Summary
Improving email deliverability involves a comprehensive approach focusing on engaged subscribers, domain reputation, proper authentication, and ethical practices. Initial warm-up strategies should prioritize highly engaged users. Maintain impeccable list hygiene by removing inactive accounts and invalid addresses, while making unsubscribing easy and transparent. Adherence to regulations like CAN-SPAM and leveraging feedback loops identify and manage complainers. Technical setup necessitates configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate email and prevent spoofing, including valid PTR records. Google emphasizes maintaining very low spam rates (below 0.10%) in Postmaster Tools and at Gmail you must improve permission. Subscriber consent is vital, as emphasized by ethical marketing practices (double opt-in), along with ongoing reputation monitoring via tools like Google Postmaster Tools and strategic segmentation based on subscriber behavior for targeted engagement.
Key findings
- Engaged Subscribers: Prioritizing emails to engaged subscribers is crucial for building and maintaining a positive sender reputation. High engagement signals to ISPs that your emails are wanted.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning email lists by removing inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses improves deliverability and reduces spam complaints.
- Easy Unsubscribing: Making the unsubscribe process easy and prominent reduces the likelihood of recipients marking emails as spam.
- Email Authentication: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is essential for verifying sender identity and preventing email spoofing, which improves deliverability.
- Compliance with Regulations: Complying with regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act ensures legal compliance and helps maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Feedback Loops: Using feedback loops to identify and remove subscribers who mark emails as spam allows for proactive management of deliverability issues.
- Segmentation: Segmenting email lists based on subscriber behavior and preferences increases engagement and reduces the likelihood of spam complaints.
- Double Opt-in: Using a double opt-in process ensures that subscribers genuinely want to receive emails, improving list quality and reducing spam complaints.
- Domain Warm-up: Gradually increasing sending volume during domain warm-up helps establish a positive reputation with ISPs.
- Spam Rate Thresholds: Maintaining spam rates below 0.10% (as emphasized by Google) is critical for good deliverability.
Key considerations
- Recipient Engagement: Focus on understanding and meeting the needs and expectations of your email recipients to improve engagement and reduce spam complaints.
- Proactive Management: Proactively manage deliverability issues by monitoring metrics, analyzing reports, and adjusting sending practices based on feedback.
- Ethical Practices: Prioritize ethical marketing practices, including obtaining explicit consent and providing easy unsubscribe options, to maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Technical Setup: Ensure proper configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate your email and prevent spoofing.
- Reputation Monitoring: Regularly monitor your domain and IP reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address any deliverability issues.
- Improving Permission: Instead of just focusing on fixing spam rates, focus on improving the overall permission levels on your email lists
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Improving email deliverability involves a multifaceted approach focused on building and maintaining a positive sender reputation. Key strategies include warming up domains gradually by sending to engaged subscribers, diligently managing email lists by removing inactive users, and simplifying the unsubscribe process. Additionally, implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial to verify sender identity and prevent spoofing. Adhering to legal requirements like CAN-SPAM, utilizing feedback loops, segmenting email lists, and employing double opt-in processes all contribute to reducing spam complaints and enhancing overall deliverability.
Key opinions
- Domain Warm-up: Gradually increase sending volume to build a positive reputation with ISPs. Start with engaged subscribers and monitor deliverability metrics.
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean email lists to remove inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses. Use email verification tools to identify and remove problematic addresses.
- Unsubscribe Process: Make unsubscribing easy and prominent to reduce spam complaints. Place unsubscribe links in visible locations within the email.
- Email Authentication: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify sender identity and prevent spoofing.
- Legal Compliance: Adhere to CAN-SPAM Act by including a physical mailing address and a clear unsubscribe link in all commercial emails.
- Feedback Loops: Use feedback loops to identify and remove subscribers who mark emails as spam.
- Segmentation: Segment email lists based on subscriber behavior and preferences to increase engagement and reduce spam complaints.
- Double Opt-in: Use a double opt-in process to confirm subscribers' consent to receive emails and ensure a higher quality list.
Key considerations
- Engagement: Focus on sending emails to engaged subscribers to signal that your emails are wanted.
- Reputation Monitoring: Regularly monitor your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
- Proactive Approach: Proactively address deliverability issues by monitoring metrics and adjusting sending practices based on feedback.
- Compliance: Regularly review email practices to ensure compliance with laws and regulations.
- Adaptability: Adapt your strategies based on changes in email marketing best practices and ISP requirements.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Gmass recommends regularly cleaning your email list to remove inactive subscribers. They explain that sending emails to unengaged contacts harms your sender reputation and increases the likelihood of being marked as spam. Gmass advises using email verification tools to identify and remove invalid email addresses.
2 Feb 2025 - Gmass
Marketer view
Email marketer from Mailchimp recommends using a double opt-in process to confirm subscribers' consent to receive emails. They explain that double opt-in ensures that only genuinely interested subscribers are added to your list, reducing the risk of spam complaints and improving deliverability. Mailchimp advises sending a confirmation email after signup to verify the subscriber's email address.
7 Aug 2022 - Mailchimp
What the experts say
5 expert opinions
Improving email deliverability requires a focus on recipient engagement, domain reputation, and ethical practices. A spam rate of 1% with a medium domain reputation indicates a problem beyond warm-up, suggesting the need to better meet recipient expectations. Sending to your 'best data' (most engaged subscribers) is essential, and at Gmail, improving permission is key since you cannot simply remove complainers. Regular list hygiene through segmentation and removal of unengaged users also boosts deliverability. Building and maintaining a positive domain reputation involves consistent practices, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and subscriber engagement. Finally, obtaining explicit consent through double opt-in is critical for ethical marketing and preventing spam complaints.
Key opinions
- Recipient Engagement: Low engagement with emails indicates deliverability issues beyond domain warm-up.
- Best Data: Sending to your most engaged subscribers is key to improving deliverability and reputation, especially at Gmail.
- List Hygiene: Regularly segment and remove unengaged subscribers to improve sender reputation.
- Domain Reputation: Consistent sending practices, authentication, and subscriber engagement build a positive domain reputation.
- Explicit Consent: Obtaining explicit consent through double opt-in is essential for ethical marketing and good deliverability.
Key considerations
- Meet Expectations: Focus on understanding and meeting the needs and expectations of your email recipients.
- Improving Permission: Instead of trying to 'fix' spam rates, concentrate on improving the overall permission level of your email list.
- Data Segmentation: Segment your email list based on engagement levels to better target and improve deliverability.
- Ethical Marketing: Prioritize ethical marketing practices, including obtaining explicit consent, to maintain a positive reputation.
- Monitor Reputation: Regularly monitor your domain reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address any issues.
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource explains that regular list hygiene is crucial for maintaining good deliverability. They advise segmenting your list based on engagement and removing unengaged subscribers to improve sender reputation. They recommend focusing on subscribers who actively open and click your emails.
6 Mar 2024 - Spamresource
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that domain reputation directly impacts email deliverability. They explain that building and maintaining a positive domain reputation requires consistent sending practices, proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and engagement with subscribers. They advise monitoring your domain reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
29 May 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Improving email deliverability hinges on proper email authentication and maintaining clean mailing lists. Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is critical for verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing, with Google emphasizing maintaining spam rates below 0.10%. Ensuring a valid forward and reverse DNS record (PTR record) is also essential. Microsoft highlights the importance of regularly removing bounced emails and unsubscribed users to improve sender reputation and reduce spam complaints, also advising to use a double opt-in process. SPF records, as defined by RFC, prevent email spoofing by specifying authorized mail servers. DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to provide policies for handling failed authentication, enabling senders to receive reports about authentication failures.
Key findings
- Email Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are essential for verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing, which improves deliverability.
- Spam Rate Threshold: Google requires maintaining spam rates below 0.10% in Postmaster Tools.
- PTR Records: Valid forward and reverse DNS records (PTR record) are crucial for sending domain/IP address.
- List Maintenance: Regularly removing bounced emails and unsubscribed users improves sender reputation and reduces spam complaints.
- Double Opt-in: Using a double opt-in process helps ensure that subscribers genuinely want to receive emails and minimizes the risk of spam reports.
- DMARC Policy: DMARC provides a policy for how email receivers should handle emails that fail authentication checks and enables reporting on authentication failures.
Key considerations
- Implementation: Properly configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate your email and prevent spoofing.
- Regular Monitoring: Monitor your spam rates and sender reputation to identify and address any deliverability issues.
- Proactive Cleaning: Proactively remove inactive or invalid email addresses from your mailing lists to maintain a healthy list and improve deliverability.
- Compliance: Ensure your email practices comply with industry standards and best practices to improve your sender reputation and deliverability.
- Reporting Analysis: Analyze DMARC reports to identify and address email authentication failures to protect your domain from spoofing and phishing attacks.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help emphasizes the importance of authenticating email using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability. They explain that senders should ensure their sending domain or IP address has a valid forward and reverse DNS record (PTR record). In addition they clearly state that you must keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching a spam rate of 0.30% or higher.
5 Sep 2021 - Google Workspace Admin Help
Technical article
Documentation from DMARC.org highlights that DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM to provide a policy for how email receivers should handle emails that fail authentication checks. It also enables senders to receive reports about email authentication failures, helping them identify and address potential issues. DMARC.org recommends implementing DMARC to protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks.
8 Sep 2022 - DMARC.org
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