What deliverability and compliance tools should a new ESP implement?
Summary
What email marketers say15Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus advises that testing email content for spam triggers, rendering issues, and accessibility concerns is crucial to optimize deliverability and ensure a positive subscriber experience.
Email marketer from MailerCheck shares that monitoring IP addresses and domains for blacklisting is crucial for maintaining deliverability. If blacklisted, immediate action is required to resolve the issue and get removed from the blacklist.
Email marketer from Email Geeks recommends explaining compliance's role to sales as protecting their interests and disallowing side letters to contracts.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests to download the data, save it to the database, and have Slack notifications when clients hit a spam % (varies by client). Then alerts when IP and domain reputation change. Also allows us to do things like overlay daily Gmail email volume with GPT.
Email marketer from GlockApps shares that inbox placement testing is essential to monitor where emails land (inbox, spam folder, or missing) across different ISPs and email clients, allowing for proactive identification and resolution of deliverability issues.
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises custom return/bounce domain, click tracking domain, DKIM, and SPF for all accounts, and a DMARC alert upon test send or before actual send.
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that segmenting email lists based on engagement, demographics, and behavior allows ESPs to send more targeted and relevant emails, which improves engagement rates and deliverability.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that using dedicated IPs allows a new ESP to build its own reputation without being affected by the sending practices of others, which is crucial for establishing good deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks recommends clawback commissions on accounts terminated within a set period and staffing compliance with deliverability experts.
Email marketer from Validity suggests using list verification services to identify and remove invalid, inactive, or spam trap email addresses from subscriber lists, which helps maintain a clean list and improve deliverability.
Email marketer from SendGrid advises that gradually increasing email volume when using new IPs is crucial to establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs and avoid being flagged as spam. This involves starting with small volumes and gradually increasing over time.
Email marketer from Mailjet suggests implementing tools for authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), feedback loops, list hygiene, and content analysis to ensure deliverability and compliance.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests including an unsubscribe page feedback form to gather valuable subscriber feedback.
Email marketer from SparkPost shares that maintaining suppression lists of unsubscribed, bounced, and complained addresses ensures that these recipients are not sent further emails, which is crucial for compliance and deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests a discovery checklist for sales to vet prospects, including red flag warnings based on responses.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of monitoring IP addresses for blacklisting and taking prompt action to resolve any issues to prevent deliverability problems.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that a new ESP should prioritize building and maintaining a good sender reputation by adhering to best practices, authenticating emails, and actively monitoring deliverability metrics.
Expert from Email Geeks emphasizes the importance of an empowered Abuse/Compliance desk with developer and data analyst support, separate from the customer support management chain.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that implementing effective feedback loops and diligently managing complaints is crucial for an ESP to identify and address deliverability issues and maintain a positive sender reputation. They also mentioned that you need a process to investigate complaints, not just remove.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that for deliverability and compliance tools, a baby ESP should implement: Hetrix for IP/domain blocklist monitoring, internal use of Spamhaus, stack rank clients based on internal metrics, build something like Mailchimp’s Omnivore, watch for targeted spamhaus listings, and periodic inbox testing.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from DMARC.org details that DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM to provide a policy for handling emails that fail authentication checks, allowing domain owners to instruct receivers on how to handle such messages (e.g., reject, quarantine).
Documentation from DKIM explains that DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method that allows senders to digitally sign their emails, which helps recipients verify that the message was sent from an authorized source and has not been tampered with during transit.
Documentation from Return Path explains that feedback loops (FBLs) provide valuable data by notifying senders when recipients mark their emails as spam, enabling them to promptly remove those recipients from their lists and improve list hygiene.
Documentation from Google explains that Postmaster Tools allows senders to monitor their domain and IP reputation, spam rate, and feedback loop data, providing insights into potential deliverability issues and areas for improvement.
Documentation from RFC explains that Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication method designed to prevent spammers from sending messages on behalf of your domain. This can prevent spoofing.