FAQ about Email Deliverability

Can I use my Gmail address to send my marketing campaigns?

It's always recommended to use an authenticated domain associated with your brand’s identity. Sending bulk emails using a public domain like Gmail or Yahoo may lead to deliverability issues and lower ROI.

Can I use multiple domains for sending promotional campaigns?

It’s always recommended to be consistent with your sending practice. Changing your sender details frequently may lead to deliverability issues. You can keep a secondary domain to use in case of a blacklist event or for running different marketing programs. 

Can I use the same domain for sending promotional and transactional emails?

We recommend that you  use separate domains for promotional and transactional emails so that any complaints or bounce received on your promotional campaigns do not impact the reputation of the transactional domain.

Why are DNS records important? 

DNS records (SPF, DKIM) are the authentication records which authorise Insider to send emails using your sender domain. Authentication records allow mailbox providers to validate the authenticity of the mail. Without valid authentication records, a mailbox provider may treat your mail as spam.

I don’t have access to the DNS server. Can I start my marketing campaigns without Authentication records?

You should start your email program only after your DNS records have been published globally. If you don’t have access to your DNS server, you will need to connect with your network administrator to get it done.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a dedicated IP?

Dedicated IPs are always a better option over Shared IPs. With dedicated IP addresses, you are solely responsible for the reputation of your IP address. Which means no other sender will impact your marketing campaign. 

However, with dedicated IP addresses, you have to carefully warm up your IP address for the projected traffic and be consistent with the sending practice. 

How many IPs will I get to use for sending with Insider?

The number of IP assigned to a client depends on the maximum volume projected for the day. Our deliverability expert evaluates your daily send volume during the onboarding process to prepare the infrastructure for you. 

What’s the difference between an ISP, MBP, and ESP?

An internet service provider (ISP) is a company that provides internet-related services. Internet service provider companies may also offer free or paid mailbox service. Companies that provide mailbox services are called MBP. ISP and MBP companies that provide bulk email sending services are called email service providers.

What is IP warming, and why is it important?

IP warming is the process of gradually increasing the email volume of the sender by sending emails to positively engaged recipients in order to build a good reputation. 

When you start using a new email service provider you are actually using new infrastructure. Bulk emails coming from a news source are not trusted easily by mailbox providers and are treated as spam. Therefore, it is advised to start with a small number and gradually increase it to build a reputation with the mailbox provider.

How much time does it take to warm up an IP? 

The warmup period depends on the daily message volume that you project to send in a single day after the end of the warm-up plan. We recommend users to start with a small number, say, 500 emails per day, and gradually increase the number day by day until you’ve reached your max day volume. Depending on the volume, it might take 15-30 days to complete the warmup.

What if I don’t follow a warm-up plan?

Mailbox providers may suspect your mails are spam. Your marketing emails may land in the spam folder, or mailbox providers may completely reject your mails. If not rectified at the right time, it might damage the reputation of the sending IP, domain, or both.

Once damaged, it takes more time to rebuild the reputation of an IP address or the domain. 

How should I get started with a reputation warm-up?

Properly warming up the IP address is a critical step in building the email sending reputation and improving deliverability. During the warm-up phase, the more consistent you are with the volume, frequency, complaint, and bounce levels, the faster you will establish a positive sending reputation. If you send infrequently, i.e., anything less than once a week, it will take more time to build a positive sender reputation.

Some vital parameters to check before starting the warm-up process:
1. Make sure that your technical configurations are in place:
a. SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
b. DKIM (Domain Key Identifier Message)
c. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance)
d. FBL configuration (Yahoo, Hotmail & others)
2. Filter your best and most active contacts using segmentation. Don’t start the IP warming process with older lists. The reason for this is because having high delivery rates and, hence, good engagement with your initial campaigns will help build the IP’s reputation.
3. It is mandatory to incorporate the physical address of the company and a clear disclaimer stating why this email has been sent to the user. It proves the genuineness of the sender to users/ISPs.

A proper, visible unsubscribe link is mandatory in every email, as it gives users the freedom to opt out of your newsletters. Placing an unsubscribe link in the mailer reduces the risk of spam complaints.

Do I have to stick rigidly to the IP warming plan, even if it is going well?

It’s advisable to be consistent with volume and frequency. A sudden increase or decrease in volume may adversely affect the reputation of the infrastructure. 

Why are my emails going into the ‘Promotions’ tab in Gmail?

Gmail has its own algorithm which checks several parameters like content, keywords used in the email, engagement, and reputation of the sending infrastructure to decide if an email should land into the inbox or promotional folder. 

How can I check whether my campaigns are not performing well? 

You can evaluate a campaign’s performance by checking the open rate, click rate, and conversion from the campaign. You can connect with our deliverability experts if you notice any considerable dips in performance or a sudden rise in bounce rate, spam rate, or the number of unsubscribes. 

What does list hygiene mean?

Email hygiene refers to cleaning out inactive (i.e., cold) email subscribers from your future email marketing campaigns and keeping your remaining list warm with healthy email sending habits.

How should I ensure my list’s health?

The first step to ensure list hygiene is to ensure that you are working with a list of email subscribers who want your messages. It’s easier to drive conversions and engagement with clients who are excited to be in your ecosystem.

Follow the steps below to maintain a healthy list: 

• If you are migrating from other vendors to Insider, you should migrate the suppression data. 
• Do not use a subscriber list older than 6 months. 
• Send email campaigns to active subscribers only. Inactive email addresses turn into spam traps. Sending emails to spam traps ruins the reputation of the sending IP address or domain. 
• If you are using multiple platforms for managing your marketing campaigns, sync your suppression across all the platforms.
• Run reactivation campaigns for inactive subscribers. 
• The scrub roles email address from your mailing list. 
• Add email address validation on lead capture forms to avoid typos. 
• Use double opt-in for validating email addresses.  

My Bounce rate has increased? What should I do?

Please check if you have recently added a new subscriber to your list or if you have used an old subscriber’s list in your recent campaign. Check if your sender domain or sender’s IP is blacklisted. 

Ask your account manager to investigate the reason for the bounce and suggest  further action. 

How much time should I wait before  checking the effectiveness of my marketing campaign?

 Ideally, you should wait for 24 hours to check the effectiveness of your campaign. 

Can I use the same reply address in multiple accounts?

 You can use the same reply address, however, since it can negatively affect your deliverability, the best practices suggest you separate your marketing email address from the transactional one, depending on your current use case.

Can I send transactional and marketing emails from the same IP?

As a best practice, we recommend separating your marketing and transactional emails. In general, transactional messages have better engagement and thus better deliverability, and if you do not separate marketing from your transactional emails, it might negatively impact the deliverability of your transactional emails as well.  

We have Gmail postmaster tools setup, and they don't show any feedback loops or spam issues. What’s the issue?

Ensure that you are monitoring not just your domain but also all its subdomains and authentication domains (separately) such as SPF and DKIM. The feedback loop is non-traditional and requires coordination with your ESP. Keep in mind that Postmaster Tools will only show reputation data if the domain in question is regularly sending >1,000 emails in a campaign.  

We have been experiencing deliverability issues to Gmail addresses, which account for 46% of our entire list. Can you help us identify the issue and resolve it?

Gmail ISP filters measure the sender’s reputation, which is based heavily on user engagement of  the emails you send. Remove users who have not engaged with your emails in the last 90 days (opened, clicked, scrolled, moved to a folder, etc.). All of these are important to Gmail, as they want to make sure that the mail which  lands in their recipients’ inboxes is a mail that they actually want to receive. Make sure that you have a confirmed opt-in process and that your recipients have explicitly requested to get emails from you. Remove recipients who have hard-bounced, and use good opt-in practices to keep your bounce rate under 4%. There is also the risk of “reputation contamination” from other mailings, so the issue must be examined holistically. 

 Why are my email response rates dropping?

 There are multiple factors that contribute to the inbox deliverability of your email. You can check the following to see what's wrong with your marketing campaign. 

• Check if you use an authenticated domain. You can use mxtool box to check the domain authentication. 
• Check if your sender domain or IP address is not blacklisted. You can also use the Mxtool box to check it.
• Use google postmaster tool to check your reputation at google.
• Check Hotmails SNDS report to verify  your reputation at msn and hotmail network. 
• Perform a seedlist to check your inbox placement.

We have been put on a blacklist. Why did it happen?

Domain or IP gets blacklisted if there are too many spam complaints — or if the email appears to share the hallmarks of unsolicited promotion.

What should we do to be removed from the blacklist?

Check the organization that blacklisted your domain. Take a look at the organization’s blacklisting policy. 

Pause your marketing campaign from the blacklisted Domain/IP and place a delisting request.

How do I improve my deliverability?

There are many different factors that positively impact deliverability. They include (but are not limited to):

• Sending cadence
• List segmentation based on relevancy, engagement, etc.
• Whether you’re sending from a shared or dedicated IP, your IP and domain reputation
• Sending infrastructure
• Type of content
• Bounces
• Email authentication and more.

We were recently targeted by a spoofing attack, and our domain reputation has tanked as a result. Getting into inboxes (not spam) is vital for our business, so we’re looking for the fastest path toward getting our reputation back.

DMARC is one of the latest email authentication developments and is widely recognized by ISPs. Making sure a proper DMARC policy is in place is vital to the security of your brand and the experience of your users. DMARC cannot exist without SPF and DKIM, and both must be in place before DMARC can protect you and your users from becoming victims of a phishing or spoofing attack. DMARC also allows you to see all email sources that use your organization’s domain. This can help identify sources of abuse as well as configuration and authentication issues from legitimate sources. 

Will a high bounce rate affect my email reputation?

A hard bounce rate of 2% or higher is widely considered abusive and most ISPs strongly frown on a bounce rate of only 2%. It is recommended to remove users who have hard bounced or soft bounced multiple times to keep your bounce rate at 2% or lower.

Will my deliverability change if I change my from-domain?

Yes. Sending from any new domain or IP will affect your deliverability, as it doesn’t have a reputation built with the ISPs. We recommend using a domain warming plan to let the ISPs know that you send email from a new domain rather than sending immediate email blasts that can mimic spam-like behavior.

What are some steps I can take to reduce the number of abuse complaints I receive?

There are multiple steps involved in this. Firstly, you can evaluate how often you send emails to your lists. List fatigue is common when a sender emails unengaged recipients more than 2x a week. Reduce your communication to 1-2x emails a week. Secondly, remove any users who have not engaged with your emails in the last 90 days. This eliminates the most common reasons for user frustration: repetition and loss of interest. Lastly, process your unsubscribes as soon as possible. CAN-SPAM Law requires all unsubscribe requests to be processed within 10 business days, but users expect them to be processed immediately and there is rarely any reason for it not happening straight away.

I switched email service providers (ESPs). Why did my open rate decrease?

It happens as the sender domain and the infrastructure which are used for sending marketing campaigns don’t have a history of sending bulk campaigns. You need to build a reputation with the ISP by following the warmup plan. Refer to our IP warmup guide for best practices. 

Will changing my IP address fix my deliverability issues?

Switching IP addresses can be a quick fix, but it won’t work as a long term solution. You need to follow email marketing best practises and maintain good list hygiene to fix the root cause of low deliverability.