Your Emails Are Worthless If They Do Not Reach the Inbox
Average email deliverability across ecommerce is 85% — meaning 15% of your carefully crafted emails never reach customers. Poor deliverability costs revenue directly through missed order confirmations, abandoned cart emails, and marketing campaigns. Our email marketing services include deliverability optimisation.
Email Authentication
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF tells receiving servers which IP addresses are authorised to send email from your domain. Add SPF records for Shopify, your email marketing platform (Klaviyo, Mailchimp), and any other services sending email on your behalf.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM adds a digital signature to emails verifying they were not altered in transit. Configure DKIM for every platform sending email from your domain. This is essential for passing Gmail and Outlook authentication checks.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication)
DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when SPF and DKIM checks fail. Start with a monitoring policy (p=none), review reports, then move to quarantine and eventually reject. DMARC protects your domain from spoofing and improves overall deliverability.
Sender Reputation
IP and Domain Reputation
Email providers track your sending reputation based on bounce rates, spam complaints, engagement rates, and sending patterns. High complaint rates or sudden volume spikes damage reputation. Monitor your sender score regularly.
Warming Up New Sending Domains
If you switch email providers or start using a new domain, warm up gradually. Start with small volumes to your most engaged subscribers, then increase volume over 2-4 weeks. Sudden high-volume sends from cold domains trigger spam filters.
List Hygiene
- Remove hard bounces immediately (invalid email addresses)
- Suppress soft bounces after 3 consecutive failures
- Remove unengaged subscribers after 90 days of inactivity
- Use double opt-in for new subscribers to prevent invalid signups
- Run email verification on existing lists to identify invalid addresses
Content Best Practices
Avoid spam trigger words and excessive punctuation. Maintain a healthy text-to-image ratio. Include a clear unsubscribe link (required by law). Personalise sender name and subject lines. Test emails across clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) before sending.
Monitoring Deliverability
- Delivery rate: Percentage successfully delivered (target 98%+)
- Open rate: Indicates inbox placement (industry average 20-25%)
- Spam complaint rate: Must stay below 0.1%
- Bounce rate: Hard bounces should be under 0.5%
- Inbox placement rate: Use tools like GlockApps to test actual inbox vs spam placement
Struggling with deliverability? Our email team diagnoses and fixes deliverability issues.
