What are some low-budget deliverability and reputation tracking tools?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks mentions that Delivery Index is still active and provides a link.
Email marketer from Mailjet responds that they offer a free plan with basic deliverability features, including sender authentication (SPF, DKIM) and deliverability statistics.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum responds to warming IP addresses for free. The marketer suggests that warming new IP addresses help with sending reputations.
Email marketer from DNSstuff shares using free blacklist checkers to monitor your IP address. The marketer explains this prevents your emails going to the spam folder.
Email marketer from Gmass responds that they offer features to monitor deliverability issues, like bounce detection and spam complaint notifications for free. Some features depend on the plan.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that they offer email testing and deliverability tools that help diagnose issues before sending. Litmus explains they can test for things like spam filter triggers and rendering problems but it does come at a price.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends leveraging Google Postmaster Tools as a free tool to track deliverability.
Email marketer from Reddit shares GlockApps as an affordable tool for checking email placement in different inboxes. The Reddit user also mentions using free blacklist checkers to monitor IP reputation.
Email marketer from Stackoverflow mentions using free email verifier tools to clean email lists before sending. The marketer explains that cleaning invalid or spammy emails prevents bounces and damage to your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email on Acid responds that although they aren't free, email testing tools can help identify deliverability issues before sending campaigns. They explain that things like broken links and poor rendering can impact sender reputation.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog shares that Google Postmaster Tools is a free tool to monitor your sender reputation, spam rate, and feedback loop. He explains that this helps you understand how Gmail views your emails.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise recommends implementing and monitoring feedback loops (FBLs) provided by major ISPs. They explain that FBLs provide data on user complaints, allowing you to identify and address deliverability issues.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests investigating by-domain reporting from your own ESP for your top domains. He notes that drops in engagement, including a reduction in opt-outs, even if opens aren’t as impacted, indicate emails aren’t being seen.
Expert from Spam Resource, Laura Atkins, explains that blocklist monitoring tools can help detect reputation issues early. She shares that many free tools are available to check if your IP or domain is listed on common blocklists.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Mailchimp shares information on implementing SPF and DKIM records for your sending domain. They explain that these authentication methods help improve deliverability and protect against spoofing.
Documentation from SendGrid explains that they offer deliverability monitoring tools, including email activity feed, bounce and block tracking, and reputation monitoring. Some of these features are available on their free plan.
Documentation from RFC provides technical documentation about SPF. It explains the SPF framework and how to implement it. This allows the email receiver to verify the sender.
Documentation from DKIM provides technical documentation about DKIM. It explains the DKIM framework and how to implement it. This allows the email receiver to verify the sender.
Documentation from SparkPost explains important deliverability metrics like bounce rate, complaint rate, and engagement rate. They explain that tracking these metrics helps you understand and improve your sending reputation.