The below listed points help you to self-debug email deliverability problems.
- Check if all the compliance requirements are met. Expected results are:
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SPF, DKIM, DMARC pass
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DMARC policy [p=reject]
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List-Unsubscribe header
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In-body unsubscribe link
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- Check if the email setup is intact.
- Look for any volume spikes. Expected results are:
- Consistent volume pattern while looking at week-by-week summary.
- No unusual volume spike (more than 1x growth compared to the highest volume in the last 30 days) in any day.
- Less than 10 10-day gap between (high volume) sends.
- Less than 3 weeks gap in between high volume sends
- Ramp-up should be as per the plan, if in the ramp-up phase.
- Look for any unusual target segment such as inactive users targeting, missing suppressions, or the presence of unusual emails in the list. Expected results are:
- Optimal active v/s inactive targeting: 70:30.
- Proper suppressions and frequency capping exclusions.
- No inactive users (6+ months) in the usual target segment.
- Check if there has been any suspicious sign-up. For example, a sudden spike in welcome campaign volume would be suspicious. Unless there is an activity going on or it’s the peak sale season, there should not be a more than +- 20% difference in the usual welcome campaign volume. Expected results are:
- No unusual sign-up activity
- No bot signups
- No unusual app/site activity
- Check postmaster data for reputation at Gmail; check SNDS for IP status at Microsoft. Expected results are:
- HIGH reputation at Gmail
- Less than 0.1 % of users reported spam on Gmail
- Green-filtered results at SNDS
- Check the performance metrics for the last 15 days, weekly performance going back 90 days, and monthly performance going back 6 months. Expected results are:
- More than 99% delivered rate, except for the Welcome campaign or double opt-in campaign.
- More than 30% unique open rates. Consistent through weeks for each segment group - active, inactive, personalized, triggered, etc.
- Stable click rate - consistent through weeks for each segment group - active, inactive, personalized, triggered, etc.
- Low complaint rates (<0.1%)
- Low unsubscribe rates (<0.5%)
- Consistent conversion rates from week to week for each campaign or segment group.
- Consistent performance for each triggered campaign or flow campaign.
- No deferrals.
- Read all the failure reasons to see if there were any blocks due to IPs/domains being in block lists or due to low reputation. Expected results are:
- No soft bounces due to IP/domain blocks or mailbox provider blocks.
- Check the HTML content. Expected results are:
- No personalization failures
- No distorted or poorly formatted emails
- No spam-like content
- Personalized or segmented for each send
- Light images or videos that load quickly
- Consistent branding in emails.
After you spot the issues, go into the repair mode, then slowly test and resume sending smaller volumes to the most engaged users at a low RPM and then ramp up.