Welcome back Alex! Great bump on a great topic.
Matt and Brandon, you have some helpful advice. Here are a few quick updates for 2018.
1. You can run, but you can't really hide.
If you try sending all of your emails from a fresh service/IP/etc., thinking that you can leave your old sending reputation behind, it won't always work. The reason is that email companies (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) look at the email content as well as the sender's email. (That's why the word "Via*gra" gets flagged no matter who sends it.) If you've managed to trash your sending reputation with bulk emails that link to YourDealership.com - emails at your new service that link to the same site will often have problems as well.
2. Sending relevant email content to people who are interested never goes out of style. Great advice.
3. Adding FW and RE to a subject line was an option to improve open rates, but now it is considered deceptive. Studies have shown that the first time you use it you may get a lift, but the second time it kills your results because people are on to your ploy.
For those of you who want to see what your email sender reputation, check out the free rating service offered by senderscore.org - just plug in your IP address, and it will give you a rating.
