Mail Tester Checklist: Improving Inbound Email Deliverability
Good ol’ email remains a handy marketing tool. Even despite the fact that according to statistics, normal email recipients view no more than 15% of their inbox. Approximately every fifth message is blocked by the mail service or lost due to faulty addresses and clogged up user inboxes!
Much of the deliverability issue is related to routing. While this is not a common problem for outgoing messages, it is more challenging to organize flexible routing of incoming mail. As a result, up to 45% of incoming email traffic is identified as spam!
This is a serious deal-breaker for any company focused on aggressive marketing. Those that care about a stable connection with clients, users, etc. in general. Without this connection, even the most well-thought-out newsletter campaign loses its meaning. And the business is losing money. How to tackle this issue?
Your best bet is to start using a mail tester that allows you to dramatically improve email deliverability through a range of email routine optimization and monitoring tools. In this quick guide, we walk you through the steps you need to take to ensure that your customers do not miss out on all the email stuff you send them.
Configuring DNS Records for Email Server
In order for emails to reach the right mailboxes, proper authentication must be enabled in the domain from which they are sent.
This is a set of methods aimed at providing reliable information about the origin of messages by checking the ownership of a domain by Message Transfer Agents (MTAs). Unfortunately, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) does not grant this feature, so fake sender addresses in emails are widely used in phishing.
To combat this, we recommend going to the DNS edit page in the control panel of the company to which the domain is trusted and configuring the following:
1. Sender Policy Framework (SPF), also, add Domain Key Identified Mail
(DKIM) to view Mail eXcanger (MX) records.
2. DKIM signature ─ TXT record with a name (host, subdomain). With its help,
the recipient can make sure that the letter came from a verified sender.
3. Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and
Conformance (DMARC). This is a technical specification for combating
spammers who spoof sender addresses.
4. Compile a list of IP addresses and use record testing tools.
All these efforts also help maintain a solid online reputation for your company. And of course, you need to use a proven hosting, such as AWS or Cloudflare.
Your Email Test Service
Providers rank your online reputation by the number of user complaints that may indicate you as a spammer. Email deliverability speed depends on this, so it is important that your ESP supports feedback loops (FBLs).
By default, abuse reports (ARF) are sent automatically to the sender from many services, including Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and others. In Gmail’s email checker, this is only available for ESP, since this service does not support ARF. So be sure to analyze the following features of your ESP:
1. Analyze the allocation of your mailbox and postmaster;
2. Check where your emails are going via an email delivery test, IP information
tracking, and blacklists checking;
3. Use predictive analysis of your customers' spending patterns. Predicting
behavior will also help retention;
4. Schedule email sending, choose a sufficient number of emails and optimal time
to send a newsletter (e.g., when your TA is most active).
Support appropriate dedicated IP allocation for inbound email
Adding a dedicated IP address is extremely necessary when the number of incoming messages is very high (say, if it exceeds 100 thousand per month). This is important for expanding your advertising campaigns, so we recommend maintaining an appropriately scaled email infrastructure.
On top of that, fix issues that are lowering your sender rating. To do this, make sure of the following:
• Your letters are desirable (legitimate) for both your email provider and your recipients;
• Your contacts are real;
• All the addresses are correct;
• Your content is in demand among potential recipients.
You need to make the provider's email test service filters believe that your IP address can be trusted. At the first sign of blockage or other issues, immediately demand clarifications and solutions. And better suspend any newsletter sending until the problem is solved. This way, you may stay transparent and legitimate with all your newsletter routines.
Better than email delivery test: building trust with SPF
It is highly unlikely that your emails will end up in spam after setting SPF. This record validates the sender's address by checking the "From" field and matching it against the address specified in the DNS record. Simply put, this is a security system that prevents scammers from sending emails on your behalf.
Thanks to this feature, the recipient's email checker (more precisely, their email server) can know for sure that this is your email and it is legit. SPF determines which IP addresses you have given permission to send emails. The receiving server recognizes them as allowed and does not refuse delivery.
All settings are made in the DNS of your domain. You need to create a text entry that looks something like this:
• Host/Name: @ (place a symbol below the host or name category);
• Value: v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.elasticemail.com ~all.
If the entry has not yet been installed after this, you will see a notification. SPF will help you deal with spam filters, get the necessary authorization and authority among the servers of your target clients. To improve deliverability, we also recommend setting up a PTR record for DNS reverse query.
Optimize Inbound Opt-in Process
Total email deliverability largely depends on the way you collect contacts and their interest or even dedication to your offers. There are usually two ways to set up an email contacts database:
• Single opt-in ─ subscription without confirmation. Subscribing recipients to your email newsletter without requiring their confirmation has but one drawback - non-existent, incorrectly typed, and random people's addresses, may get into the database.
• Double opt-in - subscription confirmation using a relevant link in the email. A more transparent and error-free approach is to subscribe only those truly interested to your newsletter by requiring their confirmation.
The double opt-in is a mandatory requirement of most email providers. This and a good spam checker can help you avoid sending emails to spam traps. Until the user clicks on the link, they will not be subscribed to the newsletter. Thus, the addresses of real people who have a desire to receive emails from you get into your database, boosting the overall deliverability percentage.
We recommend optimizing this process further. Double or triple (preferably regularly) check if your followers are committed to you and your content. This is the only way to ensure that your messages do not end up in the junk box and that you do not have problems with the provider's distrust.
Filter your email lists, check recipient details and customer base addresses. Otherwise, you may experience high bounce rates, which will result in your IP address being flagged as "naughty" and banned.
Send Quality Content
Focus on providing content that appeals to your target email readers and solves their problems in some way. Each of your messages should relate to the leads you are targeting.
When conducting an email delivery test, pay attention to formatting, because people appreciate beautiful layouts. At the same time, it is important to check the structural semantics of the HTML text. Spare your email from superfluous words. EPS usually checks for spam words automatically. So even if you come up with a genius promotional message but it contains a forbidden word, your campaign’s success will be undermined.
Make sure your HTML elements conform to accepted standards. The fact is that the correct structure of the text is very important, so check headings, lists, and other elements thoroughly. Also, do not insert oversized images inside your email copy to avoid upload issues. All in all, do not be intrusive, send content to those who wish to receive it and you should be gold.
Bottom Line
The above are only the basics of getting your email deliverability rates in hand. If you wish to go further and optimize your email success rates inside-out, turn to specialized professionals.
Folderly is a well-tried-and-tested email test service folderly.com that helps boost deliverability and optimize email campaigns via AI-powered tools.
