What ESP capabilities are essential for email authentication and deliverability insights?

Key findings

• Authentication standards: ESPs should facilitate easy setup and management of critical authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This ensures proper sender verification and helps prevent spoofing or phishing attempts.
• Domain and subdomain handling: The ability to authenticate emails using your own domain or specific subdomains is vital, especially when migrating or managing different sending profiles.
• Deliverability reporting: Comprehensive analytics on inbox placement, bounce rates, complaint rates, and engagement metrics are essential. These insights help diagnose and troubleshoot deliverability issues.
• Reputation data access: Access to metrics like sender reputation, Google Postmaster Tools data (e.g., SNDS), and potentially regional feedback loops (like SignalSpam in France) can significantly aid in optimizing deliverability.

Key considerations

• ESP flexibility: An ESP's ability to allow customization of sending profiles and authentication headers (e.g., Sender: header) can be a significant differentiator for advanced senders.
• Proactive monitoring: Look for ESPs that offer or integrate with tools for proactive monitoring of email health and blocklist status.
• Education and support: Many brands lack deep deliverability knowledge, so an ESP offering robust education, guides, or direct support can be invaluable.

Key opinions

• Simplicity over complexity: Most brands simply want their emails to be delivered without needing to understand the underlying technicalities of email authentication or sending profiles. They value an ESP that handles these complexities seamlessly.
• Need for education: There's a perceived gap in deliverability knowledge among marketers, highlighting the need for more educational resources from ESPs or third-party platforms.
• Frustration with inflexibility: Some marketers find their ESPs lack the necessary flexibility to truly improve deliverability, particularly concerning access to specific reputation data or engagement reporting by destination.
• Deliverability as a differentiator: While historically not the primary factor, ESPs offering strong deliverability features and transparent reporting are becoming increasingly attractive to brands aiming to boost inbox placement.

Key considerations

• Access to specific data: Marketers benefit from ESPs that provide access to relevant reputation data, such as SNDS (Smart Network Data Services) or regional complaint metrics (like SignalSpam), even if less commonly used.
• Reporting granularity: ESPs should offer detailed engagement reporting per destination (ISP) or per sending profile to help marketers pinpoint and resolve issues more effectively.
• Authentication domain control: While some ESPs default to their own domains, the option for marketers to authenticate with their own domain for DMARC alignment is a significant advantage.
• Dedicated IP options: The ability to use dedicated IPs, or to have clear guidance on how ESPs manage shared pools, is also a key concern for some marketers.

Key opinions

• Authentication flexibility: While many ESPs default to signing with the visible From: domain, the ability to use a subdomain for d= (DKIM signature domain) is crucial for DMARC alignment.
• Sender header utilization: Some systems can leverage the Sender: header and the Envelope MailFrom domain for DKIM signing when the From: domain isn't directly used.
• Data utility: While certain data sources like SNDS might not be universally seen as highly useful, others, like complaint counters from specific ISPs (e.g., Orange, SFR, Laposte) or spam trap data, can offer significant insights into email deliverability.

Key considerations

• Technical depth: ESPs need to offer technical capabilities that allow for advanced configurations, such as managing DKIM domains and SPF records, to ensure proper alignment and prevent authentication failures. You can learn more about DMARC, SPF, and DKIM in our guide.
• Vendor assessment: When benchmarking ESPs, a crucial criterion should be their ability to provide transparent and actionable deliverability insights, including specific complaint data and spam trap metrics.
• Postmaster tools integration: An ESP's capacity to integrate with, or provide data equivalent to, major postmaster tools (e.g., Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft SNDS) is a strong indicator of their commitment to deliverability.
• Mitigating migration risks: Understanding how an ESP handles IP warming and reputation transfer during a migration is essential to prevent deliverability dips.

Key findings

• Standard compliance: Email authentication is a process of verifying the sender's identity, which is crucial for building trust with mailbox providers and ensuring emails originate from a legitimate source.
• Role of authentication protocols: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC collectively protect domains from unauthorized use (like phishing and spoofing) and improve deliverability by signaling authenticity.
• Impact on deliverability: Proper implementation of these protocols significantly enhances email deliverability rates and helps emails bypass spam filters.
• Importance of reporting: DMARC reports (aggregated and forensic) provide valuable insights into authentication failures, legitimate sending sources, and potential abuse, which are crucial for maintaining sender reputation.

Key considerations

• ESP as a facilitator: ESPs are expected to not only support these protocols but also make their implementation straightforward for users, handling the technical complexities behind the scenes.
• Reputation management tools: Documentation often highlights that ESPs should offer tools and data for monitoring and managing sender reputation, which includes insights from various mailbox providers and blocklists. You can use our blocklist checker.
• Beyond basic authentication: While basic SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are standard, some documentation points to the value of advanced options like BIMI for visual brand authentication.
• Compliance assistance: ESPs play a role in helping senders comply with spam laws and evolving inbox provider requirements, which often ties back to proper authentication and responsible sending practices.