There is still no substitute for a clean reputation. In any business, clean, untarnished reputation is the very factor that makes the business outstanding in their customers. Clean reputation is indeed an asset for you and for your business. Furthermore, maintained good reputation will put your company on top of your competitors.

Online businesses make use of email marketing as a tool for online campaign and promotion. Email marketing is basically done by sending emails to prospects or clients. The said emails usually contain promotions and updates of product and services offered.

The obvious thing about email marketing is that, less time is needed in the spreading out of information and less money is required as compared to the conventional type of marketing, which makes it suitable for fast-pace and fast-growing businesses. The primary consideration in this type of strategy however, a clean reputation is a must. It is not a question whether your reputation is marred for several reasons or just accidentally. It is a question of how you can maintain a good reputation.

In internet marketing it is said that you have a clean reputation if your domain or IP address is not in the blacklists. This means that no spam report coming form your domain is generated. Unfortunately, this is difficult to achieve. Whether you like it like it or not you have a chance of landing in the backlists. There are several reasons why your domain gets on the blacklists; the big percent comes from users who get annoyed of your emails because of reasons like, they didn't get what they opted for, or they forgot that they have subscribed for your mailing, and thus report your emails as spam. It could also be that, they wanted to opt-out from your mailings but could not find an easy way other than reporting your emails as spam. When sufficient spam reports are generated form your domain, your domain would more likely be in the blacklists.

Once your domain gets in any blacklists, it would be impossible for you to send emails for clients whose mail administrator uses the blacklist where you are in. This means that your emails will never make it to your clients' inbox. This in return will undermine your business.

There are several ways which can be done in preserving a clean reputation, especially your reputation with your clients. The first thing, mean what you say, give your clients what they have asked for. If they ask for updates, give them updates, if it's price list, then send a price list. Another thing, adopt double opt-in. If somebody subscribed to your mailings, have him confirm his intention by asking him to do further actions. Double opt-in can be like sending a confirmation email to the subscribers, they then need to a follow a link or say reply to your emails to confirm their intentions. Though some marketers say it could discourage prospects, yet it is still good in preventing your domain form getting blacklisted. Furthermore, give your clients options, like asking them how often they want to receive emails form you (daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc). Also, include an opt-out feature on your mailings, and make it simple. Give your clients or prospects a fare game. If they don't want to receive further mailings, do so. Save your clean reputation for others that want to receive mailings from you. In addition, it would be better if you are a CAN-SPAM Act compliant. CAN-SPAM Act is a legislation that states several requirements for commercial emails.

If you are having a low ROI in your campaigns and mailings, your domain must be in the blacklist. Indeed preservation of a clean reputation is good, but to some who have been blacklisted accidentally, there is still a remedy to raise your ROI and eventually your sales. There are email delivery assurance systems that can help in your online promotion. These systems do monitor your emails, and can tell if your domain is in any blacklists and help you get whitelisted again. If you want to have a continued clean reputation better adopt an email delivery assurance system.