Definition
Deliverability best practices help ensure your emails are not blocked or filtered as spam. They cover authentication, sender reputation, list hygiene, content quality, and sending patterns. Following these practices improves inbox placement rates and protects your sending reputation.
Key Best Practices
- Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: All three authentication protocols are essential. DMARC enforcement prevents domain spoofing.
- Maintain list hygiene: Remove hard bounces immediately. Regularly clean inactive subscribers. Keep spam complaint rates below 0.1%.
- Use a consistent sending schedule: ISPs evaluate sending patterns. Erratic volume changes can trigger reputation reviews.
- Avoid spam trigger content: Excessive punctuation, ALL CAPS, misleading subject lines, and high image-to-text ratios increase spam scores.
- Monitor your reputation: Use Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft SNDS, and Sender Score to track how ISPs view your sending.
- Warm up new IPs gradually: New sending IPs need 4-8 weeks of gradual volume increase before reaching full capacity.
Related Glossary Terms
A/B Testing
A/B testing in email marketing is the practice of sending two variations of an email to a small sample of your list to determine which version performs better before sending the winner to the remaining subscribers.
Abandoned Cart Email
An abandoned cart email is an automated message sent to customers who added items to their online shopping cart but left without completing the purchase. It is one of the highest-converting email types in ecommerce.
AIDA Model for Email
The AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is a classic copywriting framework used to structure email campaigns that guide subscribers from awareness to conversion.
AMP for Email
AMP for Email is a Google-developed framework that allows email messages to include interactive elements like forms, carousels, accordions, and live content. It turns static emails into dynamic, interactive experiences directly inside the inbox.
Anchoring Effect in Email Marketing
The anchoring effect is a cognitive bias where the first piece of information presented (the anchor) influences subsequent decisions, used in email to frame pricing and value perception.
Announcement Email
An announcement email is a dedicated campaign that communicates a specific update, milestone, or change to subscribers, from product launches and feature releases to company news and events.