Could your email server be interrupting the lead flow from your website?

Are you missing email notifications from your website? Are you not receiving sales requests? Are your email campaign bounce rates suddenly high? These email bouncing and blocking issues happen. And the "web guy" is often the first to field the call. But from our research, it's rarely their issue at all. More often than not, email outages are a result of non-website-related issues.

Here's the skinny:

Why an email server might bounce an active email address

Firewall issues, server downtime, account inactivity, your marketing email address being seen as "spam", your mailbox being full, and lack of spoofing policy maintenance can all cause a bounce.

Firewalls

A firewall can be implemented using software on your computer, or with a hardware device such as a router. The firewall turns away any data that doesn't meet its policy, as determined by the firewall's administrator. Incorrect settings or a software conflict may cause firewalls to block all emial traffic entry, but it may translate as a network connectivity problem and not be recognized as the problem.

Server Goes Down

When a server goes down, it can bring a department or a company to a grinding hault. You can take simple steps to reduce your server downtime and keep your productivity up by making regular scheduled backups of the server utilizing a maintenance checklist. Next, implement an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to ensure constant power in the event of a power outage. Finally, make sure only documented, authorized, and actively employed personnel have physical access to the server.

Inactivity

Your email account can be deemed inactive depending on when your last sign-in was, when you had recent activity, and the usage of the actual account. This is an easy fix as long as you stay active with your account by continually logging into it and using it at least once a quarter. When unique email addresses are employed for campaigns, and campaigns go dark, this can become a problem when you decide to turn things back on.

Becoming recognized a spam

Spammers are constantly scanning the internet, putting together random names with an ‘@’ an email provider (yahoo, gmail, etc.). To beat this kind of spammer attack, use long and difficult addresses. Try to disguise your email using a disposable address that provides a very effective and convenient alternative. Post your email address on your website or in a blog, and encode it so visitors who want to send you an email can see and use it, but spambots cannot. Better yet, do not post an email address at all. Instead, create simple forms for getting touch.

Mailbox Full

Your mailbox can easily become full if you do not delete emails and clear out your trash. This is important to do as frequently as you can, but having a date where all employees clear their mail (saving only what is necessary), say once a quarter, can help you fix this issue and reduce your bounce rates.

Spoofing

Spoofing is the forgery of email headers so messages appear to come from someone other than the actual source. This tactic is used in phishing and spam campaigns, as recipients are more likely to open a message that looks legitimate. Anti-Spoofing policies are recommended for all companies to avoid these issues. They ensure that external messages appearing to come from an internal domain are blocked.

Making your internal or external IT team aware of these issues can allow them to take action and help to prevent any potential interruptions, so your so your lead flow engine continues to run smoothly.