Email operations strategies for mailbox providers

Is your mail sliding into the spam folder? Has your reputation slipped to "low" in Google Postmaster Tools? Does Microsoft SNDS think you stink like a kid who just came in from recess? Well, I have good news and bad news. 🟢 Good first: Most major mailbox providers (MBPs) provide methods of contacting them! Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, Comcast, Apple (and more!) all offer sender support forms or publish postmaster email addresses so that you can reach out directly when you're encountering an issue delivering mail to their users. 🔴 Now for the bad: These MBPs receive a ton of submissions, most of them from spammers. They already have information on your traffic, which is why you're blocked or bulked in the first place. They're not going to just fix whatever problem you're having because you asked nicely. They're definitely not going to fix it if you're being rude. They don't care about your business model, or your bottom line, or your legal requirements. What they care most about is their own customers. And if you're sending to the right people, then those people are also *your* customers, and you should care about them, too! So, even though it's an option to ask the MBP for help, it's probably not the first (or best) one, because all the evidence they have available so far indicates that your mail is potentially dangerous, and maybe you are too. Your job now is to demonstrate that they got it wrong, ideally using your actions and not just words. Before submitting that sender contact form, review the MBP's guidelines and your own practices. After all, their playground, their rules! Each MBP has its own quirks, but the basics tend to be the same. If you're not sure where to start, it's here! 🛝 Rule 1: Keep spam complaints as low as possible. The best way to do that? Get permission, always. Maintain a healthy list by removing bounces and sending to your most-engaged subscribers. Make it easy to unsubscribe, and honor unsubscribe requests when you get them. 🛝 Rule 2: Authenticate your mail. Use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC so you earn the deliverability you deserve (and don't forget to actually review your DMARC reports!). Authentication doesn't guarantee inbox placement, but you'll be left in the dust without it. 🛝 Rule 3: Be predictably yourself. MBPs and subscribers both reward consistency, and results tend to be stronger when everyone knows what to expect, when. Send similar volumes at similar times on similar days, ensuring increases are gradual to give the filters (and the audience) time to adjust. If you're ramping up and see increased delays, blocks, or complaints, or lower opens than expected, slow down and reassess. It's possible that the segment is no longer viable, or requires a different approach. If these bases are covered, THEN you can reach out. Include your name, your company, your domain & IP, the specific outcome you're having (including the bounce reason, if applicable), and what you've done to improve. And be nice!

After reviewing data from 1,000s of inboxes at RevGrowth, these 8 practices have made the biggest impact for consistent 99% email deliverability:   Most teams skip at least one of these, then wonder why their cold emails land in spam.   Here's what we do:   1. Use Secondary Domains - Never send from your main domain > We buy secondary domains through Porkbun for cheap, easy management   2. Track Replies Only - Open and click tracking hurt deliverability > I keep reply tracking on and turn everything else off. Clean signal, less risk   3. Send Fewer Emails Per Mailbox - I stick to 30 emails/day per mailbox, max > Spread your volume across several domains. Fewer red flags, more consistency   4. Warm Up Slowly - Ramp up sending volume over time. > Start low, increase gradually. This builds trust with inbox providers.   5. Double-Verify Your Lists - Bad data kills sender reputation > We use LeadMagic, Icypeas, and Prospeo.io for email search, then verify with LeadMagic. Clean lists = low bounce rates   6. Use Modern Sending Platforms - Old-school SEPs drag down deliverability > I recommend EmailBison or Smartlead   7. Automate CRM Syncing - Manual updates cause errors and missed follow-ups. > OutboundSync handles real-time syncing with HubSpot or Salesforce. Less manual work, more accuracy.   8. Stick to Plain Text - Links and images lower inbox rates. > I write text-only emails. They look more human and get better placement.   Our team applies these 8 steps in every workflow ourselves & all client accounts.   What’s been your biggest deliverability challenge lately?

Deliverability recovery isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less — strategically. Here’s how to act without making things worse... 💌 Suppress the right people… based on your own data signals. Removing unengaged recipients from your active mailings is helpful in the short-term because mailbox providers will see a higher percentage of their users engaging positively with what you send. Go beyond the generic 30/60/90-day rule. Your definition of "unengaged" depends entirely on your send volume and frequency, your audience’s buying cycle, your acquisition sources ,and your segmentation strategy. How aggressively you’ll need to pull back — and how quickly you start to see improvement — depends on how aggressive your sending practices have been until now. 💌 Slow your roll More sending ≠ more inbox placement. In fact, it’s often the opposite when you’re seeing signs of an issue. Consider throttling or pausing campaigns temporarily while you monitor, and let your engaged users carry the weight while you stabilize. And once things do start to stabilize, resist the urge to go back to business as usual. It burned you last time, it’ll burn you again. Instead, pause and re-assess how often you really need to be emailing each segment. 💌 Fix authentication issues Check your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. If anything’s missing, misconfigured, or recently changed, FIX IT. Failing any of these will affect inbox placement, no matter how great your content or opt-in process is. 💌 Don’t Panic-Tweak Everything If you change five things at once, you won’t know what worked! Start by suppressing your sketchiest addresses. Monitor mailbox-level performance (especially Gmail and Microsoft), and don’t mess with your frequency or creative elements unless you have a specific reason to do so. 💌 Watch the right metrics Tracking your trends in opens, spam complaint rates, and bounce codes... by mailbox provider, (not just in aggregate). That's how you'll spot issues early and get to the bottom of what’s happening quickly. I’m not gonna say much more here, but I’ve written a LOT about this (along with a bunch of incredibly expert email folks) over on the SocketLabs blog. If you're unsure what to track, get to Googlin’. 💌 Involve your ESP (without blaming them) Bring facts. Be honest. Be kind. They’ll help you, and they’ll escalate to the mailbox provider when (ahem, *if*) it's truly needed. I walk through every step in detail on the Send It Right blog — including what not to waste your time on, how to pace your recovery, and how to avoid landing right back in the same mess a few weeks later. It’s not a silver bullet (because those don’t exist within email 🙃), but it is a repeatable way to diagnose the issue, stabilize your sending, and earn your way back to the inbox without guessing. What else do you think senders should do when things go pear-shaped?

𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆: 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 $𝟰𝟵𝗞 𝘁𝗼 $𝟯𝟬𝟬𝗞 𝗶𝗻 𝟵𝟬 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 Initial Situation and Challenges: The client was struggling with a stagnant email marketing performance: Open Rates: 7% Click Rates: Less than 0.2% Inbox Placement: Around 60% across major ISPs Spam Rates: Above 0.4% at Gmail, and 0.1% - 0.5% at other ISPs These figures highlighted significant deliverability issues, with a considerable portion of emails not reaching the inbox, affecting engagement and revenue. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗧𝗼 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀, 𝘄𝗲: 1. Studied Unsubscribes and Soft Bounces: Determined that certain segments and content types had higher unsubscribes and soft bounces. 2. Content Performance Review: Found that concise content (no more than 2 scrolls) with a CTA within the first scroll had higher engagement rates. Actionable Insights: Shorter emails with prominent early CTAs drove better conversions. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 We executed multiple tests to refine content: 1. Layout and Image Alterations: Changed email layouts and image-to-text ratios to see their impact on deliverability. 2. Footer Disclaimers and Content Changes: Tweaked footer disclaimers which led to better inbox placement, especially in Gmail. Results: Improved Gmail inboxing rates and engagement. However, these changes did not significantly impact Yahoo and Hotmail. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗜𝗦𝗣-𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 1. Revenue and Click Analysis by ISP: Discovered Yahoo and Hotmail had better conversion rates than Gmail, indicating higher engagement from these ISPs. 2. Hotmail Focus: Despite low inboxing (45%), Hotmail drove more revenue than Yahoo. We liaised with Microsoft for three weeks to resolve IP blocking issues, doubling the volume sent to Hotmail. 3. Yahoo Adjustments: Improved inboxing to 80% by targeting users who had engaged (opened emails at least 10 times and clicked once) in the last 60 days. 4. Gmail Strategy: Implemented content changes and special segmentation strategies, boosting inboxing to 70% and reducing spam rates below 0.2%. Outcome: ISP-specific strategies led to improved inbox placement and engagement across the board. Step 4: Results and Impact Inboxing Improvements: Gmail: Increased to 70% Yahoo: Improved to 80% Hotmail: Resolved IP issues and doubled volume. Open Rates: Grew to an average of 15% in 90 days Revenue: Increased from $49K to $300K per month within 90 days. Continued in the comment section... #email #emailmarketing

Checked my spam folder yesterday and found SO MANY DTC brands that used to be in my promotions tab. Even found double opt-in messages in there. Seems like Google/Yahoo updates are working hard to protect consumers from receiving unwanted messages 👏 For us, email marketers that means taking time to update our sending strategies and tighten the engaged segments. If segmentation was not your top priority before, it definitely should be now! Segmentation allows you to target people based on their intent, their interests, the stage of their customer journey, demographics, location and more. Some basic tips: 1. Check your flow filters. Make sure that people are not receiving your Browse, Cart and Checkout Abandonment flows all at the same time. Think about whether people in your Welcome or Thank You flows need to receive your email campaigns. 2. Make sure to send to your Engaged Segment only. And remember, Open Rates are not the true indication of engagement. 3. Send relevant content. Engaged segment is great, but imagine how many different customer personas are there! You have VIPs, prospects, one-time buyers, low AOV, high AOV, and discount shoppers - they all resonate with a different message. So take the time to really look at your audience and craft compelling offers for them. 4. Send more text-based emails. It is not a secret that text-based emails tend to land in the inboxes more frequently than the image based. So utilize that knowledge, especially if you need to fix your reputation among inbox providers. Plain text emails have the power to stand out among the other promotions tab messages and feel much more personal than the image-based sent-to-everyone flashy email. 5. Clean your list and set up proper exclusion segments. Remove spam trap accounts, unengaged, chronic bouncers, and those who have long story of not opening. What else will you add here?

If you run an ESP and your system can’t explain why emails land in spam, you don’t just have a deliverability problem. You have a churn problem. Because when customers can’t reach the inbox and you can’t help them fix it, they won’t stay. That’s why you need a way to quickly pinpoint the cause of your deliveraviltiy issues and fix it. Here’s how 👇 🔍 Spot the weak IP Every pool has strong and weak IPs. The mistake most ESPs make is looking at the pool average. That hides the outlier. Check IPs side by side: delivery %, bounce rate, complaint rate. If one IP is slipping while the rest are steady, that’s your weak link. Isolate it before it poisons the whole pool. Otherwise healthy customers will start seeing inboxing problems they didn’t cause. 📬 Check each provider Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo all behave differently. An IP might look fine overall, but dig deeper and you’ll see Gmail is steady while Yahoo is spiking soft bounces. When you break performance down by provider, you know where the problem really lives. That means you don’t have to slow the whole IP or pool. You just adjust for the provider that’s upset. ⚠️ Read the real errors “Soft bounce” doesn’t tell you anything useful. You have to read the actual SMTP error codes. Mailbox full → bad list quality, customer is mailing old addresses. Too many connections → you’re sending too fast, throttling issue. Policy block → compliance or permission problem. Each error points to a different fix. If you lump them all together, you’ll treat every problem the same and waste time while the damage spreads. 👥 Trace it to the account Once you know which IP and which provider are struggling — and why — ask: who’s causing it? Look at sub-accounts inside the pool. Often, one customer with poor lists or risky practices is dragging everyone down. Move that customer to a dedicated pool or throttle their sends before they contaminate the rest. This protects your good customers, your IP reputation, and your brand. If your sending infrastructure doesn't help you troubleshoot, it's time to shop for something that does help. Because spam filters are only getting stricter, not looser.

In email marketing, deliverability is everything... If your emails aren’t landing in the primary inbox, they aren’t being seen. And if they’re not seen, you’re losing potential revenue—plain and simple. Deliverability refers to your ability to get emails into the primary inbox, not the spam or promotions folders. It reflects your sender domain’s reputation, influenced by how relevant, engaging, and compliant your emails are. Recent changes by email providers like Gmail and Yahoo have made deliverability more complex. Gmail now enforces stricter rules to combat phishing and spam, requiring proper email authentication like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. There’s also a spam complaint rate threshold of 0.36%, and they’ve introduced one-click unsubscribe. Similarly, Yahoo has tightened its own standards, making authentication essential for bulk senders and implementing higher thresholds for spam rates. For email marketers, this means maintaining clean, authenticated lists and paying close attention to complaint rates. Whether you're launching a new sender domain or working with an established brand, getting deliverability right from the start is crucial. Begin by setting up proper authentication to build trust with inbox providers. Start small by sending emails to highly engaged segments. (those who have interacted with your brand in the last 60 days.) Consistent, valuable campaigns over the course of 30 days can build a strong sender reputation that sets the foundation for future success. For established brands, maintaining or even rebuilding deliverability requires focusing on your most engaged audiences. Gradually expand your sends—about 15% each week,to avoid overwhelming inbox providers, and if deliverability takes a hit, give it at least a month to recover by sticking to your most active recipients. Avoid sending to inactive or suppressed lists, as this can damage your reputation and increase the chances of landing in spam. To ensure long-term deliverability success, always use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your sender identity. Make it easy for uninterested recipients to opt out with a one-click unsubscribe feature, which also helps keep your list clean. Monitor your spam complaint rates carefully—anything above 0.36% can hurt your sender score. Regularly cleaning your email lists by removing inactive subscribers ensures higher deliverability and better campaign performance. Remember: poor deliverability equals poor ROI. If you’re struggling to reach the primary inbox or need help setting up a foolproof deliverability strategy, let’s chat.

Your emails might not be reaching the inbox - here’s how to fix it Most brands don’t realize they have a deliverability problem until it’s too late. You’re still sending emails. You’re still seeing opens. But behind the scenes? More emails are landing in spam or promotions. Here’s how to protect your inbox placement: 📡 Sending Reputation – ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo) score you based on engagement. ✔️ Warm up new domains, avoid sudden volume spikes. 🛠 Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) – Without these, providers don’t trust you. ✔️ Set up proper records & align them correctly. 📩 Inbox Placement ≠ Open Rate – A 25% open rate doesn’t mean you’re in primary. ✔️ Test with tools like MailGenius or GlockApps. 🚀 Volume & Frequency – Sending too many emails too fast kills reputation. ✔️ Scale volume gradually & stay consistent. 💀 Dead Weight on Your List – Low engagement signals providers to filter you. ✔️ Suppress inactive subscribers after 90-120 days. Email isn’t just about what you send - it’s about whether it even gets seen. When’s the last time you checked your inbox placement? If you’re not monitoring it, you’re flying blind... #emailmarketing #ecom #ecommerce