What are the best practices for email deliverability and avoiding spam filters?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that improving sender reputation requires consistent sending volume, avoiding spam traps, and authenticating emails with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that making emails accessible to all recipients, including those with disabilities, not only improves inclusivity but also enhances deliverability by signaling a commitment to best practices.
Email marketer from Mailchimp advises segmenting email lists based on demographics, behavior, and engagement to send more targeted and relevant emails, thus improving deliverability.
Email marketer from ReturnPath (now Validity) recommends setting up feedback loops with ISPs to receive notifications about spam complaints from subscribers, allowing you to promptly remove those recipients from your list.
Email marketer from Reddit User u/EmailPro2020 shares that maintaining a consistent sending schedule and volume can positively impact sender reputation, whereas sudden spikes or drops in email frequency can trigger spam filters.
Email marketer from GlockApps advises using a dedicated IP address for sending emails, especially for high-volume senders, to maintain control over sender reputation and avoid being affected by the actions of other senders on a shared IP.
Email marketer from Email on Acid suggests optimizing emails for mobile devices to ensure proper rendering and engagement, as poor mobile experiences can lead to recipients marking emails as spam.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce advocates for regularly verifying email addresses on your list to remove invalid, inactive, or risky addresses, improving deliverability and engagement rates.
Email marketer from HubSpot emphasizes the importance of avoiding spam trigger words and phrases in email subject lines and body content that are commonly associated with spam.
Email marketer from Neil Patel emphasizes the importance of building a clean email list by using double opt-in, regularly cleaning the list of inactive subscribers, and avoiding purchased lists.
What the experts say9Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise (Laura Atkins) explains that positive engagement metrics, such as opens and clicks, signal to mailbox providers that recipients find your emails valuable, thus improving deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that Hotmail has a trusted reporter program for the best reporters.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that regularly monitoring your IP address and domain against blocklists is crucial for identifying and resolving deliverability issues caused by blacklisting.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that sending content people want to people who want it is not a magic bullet for deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks states there is no magic bullet for deliverability.
Expert from Spam Resource advises gradually increasing email sending volume, especially when starting with a new IP address, to establish a positive sender reputation and avoid triggering spam filters.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that algorithms actively identify people who are accurate about their spam reports, referring to them as “trusted reporters”. They also track recipients as a group and as individuals.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that not acting like a spammer will result in fewer deliverability issues.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that Hotmail visibly asks users if Hotmail got the spam classification right.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC explains that reverse DNS lookup (PTR record) maps an IP address to a domain name, verifying the legitimacy of the sending server and preventing spammers from using forged IP addresses.
Documentation from DMARC.org defines DMARC as a policy that allows senders to indicate that their emails are protected by SPF and DKIM, and tells receivers what to do if authentication fails, helping to prevent email spoofing and phishing.
Documentation from Microsoft outlines how DKIM adds a digital signature to outgoing emails, verifying the sender's identity and ensuring the message hasn't been altered during transit.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that using SPF records to authenticate your email is critical, defining SPF as a DNS record that specifies which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.