behind the scenes on email deliverability

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Behind the Scenes on

Email DeliverabilityA look at the intricacies of deliverability

+1 (347) 709-9927 service@essenceofemail.com

Traditional Method – the Seed List

S The traditional method of measuring inboxing is using a

seedlist of email addresses owned by the software or

sender.

S When live mail is sent, then it compares the percentage

that went into spam vs. inbox within these seedlist

emails.

S Only a proxy for actual deliverability.

S Sample of “untrained” inboxes

New Method:

Looking at Real-Time Data

S Look at all the data in real-time, because deliverability

criteria and algorithms are constantly changing

Real-Time Blacklists (RBLs)

S There are various blacklists out there, landing your

sender IP or domain IP on one of these blacklists can

have a negative impact on your deliverability.

S RBLs show fluctuation on whether your domain is on a

blacklist. It may get on and off.

S Certain blacklists carry more weight, such as Spamhaus,

Spamcop, Barracuda. Others may not be as impactful.

Spam Filter Triggers

S Certain content and vocabulary may trigger spam filters.

Generally, more “salesy” or “marketing” copy will have

higher changes of tripping spam filters. More

conversational, natural copy fare better.

S Also image-to-text ratio may be another indicator, though

what is acceptable also varies as the sending landscape

changes.

Fingerprinting

S Fingerprinting is the process of identifying senders based

on the content and other clues in their emails. This is an

attempt to find bad senders even if they move completely

to different domains or sender IP addresses.

S Outlinks to blacklisted domains can also negatively affect

your deliverability.

Pooled (Shared) IP’s vs.

Dedicated IP’s

S Most ESP’s by default will send your mail by shared IP pools.

S The behavior of the other senders in your pool will affect your

deliverability.

S Less control, though the ESP’s tend to group similar senders

together. They also vary the sending IP’s.

S Dedicated IP’s give much more control…but are harder to

manage

Sending Infrastructure

S There are certain protocols and frameworks in place to

identify senders.

S If you don’t have these set up correctly, it can hurt your

deliverability.

S ESP’s sometimes take care of it, other times we have to

do it.

S SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MTA Toxicity

Whitelisting

S There are whitelisting services available (some free,

some paid) where you can whitelist your sending domain,

such as dnswl.org.

S On the user level, if subscribers are whitelisting your

domain (adding to address book), you can have

increased deliverability.

Engagement (Positive

Indicators)

S Engagement is taking a much larger role nowadays.

ISP’s are looking to user behavior to determine inboxing.

S Positive indicators like opens, clicks, stars, prioritizing,

and whitelisting will help deliverability.

S Keeping a clean and engaged list is critical.

Engagement (Negative

Indicators)

S On the other hand, if the users are engaging negatively

with your emails, your deliverability will go down.

S Spam complaints, hard bounces, and non-opens.

S Unsubscribes are okay still.

Geographic Servers

S Where your mail is coming from/routed through also plays

a small role in deliverability.

S Spam detection strive to prevent junk mail, so high-risk

countries are more likely to get email blocked.

S China, Russia, Ukraine and others (historically high

numbers of hackers & spammers)

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You are still here!If you want access to more email marketing tips specially for

ecommerce,

and a ton of useful resources on email marketing topics:

service@essenceofemail.com+1 (347) 709-9927