{"id":4022,"date":"2012-10-16T09:58:52","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T07:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/?p=4022"},"modified":"2025-09-17T15:50:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:50:21","slug":"email-deliverability-checklist-improve-email-deliverability-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/email-deliverability-checklist-improve-email-deliverability-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Email deliverability checklist: Sending email is not the same as delivering."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this Email deliverability checklist<\/strong> we will see that the actual sending<\/em> of email is one tiny step in a larger process of delivering<\/em> email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a myriad of other requirements that need to be covered by yourself and your ESP to get emails into the inbox and for the emails to then be engaging enough for your customers to read them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Deliverability<\/a> is a complex environment that requires all the moving parts between technology, professional services, industry knowledge and processes to work together.  There is no silver bullet and all the settings in this Email deliverability checklist need to work in conjunction with each other to have the desired result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Email Deliverability checklist<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How does your ESP measure up when it comes to maximizing deliverability? Use this checklist as a guideline to judge their deliverability rate.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"email<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/span>1. Email deliverability Technology<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An ESP\u2019s MTA (mail server) may not be able to support some essential features that are required for enhancing deliverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure they have all the features in this Email deliverability checklist and are able to provide these in their standard offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Static\/Dedicated IP address (Dedicated for higher volumes)
<\/strong>When your email sends reach a certain volume, in order to have full control over your deliverability you want a dedicated IP address. This is a single point that only your emails are sent from.  You have full control over your reputation and subsequently your deliverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multi-part emails (text & HTML)
<\/strong>By not sending both parts of the MIME you run the danger of having your messages flagged by a heuristic filter that specifically checks valid MIME headers that include TEXT & HTML<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throttling
<\/strong>Some ISPs bounce emails if they receive too many messages from one sending address at a time. Throttle the number of messages per hour to meet ISP restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign outgoing messages with DKIM
<\/strong>ISPs authenticate incoming messages to verify the sender. If you are unable to authenticate yourself, you may be seen as a spammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DKIM is an anti-spam method that uses a combination of public and private keys to authenticate the sender’s domain and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address. This technology helps fight phishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retry feature for temporary failures\/greylisting.
<\/strong>A mail server using greylisting will “temporarily reject” any email from a sender it does not recognize. If the mail is legitimate the originating server will, after a delay, try again and, if sufficient time has elapsed, the email will be accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IP Warming
<\/strong>An IP address with no sending history is in danger of having the emails blocked. Employ IP warming techniques so that you can build up a reputation with recipient mail servers before you start sending them large batches of emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>\"email2. Sender Authentication & whitelisting<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is important to confirm your identity as a sender. Email providers should check your domain or IP against databases of trusted senders. This also helps prevent phishing and spoofing of emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although your email service provider may be the one directly responsible for the setup of these items, it is important that your mail administrators work with the ESP, as they will guide them through the process and give the correct settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sender Authentication setup
<\/strong>ISPs authenticate incoming messages to verify the sender. If you are unable to authenticate yourself, you may be seen as a spammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n