending their big email communications, like pre-sale, on-sale and line-up announcements.
The problem: bulk email sends and infrequent sending patterns
While your big announcements may happen around the same time every year or every few months, if there’s a lack of regular email sending activity in between, the sudden volume spike in email sends can trigger spam filters and result in rate limiting or reputation drops.
The recommendation: gradual increases in email sending volume
Google recommends a strategic approach to email sending to maintain good deliverability. Instead of sending a large batch of emails all at once, build up your email volume gradually over time. This approach helps establish a positive sending reputation and reduces the risk of being flagged as spam.
Best practices for building email volume
- Implement domain authentication protocols: Ensure that your emails are authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols help prove that your emails are legitimate and not from a spammer, which improves deliverability. (See how to authenticate your email with Audience Republic)
- Start small and scale your email sends gradually: Begin by sending smaller batches of emails and gradually increase the volume. This helps establish your email reputation and allows your domain to build trust with email service providers (ESPs) and spam filters.
Examples for continual engagement could include post-event questionnaires, polls on artists/genres to shape next years line-up, polls on favourite food/beverage vendors, line-up teasers, industry/artist news or new releases, new stages or event information for the following year, community initiatives, competitions, “coming soon” announcements or anything else that may be of interest to segments within your database.
- Segment your email list: Rather than sending to everyone in your database, try sending to smaller defined segments. Perhaps filter by specific music genres, event interests, previous ticket buying behaviour, age group or demographics.
- Monitor email engagement metrics: Pay close attention to how recipients interact with your emails. High open and click-through rates indicate that your emails are well-received, which helps improve deliverability. Conversely, low engagement rates or high bounce rates can signal problems.
- Maintain a clean email list: Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses. This reduces bounce rates and helps maintain a good sender reputation. (Hot tip: Audience Republic automatically suppresses emails that bounce to protect your reputation)
- Test and optimize: Regularly test different aspects of your email campaigns, including subject lines, content, and sending times. Use the insights gained to refine your approach and improve engagement.
By following these best practices, festivals and other events can ensure that when it’s time to send out those crucial big announcements their emails will reach their intended audience. The key is to build a strong foundation with gradual email increases throughout the year, so your email reputation remains intact and your messages are delivered successfully.
Please refer to Google’s Email Sender Guidelines for more information.
.png)
