Summary
AT&T blocks emails due to a combination of factors related to sender reputation, list quality, email content, and user feedback. Poor sender reputation stems from high bounce rates, spam complaints, and being blacklisted, often resulting from poor list acquisition practices like purchasing lists. Sending to inactive or non-existent email addresses further damages reputation. Content filters identify spammy content, while user feedback (spam reports) directly influences filtering. Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for proving legitimacy. Maintaining a clean, engaged email list, monitoring feedback loops, warming up IP addresses, testing emails, and adhering to best practices are vital for mitigating blocking.
Key findings
- Bounce Message Analysis: Analyze bounce messages for specific reasons for blocking.
- Sender Reputation Impact: Poor sender reputation is a primary cause of blocking. Actions such as spam complaints and blacklisting affect this.
- List Quality Critical: Sending to inactive or invalid addresses harms reputation. Validating emails is a must.
- Email Authentication Needed: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for proper verification and authentication.
- Content Matters: Avoid spam trigger words, excessive capitalization, large attachments, etc. that will cause content filters to flag.
- User Feedback Weighs Heavily: AT&T filtering is heavily affected by users marking emails as spam.
- Engagement Matters: Engagement (opens, clicks) affects your reputation with AT&T.
- Poor List Source: Never buy lists. Building your list organically is key.
Key considerations
- List Hygiene: Continuously clean your list. Remove inactive and invalid addresses.
- Email Validation: Check contacts before sending, by using validation services.
- Feedback Loop Management: Monitor feedback loops and quickly address complaints. Make sure unsubscribing is easy.
- IP Warmup is Critical: Warm up your IP slowly. Avoid sending large volumes suddenly.
- Email Testing is Important: Test your emails before sending, check all links and content.
- Double Opt-in Highly Recommended: Have users confirm their email addresses.
- Check Blacklists: Ensure your IP address and domain aren't blacklisted.
- Engaging Content: Make sure the emails are interesting, useful, and relevant to users.
- Postmaster Contact: Contact the postmaster team at AT&T for help.
What email marketers say
17 marketer opinions
AT&T blocks emails for various reasons, primarily related to sender reputation, list quality, and email content. Poor sender reputation arises from factors like high bounce rates, spam complaints, and being blacklisted. List quality issues include sending to inactive or non-existent email addresses, often resulting from poor list acquisition practices or lack of proper opt-in procedures. Email content can trigger spam filters if it contains spam trigger words, excessive capitalization, or large attachments. To mitigate blocking, it's crucial to maintain a clean and engaged email list, authenticate emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, monitor feedback loops and address complaints, gradually warm up IP addresses, test emails for deliverability issues, and ensure proper rendering across different devices.
Key opinions
- SMTP Responses: Check SMTP responses from AT&T for clues about the reasons for blocking.
- Sender Reputation: Poor sender reputation is a primary cause of blocking; monitor and improve it.
- List Quality: Sending to inactive or non-existent addresses damages sender reputation; regularly clean your list.
- Email Authentication: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate emails and improve deliverability.
- Content Filtering: AT&T uses content filters to identify spam; avoid trigger words and other spammy elements.
- User Feedback: AT&T relies on user feedback, such as spam complaints, to refine filtering.
- Engagement Matters: Engagement metrics like opens and clicks affect your sending reputation. Low engagement equals potential blocks.
Key considerations
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses and avoid purchased lists.
- Email Validation: Use email validation services like BriteVerify, XVerify, & NeverBounce to ensure contact validity.
- Feedback Loops: Monitor feedback loops and promptly address complaints to improve sender reputation.
- IP Warmup: Gradually warm up IP addresses when starting sending to build a positive sender reputation.
- Email Testing: Test emails for deliverability issues, such as broken links and spam trigger words.
- Double Opt-In: Implement double opt-in to confirm email addresses.
- Blacklist Check: Check if your IP address or domain is blacklisted.
Marketer view
Email marketer from StackOverflow suggests using double opt-in to ensure list quality. Confirmed opt-in helps ensure that you aren't accidentally mailing to email addresses that haven't signed up for emails, thus ensuring a higher chance of avoiding blocks.
21 Jul 2024 - StackOverflow
Marketer view
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that AT&T, like other ISPs, uses content filters to identify and block spam. Avoid using spam trigger words, excessive capitalization, and large attachments in your emails.
23 Dec 2021 - Mailjet Blog
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Experts agree that AT&T blocks emails primarily due to poor list acquisition, low engagement, and negative user feedback. Purchasing or scraping email lists leads to high bounce rates and spam complaints, triggering blocks. Lack of engagement signals that emails are unwanted, prompting filtering or blocking. AT&T also relies on user feedback (marking emails as spam) to refine its filters, meaning a significant number of spam reports can lead to blocking, even with a generally good sender reputation.
Key opinions
- Poor List Acquisition: Purchasing or scraping email lists leads to high bounce rates and spam complaints, resulting in blocking by AT&T.
- Low Engagement: Lack of engagement (low opens and clicks) signals that emails are unwanted, leading to filtering or blocking by AT&T.
- User Feedback: AT&T relies on user feedback (marking emails as spam) to refine filtering, with a significant number of spam reports triggering blocking.
Key considerations
- Ethical List Building: Avoid purchasing or scraping email lists. Focus on building lists organically through opt-in methods.
- Engagement Strategies: Implement strategies to improve email engagement, such as personalized content and relevant offers.
- Content Relevance: Ensure emails are relevant to the recipients' interests to reduce the likelihood of being marked as spam.
- Feedback Monitoring: Implement mechanisms to monitor and respond to user feedback, such as unsubscribe requests and spam complaints.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that lack of engagement (opens, clicks) can lead to AT&T blocking emails. AT&T, like other mailbox providers, uses engagement data to determine which emails are relevant to users. Low engagement signals that the emails are unwanted, leading to filtering or blocking.
25 Apr 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource, Hal Helms, shares that AT&T relies heavily on user feedback, such as marking emails as spam, to refine its filtering. If a significant number of AT&T users mark your emails as spam, it can trigger blocking, regardless of other sender reputation factors.
15 Sep 2022 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Documentation sources consistently point to sender reputation, list hygiene, and email authentication as critical factors in AT&T's email blocking decisions. Poor sender reputation, high complaint rates, and sending to invalid addresses are directly identified as reasons for blocking. The importance of proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) is emphasized as a key method for proving sender legitimacy and preventing spoofing, thus improving deliverability and reducing the chances of being blocked by AT&T.
Key findings
- Sender Reputation Matters: Poor sender reputation is a key reason for AT&T blocking emails.
- List Hygiene is Crucial: Sending to invalid email addresses contributes to blocking.
- Email Authentication is Essential: Proper implementation of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is critical for deliverability and trust.
- DMARC Protects: DMARC implementation safeguards domains from spoofing and phishing.
Key considerations
- Monitor Reputation: Regularly monitor sender reputation to identify and address issues.
- Clean Email Lists: Implement processes to validate and clean email lists to remove invalid addresses.
- Implement SPF, DKIM, DMARC: Ensure proper configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for all sending domains.
- Monitor Authentication: Continuously monitor email authentication results to identify and resolve any authentication failures.
Technical article
Documentation from AT&T Postmaster Website explains that common reasons for blocking emails include poor sender reputation, high complaint rates, sending to invalid email addresses, and failing to authenticate emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
18 Jan 2023 - AT&T Postmaster Website
Technical article
Documentation from SparkPost explains that proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for improving deliverability. It helps AT&T verify that you are a legitimate sender and reduces the likelihood of your emails being blocked.
16 Dec 2024 - SparkPost
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