Definitive Guide: Email Deliverability Audit

- How to measure email deliverability and make sure that your emails are consistently getting into your recipient’s inbox.
- Actionable steps you can take to avoid landing in the spam folder.
Measure Inbox Placement Rate
You can run a detailed inboxing report using 3rd party services like GlockApps, GreenArrow, and 250ok. We personally prefer using GlockApps when running email deliverability audits for clients due to functionality and ease of use.


If you run a test via GlockApps and notice that a majority of your emails are going into the spam folder instead of the inbox, then it’s very likely that you have some type of email deliverability issue that is worth diagnosing.
The next step is to create a series of A/B tests by trimming different parts of the email and re-running the tests in GlockApps.

If your basic plain-text email is still landing in the spam folder a large percentage of the time on GlockApps, then it’s possible that reputation systems used by Email Service Providers have associated emails coming from your domain name or IP address as spam.
- Change the subject line AND/OR email copy by eliminating words that seem spammy to Email Service Providers
- Remove different parts of the signature (We had a case where removing the mailing address from the signature drastically increased email deliverability)
- Disable open tracking AND/OR click tracking
- Remove links from the email
- Run a free spam test via MailGenius and fix any issues
Measure Domain Reputation
For example, as you can see in the image below, Google Postmaster Tools provides a Domain Reputation score for high volume senders:

- Get people to engage with your emails via opens/clicks/replies
- Make sure to validate your emails and eliminate bounces and rejections
- Reduce the number of people that mark your email as spam by sending relevant emails that your recipient truly finds useful
Tip — Be sure to read MailTrap’s comprehensive guide to get more insight on how to measure your email deliverability rates.
Measure Sender Score
We recommend that you run a test via SenderScore.org by submitting your sender IP address:



Review Blacklisting for Domain(s) and Server IP’s
You can run a free test with MailGenius to see if your domain name or server IP are listed on any significant blacklists:


For example, if you are sending emails through a shared email service such as MailChimp or SendGrid, then other users on those platforms may have sent spam emails through a shared IP that you both use.
Ensure Email Authentication Best Practices
SPF
MailGenius will automatically check your SPF text record to ensure that it’s set up properly and your emails are authorized:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:servers.mcsv.net ~all
Still confused about SPF? Check out our help desk article on the topic to gain a deeper understanding.
DKIM
MailGenius can check to see if you have a valid DKIM record and instruct you (step-by-step) on how to set it up correctly with your specific configuration:

If you’re curious and want to learn about how DKIM works on a more technical level, you can visit our help desk article.
DMARC


While DMARC doesn’t directly impact deliverability, it helps in the sense that by securing your domain, you prevent the possibility of spammers potentially ruining your Domain Reputation through spoofing.
If you’d like to learn more about DMARC, feel free to check out this resource we created.
Review Bounce Handling




Be sure to validate your emails to avoid hard bounces using an email validation service such as NeverBounce:

Review Spam Feedback Loops
According to SendGrid, if you get as little as 1 spam complaint per 1000 sent emails, then Email Service Providers will take note of that and route your emails to spam at a higher rate than previously.

If you are not using an Email Service Provider, then you can sign up manually to Google Postmaster Tools as long as you send a large volume of emails and meet the requirements.

Review Unsubscribe Functionality
- Make the unsubscribe button large and prominent.
- Ensure that the unsubscribe link is not broken prior to each email campaign.
- When someone clicks on unsubscribe, do NOT make them jump through hoops to opt out of your emails. Make the process as simple as possible with preferably only 1 click required to unsubscribe and no further actions necessary. Remember, it’s better to get 10 unsubscribes than 1 spam complaint.
- When someone clicks on unsubscribe, make sure it actually works and your recipient never gets an email from you again.
Be sure to check if your unsubscribe functionality is set up properly using MailGenius:

Review Sending Volume & Frequency
MailChimp released an “Email Marketing Benchmarks” report so you can compare yourself with the average email campaign statistics of MailChimp users with at least 1000 subscribers.


There could be a lot of reasons and it depends on your specific situation. It’s possible that the content of your emails is not engaging to subscribers. Perhaps you just need to further segment your email list.
Review Whitelisting Process

Inactive/Active Subscriber Segmentation

- Inactive subscribers
- Active subscribers
Measure Delivery Rate
- Number of emails sent
- Number of bounces

You can use an email validation tool called NeverBounce before every email campaign:

- Valid
- Accept-All
- Unknown
- Disposable
- Invalid
With that being said, we strongly recommend that you ONLY send emails to “Valid” email addresses and remove the rest of the categories from your email list.
Now It’s Your Turn
That’s it for the email deliverability audit process. We hope you got some value out of it!