behind the scenes on email deliverability
TRANSCRIPT
S
Behind the Scenes on
Email DeliverabilityA look at the intricacies of deliverability
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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)
S
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