{"id":24788,"date":"2016-06-02T11:54:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T18:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?p=24788"},"modified":"2023-06-16T06:11:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T06:11:55","slug":"survey-response-validity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/survey-response-validity\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey Response Validity – A Guide to Increasing Deliverability and Inbox Delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SurveyThe efforts you put in creating your surveys and designing your emails might never pay off\u00a0since one out of every five emails you\u00a0send might not even reach your recipient. If you email surveys<\/a> – I\u2019m sorry to say, but your survey response validity is at stake even though you might think that you have enough respondents for your survey sample size.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges that email marketers face are low delivery rates, and while there are various factors that affect it, spam traps are one of the most challenging and most misunderstood.<\/p>\n

WHAT IS A SPAM TRAP?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Inbox providers use spam traps as mechanisms to catch malicious email senders and spammers. Often, senders with no bad intent get\u00a0caught under the radar due to poor data or acquisition practices.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A spam trap is almost like a legitimate email address, the only difference is that it\u2019s not. It <\/span>doesn’t belong\u00a0to anyone, nor it is used for email exchange. It\u2019s <\/span>only purpose is to identify spammers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why should you care about spam traps? – Survey response validity<\/h2>\n
For all you know, surveys \u00a0you are sending now might be caught in spam traps and affect your survey response validity. If your emails and surveys are sent to spam traps, it indicates that you\u2019ve used bad practices to get people\u2019s emails or that you have been doing a poor job at maintaining a clean list. Inbox providers and organizations that fight against spamming consider you as a bad practitioner and that damages your reputation – and that is why your surveys are likely not to be delivered.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To get back on track and impact the bottom line of survey response validity, you need to understand the different kinds of spam traps to prevent them from ending on your email list.\u00a0Laura Atkins, owner of Word to the Wise and\u00a0 email deliverability expert and has put together a\u00a0comprehensive list<\/a>\u00a0of spam trap categories.<\/p>\n

The most common ones are:<\/p>\n

1. Pristine traps<\/strong>\u00a0are addresses that are available on public <\/span>web sites, but not visible to a regular site visitor. Only people who scrape the Internet for everything that looks anything like email address will find these. This is how you pick up a pristine spam trap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. Recycled Traps<\/strong>\u00a0are types of email addresses that have been used by real people in the past, became abandoned, and later on became a trap by the inbox provider.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When an email has been sent to that address, the inbox provider bounces it, which to its sender is a signal to remove that address <\/span>form the list. Responsible senders respect this request and remove the bouncing\u00a0addresses, but some tend to ignore the protocol and continue their bad practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the ISP\u2019s response to irresponsible senders when they turn the abandoned email addresses into spam traps. After a <\/span>while, the abandoned email addresses are not bouncing anymore, but they turn into a spam trap that <\/span>indicating\u00a0everyone who sends emails to it, as a bad sender. If you really care about your survey response validity – keep checking and look after you mailing list.\u00a0<\/span>Another way how you might end up picking up spam traps are misspelled email addresses.<\/p>\n

HOW to know if your survey goes to a spam trap?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tricky, as these addresses look like legitimate email addresses. However, there are a few tools that help you evaluate your sender reputation and show whether or not you\u2019re sending to any spam traps.\u00a0Microsoft\u2019s Smart Data Network Service (SNDS)<\/a>\u00a0is one example for such a tool.<\/p>\n

TIPS FOR MANAGING YOUR SIGN-UP PROCESS<\/p>\n

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