Your carefully crafted email is ready to go, but data shows that the average professional receives around 120 emails each day. In such a crowded inbox, ensuring your message reaches its destination—not the spam folder—can feel like an uphill battle.

In fact, around 31 billion emails bounce daily, and a significant 16% of messages end up trapped in spam. That means a quarter of your potential audience might never see your important communications.

How can you ensure your emails aren't lost in the shuffle? The key lies in conducting a thorough email deliverability check.

This process will help you identify potential issues, improve your sender reputation, and ultimately enhance your chances of landing in the inbox.

This guide is packed with expert insights and actionable steps to help you assess your email deliverability. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know, including how to perform an email deliverability check to ensure your messages stay out of the spam folder.

Before you hit "send" on your next campaign, let’s evaluate your current email practices. With the right insights, you can improve your chances of landing in the inbox. Ready to enhance your email deliverability? Let’s dive in!

Why Email Deliverability Matters in Your Campaign?

Email deliverability is a vital aspect of your email strategy. It  refers to the ability of your email messages to successfully reach your recipients' inboxes. It’s not just about sending an email; it’s about making sure it lands where it’s intended to go.

Factors like sender reputation, authentication protocols, and content quality play crucial roles in this process.

High deliverability maximizes your reach, ensuring effective communication with customers and driving sales. With email marketing yielding an impressive average return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every dollar spent, poor email deliverability can significantly impact your bottom line.

Additionally, consistent deliverability protects your brand’s reputation and fosters better engagement—personalized emails can generate transaction rates six times higher.

Deliverability vs. Delivery

Before we jump into our top picks for testing deliverability, it’s important to clarify some key definitions. These terms are often mixed up, and while they’re interconnected, mastering one doesn’t automatically mean you’ve got the other down.

Email Delivery simply refers to whether a recipient’s server accepted your email. If it did, that’s a win! However, it doesn’t guarantee where the message ended up in the recipient's inbox. This acceptance contributes to what’s known as the "Delivery Rate."

On the flip side, if your email bounces due to an incorrect address, a non-existent domain, or oversized attachments, that counts as a failed delivery. You’ll likely receive a bounce notification, and let’s be honest, that’s not the kind of update you want.

Email Deliverability, on the other hand, focuses on whether your email lands directly in the recipient’s inbox or gets diverted to their spam folder. 

Because of this, deliverability is often referred to as Inbox Placement. Several factors come into play here, including sender reputation, authentication methods, and the overall quality of your content. These elements significantly influence how automatic filters decide the fate of your email.

Understanding the distinction between delivery and deliverability is essential for optimizing your email strategy. Now, let’s dive into how you can check your email deliverability, ensuring your messages not only get accepted but also land right where they should—in your recipients’ inboxes.

How to Check Email Deliverability

In a world where inboxes are overflowing, ensuring your emails reach their intended recipients is more critical than ever. Smartlead’s Email Deliverability Testing, known as Smart Delivery, offers a powerful solution for optimizing your email campaigns. 

Ensuring that your emails land in the inboxes of your recipients is crucial for effective communication, engagement, and ultimately, the success of your marketing campaigns. 

Poor deliverability can result in lost opportunities, lower engagement rates, and a damaged sender reputation. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to check email deliverability, covering various methods and tools that can help you monitor and improve your email performance.

1. Use Email Deliverability Testing Tools

Email deliverability testing tools are invaluable for assessing various factors that affect whether your emails reach their intended destinations. These tools analyze your email content, sender reputation, and overall deliverability score, providing actionable insights. Here are some popular options:

• Smartlead: This tool provides a free deliverability test that includes a spam score and detailed analysis of your emails. It helps you identify potential issues that could affect inbox placement.
• GlockApps: GlockApps tests your inbox placement across multiple email providers and provides detailed reports on how your emails perform in different environments. It highlights issues and offers solutions to improve deliverability.

2. Check Email Logs

For organizations using platforms like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, email logs can provide critical insights into the delivery status of your messages. Here’s how to access these logs:

• Google Workspace:some text
  • Go to the Admin console.
  • Navigate to Reporting > Email Log Search.
  • Input the message ID of the email you wish to track. This will display information regarding whether the email was delivered, marked as spam, or bounced back.
• Microsoft 365:some text
  • Use the Message Trace feature found in the Security & Compliance Center.
  • Enter the sender and recipient details, along with the date range. This feature allows you to track the path of your email and understand its delivery status.

3. Monitor Bounce Rates

Bounce rates are a key indicator of email deliverability. They are categorized into two types:

• Hard Bounces: These occur when an email cannot be delivered due to a permanent reason, such as an invalid email address.
• Soft Bounces: These happen when the email is temporarily undeliverable, possibly due to a full inbox or server issues.

Monitoring these rates can help you identify deliverability problems. Most email marketing platforms provide analytics on bounce rates, allowing you to take corrective actions, such as cleaning your email list.

4. Review Non-Delivery Reports (NDRs)

When emails fail to deliver, you’ll often receive a Non-Delivery Report (NDR). These reports include:

• Error Codes: Indicate the reason for the failure.
• Suggestions for Resolution: Provide actionable steps to resolve the issues.

Analyzing NDRs helps you understand specific problems affecting your email delivery and can guide you in making necessary adjustments to your sending practices.

5. Check Sender Reputation

Your sender reputation is a significant factor influencing email deliverability. A poor sender reputation can lead to your emails being marked as spam. Use tools like Cisco Talos Intelligence to check the reputation of your sending domain or IP address. This tool provides insights into any blacklisting issues that may be affecting your deliverability.

6. Analyze Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics, such as open and click rates, provide insights into how your recipients interact with your emails. Low engagement rates can signal deliverability issues. Here’s how to analyze these metrics:

• Open Rates: A low open rate might indicate that your emails are landing in the spam folder or that your subject lines need improvement.
• Click-Through Rates (CTR): Low CTR can indicate that while your emails are being opened, the content may not be resonating with your audience.

By regularly monitoring these metrics, you can identify patterns and adjust your strategy accordingly.

7. Perform Regular Deliverability Tests

Conducting periodic deliverability tests is essential for evaluating how your emails perform across different service providers. This practice allows you to:

• Identify trends and issues affecting your email campaigns.
• Optimize your sending practices and content based on the test results.

Regular tests will help you stay ahead of potential deliverability problems and maintain a strong sender reputation.

How to Test Deliverability of Emails?

Even if you’re not subscribed to Smartlead (SL), you can still perform manual deliverability tests using Smart Delivery.

Let’s  will take you through the steps to conduct a manual deliverability test using Smart Delivery, allowing you to assess your campaign’s performance against various metrics such as spam filters and email authentication.

You can choose between two mailbox options:

• Smartlead Connected Mailbox: An email account that you’ve integrated with Smartlead.
• Non-Connected Mailbox: An email account not integrated with Smartlead (for more details, refer to Smartlead documentation).

Let's start with Non-Connected Mailbox

Step 1: Log In to Smartlead

Begin by logging into your Smartlead account. Once you're in, navigate to the Smart Delivery tab.

From there, click on the ‘Start Spam Test’ button located at the top right corner to initiate the testing process.

Step 2: Choose Manual Test

Select the Manual Test option. This will direct you to the test configuration screen, where you’ll set up the specifics of your test.

Step 3: Enter General Details and Select Email Accounts

On the Manual Test screen, you’ll need to fill in the general details related to the test. Once you’ve completed that, click ‘Save & Next’.

Next, you’ll select the mailbox for testing. During this step, you’ll see an option to run the test using non-connected email accounts.

Step 4: Copy the Test ID String

When you opt for non-connected accounts, the system will generate a Test ID string. This ID is crucial for tracking your email performance.

Confirm the providers and copy the seed list you intend to send the test email to. Paste this list into the recipient section of your external email service provider (ESP).

Don’t forget to copy the Test ID and paste it into the email you plan to test. This ID helps Smart Delivery monitor and provide insights into your email’s deliverability. You can place the ID anywhere in the email body.

Note: The Test ID can be used for only one test.

Step 5: View Your Report

Once you’ve pasted the Test ID into your email, select the seed list from the screen and add it as a recipient. Send the test email with the ID to that list.

Now, click on View Report. The tool will process your email based on the non-connected mailboxes and the provided Test ID. (Keep in mind that the test will show up on the dashboard, but the details will populate only after you send the test email with the ID.)

After the test is complete, you’ll receive a detailed deliverability report that includes valuable insights like inbox placement, spam score, and performance across various providers.

How to Conduct Manual Email Deliverability Check in Smartlead?

Ensure you have an active Smartlead account and have set up your campaigns for testing. If you’re new to Smartlead, consider signing up for a trial account to explore its features.

Step 1: Log In to Your Smartlead Account

Once logged in, you’ll be directed to the dashboard. From the left-hand navigation menu, click on Smart Delivery to access the testing options.

Step 2: Choose Your Test Mode

When running a test for the first time, you’ll be prompted to select either Manual or Automatic test modes.  Select Manual Test. Alternatively, you can click the Start Spam Test button located in the top right corner to begin your deliverability testing.

Step 3: Enter General Details

In this step, you’ll need to provide essential information about your test:

• Test Name: Create a unique name to easily identify this test later.
• Description: Provide a brief description of the test’s purpose.
• Move to a Folder: Organize your tests by assigning them to specific folders if desired.

Your test will run through the SpamAssassin spam filter, which evaluates factors such as content and sender reputation. Ensuring your emails meet the criteria set by SpamAssassin increases the likelihood of landing in the inbox.

You should also enable the Link Checker to verify links within your email (excluding unsubscribe links).

Next, you can set the Sending Throttle Rate, which controls how quickly your emails are sent. You can opt to send all emails at once or define an interval (e.g., one email every few minutes). Once you’ve completed this section, click Save & Next.

Step 4: Select Mailboxes and Email Content

In the next section, you’ll configure the mailboxes and select the email content for testing:

1. Select Campaign: Choose the specific campaign you wish to evaluate from the dropdown menu.
2. Select Sequence: Pick the email sequence you want to test. You’ll have the option to preview the email copy.

Choose between from two mailbox options: Smartlead Connected Mailbox.

• After selecting the campaign and sequence, you’ll see a preview of the email, with any variables replaced by lead list data.
• Choose the sender accounts you’d like to test. Keep in mind that limitations may apply based on your subscription plan.

Modify Email Providers (Optional): You can customize which email providers to include in your test.

The seed list contains over 50 email addresses from various providers, giving you insights into how your email performs across different platforms. It’s recommended to test against all providers for a more comprehensive analysis.

Step 5: Execute the Test

Once you’ve configured all the necessary settings, click on Save & Run Test. The tool will send your email to the selected seed list, analyzing its performance across different email providers.

After the test is complete, you’ll receive a detailed deliverability report that highlights any issues and provides insights on optimizing your email campaigns. 

How to Run an Automatic Deliverability Test in Smartlead

Smartlead’s Smart Delivery offers a seamless way to run automatic deliverability tests, allowing you to monitor your email performance with minimal manual effort. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.

Step 1: Log In to Your Smartlead Account

Begin by accessing your Smartlead account. Upon logging in, you'll see the Smartlead dashboard.

From the left-hand navigation menu, click on the Smart Delivery tab to access the testing options.

Step 2: Choose Test Mode

On the Smart Delivery screen, select the Automatic Test option. This mode allows the system to conduct spam tests at regular intervals, saving you the hassle of manual intervention.

Step 3: Fill In General Details

You’ll now see a screen where you can enter essential information for your test:

• Test Name: Provide a distinctive name for your test.
• Description: Add a brief overview of the test's purpose.
• Move to a Folder: Organize your tests by categorizing them in specific folders (optional).

Your test will automatically process through the SpamAssassin spam filter. SpamAssassin evaluates incoming messages based on various factors, including content, sender reputation, and technical configurations. This ensures your emails meet the necessary criteria to pass through spam filters and land in recipients’ inboxes.

You can also enable the Link Checker to verify that all links in your email (excluding the unsubscribe link) are valid.

Next, set the Sending Throttle Rate, which controls how quickly emails are sent. This rate determines how many emails are delivered over a specific time period, helping prevent overwhelming email providers. You can choose to send all emails at once or specify a time interval, such as sending one email every few minutes.

Once you've filled in all the details, click Save & Next to proceed.

Step 4: Select Mailboxes and Email Copy

In this section, you’ll configure the settings for the mailboxes and the email content you want to test:

1. Select Campaign: Click the dropdown menu to choose the campaign you wish to evaluate. This will display all the campaigns you’ve created in Smartlead.
2. Select Sequence: Use the dropdown to select the specific email sequence you want to test. Once you’ve made your selections, click View Copy to review the email that will be used for the deliverability test.
3. Select Sender Accounts: Choose the sender accounts you wish to use for the test. Keep in mind that limitations may apply based on your subscription plan.
4. Modify Email Providers (Optional): You can adjust which email providers to include in your test. Smart Delivery sends emails to a seed list containing over 50 addresses from various email service providers (ESPs), providing insights into how your email performs across different platforms. It’s recommended to select all available email providers for comprehensive results.

After completing these selections, click Save & Next.

Step 5: Set Test Frequency

Now it’s time to define how often you want the automatic tests to run:

• Daily: Ideal for ongoing campaigns.
• Weekly: Suitable for long-term monitoring.

Setting the frequency allows you to track deliverability trends over time and catch any potential issues early. Be sure to specify a start and end date for your testing schedule.

Once you've configured everything, click Activate Test. Your test will now run automatically according to the frequency you’ve set, requiring no further manual action.

The system will continuously monitor your email deliverability and provide regular updates and insights.

Note

You can stop your automated test at any time using the action menu, allowing you to maintain control over your testing process.

Once you've conducted a manual or automatic spam test using Smart Delivery, you receive a comprehensive Deliverability Report that offers vital insights into your email performance across various mailboxes and service providers.

This report serves as a crucial tool for optimizing future campaigns.

Overall Performance Summary

At the top of your report, you’ll find a summary that highlights key metrics such as the Inbox Placement Rate, Tab Placement Rate, Spam Score, and Missing Emails. These metrics provide a quick overview of how your emails performed, allowing you to assess deliverability at a glance.

SpamAssassin Score

The SpamAssassin score evaluates your emails based on various criteria. This section provides both the score and detailed information on factors influencing it, such as the use of spammy language or improper formatting, helping you identify areas for improvement.

IP Reputation and Blacklist Status

Your IP Reputation is crucial for deliverability. This section details your sender domain, IP address, reverse DNS configuration, and any blacklists you may appear on. Understanding these elements can help you address issues that might hinder your email performance.

rDNS Report

The rDNS section verifies the proper setup of your domain’s DNS. It shows the status of your reverse DNS for each mailbox, ensuring that your configuration meets deliverability standards and avoids spam filters.

Domain Analytics

In this section, critical authentication methods like DKIM and SPF are assessed. The report indicates whether these checks passed or failed, along with validity checks, allowing you to ensure your emails are recognized as legitimate by recipients’ servers.

Additional features in the report include data filtering by sender accounts and automated test reports. These tools provide deeper insights and help you visualize trends over time, allowing for targeted improvements in your campaigns.

How Do I Check Email Deliverability in Gmail?

If a user reaches out and you can't recall receiving their email, you can verify its delivery status using Gmail's tools.

1. Review the Results: Click on the results to check the Recipient details section. Here, you’ll find confirmation of the email's delivery status, indicating whether it was accepted or rejected.
2. Access the Admin Console: Log in to your Gmail Admin console. Make sure you're using an administrator account to access the necessary reporting features.
3. Navigate to Email Log Search: Go to Reporting > Email Log Search within the Admin console.
4. Search for the Email: Paste the provided message ID into the search field. Set the date to match the time frame close to when the email was sent.

Understanding Message Delivery Reports

Gmail’s spam filter plays a crucial role in maintaining your domain's integrity by automatically filtering out blatant spam. Custom settings can also influence how messages are treated. To view broader delivery metrics:

1. View the Message Delivery Report
   • In the Admin console, go to Menu > Security > Security Center > Dashboard.
   • In the Message delivery panel, click View Report.
2. Analyze the Delivery Graph
   • The graph illustrates the number of messages Accepted and Rejected.some text
     • Accepted: Messages that successfully entered your domain.
     • Rejected: Messages blocked due to spam filters or custom settings.
3. Customize the Graph
   • Use the drop-down menus above the graph to filter by:some text
     • Traffic Source: Choose between External or Internal messages.
     • Domain: Specify which domain you want the report for.
     • Date Range: View data from today, yesterday, or customize for the last 31 days.
4. Export Data
   • To generate a spreadsheet of the data displayed in the graph, click Export Sheet. The spreadsheet will be saved to your My Drive folder.

Comparing Data

To compare current delivery data against historical data:

1. In the top right corner, select the Statistical Analysis menu.
2. Choose Percentile to overlay historical data (180 days for most metrics, 30 days for Gmail-specific data).
3. Adjust the analysis overlay as needed.

Detailed Delivery Insights

Clicking on any data point in the graph reveals a table below with detailed information:

• For rejected messages, you can see why they were blocked—whether due to blatant spam, Google policies, or custom settings.
• For accepted messages, you can differentiate between those accepted under the default Gmail policy and those allowed due to specific custom rules.

By utilizing Gmail’s Admin console and message delivery reports, you can efficiently verify email delivery status and gain insights into your email campaigns’ performance. Regularly monitoring these metrics helps ensure your messages reach their intended recipients, enhancing communication effectiveness.

How to Check Email Deliverability in Outlook?

In Outlook, there are several methods you can use to check email deliverability:

1. Delivery Receipts

To confirm that your email has been delivered to the recipient's server, you can request a delivery receipt. Here’s how:

• Go to the File menu.
• Select Options > Mail.
• Check the box for Delivery receipt.

When your email is delivered, you'll receive a notification confirming this status.

2. Non-Delivery Reports (NDRs)

If an email fails to deliver, Outlook will generate a Non-Delivery Report (NDR), also known as a delivery status notification (DSN). This report includes:

• An error code indicating the reason for the failure.
• Suggested solutions to resolve the issue.
• A link to additional help resources.

This feature is helpful for diagnosing problems with email delivery.

3. Email Delivery Troubleshooter

For Microsoft 365 administrators, an automated diagnostic tool can help identify email delivery issues. This tool is not available for certain Microsoft 365 variants, including Government and operated by 21Vianet or in Germany.

4. Inbox Insights

This automated tool provides detailed statistics for various email service providers. It offers insights into why emails may have landed in the spam folder and gives actionable advice to improve deliverability.

5. Smartlead

Smartlead offers a free deliverability test that can provide a reliable spam score and an overall deliverability check, helping you optimize your email campaigns.

By utilizing these tools and methods, you can effectively monitor and improve your email deliverability in Outlook, ensuring your messages reach your audience as intended.

How to Verify Email Deliverability?

Ensuring your emails land in the inbox is crucial for effective communication. Here are several strategies to verify and improve your email deliverability:

Verifying email addresses can be accomplished through several effective methods. Here’s a breakdown of each approach:

1. Send a Test Email

One of the simplest ways to verify an email address is by sending a test email. This involves sending a single message to the address in question to determine if it is valid and capable of receiving emails.

If the address is invalid, you will receive a bounce-back notification, which typically includes error codes and reasons for the failure. While this method provides immediate results, it is not scalable and can negatively impact your sender reputation if you send emails to invalid addresses.

2. Pinging the Server

Another method is to ping the email server to check for the existence of an email address without actually sending an email. Here’s how it works:

• Identify the Mail Server: Look up the domain’s Mail Exchange (MX) records to find the mail servers responsible for receiving emails for that domain.
• Connect to the Mail Server: Use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to establish a connection via a command-line interface (CLI) or similar tool.
• Initiate the SMTP Session: Start the session with commands such as "HELO" or "EHLO" to identify yourself to the server.
• Verify the Email Address: Use the "MAIL FROM" and "RCPT TO" commands to check if the email address exists. A positive response indicates the address is valid, while a negative response suggests it is not.
• Close the Connection: End the session with the "QUIT" command.

While this method avoids sending unnecessary emails, it can be time-consuming and impractical for large lists.

3. Searching for the Address on Google

You can also verify an email address by searching for it on Google. Simply type the address into the search bar and examine the results. Look for the email appearing in professional contexts, such as company websites, social media profiles, or forums.

This can help indicate the legitimacy of the address. However, this method can be labor-intensive for extensive lists and is not foolproof; valid addresses may not always appear in search results, and some may be found in unreliable contexts.

4. Manual Inspection

Manual inspection involves reviewing email addresses to identify signs of validity. Look for common typographical errors, such as extra dots or missing "@" symbols. 

Addresses that contain random strings of characters or nonsensical combinations can be flagged as suspicious. Additionally, verify that the domain appears legitimate and is not associated with spam or temporary email services. However, this method is prone to human error and is impractical for large lists due to its inefficiency.

5. Using an Email Verifier

Utilizing a specialized email verification tool, like Smartlead’s Email Verification Tool, offers an automated and efficient way to verify email addresses. These tools provide comprehensive checks to ensure that email addresses are valid and capable of receiving messages. 

By using an email verifier, you can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts, ensuring your list is clean, valid, and ready for successful campaigns.

6. Use Smartlead's Smart Delivery

Leverage Smartlead's Smart Delivery tool to check the deliverability of your emails. This tool provides detailed insights into potential issues that could affect your email's success in reaching recipients.

7. Implement an Email Verification API

An email verification API can validate and assess individual email addresses for deliverability and quality. This integration helps maintain a high standard for your email communications.

Factors Affecting Email Deliverability

Email deliverability can be influenced by several key factors, including:

• Sender Reputation: A strong reputation improves trust and deliverability.
• Ability to Avoid Spam Traps: Staying clear of spam traps is essential for maintaining a good sender score.
• Correct Recipient Addresses: Ensuring addresses are valid and minimizes bounce rates.
• Message Engagement Level: Higher engagement rates signal to providers that your emails are desired, improving overall deliverability.

What Is a Good Email Delivery Rate?

A good email delivery rate typically falls between 90% and 98%. Achieving this range is crucial for effective email marketing, as it indicates that your email list is healthy, your content is optimized for inbox placement, and you maintain a solid relationship with email service providers (ESPs).

High deliverability rates suggest that recipients are engaged with your emails, which helps build trust and improves overall campaign performance.

In contrast, the average deliverability rate for marketing emails in the first quarter of 2024 is 83.1%.

This statistic highlights a significant challenge: 16.9% of emails do not reach the intended recipients, with approximately 10.5% landing in the spam folder. These figures underline the importance of actively monitoring and improving your email deliverability.

How Do You Ensure Good Email Deliverability?

To maximize your email success, consider implementing our Ultimate Deliverability Engine Checklist, which is designed to boost your deliverability rates and effectively reach your audience.

• Copy plays a crucial role; avoid using inline images in your first email and limit the number of links to just your primary domain to reduce the chances of being filtered by spam classification engines. Additionally, utilize tools like Hemingway or Smartlead's internal spam checker to identify and avoid spam-triggering keywords. 
• A/B testing different copy angles, subject lines, and levels of personalization can significantly enhance your campaign performance. Personalizing your emails with merge tags and varied copy increases both deliverability and engagement. Techniques like Spintax can further randomize your messages, increasing the likelihood of landing in the recipient's inbox.
• In terms of Technical Setup, it's essential to implement DKIM, DMARC, and SPF authentication methods to confirm the legitimacy of your emails, akin to a "Made in Switzerland" label for Swiss chocolate. Keep your daily email sends under 50, and utilize auto-randomization for sending times to enhance deliverability. 
• Using your custom domain for link and open tracking instead of a shared platform domain can also improve results. Distributing email loads across multiple mailboxes and maintaining a staggered approach to warmups and outbound emails will ensure compliance with sending limits.
• For Campaign Control, including an unsubscribe option helps prevent your emails from being marked as spam. Set a minimum 5-minute gap between emails, maintain a Do Not Contact list to avoid problematic leads, and strive to keep bounce rates below 2%. 
• Regularly review low-performing campaigns and remove underperforming email accounts to boost overall deliverability. Consider sending plain text emails, as they can improve deliverability rates, and routinely check your domain against spam blacklists.
• When it comes to Warmup, gradually increase warmup emails for new accounts over a two-week period, aiming for a maximum of 40 emails per day. Randomizing the number of warmup emails sent, as well as keeping a combined sending limit of 40-50 per day, can help maintain a healthy reputation. Turning off open and reply tracking can further enhance deliverability, while consistently verifying your email lead list is crucial for protecting your email account's reputation.
• By diligently following this comprehensive checklist, you can optimize your email deliverability, ensuring that your messages effectively reach and engage your audience.

Key Suggestions for Better Deliverability

1. Completely Fresh Accounts

For completely new accounts, it's crucial to approach your email sending strategy with caution. During the first two weeks, limit your total emails to a maximum of 40 per day.

Implement a daily ramp-up of 3 to 5 emails, and randomize the number of emails sent each day between 25 and 40. Aim for a target reply rate of 45% to ensure engagement and establish a positive sender reputation.

2. Accounts From Other Tools

For accounts transitioning from other tools, the strategy differs slightly. In the first 1.5 weeks, restrict the total emails sent per day to 15, with a daily ramp-up of 2 to 3 emails.

Randomize the daily sending volume between 5 and 15 emails, and aim for a reply rate of around 30%. After the first week, increase your total emails to a maximum of 40 per day, with a daily ramp-up of 4 emails, and continue randomizing the daily volume between 30 and 40. This should help improve your engagement metrics to around 40%.

3. Accounts Used in Active Campaigns After 2-Week Minimum Warm-Up

For accounts that have been used in active campaigns and have completed a minimum two-week warm-up, set your email account to send between 40 (preferred) and 60 messages per day.

Ensure that your custom domain tracking is correctly configured—verify your CNAME to enhance deliverability. For warm-up settings, randomize the daily sending volume between 25 and 30 emails while aiming for a reply rate of 45%. This structured approach will help maintain a healthy sender reputation and improve overall email performance.

How to Improve Email Deliverability?

To enhance engagement and improve deliverability, it’s essential to optimize your email content, encompassing the HTML code, plain text parts, and subject lines. While the importance of content has diminished over time, it can still lead to deliverability issues.

Today, spam filters assess not only individual keywords but also the overall structure, including URLs, content patterns, HTML coding, and the ratio of text to images.

Fingerprinting Techniques

Major mailbox providers utilize fingerprinting to evaluate whether an email might be spam. This technique involves creating a hash from various email components—such as headers, footers, and body text—and comparing it to known spam fingerprints. If your email's fingerprint closely resembles those marked as spam, it may also be flagged.

Test Email Content for Deliverability

Start optimizing your email content by adjusting the subject line. Ensure it’s between 35 to 50 characters, avoid using all caps, limit excessive punctuation, and eliminate spam-triggering words. If these adjustments improve your inbox placement, you’ve likely resolved your deliverability issue.

If not, further tests may include removing URLs, images, and possibly switching to plain text emails. Key aspects to monitor include avoiding all caps in subjects, ensuring clean HTML, including a plain text version, maintaining a 60/40 text-to-image ratio, and using reputable link domains. Always include an unsubscribe link to comply with email regulations.

Authenticate Your Emails

It's crucial to authenticate your emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC methods. These protocols help you pass technical checks at ISPs and confirm that your messages are genuinely from the sender they claim to be. If an email fails DMARC verification, it’s more likely to be blocked or sent to the spam folder.

Manage Spam Complaints, Bounces, and Unsubscribes

When a recipient marks an email as spam, mailbox providers send a notification to the sender. Signing up for feedback loop services (FBL) allows you to receive notifications about complaints, enabling you to promptly remove these recipients from your list.

Treating a complaint as an unsubscribe request is crucial for maintaining a clean list and a good sender reputation.

Remove Unengaged Recipients

If a user hasn’t opened or clicked any of your emails within the last 12 months (or six months for Gmail users), it’s time to consider them unengaged and remove them from your list.

Major mailbox providers like Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail assess recipient engagement to evaluate your sending reputation. Higher engagement—through opens, clicks, replies, and forwards—improves your reputation with these providers and increases the likelihood of your emails landing in the inbox.

Test Email Authentication Records

Misconfigurations, such as missing authentication records like SPF and DKIM, can cause deliverability problems.

Use tools like Smartlead, GlockApps to test your authentication records, including SPF, DKIM, rDNS, and HELO to IP. For a quick check of a DMARC record, utilize a domain checker tool to verify whether your domain is protected.

Focus on getting SPF and DKIM tests into the "green" zone. Ensure the SPF entry in your DNS server matches your sending IP. A failed DKIM test can also lead to email filtering and must be corrected. This requires the sending server to sign the email with a private key, while the receiving server checks the public key stored on your domain’s DNS.

Email Address and Domain Reputation

Spam filters create lists of suspicious email addresses and domains based on past filtering behavior. If your domain has previously sent spam, your emails could be flagged as suspicious.

Many mailbox providers now prioritize domain reputation over IP reputation, so maintaining a good domain reputation is essential.

Use GlockApps to test different sender addresses on the same domain while keeping other variables constant. If changing the sender address improves inbox placement, the old address may be causing issues. If the problem persists, consider testing an email address from a different domain.

If your sender email address is causing filtering issues, consider changing it carefully, as frequent changes can harm trust with recipients. Building a consistent sending history from the same email address increases engagement, which improves deliverability.

IP Address Reputation

If you’ve addressed all other factors but still face deliverability issues, your sender reputation may be affected by blacklisting associated with your IP. Check your IP reputation and send emails through different servers to see if deliverability improves.

If you discover your IP has been blacklisted, follow the removal process outlined on the blacklist’s website. Reducing the size of your email list to focus on the most engaged users can also improve metrics and help with deliverability.

What If IP Reputation Is Beyond Fixing?

If your IP reputation is severely damaged, you may need to acquire a new IP for sending. This might require changing email service providers (ESPs) and creating a new subdomain for sending emails. Use best practices to build a positive reputation with this new setup.

Wrapping Up!

Monitoring and improving your email deliverability is an ongoing process that requires dedication and attention to detail. By leveraging testing tools, analyzing key metrics, and adhering to best practices, you can enhance your chances of effectively reaching your audience.

Ready to elevate your email strategy? Start implementing these steps today, and watch your engagement and conversion rates soar.

If you’re a Smartlead customer, start verifying your leads today by purchasing credits for an email deliverability check. For more insights on email deliverability, don’t forget to check out the resources at Smartlead University—simply log into your account and click on the ‘Smartlead University’ tab at the bottom left corner.

New to Smartlead? Take advantage of our 14-day free trial to explore the powerful features that can enhance your email marketing efforts.

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