Why are my transactional emails delayed when sending from SFMC to Gmail?

Email marketer from Quora notes that many factors can contribute to email delivery delays including: large images that take a long time to download, DNS issues, and issues with SMTP.

Email marketer from MarketingCommunity.com shares that the content of your email, particularly if it contains spam-like words or suspicious links, can trigger delays as Gmail's spam filters analyze the message. Reviewing and optimizing your email content may improve delivery speed.

Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that SFMC’s retry logic, if misconfigured, can lead to delays. If initial delivery attempts fail, the retry intervals might be too long, causing noticeable delays before the email is successfully sent.

Email marketer from EmailGeekForum.com explains that Gmail sometimes throttles incoming emails, especially from new or less reputable IPs/domains. This throttling can cause noticeable delays, particularly during peak sending times. Warming up your IP address may help.

Email marketer from SFMCHelp.com states that if SFMC's email queues are backed up, emails can experience delays. Checking SFMC's status page for any reported incidents can help identify if this is the cause.

Email marketer from TechAdviceSite.com mentions that occasional issues with Gmail's servers can cause temporary delays in email delivery. These problems are usually short-lived but can affect a significant number of users.

Email marketer from Reddit suggests the delay could be due to Salesforce Marketing Cloud's (SFMC) infrastructure or processing times, especially if the volume of emails being sent is high at that moment. Network congestion or throttling by SFMC could also be factors.

Email marketer from Email Geeks says Google often uses greylisting/tempfail, and that the ESP or Google could be the source of the delay. They have observed bigger delays on both sides.

Email marketer from Email Deliverability Blog shares that if you're using a shared IP in SFMC, the reputation of other senders on that IP can impact your email delivery speed to Gmail. If other senders have poor sending practices, Gmail might delay or filter emails from the entire IP range.

Email marketer from MarketingCloudUserGroup.org notes that incorrect SFMC configuration settings, such as incorrect DNS records or missing authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), can cause delays. These issues can lead to emails being flagged as suspicious by Gmail.

Email marketer from EmailMarketingTips.net explains that a poor sender reputation can lead to Gmail delaying emails. Sender reputation is based on several factors, including complaint rates, spam trap hits, and sending volume. Improving your sender reputation can reduce delays.

Expert from Spam Resource mentions SPF record misconfigurations can cause email delays or even delivery failures, as receiving servers may flag emails without proper authentication as suspicious and delay delivery for further inspection.

Expert from Email Geeks analysed the email headers and identified that ExactTarget (SFMC) took 18 minutes to deliver the message to Google. This delay could be due to issues at ET or Google instructing ET to retry delivery.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that a possible cause of the Gmail delivery delay is an initial temporary failure from Google, causing the mail to be re-queued and delivered later.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that the relevant lines in the email headers start with 'Received:' and they show the time and location of the delay.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that temporary failures can cause the receiving server to tell the sending server to try again later. This often involves a delay, as the sending server queues the message for a retry attempt.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that senders with poor reputations often experience deliverability issues including delays, particularly at Gmail. Maintaining a good sending reputation is key for fast and reliable delivery.

Documentation from Gmail Help states that adhering to Gmail's bulk sender guidelines is crucial for avoiding delays and spam filtering. Factors like sender reputation, authentication, and consistent sending volume can affect delivery speed. Sudden changes in sending patterns might trigger delays.

Documentation from Salesforce Help explains that Send Time Optimization (STO) feature within SFMC could introduce delays as the system analyzes data to determine the optimal send time for each recipient. If STO is enabled, disabling it for transactional emails might reduce delays.

Documentation from Salesforce Documentation indicates that new IPs used in SFMC must undergo a warming process to build a positive reputation with ISPs like Gmail. Failing to properly warm an IP can result in delays or deliverability issues, especially for transactional emails.

Documentation from RFC-Editor.org details that SMTP timeouts can cause delays if the sending server (SFMC) or the receiving server (Gmail) experiences network issues or high load. If timeouts occur, the email might be re-queued and resent later.

Documentation from Salesforce Trust mentions SFMC may implement throttling measures to protect its infrastructure. This throttling can cause temporary delays, especially during high-volume sending periods or if anomalies in sending patterns are detected.