What is the demand for formal email deliverability training?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 26 May 2025
Updated 19 Aug 2025
7 min read
Email deliverability is a dynamic and increasingly complex field. With evolving inbox provider rules, sophisticated spam filters, and new authentication standards like DMARC, ensuring emails land in the inbox, not the spam folder, has become a significant challenge for businesses of all sizes. The days of simply sending emails and hoping for the best are long gone.
Many marketers and technical professionals find themselves grappling with declining inbox placement rates, but lack the specialized knowledge to diagnose and resolve these issues effectively. This gap in expertise often leads to missed opportunities, wasted resources, and a direct impact on revenue.
The demand for structured, formal training in email deliverability is growing as organizations recognize that this isn't just a technical concern, but a critical business function. Businesses are realizing that investing in comprehensive deliverability education for their teams can yield significant returns.
The increasing complexity of email deliverability
The email landscape is constantly shifting, driven by major mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo introducing new sender requirements. These updates, such as stricter authentication mandates and lower spam complaint thresholds, mean that senders must be more diligent than ever. Failure to comply can result in emails being rejected or routed directly to the spam folder, severely impacting campaign performance. We've seen how Outlook’s new sender requirements impact deliverability.
The technical intricacies involved in email deliverability, including setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, understanding IP and domain reputation, and managing bounce rates, are not intuitive. Many organizations try to navigate this complex landscape with limited internal expertise, often relying on fragmented online articles or trial-and-error, which can lead to costly mistakes and prolonged deliverability issues. This often leads to situations where emails end up in spam.
Furthermore, a lack of understanding regarding email blacklists (or blocklists) and how they function can be detrimental. Being listed on a major blacklist can halt email delivery entirely. Formal training helps clarify how email blocklists work and how to mitigate their impact, as well as how to react if your domain is blacklisted.
Who benefits from formal training?
Formal deliverability training is highly beneficial for several distinct groups within an organization, each with unique needs and responsibilities in the email ecosystem.
Marketing professionals
Email marketers are often on the front lines, crafting campaigns and analyzing performance, but many lack a deep understanding of the technical underpinnings that impact whether their messages reach the inbox. Training helps them understand the key areas affecting deliverability, from list hygiene and segmentation to content optimization, enabling them to design campaigns that are not only engaging but also deliverable.
Technical teams
Developers, IT administrators, and DevOps engineers are responsible for implementing and maintaining email sending infrastructure. They need comprehensive training on critical protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM, as well as understanding how server configuration and sending practices influence IP and domain reputation. Formal training ensures they can properly configure systems to maximize inbox placement and troubleshoot complex issues.
Consultants and agencies
Consultants and agencies offering email marketing or technical services to clients must possess deep and current deliverability knowledge. Their reputation hinges on their ability to ensure client emails reach their intended audience. Formal training allows them to offer expert advice, implement best practices, and stay ahead of industry changes, providing superior service.
What formal training offers
While there are numerous free resources available online, formal training provides a structured learning environment that often proves more effective than piecing together information from various sources. A comprehensive course offers a curated curriculum, ensuring all essential topics are covered systematically.
Beyond theory, good training programs often incorporate practical exercises, case studies, and real-world scenarios. This hands-on approach helps learners apply concepts immediately and develop problem-solving skills, which is invaluable when dealing with complex deliverability challenges. It allows individuals to gain expertise in email deliverability basics much faster. This also addresses the need for recommended email deliverability training classes.
The value proposition of specialized training
Investing in formal email deliverability training offers substantial value, translating directly into tangible business benefits and improved career prospects for individuals. This is particularly true given the crucial role deliverability plays in overall email marketing success.
Higher deliverability rates mean more emails reach the inbox, leading to increased open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately, conversions and revenue. A recent report indicated that a significant percentage of businesses are still missing the inbox, highlighting the room for improvement that formal training can address. We wrote a recent article about deliverability issues and getting messages to the inbox.
Preventing deliverability issues before they occur is far more cost-effective than trying to recover from poor sender reputation or a blocklist listing. Formal training equips teams with the knowledge to implement proactive strategies, thereby reducing the risk of interruptions to email flow and avoiding the often lengthy and complex process of remediation.
The data confirms the critical nature of deliverability. A Mailgun study shows that a large majority of survey respondents rated the importance of deliverability an 8 out of 10 or higher. This highlights that organizations understand the impact, even if they sometimes struggle with the 'how'. Training bridges that gap, offering a clear path to improved email performance and justifying the investment.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively monitor DMARC reports to detect and address authentication failures promptly.
Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, reducing bounce rates and spam trap hits.
Implement a consistent email sending volume and frequency to build a stable sender reputation.
Segment your audience and personalize content to improve engagement and reduce unsubscribe rates.
Common pitfalls
Failing to implement strong email authentication protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
Sending emails to purchased or old lists, which often contain spam traps and lead to low engagement.
Ignoring user complaints and high spam rates, which signal negative sender reputation to mailbox providers.
Not regularly checking blocklists (blacklists) to see if your IPs or domains are listed and taking action.
Expert tips
Set up DMARC with a p=none policy initially to gather data without impacting delivery, then gradually move to quarantine or reject.
Leverage Google Postmaster Tools for invaluable insights into your domain's reputation and spam rates.
Focus on building positive engagement: encourage opens, clicks, and replies to signal good sender behavior.
Understand the nuances of different mailbox providers as their filtering rules can vary significantly.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says they would pay to learn deliverability from an experienced person. They even offered to pay fees to be mentored.
2018-12-05 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says they had a similar vision for creating courses, especially since learning good deliverability practices was difficult due to information being kept secret in previous roles.
2018-12-05 - Email Geeks
The growing need for deliverability expertise
The demand for formal email deliverability training is not just present, it's escalating. As email remains a cornerstone of digital communication and marketing, the ability to consistently reach the inbox directly correlates with business success. The complexities introduced by evolving technical standards and mailbox provider policies necessitate a structured, comprehensive approach to learning.
Organizations and individuals alike are recognizing that informal learning methods are often insufficient to keep pace. Investing in formal training programs equips professionals with the deep knowledge and practical skills required to navigate the intricacies of email deliverability, ensuring their messages land where they belong, every time.
Google and 
Yahoo introducing new sender requirements. These updates, such as stricter authentication mandates and lower spam complaint thresholds, mean that senders must be more diligent than ever. Failure to comply can result in emails being rejected or routed directly to the spam folder, severely impacting campaign performance. We've seen how Outlook’s new sender requirements impact deliverability.
