How can I diagnose and resolve email deliverability issues when emails aren't reaching intended recipients?
Summary
What email marketers say15Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks shares Google Postmaster Tools for monitoring sender reputation at Gmail and notes that cold emails often cause deliverability issues. They also state that the user reported spam rate is quite high and the risk threshold for spam complaints is about 0.1%, and per that graph they are averaging 0.5% to 1.5%.
Email marketer from Sendinblue suggests warming up your IP address, cleaning your email list regularly to remove inactive subscribers, and personalizing your email content to increase engagement and avoid spam filters.
Email marketer from Reddit user u/ColdEmailExpert suggests using multiple smaller sending domains to spread the risk, carefully warming up IPs, and closely monitoring bounce rates when sending cold emails. They also recommend using personalized content to avoid spam filters.
Marketer from Email Geeks asks if DKIM is enabled and if cold emails are being sent, as these could impact sender reputation.
Email marketer from Mailjet recommends checking your sender reputation, ensuring your IP address isn't blacklisted, and segmenting your email list to improve engagement and deliverability.
Email marketer from StackOverflow user TechGuru123 recommends using tools like Mail-Tester to check the spam score of your emails before sending them. This helps identify potential issues with content, authentication, or blacklisting.
Marketer from Email Geeks provides a link to an ActiveCampaign article on reducing high spam complaint rates.
Email marketer from SparkPost indicates the importance of setting up proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to ensure emails are trusted by receiving mail servers and to minimize the risk of being flagged as spam.
Email marketer from Woodpecker details the process of IP/Domain warming. This involves gradually increasing sending volume over time to build a positive sender reputation with ISPs. Starting slow and steadily increasing volume improves deliverability, especially for new domains or IP addresses.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum advises A/B testing subject lines and email content, personalizing email content to increase user engagement, and ensuring emails are mobile-friendly. High engagement is a key signal for good deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests confirming if the emails are going to spam or being blocked. Spam placement could be due to high spam complaint rate, while blocking could indicate issues on the recipient end.
Email marketer from GlockApps advises using a mailbox placement test to see where your emails land – inbox, spam, or promotions tab – across various ISPs. These tests provide insights into how ISPs view your emails and highlight potential deliverability issues.
Email marketer from HubSpot emphasizes the importance of building a clean email list through double opt-in, and regular list maintenance to reduce bounce rates and spam complaints. It also suggests segmenting the list to target more effectively.
Email marketer from Litmus advises monitoring inbox placement across different email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) to understand how your emails are being categorized. This helps identify deliverability issues that may be specific to certain providers.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus recommends optimizing email content, using a reputable email service provider (ESP), and actively managing subscriptions (opt-in process) to improve deliverability and maintain a healthy sender reputation.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise suggests reviewing DMARC reports to identify authentication failures and potential spoofing attempts, and adjusting the DMARC policy to 'quarantine' or 'reject' to improve deliverability and protect against domain abuse.
Expert from Email Geeks advises setting up a separate infrastructure, including a different domain, for cold emails if they are being sent on the same domain as the corporate domain. They also mention that Google Postmaster data doesn't include information for Google Workspace accounts, only @gmail.com addresses.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that it's important to determine whether the emails are going to the spam folder or being blocked entirely. Blocked emails require investigation into IP reputation, blacklists, and authentication issues, while spam placement suggests content or engagement problems.
Expert from Spamresource recommends checking your sending IP and domain against various email blacklists to identify if you've been flagged for sending spam. If blacklisted, it is important to address the issues that led to the listing before requesting removal.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Steve Atkins, highlights ensuring that email authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are properly configured and validated is critical. Misconfigured authentication is a common cause for deliverability problems.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help emphasizes verifying sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), avoiding sending unsolicited email, and monitoring your domain's reputation using Google Postmaster Tools to diagnose deliverability issues.
Documentation from RFC explains that SPF records help prevent email spoofing by specifying which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. Configuring SPF correctly is crucial for improving email deliverability.
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that DMARC helps protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks by providing a policy for how receiving mail servers should handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks. Implementing DMARC can improve email deliverability and protect your brand's reputation.
Documentation from Microsoft Support advises analyzing Non-Delivery Reports (NDRs) or bounce messages to understand the reason for email delivery failures. Common reasons include incorrect email addresses, full mailboxes, or server issues.