What are free resources to monitor deliverability and spam complaints besides Google Postmaster Tools?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Talos Intelligence says they provide a free reputation lookup tool where you can check the reputation of your IP address and domain. This reputation is based on Cisco's threat intelligence.
Email marketer from Reddit answers that while Return Path isn't free, it's a well known deliverability monitoring service.
Email marketer from GlockApps states that seed lists are a network of real email addresses across various ISPs that you can use to test your email deliverability. By sending to these addresses, you can see where your emails land (inbox, spam, or missing).
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that Microsoft's SNDS and JMRP are equivalents to Google Postmaster Tools and says your ESP should capture the majority of spam complaints, bounces etc.
Email marketer from MailEnable forum advises using free resources to monitor blocklists such as HetriXTools to monitor for blacklisting issues.
Email marketer from StackExchange explains that you can use free online tools to check if your IP address or domain is blacklisted by various organizations. Being on a blacklist can severely impact your deliverability.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC answers that although EasyDMARC has paid options, they do offer a free DMARC monitoring tool to view reports on your email authentication status. Properly implemented DMARC helps improve deliverability.
Email marketer from Postmark discusses tools to monitor bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and engagement metrics in order to maintain high transactional email deliverability, particularly around authentication.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that Google doesn't operate a Feedback Loop (FBL) like other mailbox providers, so individual complaints made by Gmail users aren't relayed to the sender / ESP.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that Emarsys has set in place the vast majority of feedback loops and return spam complaints as many as they see. Some deliverability information can be found on the Deliverability Advisor and Returnpath seed data. For any other more detailed reporting, open a ticket and he will help get it fast tracked.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that you can monitor your sender reputation with tools like Sender Score, which assigns a score from 0-100 based on various factors. A higher score indicates a better reputation.
Email marketer from EmailToolTester advises using free trials to send test emails using online testing tools for things like spam score and authentication.
Marketer from Email Geeks says that your ESP is still your primary reliable source of data.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource notes that Return Path Sender Score is a good source for reputation metrics. Although it is not free, you can get a good insight into any issues.
Expert from Word to the Wise suggests ensuring you are signed up to all available feedback loops to monitor complaint rates.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost explains that Feedback Loops (FBLs) are agreements with mailbox providers like AOL and Yahoo that forward complaints from their users back to the sender. This helps senders identify and remove problematic recipients from their lists.
Documentation from Microsoft SNDS explains that the Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) program allows you to monitor the 'health' and reputation of your assigned IP address space. It provides data about spam complaints, traffic volume, and other metrics.
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that they maintain several blocklists of IP addresses and domains known for sending spam. You can check if your sending IP is on their lists using their free lookup tool.
Documentation from Microsoft JMRP answers that the Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP) provides you with information on which of your messages users marked as 'junk' allowing you to remove these recipients from your mailing lists.