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Popular Questions
These are the top 10 most frequently asked questions regarding email deliverability. The answers provided here are high-level and include links to relevant blog articles for more information.
Email deliverability refers to the ability of an email to successfully reach the recipient’s inbox rather than being sent to spam or blocked entirely. It depends on factors like sender reputation, email content, authentication, and infrastructure.
Several factors impact email deliverability, including:
- Spam complaints
- Sender reputation
- Related domain reputation
- Email content and formatting
- Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Infrastructure and IP reputation
- List quality and engagement rates
SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) are email authentication methods:
- DKIM adds a digital signature to verify the email hasn’t been tampered with
- SPF verifies that the sending server is authorized to send emails for a domain
- DMARC determines what to do with the email if either DKIM or SPF fail, and where to send the resulting reports. It also ensures the sending domain is the one authenticating with SPF and/or DKIM.
Yes, ALL email that goes out from your domain needs to be authenticated (i.e., have SPF and DKIM correctly configured and enabled at a minimum). This is how you prove your emails are authentic and legitimate. DMARC is also helpful because it protects your domain from spoofing (someone else pretending to be you).
While 100% is the most desirable, it’s typically not feasible given the technical variables that are outside of a sender’s control. Delivery is also different from deliverability, the latter of which is harder to measure (especially for smaller senders). It’s usually more effective to measure metrics that impact the bottom line, such as conversions or revenue.
Key metrics for measuring deliverability include:
- Click-through rate
- Bounce rate
- Inbox placement rate
- Spam complaint rate
- Open rate (though less reliable with privacy changes, but can still be used to identify trends and potential issues)
Spcific deliverability factors change frequently based on spammer activity, but there are some best practices that are always helpful:
- Authenticate your emails (SPF, DKIM at a minimum, DMARC to protect your domain)
- Warm up new IP addresses or domains gradually
- Build a quality opt-in email list
- Use a reputable email service provider
- Avoid spam triggers in content
- Optimize subject lines and formatting
- Regularly clean your email list
Email warmup is the process of gradually increasing email send volume from a new IP address or domain to establish a positive sender reputation. This helps improve deliverability for new email accounts or campaigns.
Maintaining a clean email list by regularly removing inactive or bounced addresses helps improve deliverability. High bounce rates or low engagement can negatively impact sender reputation. Spam reports have the biggest impact and will tank deliverability fairly quickly if there are too many.
Email providers use various factors to determine whether an email should be delivered to the inbox, sent to spam, or blocked. Each ISP has its own standards for filtering spam and assessing sender reputation. Some use publicly-available blocklists, while some use their own internal filters (though they may be informed by public blocklists).