Are Sendgrid MTA retries damaging my sender reputation?

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that the amount of retries is normal and that an MTA not retrying a mailing can make the sending server look sketchy, as hackers tend not to retry deferrals.

Email marketer from Mailjet shares that excessive retries, particularly to the same unresponsive domains, can negatively impact your sender reputation. Monitoring deferral rates and adjusting sending practices accordingly is essential.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests utilizing past engagement data from SES to isolate highly engaged subscribers at Yahoo / AOL. Target these subscribers first during warmup to send positive signals back to the ESPs.

Email marketer from Postmark explains that implementing feedback loops allows you to promptly address complaints, reducing spam reports and improving overall sender reputation, even when retries occur.

Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that domain reputation is influenced by factors beyond just bounces and retries, like authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Correctly configuring these helps legitimize your sending.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that monitoring deferred messages is key. If deferral rates are high, it indicates underlying issues like IP blacklisting or content filters, which can impact reputation if not addressed.

Email marketer from Litmus explains that engagement metrics such as opens, clicks, and replies are important. High engagement sends positive signals and can offset some of the negative impacts of deferrals and retries.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares that with direct access to the MTA you could reduce the connection rate by limiting concurrent connections by IP into Yahoo/AOL, which can reduce retries by increasing the queue length. However at SendGrid that won't be an option.

Email marketer from SparkPost responds that if retries are overly aggressive, they can be interpreted as spam-like behavior by receiving mail servers. This might lead to temporary blocks or decreased reputation.

Email marketer from Stack Overflow responds that proper handling of hard bounces is crucial. Failing to remove bouncing addresses from your list contributes to a poor sender reputation, which no amount of retries can fix.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that unhandled bounces (which could result from repeated failed retries) contribute significantly to a poor sender reputation. Maintaining an up-to-date list and suppressing hard bounces is crucial to prevent ISPs from blocking your mail.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that temporarily throttling email volume when encountering deferrals can help protect sender reputation. This gives receiving servers a chance to recover and prevents being flagged as a spammer due to persistent connection attempts.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that high spam rates reported by users can negatively impact your sender reputation, regardless of retry attempts. Focusing on list hygiene and relevant content is important.

Documentation from Twilio Sendgrid explains that deferrals are temporary delivery failures, and Sendgrid automatically retries these messages. Repeated deferrals might eventually lead to a hard bounce if retries fail.

Documentation from Microsoft responds that maintaining a clean email list, by removing invalid or inactive addresses, ensures that retries aren't wasted on unreachable recipients. Improves deliverability overall.

Documentation from RFC Editor details standard SMTP retry strategies and suggests implementing exponential backoff to avoid overwhelming receiving servers. This reduces the risk of being flagged as a potential spam source.

Documentation from Validity/Return Path shares that consistent sending patterns, combined with authentication and engagement, helps establish a positive sender reputation and ensures receiving servers trust your mail, minimizing the negative impact of retries.