Get Higher Open Rates with Ultimate Guide to Email Delivery Testing

To ensure your emails make it to your audience's inbox, understanding email delivery testing is key. In fact, 21% of emails never reach the inbox, impacting engagement and ROI (Data by Return Path).

Email delivery testing helps you track and improve factors like sender reputation, spam filters, and inbox placement—ensuring your messages land where they should.

Why Email Deliverability Testing Matters?

1. Maximizes Engagement and ROI

• Email deliverability testing is all about making sure your emails reach your readers’ inboxes, not the spam folder.
• Studies show that emails in the primary inbox get more attention, increasing engagement by 20% or more (Return Path). Better engagement means a higher return on investment (ROI) for every email you send.

2. Protects Sender Reputation

• Your sender reputation is like your “trust score” with email service providers (ESPs). A good reputation keeps your emails out of spam filters.
• Regularly testing email deliverability helps protect your reputation by letting you fix problems early, like removing broken links or reducing bounce rates. This way, you stay in good standing with ESPs and reach more readers.

3. Identifies Content and Technical Issues Early

• Deliverability tests can alert you to content or technical issues that could send your emails to spam. These might be issues like too many links, broken HTML code, or low-quality images.
• By catching these early, you ensure that your emails look professional and stay out of the spam folder, leading to better inbox placement.

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How to Run a Comprehensive Email Deliverability Test

1. Set Up Multiple Test Inboxes Across Major Email Service Providers

Different email service providers, like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, may handle your emails differently. Setting up test inboxes across these platforms can reveal how each provider treats your email, giving you insight into how your emails look to recipients.

• Why This Matters: Each provider has unique spam filters and spam scores that affect whether emails land in the primary inbox or the spam folder.
• How to Do It: Open a few accounts on major providers. Send test emails with different subject lines and formats to each inbox, noting which emails make it to the inbox versus those flagged as spam.

Google Workspace accounts may handle bulk emails differently, affecting inbox placement.

2. Monitor Sender Reputation and Authentication Records

Your sender reputation significantly affects your deliverability. It’s like a credit score for your email sending habits—higher sender score impact deliverability and gets you trust from email providers.

Authenticating your emails with records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC tells providers that your emails are legitimate and not spam.

• What to Track: Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools or SenderScore to track your sender reputation and see how providers view your email quality.
• Steps to Improve:
  • Avoid Spammy Content: Steer clear of language that might trigger spam filters.
  • Check for Broken Links: Broken links can harm your reputation; ensure all links work before sending.
  • Monitor Bounce Rates: High bounce rates negatively impact reputation, so keep your list updated and remove inactive addresses.

Updating DNS records like SPF and DKIM helps validate email legitimacy.

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3. Use Spam Filters Before Sending Bulk Emails

Testing your email through spam filters before a large send is essential. These filters help you understand if your email content, links, or HTML code might trigger spam flags.

Running a spam test beforehand helps you identify and fix issues that could lower your email deliverability test results rate.

• What to Test: Run your emails through tools like MailGenius or GlockApps to check your spam score and overall inbox placement. These tools give feedback on risky content, broken links, or missing elements like unsubscribe options.
• Quick Fixes:
  • Adjust Subject Lines: Avoid excessive punctuation or all-caps, which could trigger spam filters.
  • Limit Links: Too many links, especially short URLs, can raise flags. Keep your links relevant and few.
  • Optimize HTML and Text Versions: Ensure your email has both HTML and plain-text versions to improve deliverability.

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4. Analyze Bounce Rates and Adjust Your List

Bounce rate tells you how often your emails fail to reach your recipients. A high bounce rate can hurt your sender reputation and make email providers view your messages as spam.

• What to Do: Regularly check your bounce rate. You can do this through your email service provider’s dashboard.
• How to Improve:
  • Remove Inactive Addresses: If an address constantly bounces back, it may no longer be active. Deleting inactive addresses from your list lowers your bounce rate.
  • Keep Lists Updated: Adding only verified and updated addresses helps improve your deliverability score.

5. Test with Seed Lists and Analyze Placement

A seed list is a list of test email addresses set up across various email service providers (like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook) to see how your emails perform with each.

• Why Use Seed Lists: Each provider uses different spam filters, which can affect where your email ends up, whether in the primary inbox or spam folder.
• How to Use:
  • Send Emails to Seed Addresses: Test your emails across multiple inboxes to get a sense of their placement.
  • Analyze Results: Look at which providers deliver your email to the inbox and which don’t. This can help you identify if certain providers are flagging your email as spam.

6. Run a "Spam Folder Check" for Email Content Optimization

Ensuring your emails don’t end up in the spam folder involves checking your content for spam triggers. Certain words, phrases, or elements, like too many links or short URLs, can trigger spam filters.

• What to Check:
  • Subject Line: Avoid all caps, excessive punctuation, or overly promotional language.
  • Content Balance: Use a good mix of images and text. Emails with too many images or only a few words may look spammy.
  • Broken Links: Double-check links to avoid being flagged as untrustworthy.
• How to Test: Use an email spam test tool to analyze your email’s spam score. This tool will highlight risky elements, helping you adjust content for better inbox placement.

7. Review IP Warm-Up and Throttling Strategies for New IPs

When you’re sending from a new IP address, it’s important to warm it and correctly set it up. Warming up an IP means gradually increasing the number of emails you send, so email providers see your activity as trustworthy.

• Why It Matters: Sending too many emails too soon can raise red flags with email service providers. They might see the new IP as spammy, which can hurt your sender reputation.
• How to Warm Up: Start with a small batch of emails, then slowly increase the volume over several weeks. Use a throttle to control the rate at which emails go out, sending a steady, manageable number.

A high IP reputation is key for strong deliverability rates.

8. Leverage Feedback Loops to Identify Complaints

Feedback loops allow you to see when a recipient marks your email as spam. Most major email providers, like Gmail and Yahoo, offer this feature.

This feedback is essential because too many spam checker receiving complaints can damage your sender reputation and can prevent your emails from reaching the primary inbox.

• Why Use Feedback Loops: They help you understand what isn’t working and allow you to adjust your emails based on real user complaints.
• How to Set It Up: Check with your email service provider to enable feedback loops. They’ll notify you when a user flags your email as spam.
• What to Do Next: Remove users who frequently mark your emails as spam. Keeping them on your list can hurt your spam score and deliverability rate.

9. Inspect Link Reputation and Domain Health

Your email’s links and domain reputation can affect its delivery. If you use links that look suspicious or broken, spam filters might send your emails straight to the spam folder.

Similarly, a domain with a poor reputation, often due to spammy content, can damage your own email deliverability tools and rate.

• Check Link Health: Run a spam test on your links. Make sure none are broken, and avoid using too many short URLs, as these can look untrustworthy.
• Monitor Domain Reputation: Tools like Google Postmaster can help you track your domain reputation. Keep it high by avoiding spammy language and regularly checking for blacklisted domains.

Choosing a reputable domain suffix, like .com, can aid deliverability.

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10. Conduct A/B Testing on Key Elements

A/B testing means sending two different versions of an email to see which one performs better. It’s a great way to improve and test your email for deliverability and optimize for better inbox placement.

• What to Test: Test elements like subject lines, call-to-action buttons, and email content. For instance, try a subject line that’s more engaging and see if it affects your spam score.
• How to Do It:
  • Create two versions of an email with one small difference (like the subject line).
  • Send each version to a portion of your audience.
  • Compare which version leads to higher open rates and inbox placement.

11. Run Tests on Unsubscribes and Ensure CAN-SPAM Compliance

Following CAN-SPAM laws is crucial for keeping your emails out of the spam folder. This law requires you to include a clear unsubscribe option in every email.

• What to Test: Check how easily recipients can find the unsubscribe link. If it’s hard to locate, users might report your email as spam instead, hurting your sender reputation.
• How to Do It:
  • Place the unsubscribe link in a visible spot, like the bottom of your email.
  • Test it by clicking to make sure it works smoothly and leads to an unsubscribe confirmation.

12. Review Sending Frequency and Volume for Spam Triggers

Sending too many emails in a short period can raise spam triggers. Review your sending frequency for lower spam rates and ensure you don’t overload your audience with.

• Why It Matters: High email volume or frequency can harm your sender reputation, causing email providers to view you as a spammer.
• How to Manage:
  • Space out your emails to avoid spam complaints and unsubscribe rates.
  • Monitor your bounce rate to make sure your emails are reaching active addresses.

Tools for Email Delivery and Spam Testing

Using an email deliverability tester can help identify issues that prevent emails from reaching the inbox.

1. Alore: Advanced Warm-Up and Deliverability Enhancements

Alore is a comprehensive tool for email delivery testing and improving email deliverability. It's email spam checker helps users warm up new email accounts, ensuring emails reach the inbox instead of the spam folder. This tool offers automation and insights to support effective email campaigns.

Key Features

• Warm-Up Dashboard: Alore’s dashboard provides metrics like open rate, reply rate, and spam protection, helping users monitor email engagement.
• Volume Control: You can set daily email limits, adjusting the volume to warm up new accounts gradually.
• Domain Health Checks: Alore ensures domain reputation by checking settings like DMARC, SPF, and DNS, helping maintain strong sender reputation.
• Visual Graphs and Charts: Displays data on metrics like "Mail Sent" and "Reply Sent" in bar graphs to track performance.

How to Use: Sign up, integrate your email accounts, and set warm-up settings in the dashboard. Alore will automatically handle the volume increase over time.

Pricing: Alore offers different pricing plans, suiting various needs. Check the Alore website for updated pricing information.

G2 Rating: With a solid G2 rating, Alore is trusted for its warm-up capabilities and deliverability insights.

• Pros: Easy-to-use dashboard, customizable warm-up settings, and strong domain health checks.
• Cons: Can be costly for smaller teams; some advanced users may want more customization options.

2. MailGenius: Real-Time Spam Scoring and Issue Identification

MailGenius is an easy-to-use tool for email delivery testing. It scans your emails to check if they might end up in the spam folder. This tool helps you fix potential issues, before sending emails to your main list.

Key Features

• Real-Time Spam Scoring: MailGenius checks for factors that trigger spam filters and gives a spam score.
• Detailed Reports: It provides a report showing what could hurt your sender reputation or cause deliverability issues.

How to Use: Simply upload or type your email content into MailGenius. The tool analyzes it and shows any problems that might lead it to the spam folder.

Pricing: MailGenius offers a free version with basic features. More advanced options are available for a fee, suitable for frequent or high-volume users.

G2 Rating: MailGenius has a positive rating on G2, indicating user trust in its email spam testing features.

• Pros: Easy to use, detailed spam scoring, free version available.
• Cons: Limited features in the free version; advanced options may have a cost.

3. GlockApps: Comprehensive Inbox Placement Tracking Across ISPs

GlockApps is a tool that helps you test email, and improve email delivery. It shows where your emails land, like the primary inbox or spam folder, on different email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. This way, you know if your emails reach the right place.

Key Features

• Inbox Placement Tracking: GlockApps checks if your email reaches the inbox, spam folder, or other sections like "Promotions."
• Spam Filter Testing: It scans your emails to see how they perform against common spam filters.
• Detailed Reports: You get a clear deliverability report that shows any issues with sender reputation or domain reputation.

How to Use: Simply upload or compose your email in GlockApps, select test locations, and send. The tool will show you where each email lands and provide tips on personalized recommendations for improvement.

Pricing: GlockApps has both free and paid plans. The paid versions offer more features for users who frequently run email delivery testing.

G2 Rating: GlockApps holds a positive rating on G2, with many users appreciating its accuracy in inbox placement tracking.

• Pros: Easy to use, shows detailed inbox placement, and supports multiple ISPs.
• Cons: Free plan has limited features; paid plans can be pricey for small businesses.

Conclusion

Email delivery testing is essential for making sure your emails land in the inbox, not the spam folder. By using the right tools and checking key factors like sender reputation and spam filters, you can improve your email deliverability. Start email deliverability tests today to keep your emails on the right path and improve engagement with your audience.

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