Email Marketing Archives - Act-On Marketing Automation Software, B2B, B2C, Email Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:40:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://act-on.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-AO-logo_Color_Site-Image-32x32.png Email Marketing Archives - Act-On 32 32 Planning Successful Deliverability for 2025 Holiday Email Marketing Campaigns https://act-on.com/learn/blog/holiday-email-deliverability-2025/ Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:02:32 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502450

The holiday season remains the most critical time of year for email marketers. It’s when volume and frequency surge to meet ambitious year-end goals. However, email deliverability news in November 2025 are changing the game. In 2025, deliverability is not just about best practice, it’s about mandatory compliance.

With Google and Yahoo implementing strict new sender requirements, any email program that is not fully compliant will face delivery disruptions. This updated guide integrates time-tested holiday strategies with the new technical mandates necessary to survive the season and ensure your emails land in the inbox, not the junk folder.


The New Mandate—Technical Compliance is Non-Negotiable

If you send 5,000 or more emails per day to Gmail or Yahoo addresses (a threshold easily crossed during the holidays), you are considered a “bulk sender” and must comply with new, enforced standards.

The November 2025 Deadline and the Crackdown

Google has announced a major ramp-up in enforcement on non-compliant traffic beginning in November 2025. Messages that fail to meet the requirements will experience temporary and permanent rejections. This means that if you are not prepared before the holiday rush begins, your entire campaign could be blocked.

Mandatory Authentication: The Three Pillars

To be compliant and earn the trust of Mailbox Providers (MBPs), your sending domain must be fully authenticated using all three security protocols:

  1. SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Verifies that the sending server is authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.
  2. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Provides a digital signature to ensure the message was not tampered with in transit.
  3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): This is now mandatory for bulk senders. It tells MBPs what to do if SPF or DKIM fails (e.g., quarantine or reject the message), providing accountability and protection against spoofing.


The Critical Spam Complaint Threshold

Under the new rules, your user-reported spam rate is the single most important metric. Compliance means consistently seeing under 0.1% spam complaint rates.

  • Best Practice Goal: Strive to keep your spam complaint rate below 0.1% (1 complaint per 1,000 emails).
  • Hard Limit: Your rate must never exceed 0.3%. If you hit this ceiling, you will face severe delivery penalties, including message rejection and having your domain deemed ineligible for delivery mitigation support.


Holiday Strategy for the Compliant Sender

Once the technical foundation is set, you can focus on optimizing your strategy to maintain a low complaint rate and maximize engagement during the high-volume season.

A. Benchmark and Ramp Up Responsibly

ISPs are on high alert during the holidays. Sudden, massive volume spikes are a red flag, even for a clean sender.

  • Establish a Baseline: Review your delivery, open, and click rates during the non-holiday season to set accurate, achievable goals.
  • Ramp Up Slowly: If you plan to significantly increase your daily volume, ramp up your emails gradually. As a general rule of thumb, do not increase your email volume by more than 50% of your previous day’s or week’s highest point. This warm-up period is essential to condition ISPs for your higher send rate and maintain your positive sender reputation.


B. Relevancy is the Ultimate Spam Filter

Engagement is king, and irrelevant emails are the fastest way to drive spam complaints. In a compliant world, every single complaint pushes you closer to that hard 0.3% rejection threshold.

  • Segmentation is Key: Segment your audience based on purchase history, recent engagement, and expressed interests. Target small groups with relevant offers rather than mass-blasting your entire list.
  • Frequency Control (Opt-Down): A subscriber who signed up for a weekly newsletter may be overwhelmed by daily holiday emails. To prevent them from hitting the “This is Spam” button, implement a clear, easily accessible preference center that allows users to adjust their communication preferences (topics, frequency) or “opt-down” instead of completely opting out.


C. Data Hygiene is Deliverability Insurance

A clean list protects your sender reputation by avoiding spam traps and un-mailable addresses, which are especially risky when increasing volume.

  • Bounce Rules: Ensure your bounce rules are rigorously enforced.
  • Verification: Before mailing inactive or high-risk segments for the first holiday send, consider using a third-party list verification service to scrub out any potential threats like spam traps or inactive emails.


Holiday Monitoring with Built-in Tools

Monitoring your performance during the holidays is essential. You must check your metrics daily and have instant access to complaint data. You must leverage the direct reporting tools provided by the mailbox providers:

Monitoring ToolPurposeKey Metric to Watch
Google Postmaster Tools v2The primary dashboard for monitoring Gmail deliverability. You must register your sending domain here using a TXT recordSpam Rate: Must be monitored daily to stay below 0.1% and prevent exceeding the 0.3% hard limit.
Yahoo Sender HubProvides visibility into your Yahoo Mail performance, reputation, and complaint data. You must register your sending domain here using a TXT recordSpam Complaints/Delivery Errors: Monitor for spikes and immediately remove any users who file a complaint.



Immediate Action is Required: If you see any increase in your spam complaint rate or delivery errors in either of these tools, you should pause, identify where the issue is, and regroup.

By establishing full authentication and rigorously monitoring your complaint rates, you can safely navigate the high-volume holiday season and deliver the gift of joyful, successful email campaigns. Email deliverability news in November 2025 are a game changer. Need a little extra support?


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]]> New Yahoo Deliverability Dashboard and What it Means for Email Marketing https://act-on.com/learn/blog/new-yahoo-deliverability-dashboard-and-email-marketing/ Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:33:51 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502462

There’s a lot happening in the world of Yahoo email deliverability news. Yahoo Mail continues to represent a large share of today’s email addresses, and if you are sending marketing emails to Yahoo users, their new “Insights” dashboard is big news.  Yahoo manages email delivered to Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, so it has a very large impact on anyone emailing consumer addresses.

Now part of the Yahoo Sender Hub, Insights offers visibility into how Yahoo users receive and react to your emails. It’s a major step forward in deliverability transparency, helping you move from guessing about inbox placement to managing it with real data.


New Yahoo Email Deliverability Dashboard Surfaces Key Metrics

For the first time, Yahoo is providing verified insights into:

  • First-time visibility to a “true complaint rate,” the percentage of inboxed messages that received spam complaints (Previously, only sent and accepted complaints were visible). 
  • More exact Spam Complaint Rate and sum of Delivered messages.
  • Daily delivered mail volume to Yahoo domains.
  • Displayed aggregated delivery statistics for the DKIM.

Yahoo also gave clear complaint thresholds to guide marketers:

  • Aim for below 0.1% to maintain a strong reputation.
  • Rates above 0.3% risk filtering or throttling.

The main takeaway is that you can see early signs of deliverability issues, such as throttling or rejections, before they impact engagement or conversions.

If you send through multiple subdomains under one DKIM signature, Insights aggregates that traffic, showing how each stream contributes to your overall sender reputation. You can then identify what content or campaigns drive complaints and adjust your frequency, segmentation, and list hygiene accordingly.


Getting Started in Yahoo Sender Hub

The best way to learn about these new metrics and features is to log in to Yahoo Sender Hub and explore them for yourself. Our team can help assist

  1. Log in to your Yahoo Sender Hub
  2. Go to Dashboard in the main navigation.
  3. Select a verified DKIM domain from the drop-down (or add and verify one by adding a unique TXT record).
  4. Click Activate to enable Insights.


Once verified and active, data will begin populating within 24–48 hours after you’ve reached the minimum sending threshold for that DKIM domain. Finally, make sure your deliverability and marketing ops teams have access for ongoing monitoring.

Yahoo’s Insights gives marketers what’s long been missing, direct deliverability data from the source. Use it to monitor complaint rates, track sending volumes, and refine your campaigns to achieve better inbox placement. Marketers who adopt Insights early will gain a measurable edge in reaching (and staying) in the Yahoo inbox.

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]]> Financial Services Email Marketing That Wins Over Customers  https://act-on.com/learn/blog/financial-services-email-marketing/ Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:49:40 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502439

Introduction

When putting together financial services marketing strategies, marketers have many options. And even though it’s been around for decades, email marketing for financial services is still an important part of that strategy, especially considering the huge amount of money getting ready to move into the pockets of younger generations — roughly $124 trillion.

And do you know who gets the biggest cut? 

If you guessed millennials, you’d be right. 

As a bonus, millennials have something in common with other generations when it comes to marketing preferences. An overwhelming number of them report a preference to receive marketing via email (68%). 

And that means if you’re a financial marketer and you create a strong email program, you have a pretty solid advantage. The challenge is that there are many pitfalls when executing an email marketing strategy, starting with making your customers cranky before the first message lands in their inbox.

As a financial marketer, you’re responsible for following a pretty long list of regulations that impact your email marketing. These include broad laws that apply to all marketers, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, CCPA, and GDPR. Then you have to comply with rules specific to financial marketers, like FINRA Rule 2210, SEC advertising and marketing rules, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

So, before you move ahead with financial services email marketing, it helps to start with a strong foundation, and that begins with consent. Without it, you won’t only have potential compliance issues, but you could also run into email deliverability problems. 

Make sure your forms include advanced features that allow you to add opt-in checkboxes (for example, “Yes, I’d like to receive emails”) when someone fills out a landing page or form. It’s also helpful to give people an easy way to manage their preferences so your email acquisition efforts don’t accidentally result in sending emails to contacts who haven’t actively agreed.

You’ll want a solid way to track these efforts so if compliance issues do come up, you can prove you did everything correctly. For example, Act-On offers marketing automation for financial services that include features such as Global BCC that automatically sends a blind copy of every email to a dedicated archive mailbox for auditing purposes. With it, you’ll always have a record of every email you send.

Capturing Attention in an Inbox Full of “Junk” 

With your compliance boxes firmly checked, your next step is to stand out in your customers’ inboxes. And this isn’t always easy. The simplest way we know is to match your email content to their exact journey. But to do that, you need more than just logical guesses. You’ll need some data and intelligence. 

For example, imagine a prospect visits your refinance rate page. That action shows clear intent to refinance a mortgage. From there, you can launch a nurture email stream that speaks directly to where they’re at in that journey. Maybe they’d benefit from a refinance calculator to see how today’s rates could impact their monthly mortgage payment. Or perhaps they’d like to speak with an advisor to explore potential scenarios and decide if refinancing makes sense right now.

You can nurture them through this process and also sync that activity with your CRM to make the handoff to humans easier. Our favorite tool for this process is marketing automation, which can make the entire process much smoother. 

And if you want some inspiration for exactly what to write in these emails, we love Kelsey Yen’s 420 email examples for financial institutions that are anything but boring. 

Financial Services Advertising Regulations Marketers Need to Know

Stay compliant in 2026. Learn key financial services advertising regulations, including FINRA, SEC, and data privacy rules—plus tips to reduce risk at scale.

Blog
Learn More


Speaking to Multiple People Authentically 

It’s likely your marketing team isn’t sitting around twiddling their thumbs. They’re super busy and need workflows that perform and don’t take a lot of time. As your financial customers move through their journeys, one way to make this possible is with dynamic content.

For example, maybe you have two segments. One includes customers who are looking for a home but have never owned one. The other includes customers who have owned homes in the past and are looking to purchase again. Are they both looking for a similar product? Possibly. But that doesn’t mean you need to talk with them in the same way. And the more personalized you get, the better.

Act-On marketing automation for financial services lets you segment based on lifecycle, product interest, or interaction history. You can then swap out content in a single campaign (called dynamic content) to make it more personalized. One campaign acts as the shell your team builds but can be adjusted to serve multiple audiences while still speaking directly to each.

Then, as you build out email marketing for financial services, you can monitor click-through rates by segment, allowing that data to guide any needed changes. 

Asking for Permission (Again) to Improve Results 

Have you ever signed up for an email list and later stopped reading the company’s emails? We’ve all done it. In most cases, the reason isn’t really that personal. The customer has just moved on and no longer connects with your products or services. But it’s important to plan for this pivot, because it can be an opportunity to either re-engage them or remove them for a healthier email list. This helps prevent deliverability issues that can make it harder for people who still want your emails to receive them.

For example, if someone hasn’t engaged with you for 180 days, you might send an email that basically says, “Hey, do you still want to hear from us?” If they don’t reply, it’s probably a good idea to delete them from your list following a standard email sunset policy.

Try running these campaigns quarterly to keep your list clean and make sure the people on it are still interested in your products and services.

Becoming the Emails Customers Actually Want 

As you press on with financial services email marketing, one thing is clear: Your customers are only going to receive more emails in the future. After all, an estimated 376 billion emails are sent and received every day, a number that has steadily increased each year since 2017.

But when you focus on your customers’ needs and capture the data points that show exactly what they want to see in their inboxes, you can avoid being relegated to the dreaded spam folder. And you can create happier financial customers and reach your marketing goals more easily. 

Do you feel like you could use a little more guidance getting started?

Our detailed Marketing Automation Strategy Guide breaks down how automation can support email marketing for financial services. It will help you connect with your customers, deliver value, and build deeper relationships that earn more of their business.

]]> Gmail Begins Crackdown on Non-Compliant Mail https://act-on.com/learn/blog/gmail-cracks-down-on-non-compliant-email/ Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:41 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502393

Gmail deliverability update for November 2025 is here and already making waves. Gmail officially begun ramping up enforcement against non-compliant mail. This shift isn’t a warning—it’s active, ongoing enforcement. Gmail is now taking stronger action against senders who fail to follow authentication standards or who generate consistently high complaint rates.

For years, Gmail has encouraged proper authentication and responsible sending behavior. But the quiet period is over. If you’ve been skating by without full authentication or ignoring rising spam complaints, that leniency window has now closed. Enforcement is rolling out in real time, and many brands will start to feel the impact immediately.


What Gmail is Enforcing—and Why it Matters

Gmail’s new enforcement policies target both technical compliance and sender reputation, focusing on:

1. Unauthenticated Mail

Messages that lack proper DKIM, SPF, or DMARC authentication will be at higher risk for delays, deferrals, and outright rejections. Gmail has been explicit:

Unauthenticated mail is now a direct indicator of spam or potential abuse.

2. High Complaint Rates

Gmail has tightened its complaint-rate threshold. Senders with consistently high user complaints—even slightly above Gmail’s acceptable limit—will face increased spam placement or rejection of messages at the server level.

  • Gmail’s soft threshold has long been 0.1% complaint rate
  • Crossing it, even marginally, may trigger reputation damage

This means even small spikes can have big consequences.


What Senders Can Expect Going Forward

Non-Compliant Mail Will Be Blocked or Deferred

Expect more visible delivery issues such as:

  • Temp-fail (4xx) errors
  • Longer processing times
  • Total rejection (5xx) errors

If Gmail can’t authenticate you—or doesn’t trust your reputation—your email simply won’t make it through.

Higher Spam Placement

Even if messages aren’t fully rejected, you may notice:

  • Lower inbox placement
  • Higher spam folder rates
  • Reduced engagement across Gmail accounts

This creates a feedback loop: high spam placement → lower engagement → even worse reputation.

Reputation Damage Across Your Entire Domain

This crackdown affects:

  • Marketing mail
  • Automated operational emails
  • Newsletters and product updates
  • Even some transactional emails if they are improperly authenticated

No segment is immune.


What You Need to Do to Avoid Issues

Gmail’s requirements are not optional. These are your minimum mandatory steps:

1. Make Sure You Are Fully Authenticated

Confirm you have all three layers in place—correctly configured:

  • SPF: Must include all sending hosts and avoid overly broad mechanisms

  • DKIM: Use a 1024-bit (preferably 2048-bit) key and align with your From domain

  • DMARC: At minimum: p=none and alignment requirements met
    Ideally: move toward p=quarantine or p=reject over time

If any of the three are misconfigured, Gmail will treat you as unauthenticated.

2. Reduce Your Complaint Rate Immediately

A complaint rate above 0.1% is enough to damage your sending reputation.
Key steps:

Even minor improvements can restore trust.

3. Validate All Sending Services

If you use multiple systems—marketing automation, CRM, support platforms—each one must send authenticated mail that aligns with your domain.

Many deliverability issues come from smaller platforms slipping through the cracks.


Signs You’re Already Being Impacted

You may already be experiencing enforcement if you see:

  • A sudden drop in Gmail open rates
  • Increased “rate limit exceeded” or “message temporarily rejected” errors
  • A spike in spam folder placement
  • Delays in sending or receiving test messages
  • Feedback loop data showing rising complaints

Addressing these quickly will prevent long-term domain reputation damage.


Prepare for Stricter Standards in 2026

Gmail has made it clear this is only the beginning.
Looking ahead, expect:

  • Increased pressure to move DMARC policies to quarantine or reject
  • Stricter enforcement of aligned From domains
  • Rising expectations around email list hygiene and transparency
  • Heavier penalties for sudden volume spikes or irregular send patterns

Brands that modernize their email infrastructure now will be in a strong position as enforcement ramps up.


Ready to Make Sure You’re Compliant?

If you’re unsure where you stand—or need a checklist to review your current setup—be sure to explore our full guide on email compliance and sender requirements. It walks through the technical setup, reputation management, and email deliverability best practices to ensure your mail stays in the inbox.

Check out our article on email compliance to make sure you’re fully ready for Gmail’s increased enforcement.

Check out our article on email compliance to make sure you are ready for this increase in enforcement.

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]]> Credit Union Marketing Strategies That Drove $10.5M in New Deposits https://act-on.com/learn/blog/credit-union-marketing-strategies/ Fri, 31 Oct 2025 23:23:43 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502207

TL;DR: Credit unions face shrinking engagement advantages over banks, making it harder to capture members’ attention in crowded inboxes. Credit union marketing strategies—such as personalized onboarding, cross-selling with “next best product” campaigns, and data-driven segmentation—can drive real results. Unions like Centra and Georgia United have generated millions in new deposits by using marketing automation to deliver relevant, timely messages that strengthen relationships and boost satisfaction.

Introduction

Even if your members love your credit union, it doesn’t mean they’ll open your emails. And it’s not because they don’t want to hear from you or need your financial products. It’s because the volume of emails hitting their inbox is crushing. To get ahead, you need to implement effective credit union marketing strategies.

The number of emails people receive has steadily increased every year since 2017. Globally, people send and receive about 361 billion emails each year, and that number is expected to reach 424 billion by 2026.

Let’s start by going over recent credit union marketing trends.

Recent Gallup research on credit union marketing trends shows that the engagement advantage credit unions once held over banks is shrinking. In 2014, they enjoyed a +21% engagement premium and a +29% higher Net Promoter Score (NPS). By 2021, those numbers had dropped to +11% and +17%, respectively.

Engagement with Credit Unions Compared to Banks. Year 2014 is 21%. 2015 is 19%. 2016 is 16%. 2018 is 11%. 2020 is 12%. 2021 is 11%. Source: The Financial Brand

So if you think it’s tough to capture members’ attention now, just wait. It’s only going to get harder. 

But it’s worth it.

For example, one credit union built an automated email program that captured $10.5 million in new deposits over a seven-week campaign. And that’s just one example of what’s possible with credit union email marketing. We’ve gathered some of our favorite strategies to help you serve your members in new and creative ways.

Three Effective Credit Union Marketing Strategies

So, what makes credit union marketing strategies different from the rest? This isn’t a new question, but it’s one that credit unions have been working really hard to answer for years. Interestingly enough, a 2025 J.D. Power survey shows that credit union satisfaction is 74 points higher than that of banks.

So why are credit union members still keeping parts of their business elsewhere?

In many cases, they just haven’t built a relationship deep enough to get customers to bring everything over. The good news is you can change that, and a solid credit union email marketing program is a great place to start.

Here are a few of the credit union marketing strategies we’re seeing our customers use right now that are getting results:

1. Onboarding and welcoming new members with purpose 

Members come to you through many different channels. Some got a great deal with your credit union at a local dealership when purchasing a new car. Others started a new job and learned from HR that credit union membership is a perk of employment. Either way, their relationship likely isn’t as deep as it could be—at least not yet.

A welcome email series (aka nurturing automation) that educates new members about how to get the most from their membership can help close that gap. 

Georgia Credit Union datagraphic shows results of an effective onboarding strategy.

For example, Georgia United Credit Union automated a new-member onboarding sequence that shares educational content and resources new members are most likely to need. The credit union team partnered with its member experience team to identify pain points, learn what members were calling about, and address those topics in their onboarding emails. The series was well received, earning a 77% open rate on welcome emails, and set the stage for a highly valuable cross-selling program.

2. Cross-selling with “next best product” emails

Imagine that a member rents their home but receives a credit union email marketing message about refinancing programs. They aren’t likely to be excited—that’s a given—but more importantly, they’re probably less likely to open future emails. 

That’s why, in addition to starting the relationship with an automated welcome email series, you can create a personalized “next best product” program. Georgia United did just that, using member profiles and data like current products and credit scores to trigger more personalized email offers.

The emails produced a 96% spike in application volume and thousands of new products sold. Beyond the success metrics, members felt more known and understood by their credit union, leading to deeper and more meaningful relationships. 

3. Turn your data into easy wins 

A credit union marketing plan that includes strategic email marketing can also help you launch new programs that educate members about products that align with their needs. For example, Centra Credit Union audited and cleaned its data to create a more accurate email list and remove unengaged contacts. The team then sorted the remaining contacts into segments based on behavioral history and past email engagement.

As a result, Centra’s marketing team captured a better understanding of members’ existing products and identified the best areas to target for new growth. They found that more than half of its members, over 70,000, didn’t have a certificate of deposit with Centra. As a result, they decided to target this opportunity using demographic and behavioral data for this group.

They sent these recipients a three-email educational series over seven weeks, and the results were significant, generating $10.5 million in new deposits. Even better, the process is repeatable, so the next time the credit union marketing strategy includes driving certificate of deposit growth, it can simply rerun the same campaign.

How to Plan Automated Campaigns and Nurtures 

You likely have many opportunities to grow member relationships within your data, but finding them can be challenging. One of the easiest ways to uncover these opportunities is by implementing marketing automation for credit unions. In fact, for every dollar spent on marketing automation, companies see an average return of $5.44 within the first three years.

When using this approach, here are a few steps to get started with your credit union marketing strategy. 

1. Map your member’s journey

Before building any automation, take a step back and map the journey that your members take. From joining your credit union to applying for a loan or opening a certificate of deposit, each member has their own needs. When you outline these key moments, you can create an email series that meets members where they are, using segmentation to reach the right people.

Also, take time to get familiar with your marketing automation platform and build nurtures around the opportunities it reveals. You can organize your emails in a way that makes it easy to track results later, whether you’re pulling analytics from the software itself or another source.

Data graphic shows the average global daily emails sent per year in billions, which has steady risen since 2018 to a level of 361 billion per day in 2024.

2. Trigger emails based on member behaviors

Automation gives you visibility into member behaviors so you can respond quickly. If a member clicks on mortgage rates but doesn’t apply, you can automatically send a follow-up email with additional homebuying resources. Or if a member stops opening emails, they can be exited from the program. 

Also, as you build your list, think ahead about how you want to segment and personalize future emails. Consider adding extra fields to your sign-up forms to learn more about members, and use that information to personalize your content. Keep a good email list hygiene and stay organized using consistent templates and naming conventions, so managing campaigns stays simple. 

3. Find early wins

You don’t have to automate everything at once. Start with one high-impact sequence, like Centra did when identifying members who didn’t have certificates of deposit. Test it, measure it, and refine it until you’re confident it’s delivering the results you want. Once you experience success, you can expand to other credit union email marketing programs. 

Before you launch broadly, also consider running tests on a small internal segment, such as your marketing team. This helps confirm that everything works correctly, looks great on both mobile and desktop, and that your CRM is tracking campaign data accurately.

As you map these journeys, it’s also important to distinguish between marketing and transactional emails. Marketing emails promote products or services and require opt-in consent, while transactional emails share essential account or service information and are typically sent automatically after a member action. As you grow your marketing email lists, be mindful of email deliverability best practices and make sure members have clearly opted in to receive communications and can easily opt out at any time. 

Boost Your Credit Union Marketing Strategies with Marketing Automation

We’ve broken it all down for you in our marketing automation strategy guide—your roadmap to smarter, more personalized member engagement. Inside, you’ll learn how to use automation to streamline campaigns, identify growth opportunities, and deliver the right messages at the right time.

Whether your goal is to improve onboarding, increase cross-sells, or strengthen long-term loyalty, this guide will help you connect with your members in meaningful ways, provide them with real value, and build deeper relationships that win more of their business.

Summary

As credit unions compete for attention in a saturated digital landscape, marketing automation has become a powerful way to supercharge your Credit Union marketing strategy, deepen member relationships and drive growth. Recent trends show that engagement gaps between credit unions and banks are narrowing, emphasizing the need for smarter, data-driven outreach.

Successful credit unions are using automated email marketing strategies—like personalized onboarding, targeted product recommendations, and data segmentation—to boost engagement and revenue. With thoughtful planning, behavior-based triggers, and clear consent practices, credit unions can deliver timely, relevant content that meets members where they are and turns everyday communications into lasting loyalty.

]]> Google Postmaster Tools V2: Deliverability Post-V1 Deprecation https://act-on.com/learn/blog/google-postmaster-tools-v2/ Fri, 17 Oct 2025 23:13:31 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=502088

The End of Google Postmaster Tools V1

Google has officially announced the deprecation of Google Postmaster Tools V1, the dashboard many marketers have depended on for critical reputation insights.

Starting September 30, 2025, all users will be redirected to Google Postmaster Tools V2, and by the end of the year, the legacy V1 dashboard will be fully retired.

For years, V1 provided domain and IP reputation scores — key signals for diagnosing deliverability issues. Those metrics are now gone. In their place, Google is shifting focus toward real-time behavioral and authentication-based signals.

What’s New in Google Postmaster Tools V2

In Google Postmaster Tools V2, Gmail no longer provides static “reputation scores.” Instead, senders are encouraged to track the live signals that actually influence inbox placement.

The Google Postmaster Tools V2 platform prioritizes:

  • Spam Complaint Rates – how often users report your messages as spam.
  • Authentication Status – SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment checks.
  • Delivery Errors – bounce reasons and deferred messages.
  • Policy Compliance – signals tied to Gmail’s bulk sender requirements.
  • Engagement Trends – how recipients interact with your mail in real time.

Gmail’s message is clear: reputation is now earned dynamically through engagement and compliance, not assigned by a static score.

Why This Matters for Email Marketers

The loss of reputation dashboards may feel like a major setback — but it’s really a signal that Google wants senders to evolve.

Static scores often masked underlying issues or created false confidence. V2’s new model demands that senders actively monitor, analyze, and adapt based on live performance metrics.

If you’ve built your reporting or alerting infrastructure around V1 data, it’s time to pivot.


This change follows Gmail’s Manage Subscriptions feature implementation — another step in Google’s effort to give users more control, reward transparent senders, and elevate engagement-driven reputation over legacy scoring.

Action Plan: How to Prepare for V2

  1. Audit Your Existing Integrations
    Review any dashboards, alerts, or automation that rely on V1 metrics like domain or IP reputation. Identify what breaks when V1 is deprecated.

  2. Export Historical Data Before It’s Gone
    If you still need reputation trends for benchmarking, export all historical data from V1 before the end of 2025. Once the dashboard is shut down, those records won’t be retrievable.

  3. Rebuild Around V2 Metrics
    Start tracking Gmail’s new live signals — spam complaint rates, delivery errors, and authentication health. These are now the indicators that matter most.

  4. Update API Integrations
    V2 introduces a new schema and endpoint structure. Make sure any API calls or integrations your system uses are updated before September 30.

  5. Align With Gmail’s Bulk Sender Guidelines
    If you haven’t implemented full SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication — now’s the time. Gmail’s deliverability weighting heavily favors authenticated and policy-aligned mail.

Turning Change Into Opportunity

Yes, this update removes some of the visibility marketers have relied on. But it’s also a chance to create a more resilient deliverability strategy built on engagement, trust, and technical alignment.

Senders who embrace V2 will gain:

  • Stronger authentication posture (fewer delivery errors, higher trust).
  • Real-time visibility into sender health and compliance.
  • Smarter segmentation and cleaner data through active monitoring.

In short: Gmail isn’t taking away control — it’s pushing the industry toward more dynamic, data-driven deliverability practices.

Act-On Is Here to Help

Staying compliant and maintaining inbox placement in a changing ecosystem takes the right tools and expertise. Act-On’s deliverability team helps marketers monitor engagement signals, implement DMARC and authentication, and adapt to Gmail’s evolving requirements.

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]]> Deliverability Update: Texas Just Redefined SMS as Telemarketing https://act-on.com/learn/blog/sb140-texas-telemarketing/ Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:23:51 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=501999

Texas has just made a major move that reshapes how marketers can use SMS. With the passage of Senate Bill 140 (SB 140), the state is tightening the rules around text-based marketing and raising the compliance stakes for businesses that message consumers.

This update signals a broader trend: states are expanding telemarketing laws to cover new communication channels, forcing marketers to rethink how they manage consent, registration, and outreach practices. For brands using SMS as part of their customer engagement strategy, understanding these changes—and acting fast—will be key to staying compliant and protecting deliverability.

What is SB 140?

Effective September 1, 2025 Texas will start enforcing SB 140, a bill that expands the state’s definition of “telephone solicitation” to include text messages. Under this update, any promotional SMS, MMS, or image-based message now qualifies as telemarketing. Under prior law, those making “telephone solicitations” in Texas had to register as telemarketers in some cases, file statements, and meet certain disclosure obligations.

This update means that businesses engaging in SMS marketing—or any form of promotional texting—must now comply with the same registration, disclosure, and operational requirements that apply to telemarketers.

Private Right of Action Under the DTPA

That change alone would be enough to raise eyebrows. But SB 140 also gives Texas residents the right to sue under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), without needing to go through a state agency.

That means consumers, or their attorneys, can go straight to court if they believe they’ve received a noncompliant message. Potential penalties include:

  • Triple (treble) damages for willful violations
  • Attorney’s fees and court costs
  • Claims of mental anguish

In practice, this opens the door for class actions and serial lawsuits, especially if a company’s SMS campaigns aren’t properly segmented or consent-based.

Worse, there’s no cap on claims for repeated violations. That could turn into multiple expensive lawsuits, fast.

What This Means for Marketers

For marketers, this means SMS is no longer a low-risk channel in Texas. If you’re sending messages to Texas numbers (even if you’re based elsewhere) you’ll need to treat those texts like regulated calls:

  • Businesses sending SMS to Texas residents are responsible for registering with the Texas Secretary of State
  • Confirm opt-in consent is explicit and documented (sending to customers-only)
  • Honor opt-outs immediately and reliably
  • Review your automated workflows
  • Decide to build a segmentation to suppress Texas residents
  • Make sure your legal and compliance teams are briefed

Marketers who rely on SMS for promotions, marketing, or automated flows for SMS should take this seriously. Failure to register, send during approved call hours, message non-customers, or ignore opt-out requests can lead to fines and litigation exposure. Once the door opens for private litigation, it rarely closes. Businesses should act quickly to audit their SMS programs, consult counsel, register if needed, honor opt-outs, and adjust timing windows.

Act-On customers wondering how this impacts their business, and what steps to take, can contact customer support for help.

How Businesses Should Prepare

Now is the time to act. Businesses using SMS or MMS for marketing, sales, or customer communication should:

  1. Audit existing SMS programs for compliance gaps.
  2. Consult legal counsel to confirm obligations under SB 140.
  3. Register as a telemarketer if your campaigns meet the threshold.
  4. Update consent language and opt-out mechanisms.
  5. Adjust sending windows to meet call-hour restrictions.

Proactive steps taken now can prevent expensive litigation and reputational harm later.

Act-On Customers: What to Do Next

If you’re an Act-On customer, our team can help ensure your SMS marketing aligns with Texas law.
Contact Act-On customer support to:

  • Review your SMS settings and workflows
  • Confirm compliance with SB 140
  • Discuss segmentation options for Texas residents
Contact Support
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]]> Hierarchy of Engagement and Email Sunset Policy Explained https://act-on.com/learn/blog/hierarchy-of-engagement-and-email-sunset-policy-explained/ Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:52:00 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=501944

Introduction

When it comes to email deliverability, not all contacts are created equal. Your email marketing strategy should reflect this. Segmenting your audience based on their engagement levels allows you to tailor your email cadence and content, maximizing deliverability and giving your contacts the best experience. It all starts with a hierarchy of engagement.

TL;DR: Segment your email list by engagement levels to improve deliverability and subscriber experience. Highly engaged contacts get frequent, personalized content, while low-engagement and dormant subscribers receive fewer emails or re-engagement campaigns. Use an email sunset policy to gradually suppress unengaged contacts, protecting your sender reputation and avoiding spam penalties.

Establishing a Hierarchy of Engagement

Use this common framework to segment your list based on their engagement levels.

Tier 1: Highly Engaged (Champions/Power Users)

  • Definition: Open most emails, click frequently, visit your website, potentially make purchases or actively use your product/service.
  • Cadence: Your most frequent send schedule. These contacts want to hear from you and are least likely to be marked as spam.
  • Content: Exclusive offers, new product announcements, in-depth content, beta programs, personalized recommendations.

Tier 2: Moderately Engaged (Regular Readers)

  • Definition: Open a good portion of emails, click occasionally, show consistent interest.
  • Cadence: Regular send schedule, perhaps slightly less frequent than Tier 1.
  • Content: General newsletters, valuable blog posts, product updates, standard promotions.

Tier 3: Low Engagement (Passive Subscribers)

  • Definition: Open emails infrequently, rarely click, may have signed up for a one-off resource.
  • Cadence: Reduced frequency. You’re trying to keep them on the list without risking deliverability. Maybe once a month or bi-monthly.
  • Content: High-value content, “best of” summaries, special invitations to exclusive events that might pique their interest.

Tier 4: Unengaged (Dormant)

  • Definition: Have not opened or clicked on any emails in a significant period (e.g., 6 months to a year), but haven’t actively opted out.
  • Cadence: Subject to re-engagement campaigns (as described in “Suppressions & Sunsetting”). If no re-engagement, then move to suppression.
  • Content: Re-engagement campaigns.

Implementing an Email Sunset Policy

An email sunset policy is a strategy and process of gradually reducing the frequency of emails to unengaged subscribers and eventually removing them from your active mailing list. This protects your sender reputation by demonstrating that you are only sending to an engaged audience.

Sending emails to unengaged contacts is detrimental to your sender reputation. ISPs track engagement metrics (opens, clicks) to determine whether your emails are valued by recipients. Continuing to send to those who consistently ignore your messages signals that your content isn’t relevant, and your emails are more likely to be sent to spam.

Recommendations for Suppressions and Sunsetting:

  • Define “Unengaged”: Establish clear criteria for lack of engagement is a key element of an effective email sunset policy. A common definition is a contact who has not opened or clicked on any email in a significant period (e.g., 6 months to 1 year), despite receiving a reasonable number of emails from you.

  • Last-Ditch Re-engagement Campaign: Before fully sunsetting, consider a targeted re-engagement campaign for your unengaged segment.

    • Subject Lines: Use compelling subject lines that explicitly ask for engagement (“Do you still want to hear from us?”, “Don’t miss out!”).
    • Content: Offer exclusive content, a special discount, or simply ask for their preferences.
    • Call to Action: Make it very clear what action they need to take to remain on your list.
    • Frequency: Send 1-3 emails over a short period (e.g., 1-2 weeks).

  • Automated Suppression: If a contact doesn’t respond to the re-engagement campaign, automatically move them to a suppression list. These contacts should no longer receive regular marketing emails.

  • Hard Suppression After 1 Year of Inactivity (or sooner): For contacts who have received a significant number of opportunities (e.g., 20+ emails) but have not opened anything in a year, it’s highly recommended to permanently suppress them from all future marketing communications. They are actively hurting your deliverability.

Summary

Effective email deliverability relies on understanding and acting on subscriber engagement. By creating a hierarchy of engagement—from highly engaged “champions” to completely dormant contacts—you can tailor email frequency and content to match interest levels. Implementing an email sunset policy ensures unengaged subscribers are gradually removed after targeted re-engagement attempts, safeguarding your sender reputation. This approach maximizes engagement, keeps your list healthy, and prevents emails from being flagged as spam.

To learn more about our Deliverability Services, contact us. Current customers, reach out to your customer success manager or account manager directly!

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]]> Welcome Email Series: Strategy, Examples & Best Practices https://act-on.com/learn/blog/welcome-email-series/ Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:00:00 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=501943

TL;DR: A welcome email series introduces new subscribers to your brand, builds trust, and boosts engagement from the start. It’s typically a 4–5 email sequence that thanks subscribers, shares your story, highlights benefits, shows social proof, and encourages the first conversion. Keep emails short, personal, mobile-friendly, and optimized through testing to strengthen relationships and improve deliverability.


Introduction

A well-crafted welcome email series helps you make a great first impression, build trust, and guide new subscribers toward engagement right from the start. The goal is to introduce new subscribers to your brand, set expectations, and encourage early interaction. It also helps establish sending reputation by generating positive engagement (opens, clicks, replies) early on.

What is a Welcome Email Series?

A welcome email series is a sequence of emails sent to new subscribers, customers, or users after they join your email list, sign up for a service, or make their first purchase. Its main goal is to introduce your brand, build trust, and guide the recipient toward engagement or conversion.

Why You Need an Email Welcome Series

An email welcome series is essential because it helps businesses make a strong first impression and build trust with new subscribers. When someone signs up for your email list, they are most attentive and curious about your brand, making this the perfect opportunity to engage them.

An effective welcome series introduces your products, services, and values, educates subscribers about what you offer, and sets expectations for future emails. Beyond education, it also drives early conversions by encouraging actions like purchases, downloads, or bookings.

Additionally, the series allows you to gather insights about subscriber preferences, enabling better segmentation and personalized communication in the future. By providing immediate value and clear guidance, a welcome series can improve engagement, reduce unsubscribes, and enhance long-term email deliverability. In short, it transforms a one-time signup into an engaged subscriber, laying the foundation for stronger relationships and increased revenue over time.

Welcome Email Series Examples

Email 1: The Warm Hello

  • When to send: Immediately after sign-up
  • Tone: Friendly, personal, and clear.
  • Content: Thank them for subscribing, remind them what they signed up for, and deliver any promised content (e.g., a guide, discount, or checklist).
  • CTA: Something low-commitment like “Explore our blog” or “Follow us on social.”

Email 2: Set the Stage

  • When to send: 1-2 days after sign-up
  • Content: Share more about your brand—your story, values, and what makes you different.
  • CTA: Invite them to customize preferences or explore popular products/content.

Email 3: What’s in it for Them

  • When to send: 3-5 days after Email 2
  • Content: Highlight key benefits, features, or offerings they can expect from your emails.
  • CTA: Try a feature, download something useful, or read a customer story.

Email 4: Social Proof & Success Stories

  • When to send: 5-7 days after email 3
  • Content: Show testimonials, case studies, or reviews to build trust and credibility.
  • CTA: “See how it works” or “Read a full success story.”

Email 5: Soft Sell or Next Step

  • When to send: 7-10 days after email 4
  • Content: Encourage a first meaningful conversion—like signing up for a webinar, booking a demo, or making a purchase.
  • CTA: Clear and focused, like “Schedule your demo” or “Get started now.”

Email Welcome Series Best Practices

  • Keep it concise: Respect your subscribers’ time. Get to your main message or CTA without too much delay.
  • Use personalization: Include their name and tailor the content based on other elements, such as where you sourced their contact, or their interests within your product offering.
  • Make it mobile-friendly: Most opens happen on mobile—design accordingly for mobile experiences.
  • Test and optimize: Monitor open/click rates and adjust timing of sends or the content you include in them accordingly.
  • Include an unsubscribe link: It’s legally required for marketing emails. Bonus: it helps keep your list clean, building for deliverability in the long run.

With new subscribers on board and getting to know your brand, the next step is to make sure your email strategy stays relevant over time. Not everyone will engage with your emails in the same way, so treating them all the same is a recipe for deliverability trouble. To keep your sender reputation healthy, you need to create an hierarchy of engagement that tailors your emails to each person’s unique behavior.

Summary

A welcome email series is a strategic set of emails sent after someone joins your list or makes a purchase. It helps you make a strong first impression, educate new subscribers about your brand, and encourage early engagement or conversions.

Best practices include keeping messages concise, personalizing content, optimizing for mobile, A/B testing performance, and including unsubscribe links for compliance. A well-structured welcome series not only engages new subscribers but also improves long-term deliverability and builds lasting customer relationships.

To learn more about our Deliverability Services, contact us. Current customers, reach out to your customer success manager or account manager directly!

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]]> Email List Hygiene & Spam Traps https://act-on.com/learn/blog/email-list-hygiene-and-spam-traps/ Wed, 17 Sep 2025 13:50:00 +0000 https://act-on.com/?p=501942

Introduction

A clean email list is a healthy list. Regularly maintaining your email list is crucial for email deliverability. Sending to invalid or unengaged addresses signals to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that your sending practices are poor, leading to lower inbox placement. Success requires good email list hygiene and understanding spam traps.

TL;DR: Good email list hygiene is the foundation of strong deliverability. Regularly clean your list by removing invalid, inactive, or unengaged contacts, verifying addresses, and avoiding purchased lists. Understanding and preventing spam traps—especially pristine, typo, and recycled traps—protects your sender reputation and ensures your emails consistently reach the inbox.

What is Email List Hygiene?

Email list hygiene refers to the ongoing process of keeping your email contact list clean, accurate, and engaged. In other words, it’s about regularly reviewing and removing invalid, inactive, or unengaged email addresses to maintain a healthy list that improves deliverability and performance.

Email List Hygiene Best Practices

Follow these key best practices to develop and maintain good email list hygiene:

  • Email verification services: Utilize a reputable email verification service such as Webbula before sending your first email to new contacts, and periodically for your existing list. These services check for invalid email formats, disposable email addresses, and non-existent domains, ensuring your addresses are legitimate and deliverable.

  • Remove hard bounces immediately: Hard bounces indicate a permanent delivery failure (e.g., an invalid email address, a non-existent domain). Your email service provider (ESP) should automatically suppress these, but it’s important to monitor and ensure they are permanently removed from your active sending list to prevent repeated attempts that signal poor list health.

  • Monitor engagement metrics: Track key engagement metrics such as open rates, click rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. When engagement begins to drop, run re-engagement campaigns to confirm continued interest before removing inactive subscribers from your list.

  • Segment and personalize: Group subscribers based on behavior, demographics, location, or purchase history. Personalized and relevant messaging increases engagement, strengthens relationships, and reduces unsubscribe rates.

  • Comply with privacy regulations: Follow all major email compliance laws such as GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL. Include a clear unsubscribe link in every email, identify your business and sender name transparently, and honor opt-out requests promptly to maintain trust and compliance.

  • Reconfirm old contacts: If your list contains older or inactive contacts, send a reconfirmation campaign asking them to confirm their interest in staying subscribed. This process removes uninterested or outdated contacts, ensuring your list remains active and compliant.

  • Maintain consistent sending frequency: Establish a predictable and consistent email schedule—such as weekly or bi-weekly—so subscribers know when to expect your emails. Avoid long gaps or sudden bursts of activity, which can harm engagement and trigger spam filters.

What Are Spam Traps?

Spam traps are email addresses used by ISPs and anti-spam organizations to identify senders with poor list hygiene. Sending to a spam trap can severely damage your sender reputation, leading to blocklisting and drastically reduced deliverability. Keep these types of spam traps in mind:

  1. Pristine spam traps: These are the most dangerous. They are email addresses that have never been valid or used by a real person. They are created solely for the purpose of catching senders who are scraping websites, purchasing lists, or engaging in other illicit list-building practices. If you hit a pristine spam trap, it’s a strong indicator to ISPs that your acquisition methods are questionable, and your sender reputation will take a significant hit.

  2. Typo spam trap – A typo spam trap is an email address with a common misspelling of a legitimate domain, used to identify senders with poor list hygiene. These traps are designed to catch emails sent to addresses like “gmial.com” or “hotnail.com” instead of the correct “gmail.com” or “hotmail.com”. Hitting these traps can negatively impact sender reputation and email deliverability. 

  3. Recycled spam trap – A recycled spam trap is an email address that was once a legitimate, active address used by a real person, but has since been abandoned and repurposed by an email provider as a trap to identify senders who are not properly managing their email lists. These traps are particularly problematic because they indicate a lack of email list hygiene and can significantly harm a sender’s reputation. 

How to Remove Spam Traps

After verifying your contacts, it’s crucial to run that list through a specialized cleansing service designed to identify and remove spam traps. Because spam traps can’t be directly identified (they look like normal emails), the goal is to prevent and gradually eliminate them through careful list hygiene.

To remove spam traps effectively:

  1. Stop sending to unengaged subscribers: Remove contacts who haven’t opened or clicked on your emails in the past 6–12 months. Spam traps never engage, so this step helps filter them out naturally.

  2. Avoid purchased or scraped lists: Spam traps are often hidden in third-party or scraped databases. Only use permission-based, opt-in email lists.

  3. Use email verification tools: Services like Webbula can detect high-risk or inactive addresses that may include spam traps.

  4. Segment and test carefully: Send campaigns to your most engaged segments first. If deliverability improves, expand gradually to identify which segments might contain traps.

  5. Reconfirm inactive contacts: Run a re-permission campaign asking older subscribers to confirm they still want your emails. Anyone who doesn’t respond should be removed.

  6. Monitor deliverability and status: Use tools like Postmaster Tools (for Gmail) or MXToolbox to monitor spam complaints, bounce patterns, and alerts. If you find evidence of spam traps, pause sending to that segment and review acquisition sources.

How to Avoid Spam Traps

  • Never purchase or rent email lists. These are primary sources of spam traps.

  • Always use a double opt-in process for new subscribers, ensuring genuine consent.

  • Rigorously maintain list hygiene by regularly removing unengaged subscribers.

  • Utilize a reputable email cleansing service specifically for spam trap detection after initial verification and as part of your ongoing list maintenance.

Summary

Ultimately, great email list hygiene is a continuous process. It starts with how you get contacts and continues through every stage of their journey with you. By building a high-quality email list from the get-go, keeping it clean, welcoming new subscribers with a great email series, and then sending emails based on how engaged they are, you can build a strong reputation as a reliable sender. Remember, a clean and engaged list is your most valuable asset—and consistent, smart list management is the key to always landing in the inbox.

Spam traps—used by ISPs to identify senders with poor list management—fall into three categories: pristine, typo, and recycled. While they can’t be directly identified, you can minimize risk by avoiding purchased lists, removing unengaged subscribers, running re-engagement campaigns, and monitoring deliverability performance.

Consistent, proactive list management ensures your campaigns reach real people—not traps—and helps maintain a strong reputation as a trusted sender.

To learn more about our Deliverability Services, contact us. Current customers, reach out to your customer success manager or account manager directly!

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