Who are the ideal clients and how to handle B2B deliverability?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 30 Jun 2025
Updated 18 Aug 2025
7 min read
Navigating the complexities of email deliverability, especially in the B2B space, presents distinct challenges. Unlike B2C, where a broad audience often means more forgiving spam filters, B2B email environments are characterized by sophisticated security measures and highly scrutinized inbox placement. Businesses and organizations prioritize security and relevance, making it tougher for unsolicited or poorly authenticated emails to reach their intended recipients.
My experience has shown that success in B2B deliverability hinges on a deep understanding of your audience and a rigorous adherence to best practices. It's not just about sending emails; it's about building trust with corporate mail servers and ensuring your messages are perceived as legitimate and valuable. This journey often involves addressing technical configurations, content relevance, and sender reputation.
This guide will explore who the ideal clients are for deliverability services and outline the strategies necessary to achieve strong B2B inbox placement, helping your emails bypass stringent corporate filters and land where they matter most.
Identifying ideal clients for deliverability services
When it comes to deliverability services, the ideal client typically falls into a few key categories. Understanding who these clients are helps tailor your approach and demonstrates how you can directly address their pain points. Often, the most impactful engagements begin with decision-makers who recognize the critical nature of email for their business operations.
Business owners and founders
Business owners and founders are frequently ideal clients. They have a direct stake in their company's revenue and growth, and they understand that effective email communication is central to sales, marketing, and customer retention. When they engage with a deliverability expert, it signals to their entire organization that this is a priority, fostering internal cooperation for necessary changes. This top-down commitment often leads to quicker implementation of recommended strategies.
Marketing and sales managers
Marketing managers are also excellent clients. They are often highly knowledgeable about email marketing campaigns, audience segmentation, and content strategy, but may lack the deep technical expertise in deliverability. My experience has shown them to be highly collaborative, eager to implement best practices, and appreciative of practical guidance that boosts their campaign performance. Similarly, sales managers focused on B2B lead generation often seek support to ensure their cold outreach efforts actually land in the inbox, rather than spam folders. This is particularly true for those managing a team of sales reps who engage in B2B sales email deliverability.
Unique challenges of B2B email deliverability
B2B email deliverability presents a unique set of challenges compared to B2C. Corporate domains, particularly those managed by major providers like Google and Microsoft, employ stringent spam filters and security protocols. These systems are designed to protect employees from phishing, malware, and unwanted solicitations, which can inadvertently block legitimate business communications. This often leads to emails going to spam even when they are opt-in.
One significant hurdle is the stricter enforcement of email authentication standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Corporate mail servers are more likely to reject or quarantine emails that fail these checks, as they are a primary indicator of sender legitimacy. A single misconfiguration can lead to widespread blocking. Understanding how IP and domain reputation influences filtering in B2B is crucial.
Another factor is the quality of B2B email lists. These often contain role-based email addresses (e.g., info@, sales@) which can be risky if not handled correctly. They may also be more prone to containing inactive addresses or spam traps if acquired from outdated sources. Managing deliverability risks for role-based email addresses requires specific attention to list hygiene.
Foundational strategies for B2B inbox placement
Building a strong foundation for B2B deliverability involves several key strategies, starting with proper email authentication. These technical configurations signal to recipient servers that your emails are legitimate and haven't been tampered with. It's the first and most critical step in earning trust.
Email authentication
Implementing SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is non-negotiable for B2B sending. SPF specifies which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying that the content hasn't been altered in transit. DMARC ties these together, instructing recipient servers on how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks. A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM can help you set these up correctly. An example SPF record might look like this:
Example SPF recorddns
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
Sender reputation
Your sender reputation, both for your IP address and domain, is paramount. This reputation is built over time based on factors like bounce rates, complaint rates, and engagement. Consistent sending volume, avoiding sudden spikes, and maintaining low complaint rates are essential. If you encounter widespread email blocking, reputation is likely the first place to look. Tools like Google Postmaster Tools provide valuable insights into your domain's reputation with Google and other providers.
List hygiene and content quality
Cleaning your email list regularly is vital to remove inactive, invalid, or spam trap addresses. Even in B2B, old data can quickly degrade your sender reputation. Ensure your content is highly relevant, personalized, and provides clear value to the recipient. Corporate recipients have little patience for irrelevant emails, making personalization and segmentation even more critical than in B2C. This directly impacts B2B email deliverability success rates.
Advanced tactics and ongoing maintenance
Beyond the foundational elements, advanced tactics and continuous monitoring are necessary for sustained B2B deliverability. This means being proactive and adaptive to changes in filtering algorithms and recipient behaviors. A consistent focus on these areas ensures long-term success.
Segmenting and personalization
For B2B, hyper-segmentation and personalization are crucial. Generic emails are easily filtered. By leveraging firmographic and behavioral data, you can send highly targeted messages that resonate with specific roles or industries. This improves engagement, which in turn boosts your sender reputation. It's about ensuring your emails are not just delivered, but also relevant to your target audience.
Monitoring and blocklist management
Regularly monitoring your deliverability performance metrics (open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, complaint rates) provides early warning signs of potential issues. Keep a close eye on any email blocklists (or blacklists) your sending IPs or domains might appear on. Being listed on a major blacklist can severely impact your B2B deliverability. Swift action to request delisting and address the root cause is crucial. Implementing feedback loops with major ISPs also helps in identifying and removing users who mark your emails as spam, protecting your sender reputation.
Conclusion
Mastering B2B email deliverability requires a multifaceted and consistent approach. It’s not a one-time setup, but an ongoing process of optimization, monitoring, and adaptation. By focusing on the right clients and implementing robust technical and content strategies, you can significantly improve your inbox placement and ensure your critical business communications reach their intended recipients effectively. Building and maintaining trust with corporate mail servers is key to long-term success in the B2B email landscape.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Maintain strong authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for all sending domains.
Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, especially role-based ones.
Segment your B2B audience and personalize content to increase engagement and relevance.
Monitor your sender reputation metrics and blocklist status continuously to detect issues early.
Common pitfalls
Sending to purchased or outdated B2B lists, which often contain spam traps.
Ignoring DMARC reports, missing critical insights into authentication failures.
Sudden, large spikes in sending volume without proper warming up.
Failing to address complaints or low engagement quickly, leading to reputation damage.
Expert tips
Implement a DMARC policy of p=quarantine or p=reject as soon as possible.
Use separate sending domains or IPs for different email streams (e.g., marketing vs. transactional).
Engage with corporate IT teams to understand their specific filtering policies.
Prioritize engagement metrics like open rates and clicks, as they heavily influence inbox placement.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that owners and founders make excellent clients for deliverability services because their direct involvement helps prioritize email deliverability across the organization, ensuring changes are implemented effectively.
2021-06-01 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says that marketing managers are typically knowledgeable and collaborative, making them great partners for improving email deliverability and ensuring marketing efforts reach the inbox.
Google and 
Microsoft, employ stringent spam filters and security protocols. These systems are designed to protect employees from phishing, malware, and unwanted solicitations, which can inadvertently block legitimate business communications. This often leads to emails going to spam even when they are opt-in.
