Marketing
Email deliverability: factors which should be considered

Factors which Have Implications for Email Deliverability
The process of landing your messages in your recipients’ inboxes is called email deliverability which is considered to be a reference point for email marketers. Email deliverability is quite a complicated issue, therefore not all sent messages reach their destination.
There exists a variety of factors which have an impact on whether company’s emails steadily end up in target inboxes. If you spot high bounce rates, this is an occasion to keep an eye on your deliverability not to overlook more serious matters. One of the easiest ways to track it is to run an email deliverability test. Any company wants its email campaign to be efficient and profitable so it’s important to monitor inbox placement and open rates.
Deliverability is not a simple concept so let’s get into it, its involved parties and key elements and tools (e.g. spam checker, email tester software, etc.) which can help improve deliverability of your messages.
Relevant Parties: How to Bring Them Together with an Email Deliverability Test
Major parties involved in sending emails are considered to be senders, gateways and recipients. The process seems to be quite simple: senders send messages with the help of gateways and recipients get them. However, something can go wrong. In such cases, an email deliverability test comes to the aid. You get the chance to ensure that your emails hit the target inboxes by means of using email tester software. It’s also possible to utilize a spam checker on the web to spot spammy words and get rid of them to increase the chances of your messages being read. If you are willing to assess your risks of getting into spam, you are supposed to receive a spam score by utilizing a mailbox spam tester.
Senders and the Role of Email Warmup Tools for Them
Email senders are companies which send out their own content. Email senders have a lot of duties such as generating an email list and monitoring it, creating content, doing your best to deliver your messages to your target audience, etc. Senders send not only messages related to confirmation, shipping, passwords, but also marketing messages, for example, ones with special offers.
The main objective of any sender is to make the utmost efforts to reach the company’s subscribers and prospects persistently and thereby increase open and engagement rates. When a company is new and its domain is newly established, it’s essential to warm up its email account incrementally without arousing suspicion. The perfect solution to this challenge is to leverage an email warmup tool. The choice of email warmup tools should be taken seriously as they secure high email deliverability and credible sender reputation.
Gateways
Companies which enable you to send messages are called gateways. They serve as intermediaries between senders and recipients. ISPs and other entities which monitor whether your message reaches the target user are regarded as gateways. Their objective is to protect users from spammers by:
- preventing unsolicited messages, including phishing;
- scanning content;
- filtering spam.
Common examples include Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, etc. If you have a high deliverability rate with major ISPs, you are likely to be successful with smaller providers. Anti-spam systems and blacklisting organizations belong to gateways. Make use of spam mail testers to avoid problems with gateways.
Recipients
The third involved side is a recipient. Recipients are ideally your customers or subscribers who are interested in getting your messages and will open them and engage with the content. Your recipients are the aims of the marketing campaign. Any business which wants to establish contact with their customers should take care of their email list. To keep it clean and relevant, it’s necessary to validate email addresses on your list by leveraging email checker tools.
The Route of an Email
When a message is fully created and elaborated, all necessary checks (like using an email deliverability tester) are finished, a sender clicks “send”. Before landing in an inbox server, the message runs through internal filters. The email undergoes ISP’s checks and filters and after that it is sorted into recipient’s inbox or spam. Eventually, a message is delivered and nothing depends on the sender. The fate of the email is up to the recipient. So try to make your subject line as attractive as possible to draw the attention of customers and increase your open rates. Avoid using spammy words with the aid of a spam checker not to be marked as spam by users.
Key Factors Which Affect Email Deliverability
Low email deliverability can result in negative outcomes. Therefore, it’s essential to monitor deliverability. You can take advantage of a spam mail tester to keep record of your email deliverability. One should be mindful of components which determine inbox placement:
- Sender reputation;
- Engagement;
- Email volume;
- Bounces and spam traps;
- Content;
- Spam complaints.
Let’s explore some components to prevent deliverability issues.
Sender Reputation
Internet Service Providers monitor your credibility by performing a reputation check to assess your legitimacy as a sender. ISPs rate the sender reputation to figure out whether your email gets delivered. A sender score ranges from 0 to 100. If your sender reputation is solid, your messages have more chances to reach their destination. ISPs will probably send your emails to the junk folder of your recipients or even reject your emails if your score is low. Bear in mind that reputation is attached both to the IP address and the domains used by a sender.
Engagement
When ISPs determine whether your emails are needed or unsolicited, they cannot but assess recipients’ engagement. They take into account various metrics like:
- opens;
- clicks;
- unsubscribes;
- spam complaints.
Different ISPs have their own benchmarks.
- In general, ISPs evaluate positively when emails are opened, replied to, clicked, forwarded, etc.
- ISPs assess messages negatively which are ignored, deleted without being opened, marked as spam by users.
Volume
The quantity of emails you send in a limited time period may have an effect on your email deliverability as ISPs establish sending limits. If you reach your limit, the ISP will bounce your further messages as long as the limit resets. The sending limit can be set weekly or daily and depends on your typical sending volume. It’s important to gradually increase the number of sent messages and screen the sending volume thoroughly to prevent soft bounces. If you can’t cope with it on your own, leverage an email warmup tool.
Bounces and Spam Traps
When emails bounce, they are considered to be undelivered. Soft bounce and hard bounce are distinguished. We talk about hard bounces when a message is sent to an irrelevant email address. In such a case, ISP receives the signal that your marketing list isn’t clean which worsens sender reputation. We talk about soft bounces when the target email inbox is full or when your sending volume has increased dramatically.
Spam traps are regarded as forsaken addresses reclaimed by ISPs or newly created addresses aimed at trapping spammers. Getting into spam traps may damage your reputation. That’s why, watch out for ready-made lists, maintain your list’s hygiene, and utilize an email verification tool. It’s a great idea to send reengagement campaigns to your customers to get rid of inactive subscribers.
Content
Even if you follow best sending practices, but your content is poor and low quality, it’s difficult to retain your audience and earn a good reputation. Work out your text, links and design thoroughly to make your messages professional and engaging. Try to personalize your emails wherever possible. Make certain that your messages are cleanly coded with closed tags since email code is essential for inbox providers. Don’t neglect using spam checkers.
Spam Complaints
Spam complaints usually have an adverse impact on email deliverability. Ensure that your emails are of proper quality and have an unsubscribe option to avoid being marked as spam.
Final Thoughts
Email deliverability plays a significant role in email campaigns. To keep it high, it’s crucial to consider and monitor various factors which have implications for deliverability. Modern tools can be utilized to facilitate this process.
