Summary
Troubleshooting ProofPoint deferrals and IP reputation issues requires a comprehensive strategy incorporating technical expertise, proactive monitoring, and adherence to email best practices. Experts highlight that ProofPoint deferrals may not always be reflected in standard IP lookup tools, necessitating direct engagement with ProofPoint support for clarification and potential allowlisting. Documentation emphasizes understanding specific SMTP error codes, leveraging Spamhaus for blocklist checks, and implementing DMARC and rDNS records. Email marketers stress the importance of building and maintaining a strong sender reputation through high-quality content, engaged subscribers, double opt-in processes, regular list cleaning, and proper IP warming. Analyzing email server logs to identify patterns, segmenting lists based on engagement, and securing explicit consent are also crucial. Consistently monitoring sender reputation across various services and implementing feedback loops are vital for long-term deliverability.
Key findings
- Direct Engagement: Directly engage with ProofPoint support for specific insights and potential allowlisting.
- Reputation is Paramount: Building and maintaining a positive sender reputation is essential for avoiding deferrals.
- Authentication is Key: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for verifying email legitimacy.
- List Hygiene Matters: Regularly cleaning email lists and segmenting by engagement improves deliverability.
- Monitoring is Critical: Consistently monitor sender reputation across various services.
- Understand Deferrals: Understand SMTP error codes and use tools to interpret them.
- Explicit Consent: Make sure to obtain explicit consent and operate a double-opt in process.
Key considerations
- ProofPoint Specifics: Understand ProofPoint's unique filtering criteria and requirements.
- Content Quality: Ensure email content is high-quality and engaging to reduce spam complaints.
- List Maintenance: Prioritize list hygiene through regular cleaning and segmentation.
- Authentication Verification: Verify the correct configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
- Log Analysis: Regularly analyze email server logs to identify deferral patterns.
- Feedback Loops: Implement feedback loops to address complaints and improve deliverability.
- IP Warm-up: Carefully warm up new IP addresses to establish a positive sending reputation.
- Use Support: Use support options with email service providers, proofpoint and other services.
- Reverse DNS: Setup reverse DNS for sending IP addresses.
What email marketers say
8 marketer opinions
Troubleshooting ProofPoint deferrals and IP reputation issues involves a multi-faceted approach. Email marketers recommend focusing on building and maintaining a positive IP and domain reputation by sending high-quality content to engaged subscribers, implementing double opt-in processes, and regularly cleaning email lists. Ensuring proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial, as is monitoring deferral patterns in email server logs to identify specific triggers. If issues persist, contacting ProofPoint support and requesting a temporary allowlist while addressing the underlying reputation problems is advised. List segmentation based on engagement levels and a proper IP warm up process are also important.
Key opinions
- Reputation is Key: Maintaining a positive IP and domain reputation is crucial for avoiding deferrals.
- Authentication Matters: Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is essential for verifying legitimacy.
- Engagement is Critical: Sending to engaged subscribers and cleaning inactive ones improves deliverability.
- Monitoring is Necessary: Monitoring email server logs helps identify the causes of deferrals.
- Consent is Paramount: Ensure you have explicit consent from your subscribers.
Key considerations
- Content Quality: Ensure your email content is high-quality and engaging to avoid spam complaints.
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive subscribers.
- Authentication Setup: Verify that your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured.
- Deferral Patterns: Analyze email server logs to identify patterns and triggers for ProofPoint deferrals.
- Support Engagement: Be prepared to contact ProofPoint support for specific reasons and remedies.
- Warm-up process: If using a new IP ensure it is correctly warmed up.
- Segmentation: Segment lists to engage with contacts more appropriately.
Marketer view
Email marketer from EmailDeliverability.com suggests analyzing email server logs to identify patterns and causes of deferrals. The logs can provide insights into why Proofpoint is deferring emails, such as identifying specific filters being triggered or authentication issues.
3 Mar 2022 - EmailDeliverability.com Forums
Marketer view
Email marketer from Hubspot responds that ensuring you have explicit consent is important and that subscribers need to actively agree to receive your emails. A good way to achieve this is using double opt-in.
24 Apr 2023 - HubSpot
What the experts say
4 expert opinions
Troubleshooting ProofPoint deferrals and IP reputation issues requires a strategic approach involving direct engagement with ProofPoint support, diligent sender reputation monitoring, and specialized expertise. Experts emphasize that deferrals, unlike rejections, may not be reflected in IP lookup tools, and engaging with ProofPoint directly is vital for understanding their filtering criteria. Utilizing expert assistance, such as escalating HubSpot support tickets and referencing relevant insights, can also prove beneficial. Proactive monitoring of sender reputation across various services is crucial for identifying and addressing negative trends, with the implementation of feedback loops for continuous improvement.
Key opinions
- Deferrals vs. Rejections: ProofPoint deferrals are distinct from rejections and may not appear in IP lookup tools.
- Direct Engagement: Direct engagement with ProofPoint support is essential for understanding their filtering criteria.
- Expert Assistance: Specialized expertise and insights from deliverability experts can aid in resolution.
- Reputation Monitoring: Proactive monitoring of sender reputation across multiple services is crucial.
Key considerations
- Support Channels: Utilize ProofPoint's support channels to understand specific filtering policies.
- Escalation: Escalate support tickets when necessary to access specialized deliverability teams.
- Expert Collaboration: Leverage expertise from individuals with experience resolving similar issues.
- Feedback Loops: Implement feedback loops to continuously monitor and improve sender reputation.
- Proactive approach: Take a proactive approach to reputation monitoring.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks shares that she can chat with HubSpot about how she fixed this issue for a client and recommends opening a support ticket with them, asking to escalate to the deliverability team, and mentioning that Laura Atkins at Word to the Wise has some helpful information and is available to reach out.
31 May 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if ProofPoint are deferring mail, not rejecting it, then the IP address will not be shown as listed in their lookup tool, despite that URL being listed in the deferral message. Also, this seems to happen with some IPs, for no terribly clear reason.
24 Apr 2025 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
6 technical articles
Troubleshooting ProofPoint deferrals and IP reputation issues involves understanding the nature of deferral messages, thoroughly checking IP reputation, analyzing SMTP error codes, and implementing robust authentication measures. Documentation emphasizes that deferrals indicate temporary issues, requiring review of specific error codes for causes like greylisting. Checking IP reputation on blocklists using tools like Spamhaus is crucial for identifying potential spam-like activity. Understanding SMTP enhanced status codes, as defined by RFC, helps pinpoint the specific reasons for deferrals. Implementing DMARC protects against spoofing, and setting up reverse DNS (rDNS) records validates sending IP legitimacy.
Key findings
- Deferral Meaning: Deferral messages indicate temporary delivery issues, requiring error code analysis.
- Blocklist Checks: Checking IP reputation on blocklists identifies potential spam-like activity.
- SMTP Codes: SMTP enhanced status codes provide detailed reasons for deferrals.
- DMARC Implementation: Implementing DMARC protects against email spoofing and phishing attacks.
- rDNS Records: Setting up reverse DNS (rDNS) records validates sending IP legitimacy.
Key considerations
- Error Code Review: Carefully review specific error codes in deferral messages.
- Blocklist Tools: Utilize tools like Spamhaus to check IP reputation on blocklists.
- Code Understanding: Understand the meaning of SMTP enhanced status codes.
- DMARC Configuration: Configure DMARC records with appropriate policies.
- rDNS Setup: Set up reverse DNS (rDNS) records for sending IP addresses.
- Underlying issues: Address any identified underlying issues.
Technical article
Documentation from Amazon Web Services (AWS) recommends setting up reverse DNS (rDNS) records for your sending IP addresses. rDNS maps IP addresses back to domain names, helping to verify the legitimacy of your emails and improve your sender reputation.
16 Dec 2023 - Amazon Web Services
Technical article
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that checking IP reputation on blocklists is crucial for identifying potential issues. They recommend using the Spamhaus IP lookup tool to determine if an IP address is listed on any of their blocklists, which could indicate spam-like activity or poor sending practices.
1 Apr 2024 - Spamhaus
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