Email Deliverability Guide: Best Practices to Avoid The Spam Folder And Improve Your Email Efficiency

Imagine a postman. His job seems straightforward enough but just because he picks up a batch of letters in the morning doesn’t mean they’ll magically end up in the recipients’ hands. He has to navigate through a maze of wrong addresses, locked gates, and maybe even the occasional unfriendly dog to make sure each letter gets to the right mailbox. 

In the digital world, dispatching an Email is pretty similar. Hitting the “Send” button is just the beginning. To make sure your message lands in the recipient’s inbox and not in the dreaded spam folder (or worse, gets lost in the ether), you’ve got to pay attention to a bunch of different factors when planning out an Email campaign or an event-based workflow.

Whether it's a personalized offer, a transactional confirmation, or a cold Email you send, you don't want it marked as spam.

Just like our diligent postman, you need to be on top of things like authentication protocols, the quality of your Email content, how engaged your recipients are, and your sender reputation. In this article, we’ll look closely at all these nuances and give you practical tips to boost your Email deliverability and make your campaigns more effective.

Understanding Email deliverability 

Deliverability isn't as simple as you might think. Much like examining a fine painting, the closer you look, the more details you notice, and the more nuanced things become. Concepts such as open rate, bounce rate, or CTR are all directly related to deliverability.

When it comes to Email marketing, deliverability is a crucial factor that can make or break your campaign. You might have the most compelling, beautifully crafted Email message, but if it doesn’t reach your audience, it’s essentially useless. Deliverability needs to be prioritized to make sure your messages land in the intended inboxes and not in spam folders, never to be read.

💡 An interesting research points to the fact that in Q1 2024, the spam placement rate (marking your Email as spam and placing it in the relevant folder) increased from Q4 2023 for a number of top Email service providers. This is likely related to many bulk senders not complying with the policy changes at Google and Yahoo! which started to be enforced in early 2024. If you haven’t heard about those, we got you covered later in the article.

In any case, it’s more important than ever to have a well-rounded understanding of deliverability in order to be able to get straight to the main inbox. Otherwise, you can’t even begin to talk about an effective Email marketing campaign.

Best practices for high Email delivery rate

Internet service providers use sophisticated spam filters and spam traps to protect their users from unwanted communication and identify senders who use Email in illegitimate ways. Understanding the interplay between sender reputation, IP reputation, and domain reputation, as well as their impact on message deliverability is key.

Dedicated infrastructure vs. Shared infrastructure

Choosing between dedicated and shared infrastructure is one of the first decisions you'll need to make for your Email marketing strategy. Each has its advantages and the choice will depend on your specific needs and goals.

✅ Dedicated infrastructure pros

• Ideal for high volume: If you’re sending a large volume of Emails, a dedicated infrastructure is often the better choice. It provides you with full control over your server's reputation because only your actions affect it.
  

• Enhanced deliverability: With a dedicated IP, you can build and maintain a strong sender reputation. This is crucial for maximizing deliverability, as Email providers are more likely to trust messages coming from a reputable IP.
  

• Control and customization: Having your own infrastructure means you can customize settings and configurations to better suit your Email strategy, further enhancing deliverability and performance.

💡 Setting up and maintaining a dedicated infrastructure requires extra IT resources, but it's worth it. This investment ensures better Email server performance, enhanced security, and quick issue resolution, leading to improved deliverability and a stronger ROI for your campaigns.

✅ Shared infrastructure pros

• Cost-effective: Shared infrastructure can be more affordable, making it an attractive option for smaller businesses or those just starting with Email marketing.
  

• Ready-to-roll: If you don’t send Emails very frequently, shared infrastructure allows you to jump right in with a pre-warmed IP, avoiding the time-consuming process of warming up a new IP address.
  

• Sufficient for lower volumes: For businesses that send Emails infrequently or at lower volumes, shared infrastructure can be perfectly adequate while still offering decent deliverabilit

Sender reputation vs. Server reputation

These two concepts are closely connected in the context of Email deliverability and may overlap to a degree, but it’s still important to have a clear understanding of what they’re about at the core.

➡️ Sender reputation

Sender reputation is a metric that Email service providers use to determine the trustworthiness of a sender, based on factors like engagement rates, sending frequency, compliance with best practices, and the absence of spammy content.

• Control and practices: Sender reputation is something you have more direct control over through your Email marketing practices. This includes factors like how often you send Emails, your engagement rates, and your compliance with Email marketing best practices. Good habits, such as avoiding spammy content, maintaining clean Email lists, and sending relevant content, can help build a strong sender reputation.
  

• Domain reputation: A critical component of your overall Email sender reputation is your domain reputation. This is influenced by the quality of the messages you send from your domain. Consistent, high-quality Email practices improve your domain reputation, which can positively affect your Email deliverability.

➡️ Server reputation

Server reputation is a measure of the trustworthiness of an IP address used to send Emails, based on its history of sending behavior, spam reports, and overall Email quality, which directly impacts deliverability.

• IP address impact: Server reputation, on the other hand, specifically pertains to the IP addresses used to send your communications. This is particularly important when using shared infrastructure. If your Email server IP addresses have been flagged for spam or poor practices, it can negatively impact your Email deliverability, regardless of your own sender reputation.
  

• Shared infrastructure risks: Using shared infrastructure means that your Email deliverability can be affected by the actions of others sharing the same server. If other users have poor practices, it can drag down the server’s reputation, affecting your campaign performance. Conversely, if you share an infrastructure with reputable senders, it can help boost your deliverability if your own sender reputation is less established.

Email provider diversification affecting Email deliverability

Email providers aren’t carbon copies of each other in terms of how they operate, and their rules can vary significantly. This is especially important to consider because different providers are prominent in different countries and regions. For instance, while Google and Yahoo! dominate globally, Europe’s most popular providers also include Outlook, Onet, GMX, Wirtualna Polska, Orange, Yandex, and Seznam.

Recent research, backed by solid data up until June 2024, shows that Gmail holds a whopping 35.99% of the global Email user market share, while Yahoo Mail accounts for 2.85%. Combined, these two Email clients cover 38.84% of the market. Given this significant share, understanding and complying with their specific policies is crucial for ensuring high deliverability.

In early 2024, both Google and Yahoo! rolled out policy changes impacting Email deliverability, including stricter spam filters, enhanced authentication requirements, and a stronger emphasis on engagement metrics (mandatory inclusion of a “one-click unsubscribe” feature). To maintain a high deliverability rate, you must align your efforts with these changes, especially if a significant portion of your database consists of addresses in these two services. 

What else contributes to a good Email deliverability rate?

Alright, so we've discussed a number of fundamental deliverability issues that affect your campaigns. Deciding on the type of infrastructure you want to use and taking into account the different types of reputation are Email marketers first steps but there are more factors to consider. 

1. Authentication

Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Email authentication protocols (a current Gmail must-have) improves your domain’s reputation by verifying your Emails’ authenticity and preventing spoofing. Domain alignment ensures these protocols match your sending domain, while BIMI adds a notarized logo to your messages to show they’re from a certified, trustworthy sender. 

2. User engagement

User engagement is crucial and depends on the quality of your message. This starts with an enticing Email subject line and preheader text. extends to Email copy, and includes, and includes other elements like graphics and CTA. However, there’s never a guarantee of engagement, as it ultimately lies in the recipients’ hands. Currently available data puts the essential open rate for B2C Emails at 19.7%

3. Low level of spam complaints

Minimizing spam complaints is crucial, as high complaint rates can damage your sender reputation. Among the policy changes mentioned earlier, providers are increasingly sensitive to users expressing their dissatisfaction, making it essential for you to keep your audience happy and thus maintain high deliverability.

4. One-click unsubscribe feature

Including a one-click unsubscribe feature is now among the mandatory policy changes. Not only does it comply with recent regulation changes but also reduces spam complaints by allowing users to easily opt out, thereby improving your sender reputation and deliverability.

5. Typos and poor Email list hygiene

Typos in your Email addresses can negatively affect deliverability by generating bounced Email. Cultivating database hygiene is absolutely crucial, especially in the light of the database decay, which degrades your contacts list by 25% a year. Typos make a contemptible contribution to this process and although they’re not something you have direct control over, it's best to keep your Email list clean to weed out the metric spoilers. Working on clean and accurate addresses helps maintain a good sender reputation.

How to improve Email deliverability for better Email marketing

Improving your Email deliverability and finding ways to optimize can be a challenging task, but you’ve got options. You can either dig into your Email marketing tool’s analytics to try to understand what’s working and what’s not, then supplement your conclusions with insights coming from Google Postmaster Tools, Mailchecker or other Email deliverability tools. These resources can help you monitor your Email and shed light on how your campaigns are performing, pointing to where you might need to tweak things.

But sometimes it helps to bring in the experts. Sitting down with your Email service provider reps can be a game-changer. Having numerous campaigns under their belt, they can help you analyze your current setup and spot areas for improvement. 

💡 For instance, at MessageFlow, we specialize in server warm-up - a process that gradually increases your Email volume over about four weeks, going from hundreds to millions a day. This approach helps secure your sender reputation and boosts your deliverability by avoiding sudden spikes that could get you flagged as spam.

Use the best Email infrastructure and skip the spam folder

Entrusting your Email marketing campaigns to experts who know exactly what they're doing can make all the difference. At MessageFlow, we’ve spent the last 20 years perfecting our infrastructure with integrated tech solutions, direct partnerships with Email providers, and a growing team of specialists dedicated to ensuring your messages are not just sent, but delivered and impactful.

We understand the nuances of local markets and have direct connections with Email providers, giving us a unique edge in optimizing deliverability across different regions. Our platform offers detailed analytics to help you understand your campaign performance and scale accordingly. We also have communication experts at your service, ready to provide assistance aimed at improving your Email marketing efforts.

With our powerful API, you can integrate MessageFlow with your CRM, CMS, or marketing automation tools. Whether you’re in ecommerce, retail, fintech, or running a marketplace, our solutions cater to both marketing and transactional Emails, ensuring all your communication needs are met.

Ready to enhance your Email deliverability and make a real impact? Let’s get started. Contact us today to see how MessageFlow can deliver an ecosystem that will elevate your Email campaigns.