What are the best email deliverability tools and monitoring practices?

Key findings

• Holistic Approach: No single tool provides a complete solution. A combination of internal data analysis and external monitoring services often yields the best insights.
• Foundational Practices First: Before exploring advanced tools, prioritize fundamental email deliverability best practices, such as maintaining a clean list and authenticating your emails. This includes setting up your DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records.
• Efficiency and Automation: Deliverability tools offer significant efficiency benefits, especially for large senders, by aggregating data, providing historical trends, and enabling automated alerts for reputation changes.
• Key Monitoring Areas: Essential monitoring includes inbox placement testing, blocklist (blacklist) monitoring, and DMARC reporting.
• Data Triangulation: Relying on multiple data points, including internal engagement metrics and external monitoring, provides a more accurate picture of deliverability issues and their root causes.

Key considerations

• Define Your Needs: Before selecting a tool, clearly identify what you aim to achieve, whether it's sender certification, detailed monitoring, or specific insights into B2B versus B2C deliverability.
• Leverage Existing Data: Start by analyzing your own email delivery logs and ESP reports, as these provide invaluable (and free) actionable data that can often resolve issues without additional tools. Learn more about monitoring email deliverability.
• B2B vs. B2C Coverage: Some tools offer better coverage for specific sending types (e.g., B2B), which is a critical consideration if your audience is predominantly business-oriented.
• Cost vs. Value: While some tools are premium, cheaper or even free alternatives exist, including Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft's SNDS, which provide essential insights.
• Timeliness of Data: Real-time monitoring and alerts are highly valuable for identifying and addressing issues promptly.

Key opinions

• Efficiency Focus: Automated monitoring tools are highly valued for saving time and providing reliable data compared to manual checks, especially for large-scale senders.
• Inbox Placement Testing: Marketers find inbox placement testing essential for proactively catching deliverability issues.
• B2B Deliverability: Specialized tools offering good B2B coverage are highlighted as important for business-to-business senders.
• Reputation Feeds: Access to reputation feeds from major blocklists, such as Spamhaus, is considered highly beneficial for untangling sticky deliverability situations.
• Data Aggregation: Having all relevant deliverability data aggregated into a single dashboard simplifies analysis and historical tracking.

Key considerations

• Beyond Basic Metrics: While campaign metrics are useful, marketers need tools that provide deeper insights into inbox placement and blocklist status. This is crucial for tracking all-round email deliverability.
• Comparative Data: Marketers prefer tools that allow for comparative analysis across different providers and historical performance to confirm issues and root causes.
• Alerts and Notifications: The ability to receive real-time alerts on reputation changes or other deliverability shifts is highly valued for proactive issue resolution.
• Cost-Benefit Analysis: Consider if the efficiency and deeper insights offered by a paid tool justify the cost, especially for smaller senders or those with stable deliverability.

Key opinions

• Self-Monitoring Priority: The most effective deliverability tool is often your own data, generated from delivery logs. This provides free and highly actionable information.
• Good Practices Precede Tools: Implementing solid email sending practices is paramount before considering external tools. Tools augment, but don't replace, fundamental hygiene.
• Context is Key: The utility of a tool depends on your current deliverability status. For severe reputation issues, basic fixes are more impactful than granular tool insights.
• No Silver Bullet: There's no single best tool, as needs vary based on sender certification requirements versus general monitoring.
• Understanding Goals: Clearly define what you expect a tool to do for you; this is the most critical consideration before adoption.

Key considerations

• Integrated Strategy: While self-monitoring is crucial, external monitoring tools are not mutually exclusive; they can complement internal data for a more complete picture. This aligns with essential tools and practices.
• Vendor Integration: Consider whether your chosen email service provider (ESP) integrates with key postmaster tools like Microsoft's SNDS.
• Reputation and Content: A bad sending reputation is often tied to poor content. Even with tools, content quality and relevance remain critical for inbox placement.
• Strategic Tool Adoption: Introduce deliverability tools strategically. They are most effective when aiming to fine-tune performance (e.g., boosting a 55% open rate to 60%), rather than fixing severe underlying issues.

Key findings

• Authentication Protocols: Strong authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are fundamental for email security and deliverability. Many tools support monitoring these.
• Sender Reputation: Maintaining a positive sender reputation is critical, and official tools like Postmaster Tools help track this.
• Engagement Metrics: Monitoring engagement metrics (opens, clicks, complaints) is vital, as it directly impacts sender reputation.
• List Management: Targeting active and engaged users is a time-tested best practice for maintaining a strong sender reputation and avoiding spam traps.
• Secure Sending: Ensuring emails are securely sent (e.g., via TLS) is a documented best practice that helps with deliverability.

Key considerations

• Postmaster Tools: Leverage free postmaster tools from major mailbox providers (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) to align with their best practices and monitor sending performance. Review our ultimate guide to Google Postmaster Tools V2.
• Compliance Focus: Ensure compliance with sender requirements and email APIs, which provide features for managing unsubscribes, bounces, and engagement.
• Holistic Strategy: Deliverability should be approached comprehensively, from content quality and list hygiene to technical configurations and spam trap avoidance.
• Continuous Monitoring: Regularly track and measure deliverability metrics to maintain a healthy sending program. Our email deliverability tester can provide immediate insights.