How to troubleshoot spam placement issues with a third-party vendor using SendGrid?

Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that if deliverability is a concern, instead of using "include:sendgrid.net", consider using "include:almost-any-other-esp-out-there". If Sendgrid must be used, authentication should be tightened up to minimize deliverability issues.

Email marketer from SparkPost.com explains segmenting your email list allows you to send targeted messages to different groups of subscribers. Segmenting based on demographics, purchase history, or engagement levels can improve your open rates and click-through rates, and maintain a positive sender reputation.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that SendGrid's IP reputation can sometimes be an issue, especially for shared IPs. They recommend using a dedicated IP address and warming it up gradually. Also, they advised monitoring your sending reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains email content is important in determining spam placement. Common issues are excessive use of spam trigger words, poor HTML coding, broken links, and high image-to-text ratio. Emails should be tested across different email clients and devices.

Email marketer from SendGrid.com explains that improving email deliverability requires authenticating your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), monitoring your sender reputation, warming up your IP address, and segmenting your email lists. It's also crucial to review your email content for spam triggers and maintain consistent sending volumes.

Email marketer from Litmus.com emphasizes that managing your sender reputation involves monitoring bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement metrics. Maintaining a clean email list and segmenting subscribers based on their engagement levels are essential. Regularly removing inactive subscribers can improve your sender reputation.

Email marketer from StackOverflow suggests checking the email headers to diagnose the cause of spam placement. The headers can provide information on SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation results. They also recommend using tools like Mail-Tester to analyze the email's spam score.

Email marketer from Mailchimp.com explains that cleaning your email list involves removing invalid email addresses, unsubscribed contacts, and inactive subscribers. Regularly cleaning your list improves your engagement metrics, reduces bounce rates, and protects your sender reputation.

Email marketer from Mailjet.com explains that dealing with spam filters requires managing your sender reputation and ensuring your emails are properly authenticated. Key areas include setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, avoiding spam trigger words, providing an easy unsubscribe option, and ensuring your IP address is not blacklisted.

Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that Sendgrid usually sends as a subdomain return path and the SPF is checked against the return path, not the friendly from. He suggests not adding SPF includes willy nilly to your SPF if they’re not using your apex domain as the return path and mentions the subdomain is provided by Sendgrid and already created by the vendor. Faisal clarifies that SPF checks against the return path, which in this case is em3580.kingarthurbaking.com, so it checks THAT domain’s SPF. SPF does NOT check against the friendly from (DKIM does, however).

Email marketer from Gmass.co shares warming up an IP address involves gradually increasing the volume of emails you send over time. Starting with small batches of emails to engaged subscribers and slowly increasing the volume allows you to build a positive sending reputation with mailbox providers.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that third-party ESPs can have problems with their infrastructure, leading to deliverability issues. It's crucial to look closely at the vendor's setup, authentication, and sender reputation. Also, closely watch the registration process, as unsolicited emails and reputation issues can be caused from here.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests setting up a branded mail from (Envelope). In the Authentication-results header, the domains used to validate the emails can be identified.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that investigating deliverability problems with third-party vendors involves checking authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), analyzing bounce codes, reviewing feedback loops, and examining the email's journey through the delivery chain. Root causes may include reputation problems, content issues, or misconfiguration.

Expert from Email Geeks explains DMARC checks the 5322.from, and DKIM signature can be anything you own the DNS for. She would look very hard at the overall registration data and see if there were some customers that are using the platform to send unsolicited email and who are causing issues with reputation that are related to folks reporting the registration email as spam.

Documentation from RFC-Editor.org outlines the technical specifications of SPF DNS records. The documentation explains that SPF records authorize specific mail servers to send emails on behalf of a domain. SPF records help to prevent spammers from forging the sender's address, reducing the chances of your emails being marked as spam.

Documentation from SendGrid.com states that setting up domain authentication (SPF, DKIM) is vital for establishing trust with mailbox providers. It confirms that you are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. The documentation provides step-by-step instructions on how to configure these settings within the SendGrid platform.

Documentation from DMARC.org explains that DMARC implementation is crucial for protecting your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks. A DMARC policy allows you to specify how email receivers should handle messages that fail SPF and DKIM checks. It recommends starting with a monitoring policy (p=none) and gradually moving to stricter policies (p=quarantine or p=reject).

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains the platform provides insights into your sending domain's reputation, spam rate, and deliverability issues. It helps you identify and address problems that might be causing your emails to be marked as spam by Gmail users.

Documentation from Microsoft.com explains various anti-spam message headers and how to interpret them. Analyzing headers can help diagnose deliverability problems and improve email authentication.