How to diagnose Yahoo deliverability issues with a new SFMC instance during IP warming?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Validity recommends closely monitoring blocklist status, sender score, and complaint rates. High bounce rates or spam complaints, especially with Yahoo domains, may indicate problems with IP warming or list quality.
Email marketer from Litmus advises verifying that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured for your sending domain. They suggest using their email testing tools to identify any authentication issues that might be affecting deliverability to Yahoo.
Email marketer from Mailgun recommends starting with low volumes and gradually increasing the amount of email sent over time. They suggest monitoring bounce rates and engagement metrics closely to adjust sending patterns and avoid being flagged as spam during IP warming.
Email marketer from Email on Acid highlights the critical need for good list hygiene during IP warming. They suggest suppressing old, inactive, and invalid email addresses to reduce bounce rates and avoid spam traps, particularly with Yahoo.
Marketer from Email Geeks asks about shared vs dedicated IPs and bounce types, noting they are experiencing a lot of Yahoo specific issues with error code 4999, 'Mailbox temporarily unavailable or indecipherable bounce message received'.
Email marketer from ReturnPath emphasizes the importance of setting up feedback loops (FBLs) with major ISPs like Yahoo. FBLs provide valuable information about spam complaints, allowing you to remove complaining subscribers from your list and prevent future deliverability issues.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares her experience that the first week or so with Verizon Media Group (Yahoo/AOL/Verizon) can be hit or miss during IP warming. She suggests sending to the most engaged audience and following SFMC's warming volume recommendations, which usually resolves the issue in a week or two. She also advises to use tracking to identify domain trends for blocked emails and Email Performance by Domain report to identify spam foldering by domain.
Email marketer from SendGrid explains that a good sender reputation is key for successful delivery. Monitor your Sender Score regularly and address any negative trends promptly to maintain a positive reputation with ISPs like Yahoo during IP warming.
Email marketer from SparkPost recommends analyzing engagement data, such as open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates, to identify areas for improvement. Low engagement rates with Yahoo subscribers may indicate deliverability issues or list quality problems.
Email marketer from Quora suggests the content of the emails needs to be highly targeted. They also advise that if you have links in your emails they should be highly relevant, trustworthy domains.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor shares to use segmentation and personalization to ensure emails are targeted and relevant. This reduces the likelihood of recipients marking your messages as spam.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains they overcame deliverability issues to Yahoo by segmenting their lists more effectively and sending different content to Yahoo users. Also ensuring the content was relevant and not flagged as spam.
Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailExpert suggests checking the Yahoo postmaster tools for feedback loops and delivery issues specific to your sending IP. They recommend authenticating your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve trust with Yahoo.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that a key diagnostic step is to review the bounce codes received from Yahoo. Specific SMTP error codes can provide detailed information about the reason for delivery failures, whether it's related to reputation, content, or authentication.
Expert from Spamresource advises to ensure the content isn't being accidentally filtered. They advise that it is crucial to use a tool that grades it for any spam trigger words to make sure content is of the highest standard.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC-Editor details the underlying technical specifics around SMTP. This is useful to debug detailed bouncebacks as you can trace these back to the core protocol standards.
Documentation from Salesforce emphasizes the importance of following a structured IP warming schedule provided by Salesforce. They advise sending emails to your most engaged subscribers first and gradually increasing volume and frequency over several weeks to establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs like Yahoo.
Documentation from DMARC.org explains the process of implementing DMARC policies to protect your domain from email spoofing. They recommend starting with a 'none' policy to monitor email traffic and gradually move to more restrictive policies as you gain confidence in your authentication setup.
Documentation from Yahoo Postmaster provides guidelines for bulk senders, emphasizing the importance of sender authentication, list management, and complaint handling. They warn that sending unsolicited emails or having high complaint rates can lead to deliverability problems.