What is a good deliverability guide for email marketers?

Key findings

• Foundational understanding: A valuable guide introduces marketers to the core concepts of email deliverability, explaining how emails travel from sender to recipient.
• Actionable steps: It provides clear, practical advice on improving inbox placement, moving beyond theoretical knowledge to direct application.
• Target audience focus: Guides tailored for marketers often simplify complex technical jargon, making it accessible for those less familiar with networking or server configurations.
• Holistic view: The best guides cover a range of topics including sender reputation, list hygiene, content optimization, and email authentication (such as DMARC, SPF, and DKIM).

Key considerations

• Audience level: Consider if the guide is suitable for novice or intermediate marketers, as some guides might be too technical or too basic.
• Gated content: Be aware that some valuable resources may require email submission, as highlighted by a marketer in the Email Geeks community, who shared a guide on what happens when emails aren't delivered.
• Up-to-date information: Email deliverability is constantly evolving, so ensure the guide reflects current best practices, like the importance of understanding your deliverability rate benchmarks.
• Actionability: The guide should provide clear, actionable steps that marketers can implement to improve their email deliverability and avoid spam filters.

Key opinions

• Simplicity is key: Marketers prefer guides that break down complex topics into digestible information, making it easier to grasp deliverability concepts.
• Practical application: There is a strong desire for actionable advice that can be immediately implemented to improve email campaign performance, such as methods to increase email click through rates.
• Understanding sales funnels: Marketers are conscious of how accessing gated content might impact sales lead tracking and appreciate transparency.
• Content clarity: Clear and unambiguous language is crucial, especially when distinguishing between broad email concepts and specific email marketing practices.

Key considerations

• User experience: The overall style and readability of a guide are important for marketer engagement and comprehension.
• Addressing common issues: A good guide should directly address why emails might not be reaching the inbox, providing solutions to common deliverability problems.
• Opt-in practices: Marketers should focus on maintaining a clean email list by obtaining consent through transparent opt-in practices to ensure high deliverability, as detailed by EmailTooltester.com.
• Avoiding purchased lists: It is crucial for marketers to avoid using purchased email lists to prevent deliverability issues and blacklisting.

Key opinions

• Accuracy is paramount: Experts scrutinize guides for technical accuracy, especially regarding links and references to external tools or portals like Microsoft SNDS.
• Clarity of distinctions: They emphasize the need for clear differentiation between general email concepts and specific email marketing practices, ensuring marketers don't misinterpret advice.
• Foundational technical understanding: A good guide should lay out the technical foundations of email delivery, including authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which are critical for email authentication.
• Proactive solutions: Experts encourage guides that help marketers boost email deliverability rates by implementing robust technical solutions.

Key considerations

• Verifying external links: It is crucial to re-check all external links in a guide to ensure they point to the correct resources, as misdirection can hinder a marketer's learning journey.
• Understanding ISP requirements: A good guide should explain why certain deliverability requirements were put in place and their impact, providing context for marketers, as discussed by MarTech.org.
• Spam trap awareness: Experts often highlight the dangers of spam traps and explain how to avoid them through proper list management and sending practices.
• Reputation management: Guides should cover how to monitor and improve sender reputation, as it directly impacts deliverability and influences how emails hit the inbox instead of spam.

Key findings

• Authentication standards: Documentation consistently emphasizes the critical role of email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing.
• Reputation is key: Sender reputation, built on factors like IP address history, domain age, and spam complaint rates, is a primary driver of inbox placement.
• Engagement metrics: Positive engagement (opens, clicks, replies) and low negative engagement (complaints, unsubscribes, bounces) are crucial signals for ISPs.
• List hygiene: Maintaining a clean and active email list, free of invalid or unengaged addresses, is fundamental to avoiding spam traps and reducing bounce rates.

Key considerations

• Compliance with ISP requirements: Marketers must understand and adhere to the latest guidelines from major mailbox providers, such as Outlook's new sender requirements, to ensure messages are accepted.
• Blocklist monitoring: It is important to understand how email blacklists (or blocklists) work and how to prevent your domain or IP from being listed, as suggested by Twilio's deliverability best practices.
• Feedback loops: Registering for ISP feedback loops allows marketers to receive reports on spam complaints, providing crucial data for list management.
• Content quality: Documentation often advises against spammy content, excessive links, or misleading subject lines, as these can trigger filters regardless of technical setup.