Author: Franz Malten Buemann

In the email marketing industry, sending spam or unsolicited bulk messaging can taint any organization’s brand. It can prompt mailbox providers to filter their messages to the spam folder or place them on an email blacklist.

In this article, we’re going to explain what an email blacklist is, how to avoid getting placed on one, and how to tell if you’ve been blacklisted.
What is an email blacklist?
How to Avoid an Email Blacklist
How to Check if You’re On an Email Blacklist
How to Get Off an Email Blacklist

Some blacklists, like Spamhaus, are credible and widely trusted, so if a brand is on one of these blacklists, it’ll heavily impact their sender reputation. Other blacklists, likeNoSolicitado, are less credible and trusted, so if a brand is on one of these blacklists, it won’t affect its sender reputation nearly as much.
When referencing blacklists to determine a brand’s deliverability, mailbox providers weigh their influence by credibility and not just if they’re listed on them.

How to Avoid an Email Blacklist
A wise email team leader at HubSpot named Jess Swazey once told me, “The easiest way to get off an email blacklist is to never get on it in the first place.” In light of this Yoda-esque wisdom, here are four best practices for avoiding email blacklists.
1. Only email contacts who have subscribed to your email program — and never email contacts scraped from websites, third-party sources, or purchased contact lists.
The easiest and most crucial step you can take to avoid email blacklists is emailing people who actually subscribed to your emails. Because in a world where only 8% of people assume the information in advertising is true, the best way to build a contact database is the hard and honest way — collecting email addresses organically.
Plus collecting and emailing contacts who never subscribed to your email program in the first place is a one-way ticket to getting blacklisted. This is because most blacklist operators have already placed pristine spam traps in third-party sources, abandoned websites, and purchased contact lists.
2. Clean your email lists on a regular basis.
Having a large email list may seem like a great idea, but they do more harm than good if they consist of numerous unengaged contacts, so it’s best to go through your email list and purge it of any inactive email addresses.
Most mailbox providers decide if you’re actually a reputable sender and deserving of a high deliverability score by keeping an eye on any inactive email addresses that have been converted into recycled spam traps and dinging any IP address or domain that sends emails to them. In your database, any contact that hasn’t engaged with your email program or opened one of your emails in a year could possibly be a recycled spam trap.
To avoid sending emails to recycled spam traps and getting blacklisted, run one-off re-engagement campaigns with your inactive contacts. It’s up to you to decide how long a contact’s disengagement with your email program deems them inactive, but if they don’t open your re-engagement email, it’s a sign to scrub them off your list.
3. Never manually enter email addresses into your database or mass email those contacts.
After industry events, some sales teams collect business cards from prospects, manually plug each contact’s email address into their database, and send them a mass marketing email.
This can also be a one-way ticket to getting blacklisted because those contacts never opted into receiving messages from your email program. They’re likely never to open them. In fact, they may flag them as spam, which will lower your deliverability and heighten your risk of getting blacklisted.
Manually entering email addresses into your database can also increase the chance of typos, resulting in emails being sent to addresses that don’t exist. This will increase your email bounce rate, which will also lower your deliverability and boost your risk of getting blacklisted.
To avoid these issues, connect with each of these prospects through their personal inbox and direct them to an offer, landing page, or form where they can opt themselves into your email marketing list.
4. Validate your new subscribers’ email addresses.
Speaking of typos, sometimes people will try to subscribe to your email program but make a typo when entering their contact information in your form.
Unfortunately, mailbox providers will bounce any emails sent to addresses that don’t exist — lower your deliverability and heighten your risk of getting blacklisted. To avoid this subtle yet potent blacklisting trigger, use email address verification tools like Kickboxor Zero Bounce to validate each email address you collect from your subscription forms.

How to Check If You’re On an Email Blacklist
Sometimes, a pristine or recycled spam trap can slip through the cracks and get you blacklisted. Fortunately, your email service provider will usually notify you when this happens, but if you want to be absolutely sure that your IP address or domain isn’t on a blacklist, use blacklist-checking tools, like Sender Score or MX Toolbox.
There are also other ways you can check to see if you’re blacklisted:
Check your email metrics.
A good indicator that you may be blacklisted is if your open rates have taken a huge dive. For example, falling from 40% down to 5% in a short amount of time is definitely a sign that something is amiss.
Send out test emails.
Send test emails to known addresses and see how many of them are received and if they have ended up in the spam folder.
Use an email monitor.
Email monitors, like MassMailer Email Monitor, automatically check blacklists and offer a variety of services and features — such as:

Predictive deliverability metrics
Blacklist and whitelist monitoring
Email client preview testing

How to Get Off an Email Blacklist
If you send emails through one of your email service provider’s shared IP addresses and it gets blacklisted, it’s your email service provider’s job to delist the shared IP address. However, one domain that sends spam from a shared IP address can blacklist the entire shared IP address, so if your actions blacklist your shared IP address, your email service provider has the right to cancel your subscription or require remediation.
On the other hand, if your dedicated IP address or domain ends up on one or multiple email blacklists, it’s your job to get it off them. Unfortunately, there’s no universal solution for getting your domain delisted — you need to follow a different protocol for each blacklist you’re on in order to get off of it. However, there are two general best practices for delisting that are great starting points for any email program.

1. Follow email best practices.
To get off most blacklists, you need to work directly with the blacklist operators and prove to them that you’re actually a trustworthy sender. You can do this by following email best practices for a certain period of time. Some email best practices are:

Avoiding the use of no-reply email addresses
Sending personalized emails
Including compelling CTAs
A/B testing content

2. Permission Pass Campaigns
Another way to delist your domain is by running permission pass campaigns. When you get blacklisted, your email service provider will pinpoint the campaign that triggered it — allowing you to identify the email list in your database that has spam traps. Once you find this list, you can run a permission pass campaign, where you send a one-off re-engagement email to the list’s contacts who haven’t interacted with your emails in a long time.
These contacts are most likely the spam traps that triggered your blacklisting, so make sure you weed out all the accounts that don’t engage with your permission pass campaign. Otherwise, an emotional attachment to a large yet unengaged email list might never let you delist.

 

Between carefully curated photos, expertly targeted ads, and decisive adoption of Instagram stories, no other B2C industry has thrived on Instagram, much like the beauty and apparel industry.
Some of the best clothing brands on Instagram are masters of consumer engagement, and businesses from any industry could learn something from these inspirational feeds. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of 30 clothing brands — both big and small — crushing the game. For a deeper dive into how to build a presence on Instagram, check out our complete guide to Instagram marketing.
30 of the Best Clothing Brands to Follow on Instagram
1. Telfar @telfar
Telfar is a luxury brand well known for its bags and clothing. Like many brands on the list, it uses Instagram to share information about its products paired with high-quality product photos, videos, and user-generated content.

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2. J.Crew @jcrew
J.Crew has mastered the art of follower engagement on Instagram. Its vibrant feed inspires followers, whether via daily updated Stories, in-feed product announcements, or style inspo.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by J.Crew (@jcrew)

3. Anthropologie @anthropologie
With colorful images of its bright and patterned styles, Anthropologie’s feed is a visual smorgasbord of inspiration.

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4. Girlfriend Collective @girlfriend
Girlfriend Collective experienced explosive social media growth after advertising a free leggings promotion. Its feed engages customers with stunning product photography of its minimal styles and funny memes related to its products.

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5. BRKLN Bloke @brklynbloke
Brkln Bloke is a Brooklyn-based streetwear brand that has mastered the art of sharing its products in the wild, helping followers get styling inspiration for their purchases.

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6.Nike @nike
The behemoth athletic brand has enthusiastically embraced video content and regularly shares clips with its impressive 263 Million followers. Its feed features a motivational mix of professional athletes and everyday people, which directly aligns with its brand mission that Nike is for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Nike (@nike)

7. Paloma Wool @palomawool
>In the image below, Paloma Wool shares a carousel of photos showing audiences different ways to wear one of its products, the Berlin multi-position belt. This gives wearers and audiences inspiration for how to use the product and can also inspire a new purchase if someone sees a style they like.

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8. Kate Spade @katespadeny
Despite being a well-established label, Kate Spade’s Instagram has a distinct personal touch that sets it apart from similar brands. Its profile features outfit pictures, snaps from around New York, and behind-the-scenes shots of the design process at the Kate Spade Studio.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by kate spade new york (@katespadeny)

9. Hermoza @the_hermoza
Hermoza leverages one of Instagram’s impactful native features — shoppable posts and a storefront. Each post has a “View Shop” CTA, and clicking on it leads audiences to an Instagram storefront where they can discover more products or even make a purchase without leaving the app.

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10. House of Sunny @houseofsunny
House of Sunny’s approach to Instagram is worth replicating as it ensures followers always have a source for inspiration for using its products. It specifically calls attention to styling opportunities with a permanent Story Highlight called “As Seen On,” where people can click through a series of UGC to discover unique ways to style its clothing.
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11. Eileen Fisher @eileenfisherny
Eileen Fisher emphasizes its quality materials and environmentally friendly production processes on Instagram, and landing on its profile brings you to three pinned posts displaying the lifecycle of the products it uses and how it champions sustainability.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by EILEEN FISHER (@eileenfisherny)

12. Sandy Liang @sandyliang
Sandy Liang is well known for creating unique versions of everyday staples. On Instagram, the brand shares lookbooks for its clothing and accessories, giving followers inspiration for what and how to wear its products. The image below is a lookbook giving inspo on what to wear when visiting a friend.

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13. Asos @asos
British online fashion retailer ASOS updates its feed regularly with colorful and bold product features. It stands out from the crowd with a video-first Instagram strategy, only rarely sharing still photos, allowing followers to interact and engage with content.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by ASOS (@asos)

14. Aerie @aerie
Scrolling through Aerie’s Instagram feed is like taking a tropical beach getaway. The lingerie and bathing suit brand has been applauded for its commitment to unretouched photos in its print ads, and it continues this effort on its Instagram, creating a cohesive brand image.

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15. Ziran @theziran
Ziran merges ancient Chinese techniques, luxury fashion, and sustainable practices to create its clothing brand. On its Instagram, behind-the-scenes content about how the brand came to be, gives people a glimpse into the people and processes that bring their favorite brand to life.

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16. Aime Leon Dore @aimeleondore
Aime Leon Dore shares product announcements in videos that align with the product’s intended use. For example, the video below announces an upcoming collaboration with Woolrich, a brand well-known for its durability. The video features models in activities that might cause wear and tear to everyday products, but not those from the Aime Leon Dore x Woolrich collab.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Aimé Leon Dore (@aimeleondore)

17. Lisa Says Gah @lisasaysgah
It often uses Instagram for restock announcements so its followers know when their favorite products are available for purchase again. Doing this also helps drive more followers to the platform, as people will see Instagram as a way to get the most up-to-date information on their favorite brand.

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18. Tach @tach_clothing
>Tach uses Instagram to share exciting behind-the-scenes content. The image below is a sneak peek into its line sheets, which are usually only used as a sales tool to present products to buyers. Audiences are let in on its behind-the-scenes activity, which can be exciting.

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>19. Fossil @fossil
If you like photos of neatly organized items, then Fossil’s Instagram is for you. The accessories brand curates an impressive feed of food, fashion, and celebrities like James Phelps, generating audience excitement if they recognize their favorite actor.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Fossil (@fossil)

20. Everlane @everlane
Everlane’s account has no shortage of beautiful product imagery, but it also features photos of customers wearing its clothes, inspiring travel photography, and tips on food and art destinations worldwide, giving audiences a well-rounded experience on its profile.

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>21. Bode @bode
>Bode is well known for its quilted jackets and one-of-a-kind clothing items. On Instagram, it shares videos explaining the background and inspiration for its collections, giving followers insight into the brand, its values, and what it stands for.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by BODE (@bode)

22. Teva @teva
Teva’s Instagram feed is proof that it’s possible to give your brand a modern update without losing the spirit of what made you successful in the first place. Its feed includes user-generated content of its shoes out in the wild and sleek product photos highlighting new styles.

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23. Zara @zara
Zara has made a name for itself by emulating the marketing of luxury brands, and its Instagram feed is no exception. Its account looks like a high-fashion magazine, with professional editorial shots of its varied clothing styles.

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24. Fjällräven @fjallravenofficial
The Instagram feed for Swedish outdoor apparel brand Fjällräven is less about its products and more about the adventurous spirit that has defined the company for almost 60 years.

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25. Madewell @madewell
Apparel brand Madewell is known for its relaxed, classic styles, and its Instagram clearly reflects this aesthetic. With bright sunny images of its latest products and collaborations, its feed is a fashion lover’s delight.

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26. The Row @therow
Another account that focuses less on its products and more on visual inspiration, The Row features vintage photos of art, architecture, and fashion — only occasionally sharing images and actual products — where they share a brand aesthetic that is bigger than just what it sells.

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27. Santos by Monica @santosbymonica
Santos by Monica’s Instagram grid is eye-catching as every post uses the same color scheme and creates a pleasing browsing experience, building a cohesive brand identity and helping people develop brand recognizability for its specific color schemes and hues.

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28. Carhartt WIP @carharttwip
Carhartt Work In Progress announces sales on its Instagram profile, a valuable way to ensure your different audiences are aware of your brand promotions. For example, if your Instagram followers aren’t subscribed to your mailing list, they won’t receive your newsletter announcing the sale, but they’ll see it in their feed.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Carhartt Work In Progress (@carharttwip)

Snapchat’s Spotlight feature has quickly become one of the most popular destinations for users to find fun, engaging content.

In this post, we’ll dive into how to post on Snapchat Spotlight and how to create captivating videos that drive results.

How to Post to Snapchat Spotlight
How to Check the Status of Your Submitted Spotlight Videos
How to Save or Delete Snaps Shared on Spotlight
Tips for Creating Snapchat Spotlight Videos

How to Post to Snapchat Spotlight
Via Mobile Device

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Record your Snap.
Edit using the creative tools in the app, such as Lenses and Sounds.
Add a topic (optional).
Tap the Send button.
Tap “Spotlight” on the top of the “Send To” screen.

Via Computer/Desktop

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Log into your Snapchat account.
Drag and drop your video into the left-hand side.
Add a topic.
Choose where to save your video.
Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
Click on “Post to Spotlight.”

How to Check the Status of Your Submitted Spotlight Videos

Navigate to your profile.
Tap on your submitted Snap.
You’ll either see “Submitted” or “Live.”
Submitted means it’s been received but has not been featured (yet) on Spotlight.
Live means it’s been shared on Spotlight and can be seen by all users.

How to Save or Delete Snaps Shared on Spotlight

Tap the Settings button in your profile.
Tap “Spotlight and Snap Map.”
Tap the download icon to save the Snap to your memories or the trash icon to delete it.

Once you delete a Snap, it will no longer appear in Spotlight but it’s important to note that it may have already been shared by users, as it was originally public.

Tips for Creating Snapchat Spotlight VideosImage Source
1. Be creative.
Social media is an incredibly competitive landscape, so thinking outside the box is key.
You’ll want to take risks and push boundaries by experimenting with different angles and topics. Snapchat recommends posting videos that invite engagement, content that:

Educates viewers – Tutorials, DIYs, arts and crafts.
Invites viewers to participate in a challenge – This can be a dance, prank, music, or other.
Appeals to people’s emotions – Think animals, babies, and nature.
Showcases your talent – Have a special skill you want to show off? This is the place to do it, as long as it’s child-friendly.

2. Meet the Spotlight guidelines.
Every Snap submitted to Spotlight goes through a review process before it is shared to ensure it aligns with Snapchat’s community guidelines. If you’re not sure your Snap is eligible, make sure it meets these criteria:

Your video is high-quality with approved sound (music from the in-app library), and is between five and 60 seconds.
Your video doesn’t feature any sponsored or promotional content with links and/or attachments.
Your video doesn’t have any watermarks from other platforms like TikTok or Reels.
Your video doesn’t feature any illegal, or activities unsafe for those under 18 years of age, such as gambling and drinking.

3. Post often and experiment.
Are you getting the most out of social media? It’s easy to get turned off by the amount of effort that goes into creating great content, but a key element in being successful on social networks is consistency.
Posting videos often will accomplish two things: It will give you more opportunities to get in front of your audience and you’ll discover what content resonates best with your audience.
Don’t be afraid to create something new and get it out there – you just might be surprised at the response you receive.

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It’s fair to say that not many people grow up dreaming about working in customer support. It’s not the typical aspirational career path! Indeed, some see a customer support role as a stepping stone to something else or a short-term job in a break from college or Uni. After nearly a decade working in a support role here at Buffer, I’ve come to think of customer support as a career in its own right, and I’m more passionate about it than ever.I’ve been working in the support team at Buffer for nine years, which is a significant and unusual amount of time in one job! In the tech world, people switch roles and employers more than in almost any other industry, making me even more of an outlier. There have certainly been times when the thought of moving on has popped into my mind, and I wondered if I should consider starting a new chapter. I want to share more about why I’ve stayed at Buffer and have no plans to leave.First of all – why support?I’ve always liked figuring things out, understanding how things work, making things better, and helping people. I feel satisfaction when I’ve been able to use my knowledge, experience, and skills to make a difference. I’ve previously worked in healthcare, where I made clinical diagnoses (focused on people) and in IT security roles (focused on tech). My customer support role at Buffer is in a sweet spot for me, where I use skills from both areas.Working in customer support can draw on many skills you wouldn’t combine in other roles. In just one day’s work, you can use a wide range of skills: emotional intelligence, predictive communication, technical knowledge, troubleshooting/diagnostics, and testing. There’s also a lot of cross-team communication: we work directly with the finance team on sales admin, with the marketing team on launch planning, and we work with the product and engineering teams to support their work in improving our product and bringing new features to our customers. We’re far from being an isolated team!Another awesome thing about support is that we need to know about the whole product, not just functionally. We need to know the ins and outs of how to use each feature, and we need to understand multiple use cases for each feature, the associated bugs, which bugs have recently been resolved for that feature, how features interact with one another, how our features differ from native features, etc. There’s the potential for infinite knowledge growth. You’ve never ‘arrived’ as a knowledge expert across the entire product due to continual changes, so there’s a constant challenge. However, amidst that challenge, your understanding of the resources which are at your disposal grows and gives you the confidence to continue navigating this ever-changing environment.Second – why I’ve stayed at Buffer.I joined in 2014 when we were still a start-up (Buffer was founded in 2012), and we were fewer than 20 people. The support team is currently bigger than Buffer was when I joined! I started out covering Saturdays and Sundays as a “Weekend Warrior” (we used to have slightly more jovial names for our roles, and we had a strong love of alliteration back then). I covered the email inbox and conversations coming in via social, and after a while, I transitioned into a more traditional work week.Some people know Buffer as much for our culture as for our product. We’ve been fully remote since before my time, and being able to work from wherever you feel most productive has been incredibly powerful. To me, it’s the biggest perk! I’ve been able to stay with my Dad, working from his place when he was unwell. I’ve also had the luxury of serving customers while poolside on a Spanish island. The flexibility and potential to find your best version of work-life balance without having to commute or being tied to an office is something I treasure. More recently, we transitioned to a four-day work week without a drop in salary. You might be starting to understand why Buffer is an exceptional company! Beyond these things, we’re a values-led company, and despite being spread around the globe, there are key things we all have in common.The work we do in support has always been focused on empowering people. We want to be there to help, but we also want to get out of the way as soon as possible. There are a few ways we do this:We offer the same level of support to our Free plan users as any paying customer, which means we can be there for people just getting started. That’s incredibly powerful.SourceWe invite customers to review their support experience, and we pay very close attention to how they score us. Our customer satisfaction score is currently 97%!Buffer CSAT request to customersWe use a system to review and rate our support conversations and make sure we’re delivering a really high standard, focusing on three tenets: Awareness, Clarity, and Empowerment.Buffer internal quality reviewsOver the span of 9 years, Buffer has changed a lot. Our product is more powerful and more complex, and our company has grown to just under 80 people. All this change has kept my role interesting, with fresh challenges and shifting team structures as we’ve evolved and refined our work and experimented with new approaches and tools. At the same time, we’ve maintained our small team mindset and focused on our core values.In the last year, I’ve taken on a Product Liaison role (more on that here), working as a link between our support team and our fantastic product team. I’ve learned so much! I make sure that the support team knows about all the customer-facing changes being worked on, as well as pass on customer insights that come through the inbox – such as areas of product friction and feature requests. I’m also getting more involved in pre-release testing and learning about the whole process of bringing new features to market. It’s been eye-opening, and the last 12 months have been the most exciting and rewarding of my career.How I avoid stalling and keep my motivation freshOnce or twice a year, I’ve intentionally stepped back from my work to reflect and ensure I’ve not gotten stuck in a rut or complacent about what I do. I’d never want to work on autopilot; that just isn’t me. Luckily, my work keeps me on my toes! There are also some proactive things I’ve done, that have greatly enriched my work and career in support:Take time to connect with the broader support community. There are Slack communities and real-life opportunities, such as meet-ups and conferences. Building a network of support professionals outside of Buffer’s customer Advocacy team worked well for me. It started out very organically, at a Customer Support meet-up one evening in London. I was chatting with some lovely people who also worked remotely about how nice it might be to co-work regularly. This was the start of the Support Breakfast, an informal co-working event based around breakfast in various venues in London. We worked from all kinds of locations, including coffee shops, hotel lobbies, and museums, and formed close friendships over time. We had such great chats about the common themes in our work and the different ways that we approached some of the challenges we faced, that we started recording our conversations and sharing them as a podcast.Be aware of working on autopilot. I’m not thinking of ‘getting in the zone’ here, more about coasting through the day. I’ve had jobs like that in the past, and it’s just not me. I don’t think that most people want that from a career. Some level of challenge that you can feel good about at the end of the day or week.Review available roles at other companies from time to time. The role description and requirements can help frame your current role and inspire you in terms of personal growth and the skills you want to develop. Not only will this enrich your current work, but it will also ensure that you’re market-ready if you decide to move on.Take on new challenges and projects within your capacity and with your manager’s support. Find areas within your team or adjacent teams where you can help out. For a while, I was wary that as Buffer had grown, our roles became more defined, with less variety in our work or opportunities to do something different. In small companies, you often do what needs doing, whether in your job description or not – in larger organizations, your role is more clearly mapped out and defined, and there are fewer opportunities to ‘wear many hats’. However, even in larger organizations, there are always going to be gaps that need filling, new initiatives or experiments that are worth exploring, or people or teams that need help.Finally, I recommend reading books and articles and listening to podcasts to expand your knowledge. Customer support has really been coming into its own as a career, and like all careers, there are emerging trends and opportunities.I ended up working in the support world because I like to help, and I’ve ended up surrounded by some of the kindest and most supportive people I’ve ever met. There are many directions that a career in support can take you and so many areas that you can get a taste of and perhaps go on to specialize in: marketing, customer research, community management, sales, and account management. You can go deeper into technical skills and engineering, as well as progress into an operations or leadership role. I didn’t grow up expecting to follow this path, but I’m fueled and encouraged by how dynamic and fulfilling my career in customer support has been. I’ll be here for a while!What thoughts come to mind for you on this topic? Come chat with me over on Mastodon,  Twitter, or LinkedIn!