What are the best resources for learning about email deliverability?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email on Acid explains the need to use tools to monitor your sender reputation, blocklist status, and spam complaints. Also they suggest setting up feedback loops with ISPs to be notified of issues.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests that using a dedicated IP address can help improve deliverability, especially for high-volume senders, as it allows you to build your own reputation separate from shared IPs.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares podcasts to learn about the topic, including: Email After Hours, Email's Not Dead, Humans of Email, Inboxing, and Email Einstein. Mentions cmswire.com, isipp.com, wordtothewise.com, and Validity's State of Email webinar series as interesting content sources.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares additional resources, including learndmarc.com, the deliverability track on InboxExpo, and a talk on March 22nd.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that deliverability is a complex issue requiring a multi-faceted approach. Highlights the importance of list quality, sender reputation, proper authentication, and engaging content.
Email marketer from Email Geeks mentions that Validity has a lot of 250ok old resources migrated to them and have generally good content. Sparkpost and salesforce also have similar level articles that are helpful.
Email marketer from Mailchimp explains that deliverability depends on authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), sender reputation, content quality, and subscriber engagement. They recommend focusing on building a clean list and creating engaging content.
Email marketer from GMass focuses on deliverability advice specifically for cold email. They recommend warming up your sending IP address, authenticating your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and testing your email content.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains that high bounce rates negatively impact deliverability. Advises regularly cleaning your email list to remove invalid or inactive email addresses to reduce bounce rates.
Email marketer from Litmus advises performing deliverability audits to identify and fix issues affecting inbox placement. Audits should include a review of authentication, sender reputation, and list hygiene practices.
Email marketer from Sendinblue recommends several steps to improve deliverability: verifying your sender email and domain, segmenting your email lists, cleaning your email lists regularly to remove unengaged subscribers, warming up your IP address and using a dedicated IP, and monitoring your sender reputation.
Email marketer from SparkPost notes that consistent engagement (opens, clicks) is crucial for maintaining good deliverability. They recommend segmenting and targeting subscribers based on their engagement levels.
Email marketer from Validity warns about the dangers of spam traps and how they can negatively impact sender reputation. They advise using double opt-in, regularly cleaning your lists, and avoiding purchased lists.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that a deep understanding of the entire email ecosystem is essential for deliverability. This includes areas like IP addresses, reverse DNS, email authentication, reputation, blocklists, complaint loops, and more. A deliverability professional should be well-versed in these technical aspects.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that time frames for cleaning email lists are arbitrary and depend on balancing business needs with deliverability. Sometimes 18 months works, sometimes 2 weeks works.
Expert from Email Geeks shares multiple resources for deliverability knowledge: Al’s Spamresource, Kickbox, Matt V’s emailkarma, Spamhaus blog, and her own blog Word to the Wise. Recommends MAAWG best practice documents, paying attention to spam filters, exploring anti-spam and email research, and using command line tools like dig, host, swaks, and netcat/nc. Also advises reading RFCs related to SMTP, DKIM, SPF, DMARC and BIMI. Suggests learning by reading court documents related to ISPs and spammers, postmaster blogs, and keeping up with benchmarks and white papers.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares the importance of Feedback Loops (FBLs) as a direct line of communication from ISPs. By signing up for FBLs, email senders can identify and remove users who mark their messages as spam, which significantly enhances deliverability and protects their sending reputation. This proactive approach is crucial for maintaining a clean and engaged email list.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Google takes at least 3 weeks to improve reputation.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that understanding of RFC standards, ISPs guidelines (Gmail, Outlook etc) and having a proactive approach towards maintaining the health of the email program is crucial for email deliverability.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from RFC explains the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). This document is the defining technical specification for email delivery across the internet. Provides a comprehensive guide to the protocol.
Documentation from dmarc.org details how to implement DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attacks. Provides guidance on creating and publishing DMARC records.
Documentation from IETF describes the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures protocol, which allows email senders to cryptographically sign their messages, verifying the message's authenticity and integrity to receiving mail servers.
Documentation from Microsoft outlines guidelines for senders to improve deliverability to Outlook.com and Hotmail. It covers topics like authentication, list hygiene, and feedback loops. Provides the Sender Support form for assistance.
Documentation from Google Support details best practices for bulk email senders, including authentication, list management, and spam complaint handling. They emphasize the importance of using a confirmed opt-in process and providing easy unsubscribe options.