The document discusses email deliverability and provides tips for ensuring emails reach recipients' inboxes. It notes that email delivery is not guaranteed even if the email is accepted. Bounces and spam filters can impact delivery rates. The document recommends dealing with bounces by updating invalid addresses, validating emails, and avoiding purchased lists. It also suggests avoiding spam filters by implementing SPF and DKIM to validate the sender, writing good email content, and informing recipients how to unsubscribe. Various tools are presented that can help with transactional and marketing emails by tracking opens, clicks, bounces and more.

1. 30th of October 2014
Email deliverability
How can my email reach the recipient’s inbox?
by Pierre Cornic

2. 30th of October 2014
Email deliverability
1. It’s not that easy
2. Deal with bounces
3. Avoid SPAM filters
4. Great tools to help you

3. 30th of October 2014
1- It’s not that easy
“(...) It is important to note that just because the mail was
accepted for delivery, it does NOT mean the mail will
actually reach the intended destination.”
http://fr.php.net/mail
Is calling <?php mail(); ?> enough?

4. 30th of October 2014
1- It’s not that easy
What could go wrong ?
Bounces
● Wrong email address
● Recipient mailbox full
● Mail server unavailable
SPAM
● SPAM folder
● Blocked by ISP

5. 30th of October 2014
Email deliverability
1. It’s not that easy
2. Deal with bounces
3. Avoid SPAM filters
4. Great tools to help you

6. 30th of October 2014
2- Deal with bounces
2 types of bounces
➢ Hard bounce
○ Permanent rejection
○ For example “Mailbox does not exist”
➢ Soft bounce
○ Mail server temporarily unavailable to receive
○ Automated retry
○ Can lead to hard bounce

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2- Deal with bounces
Why it does matter?
● Bounces (soft and hard) impact your IP/domain reputation.
● Sender IP or domain may be blocked.
Acceptable bounce rate is below 2%!

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2- Deal with bounces
Reduce bounce rate
● Stop sending to these addresses
○ Create mailbox for bounce notification
○ Periodically retrieve them and update emails
● Validate emails at subscription
● Do not buy lists or use crawlers to find emails

9. 30th of October 2014
Email deliverability
1. It’s not that easy
2. Deal with bounces
3. Avoid SPAM filters
4. Great tools to help you

10. 30th of October 2014
3- Avoid SPAM filters
When will my email go to SPAM?
● No unified policy across ISP
● SPAM rules evolve over time
● Your IP/domain reputation changes
Best practices
A. Validate sender identity
B. Write a good email content
C. Inform the recipient and provide easy opt out

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
When will my email go to SPAM?
● No unified policy across ISP
● SPAM rules evolve over time
● Your IP/domain reputation changes
Best practices
A. Validate sender identity
B. Write a good email content
C. Inform the recipient and provide easy opt out

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
A. Validate sender identity with SPF
What is it?
● Indicates who can send email for a domain
● Published DNS TXT record
Use it!
➢ Check your domain: http://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
➢ Build your SPF : http://www.spfwizard.net/
SPF = Sender Policy Framework

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SPF : Sender Policy Framework

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
A. Validate sender identity with DKIM
What is it?
● Private key on mail server, public key in DNS
● Adds a signature to your email header
● Validates content and origin
● Removes ”sent via” header
DKIM = Domain Keys Identified Mail

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
A. Validate sender identity with DKIM
What is it?
● Private key on mail server, public key in DNS
● Adds a signature to your email header
● Validates content and origin
● Removes ”sent via” header
Use it!
➢ Generate public/private key: http://www.socketlabs.com/domainkey-dkim-
generation-wizard/
➢ Publish 2 DNS TXT records

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
A. Validate sender identity with DKIM
Use it!
Policy record:
_domainkey.inovia.fr IN TXT o=~;
Key record(s):
test._domainkey.inovia.fr IN TXT k=rsa;
p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDTCSGHCtKkd+Kwj30llDAiZ0Jv
U2M+ZZD3YQRA6EEQgCzwd/XDJp9etuoIn7Am7p4wZYn13N35ebu1X/ul5z6O/DyY
5SaoNsVr+b79UesrzgRXwwDaWbsKnbmDQJmuU8kVdhiYhIzbbcf8Xz6L5pbe1rWh
fMYivGGpcL94GmM9GQIDAQAB

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
When will my email go to SPAM?
● No unified policy across ISP
● SPAM rules evolve over time
● Your IP/domain reputation changes
Best practices
A. Validate sender identity
B. Write a good email content
C. Inform the recipient and provide easy opt out

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
B. Write a good email content
Guidelines
● Short subject (35 to 50 characters)
● No spammy words (free, sale, cash, etc.)
● Avoid CAPITALIZED LETTERS
● Not too much images
● Good spelling and no HTML errors
● Avoid using too much bold, red font, !, ?, €

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
When will my email go to SPAM?
● No unified policy across ISP
● SPAM rules evolve over time
● Your IP/domain reputation changes
Best practices
A. Validate sender identity
B. Write a good email content
C. Inform the recipient and provide easy opt out

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3- Avoid SPAM filters
C. Inform recipient and provide easy opt out
In short: “Please, please, don’t click on
the little “SPAM” button !”
Guidelines
● Remind the recipient why he receives your email
● Tell him who you are (address of company is mandatory in your
email)
● Provide him a simple unsubscribe link

21. 30th of October 2014
Email deliverability
1. It’s not that easy
2. Deal with bounces
3. Avoid SPAM filters
4. Great tools to help you

22. Different types of emails, different tools
Marketing email
● Bulk emails
● Sent to a list of people
● Promotions, new products, etc.
30th of October 2014
4- Great tools to help you
Transactional email
● One to one email
● Results of a user action
● For example: password reset,
order confirmation

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4- Great tools to help you
Transactional email services
● Mandrill (free up to 12 000 emails/month)
● Sendgrid (free up to 200 emails/day)
● Postmark (25000 first emails free)
● Mailjet (free up to 12 000 emails/month)
● Customer.io (free up to 200 email contacts)
Provide DKIM, unsubscribe, bounce, open and click tracking.

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4- Great tools to help you
Marketing email services
● Mailchimp (free up to 2 000 subscribers)
● Mailjet (free up to 12 000 emails/month)
● Vertical response (free up to 1000 subscribers)
● Customer.io (free up to 200 email contacts)
Provide DKIM, unsubscribe, bounce, open and click tracking.

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Conclusion
➢ It’s not that easy
➢ You have to deal with bounces
➢ You shall avoid SPAM filters
➢ And now you have great tools for that !
➢ And you know why it matters

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Questions ?
For online questions, please leave a comment on the article.

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