How to troubleshoot deliverability issues when ESP and corporate email domains are the same?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that consistent sending practices, proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and avoiding spam triggers are vital. Also, actively managing your sender reputation can reduce deliverability issues when using the same domain.
Email marketer from Litmus says that a good list hygiene, can significantly improve deliverability rates. It recommends regular cleaning of email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses reduces bounce rates and improves sender reputation. Low bounce rates are crucial to not affect your corporate deliverability rates.
Email marketer from Mailchimp shares that using a dedicated sending domain for marketing emails improves deliverability by isolating your brand's reputation from your corporate domain. This separation helps prevent deliverability issues affecting critical business communications.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow says to monitor blocklists, and ensure your sending IP addresses and domains aren't listed, and says this is especially important when sending both marketing and transactional emails from the same domain.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that having your ESP and corporate email domains the same can negatively impact your sender reputation if marketing emails are flagged as spam, affecting corporate email deliverability. He recommends separating the domains to protect corporate email.
Email marketer from GMass says to set up separate tracking domains, so a negative deliverability hit doesn't affect the main sending domain.
Email marketer from Hubspot explains that warming up your IP address is crucial for new ESP setups, gradually increasing sending volume to establish a positive sender reputation. This is especially critical when sharing domains with corporate email to avoid sudden deliverability issues.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that the best practice is to use a subdomain (e.g., marketing.yourdomain.com) for your ESP. This keeps your primary domain reputation clean and ensures transactional emails aren't impacted by marketing campaign issues.
Email marketer from Sendgrid shares that proper Sender Authentication methods are essential, they recommend that every email you send be authenticated. This is achieved through SPF and DKIM records. Authenticating your emails with SPF and DKIM confirms that you are who you say you are and increases the likelihood that mailbox providers will trust and deliver your messages. Additionally, they recommend you use a dedicated IP address.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that maintaining a clean email list through regular validation and removal of inactive subscribers is crucial for preserving a positive sender reputation. A clean list reduces bounce rates and spam complaints, which are important factors for deliverability when sharing domains.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that she helps with deliverability challenges when a client has set up their ESP from name/domain the same as their corporate email address, taking a big picture look at deliverability and identifying what needs to change for the filters to put the mail in the inbox.
Expert from Spamresource shares that Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are essential for email authentication and improving deliverability. They help verify the sender's identity and prevent spoofing, which is crucial when using the same domain for both corporate and marketing emails.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that closely monitoring and actively managing your sender reputation is crucial when using the same domain for both marketing and corporate emails. Negative impacts on sender reputation from marketing campaigns can affect the deliverability of important corporate communications.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC shares the standards that define how email servers should handle messages. Adhering to these standards reduces the likelihood of messages being flagged as spam or rejected. Compliance is essential when using the same domain for both marketing and corporate emails.
Documentation from Google explains that implementing DMARC with a strict policy (p=reject) prevents unauthorized use of your domain and protects your sender reputation, which is crucial if you're using the same domain for both corporate and marketing emails.
Documentation from Microsoft details that correctly configuring SPF records is essential to authorize your ESP to send emails on behalf of your domain. Incorrect SPF settings can lead to emails being flagged as spam.
Documentation from DKIM.org shares that DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying the sender's identity. Implementing DKIM helps prevent spoofing and improves deliverability by confirming that your emails are legitimate.