Use Mailchimp? Why Your Sending Domain Age is Critical

Are you using a new domain to send your email marketing? A well used domain that you’ve owned for years will get you better open and click rates! The age of your domain and various other factors affect your domain quality.

In my Mailchimp classes I always discuss domain quality (also called domain reputation, sender score and sending reputation) in the context of email marketing. Domain quality is essential in understanding how to avoid your campaigns being identified as spam and getting highest open and click rates (and ultimately more sales).

What is Domain Quality

You may read more about domain quality but in essence every domain has a score. The score is used by spam filters as a strong indicator whether to send the message to spam or allow the recipient to view the message. Many factors determine domain score; open rates, spam rates and so on.

An aspect few people know of, that contributes to your domain quality score, is the age of your domain.

A legitimate business builds its domain reputation in a number of ways, from the length of time their domain has been registered to using the domain name to send emails to engaged users, not forgetting real contact details being listed on their website. The list of reputation building factors goes on, however, a key one is the age of the domain.

Why the Age of Your Domain Matters

Buying a domain name and using it to send email messages is both inexpensive and little effort. This is ideal for spammers as they can purchase domain names en masse and stop using domain names as their domain quality becomes low (and all messages sent go straight to spam) or before detection of ‘spamming’ is detected.

a … domain is randomly generated and used for a very short period of time, thus rendering detection approaches that rely on static domain lists ineffective.

A domain that has been used over a number of years is therefore trusted more than a new domain or one that hasn’t been used for a long period of time.

Which Domain Should You Use to Send Email Marketing

The best domain name to use for your email marketing is your regular business domain. If you’re sending email marketing to people that have agreed to receive your campaigns you have nothing to worry about.