What are the best practices for email deliverability when using SparkPost and Amazon SES, including reverse DNS, blacklist monitoring, and handling dedicated IPs?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from ZeroBounce shares that regular email validation removes invalid, risky, and inactive email addresses from your list to protect your sender reputation and improve deliverability. ZeroBounce can help with this process.
Email marketer from GlockApps explains that using email testing tools like GlockApps before sending campaigns helps identify deliverability issues, such as placement in spam folders, allowing you to make necessary adjustments.
Email marketer from Senderverify explains that to improve sender reputation, consistently authenticate your emails, maintain low spam complaint rates, send relevant content, and remove inactive subscribers.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that when warming up IPs, start with your most engaged subscribers and gradually increase volume. Monitor bounce rates and spam complaints closely during this process.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that sender reputation is crucial for deliverability. ISPs use it to determine whether to accept, reject, or filter your emails. Positive reputation leads to better inbox placement.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that practicing good email list hygiene improves deliverability. This involves regularly cleaning your list by removing inactive subscribers, invalid email addresses, and spam traps.
Email marketer from SMTP2GO shares that monitoring blacklists helps you identify if your sending IPs or domain have been listed, which can significantly impact deliverability. Prompt action is needed to resolve listings.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that when setting up dedicated IPs with SES or SparkPost, ensure proper rDNS configuration that matches your sending domain. This improves trust and deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares if you're sending from IPs through Sparkpost/SES and those IPs appear in Received headers, make sure you set valid rDNS on those too.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that Spamhaus is a big deal and getting listed by them should be taken seriously. However they will immediately delist you if you solve the problem. Steve adds that you will likely know from other metrics fast if you get listed.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC explains that implementing DMARC policy enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject) prevents unauthorized use of your domain in email, greatly enhancing sender reputation and deliverability.
What the experts say7Expert opinions
Expert from SpamResource shares that one of the most important aspects of deliverability is list management and engagement. Sending to unengaged users can damage your reputation and land you in the spam folder.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if you’re paying Sparkpost or SES to send your mail, setup and monitoring is their responsibility. They should provide user-friendly metrics dashboards for day-to-day use. Access to raw data is useful for diagnosing problems but not needed constantly.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that reverse DNS should ideally match the hostnames of your machine and the name given in the EHLO. While it's primarily for tidiness, some filters are wary of generic or missing reverse DNS. Examples like mail1.yourcorpdomain.com are good, while he-208-187-80-130.whatever.com are bad.
Expert from SpamResource explains that setting a 2048 bit DKIM key is critical to improving deliverability. Using a larger key size helps give increased security. Also to make sure you renew keys regularly.
Expert from SpamResource explains that setting up proper bounce processing with your ESP and whitelisting their IPs is crucial for deliverability when using services like SparkPost and Amazon SES. This ensures reliable feedback and prevents accidental blocking of legitimate traffic.
Expert from Email Geeks explains Spamhaus has reasonable listing policies and has been pleasant and professional to deal with, leading to wide trust and use, and a significant and immediate effect on email delivery.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that of the publicly accessible blacklists, Spamhaus lists and maybe URIBL are the ones expected to have a direct effect on delivery problems.
What the documentation says6Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost explains that suppression lists are essential for maintaining deliverability. These lists automatically prevent sending to addresses that have bounced, unsubscribed, or marked your emails as spam.
Documentation from AWS explains that to set up SPF records, you need to publish a TXT record to your DNS server that specifies the mail servers that are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that warming up dedicated IPs gradually increases your sending volume to establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs. They recommend starting with small volumes and gradually increasing them over several weeks.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that setting up feedback loops with ISPs allows you to receive reports of spam complaints. This helps you identify and remove problematic subscribers from your list.
Documentation from AWS explains that you must verify each email address (sender) before you can use it to send email through Amazon SES. You can verify email addresses by using the Amazon SES console or by using the Amazon SES API.
Documentation from AWS explains that proper bounce handling is crucial. Set up bounce notifications and remove bouncing addresses from your sending lists promptly to maintain a healthy sender reputation.