High deliverability as a  must have

Mailbox clients have their own set of system folders. Thanks to them, incoming mail is automatically sorted, which improves navigation in the flood of incoming emails.

Typically, you will encounter folders:

• Inbox (Primary) ‑ a  folder for primary mail, typically private/one‑to-one communications, transactional emails about orders, etc.

• Bulk mail (Promotions) ‑ this is where messages evaluated as business communications are delivered.

Standardly, this is where newsletters and promotions end up. If recipients open your newsletters regularly, mail client algorithms may eventually move emails to the main Inbox. This is true even if a  contact actively moves emails into this folder on their part.

• Spam ‑ this folder usually includes junk mail and suspicious or fraudulent messages

Spam complaints should never exceed 0.1% in proportion to inboxes ‑ if the limit is exceeded, there is a  risk of irreversible damage to the sending domain's reputation. Therefore, monitor reports on a  regular basis. Should the number of spam complaints increase, take early action.  

To improve email deliverability and content quality, tools like Luppa AI can assist in optimizing your email campaigns. By using AI‑driven content creation and audience targeting, you can craft messages that are more engaging, relevant, and less likely to end up in the spam folder.

#1 Condition your contact database

Your database condition is key to building and maintaining great deliverability results. To ensure high quality of your contacts, make sure you:

• Prevent fake emails from penetrating your database by confirming your newsletter sign‑ups, called double opt‑in.

• Segment your contact database 

• Give contacts the opportunity to express their preferences ‑ whether about frequency or content 

• Try not to overwhelm your contacts, but instead personalise the mailing to the target group. 

• Reactivate inactive contacts regularly and unsubscribe those that remain inactive

💡TIP: Clean your database before your first mailing using ContactSpotlight feature in Ecomail.

In the long run, contacts who know you or your project will bring better open rate, click rate, and overall results. Avoid publicly available contact databases ‑ unanticipated bring more spam rates than good results. In addition to the legal issues, you risk irreversible damage to the sending domain's reputation. 

Under the GDPR, you can only send bulk emails to contacts for whom you have documented consent or to your active customers. We discuss GDPR in emailing in more detail in this article >>

A commercial communication is basically any message that aims to promote a  company or product, even if it may not be obvious at first glance ‑ even company cards for Christmas or various holidays, because by sending them you are promoting your company image.

‑ Petra Stupková, lawyer & founder of Legitas

If you are just starting out with email marketing, make sure your database is in good condition before sending your first campaign. Sending even one campaign to inactive contacts may ruin your domain reputation and cause your further mailings to be delivered as spam.

#2 Content makes a  difference

Send your contacts the content they signed up for and expect from you. If you've promised to send out special promotions to your contacts, make sure you're sending that type of newsletter. 

For the best results from your emailing, keep the following tips and recommendations in mind:

• Maintain a  maximum template size of 100 kB. 

• Include an unsubscribe link in the footer of the email 

• Instead of attachments, place additional content on the landing page and link to it

• Use emoji in moderation 🙂⭐, do not use CAPS LOCK or exclamation points!

• Avoid sensitive content (e.g. words like sex, crypto)

• Do a  SPAM test before sending each campaign 

• Maintain a  60:40 text to image ratio (in favor of text)

• Send emailing from a  verified 3rd tier domain

#3 DMARC record as a  seal of deliverability 

Previously, SPF, DKIM and CNAME records were sufficient to successfully verify the sending domain. As of February 2024, emailing players are following the security trends set by Google and Yahoo in the form of an additional record. DMARC is a  security protocol that protects a  domain from potential abuse ‑ perhaps in the form of phishing or spoofing.

Setting up a  DMARC report takes a  few minutes >> It is done in the hosting where the sending domain has name servers. Within it, you can set up an email to which mail clients will send reports related to email deliverability. To make them easy to read by machine, they are in XML format. For ordinary users, it is very difficult to navigate the flood of XML data and draw conclusions.

Watch the reports with DMARCeye 👀

Take advantage of DMARCeye, which collects this data automatically and displays the data in a  way that is easy to read for every user. It automatically collects and classifies DMARC reports from Google, Yahoo and other mail client players. DMARCeye can identify individual senders through IP addresses, such as Ecomail and other emailing tools.

Currently DMARCeye is free for everyone, try it >>

It shows you if your newsletters are properly signed and meet the conditions for delivery to Google and Yahoo inboxes. More AI features are in the development pipeline to check users' emailing comprehensively. This will also include personalized tips on how to respond to any issues.

If we monitor the reports obtained using DMARC logging, we can gain valuable insights. We will get a  global view of the email traffic over our domain. Where, where and how the emails sent on our behalf are coming from.

‑ Jan Tlapák, CEO of Ecomail.cz

The higher deliverability your emailing achieves, the better reputation of your sending domain and your mailings will deliver better results in the long run. Do your best for high deliverability emailing, it will pay off. 

1. Determine the cause

Go through the 3  points above and try to determine where your reputation got ruined. Look closely at your domain setup, contact details, and email content, and search for the cause of the problem. 

2. Fix what you can

Depending on the cause, make sure to get rid of anything mentioned above, which might be the cause.

If the problem is in your email template, make sure to keep your template simple, not to use too many images, and be careful when writing your email subject. Before you send out the next campaign, make sure to use SPAM test to avoid any issues.

When the issue is in your domain, ensure you have all the necessary DNS records published correctly, as recommended by your mailing provider. Feel free to reach out to the provider to help confirm if you are not missing anything.

If contacts are the issue, ensure you get rid of any inactive and old contacts right away. U  can use ContactSpotlight or similar tool to clean your database fully. 

3. Test before you send

Before sending any more campaigns, test your results. Ideally, test your email by sending them to completely new email address with no history, so you can see how the email behaves in a  separate environment.

You can also use tools such as Mail Tester or any similar tool, to see the results.

4. Start slow

To fix your reputation, start with sending your campaigns to only fraction of your most active contacts, with your domain setup and email content as perfect as possible.

Building your domain reputation takes time, and requires slow and steady approach to rebuilding the trust.

Do you have any questions about your mailing reputation? Contact us at support@ecomail.app 📩