Picture this: you're gearing up for your next email marketing campaign. You've crafted a stellar message with a compelling offer, created an attractive email template, and built a targeted list of recipients to reach. But when you hit send, instead of hearing the sweet sound of engagement, you’re met with deafening silence. You soon discover that many of your messages never reached recipients’ inboxes. This scenario is all too common, and it’s likely one you’d like to avoid when running your next email marketing campaign. That’s where our guide on how to improve cold email deliverability comes in. Following the steps outlined in this article can help ensure your emails reach your recipients’ inboxes instead of the dreaded spam folder.  

Inframail can help you achieve your goals by providing the email infrastructure to improve your email deliverability and overall marketing performance.

Table of Contents

• What is Email Deliverability and Why It Is Important

• How to Improve Email Deliverability in 18 Steps

• 21  Best Tools to Improve Your Email Deliverability

• Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

What is Email Deliverability and Why It Is Important

Email deliverability is the rate at which your email makes it into recipient inboxes. An email deliverability rate can be lower when an email bounces or gets automatically filtered into a spam folder. Imagine you send mail to a friend with a missing sender name. The post could end up in the trash because of the unknown sender. Similarly, emails may get delivered to the recipient’s email address but in a spam or marketing folder.

Email deliverability may often be confused with ‘email delivery.’ While both terms refer to email delivery, there is a striking difference between them.

Email Delivery vs. Email Deliverability

Email delivery measures the number of emails delivered successfully, regardless of the folder. It tells if the recipient’s mail server has accepted the email file and offered it to the receiver. It calculates the percentage of emails that didn’t bounce out of the sent emails.

Email deliverability is akin to the number of emails that reach the right destination. Also known as inbox placement, it calculates the percentage of emails that get delivered to the priority inbox. For example, the deliverability rate of 100 emails, out of which 33 were in the spam folder, is 66%. 

Key Factors Impacting Email Delivery and Deliverability

An accessible summary of this email delivery vs. email deliverability comparison is as follows:

Email delivery = How many emails were delivered? 

Email deliverability = How many emails were delivered to the recipient’s inbox? 

Delivery issues may be due to the following: 

• Faulty email addresses

• Problems with your infrastructure

• Too much negative feedback on the email address. 

Deliverability issues arise due to: 

• Outdated sending and permission practices

• Violating a law

• Receiving too many spam labels by the receivers

Why Does Email Deliverability Matter So Much?

Email deliverability is crucial for higher ROI. For every $1 spent, email gives an ROI of around $36. Even if the email delivery rate is around 97% for the 1,000 emails sent, there are still 30 emails that bounce back. Now, consider the open rates. The open rates might oscillate around 30% to 40%. One of the primary reasons for the low open rates could be email deliverability. 

Emails in the spam or promotional folders have lower open rates because they are often overlooked. For email marketers, getting higher open rates is imperative. To ensure that, it is essential that every email that you send ends up in the inbox. 

What Affects Your Email Deliverability Rate? 

No single factor affects the email deliverability rate. Several technical steps happen behind the scenes to send an email. 

• You compose an email using a service like:

1. Gmail

2. Yahoo

3. Outlook

4. Platforms like Mailchimp

• When you click Send, the message is uploaded to a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), which passes the email between servers. 

• The SMTP communicates with a domain name server (DNS). A DNS operates like an online address book, telling the SMTP where the recipient’s mail server is. If the DNS cannot find the relevant server, it will send you a “mail undelivered” message. 

• Once the DNS locates and contacts the appropriate server, the SMTPs pass messages to one another. 

• The recipient's SMTP then decides where the email belongs, whether that's in their: 

1. Inbox

2. Spam folder

3. Not delivered

But what influences whether the SMTP sorts your email into a contact's inbox spam filter or blocks it altogether? Several variables come into play: 

Internet service providers (ISPs)

An internet service provider gives subscribers internet access. ISPs enable access to the internet, and every internet protocol (IP) address is linked to one. There are many different ISPs, and they sometimes function differently. 

• Lower-budget, 

• Lower-bandwidth 

ISPs may need help with more significant emails, such as: 

• Email service providers

• Platforms (ESPs)

Email service providers have different capabilities depending on how the ESP handles it an email: 

• Sorted

• Displayed

• Delivered 

How Email Format and IP Address Impact Deliverability

How an email is displayed can vary considerably from format to format. 

For example: 

• Emails typically look different on a smartphone versus a desktop

• Emails can also be read via a smart speaker, which alters deliverability considerably—your IP address

The IP address from which you send emails also impacts deliverability. ISPs and email providers track the reputation of IP addresses to determine if they're likely spam sources. A dedicated IP address can give you more control over your sender’s reputation. On the other hand, shared IPs can be affected by the sending practices of others using the same address. 

Key Factors Influencing Email Deliverability: Engagement, Sender Reputation, and Domain Reputation

Of course, you can't choose which ISP, ESP, or format your audience uses, but there are other factors that you can influence. These variables have a significant impact on deliverability: 

• Engagement. If you achieve regular engagement, this demonstrates that your audience finds value in your emails, and that increases deliverability. The secret to engagement?

1. Segment

2. Understand

3. Keep your audience interested

• Sender reputation. This is a score assigned by an ESP to a sender. It's based on data—similar to how search engines rank a webpage. Your sender reputation is based mainly on your audience's engagement with your emails. A poor sender reputation will result in ISPs automatically blocking an email or sending it to the spam folder. It also factors in the following: 

1. Quality of the content

2. The frequency of your messaging

3. Open rates

4. Authenticity

• Domain reputation: Similar to IP reputation, domain reputation measures the trustworthiness of your sending domain. Email providers assess the history of emails sent from your domain to determine if they will likely be legitimate or spam. A good domain reputation can improve email deliverability even if you change IP addresses. These factors all contribute to your domain reputation, like: 

1. Engagement rates

2. Spam complaints

3. Adherence to email best practices 

Email Content

Email subject and content are imperative for boosting credibility and engagement levels. A compelling subject line and enticing content will have longer read times and higher open rates. With these two factors, no ISP will mark your email for suspicion or flush it into the spam folder. 

Email Infrastructure

Email deliverability largely depends on the software and hardware systems despite everything being on the cloud. The email system works much like a real-life postal service system; after you write a letter and dispatch it for delivery, the postal services, the people who sort the letters, and the delivery persons deliver the posts to the receiver’s doorstep. 

In the same way, email deliverability depends on the three hardware and software structures: 

• Mail servers

• Agents

• IP addresses

If you have a high email volume, you need a dedicated IP that provides robust and seamless email infrastructure. Click here to learn more about the dedicated IP addresses and how to connect to email addresses. 

Spike in Email Volume

No one likes their inbox flooded with emails from the same sender simultaneously. Emails should be sent at a fixed interval, whether you are: 

• Running promotional campaigns

• Launching a product

• Making a big announcement for subscribers

Spam emails have erratic patterns and are sent out in large volumes in short intervals. Sending emails over a fixed interval gives a positive sign to your ISPs that the emails sent are ethical and legitimate. Remember that the best time to send emails drastically affects the open rates.

Related Reading

• Automated Lead Generation
• Email Prospecting
• How to Generate B2B Leads
• How to Warm Up Email Domain
• How Many Emails Can You Send Before Considered Spam
• Best Time to Send Cold Emails
• How to Cold Email
• Best Cold Email Templates B2B
• Email Outreach Best Practices
• Email Outreach Strategy

How to Improve Email Deliverability in 18 Steps

1. Authenticate Your Domain With SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

Email authentication protocols tell your recipient's server that the email is from a verified domain, not a fraudster. Getting this step right helps ensure your email doesn’t end up in a spam folder and instead reaches your subscribers’ inbox. 

There are different ways to authenticate your email:

• Sender Policy Framework (SPF): SPF is an email authentication method that verifies that incoming email comes from an authorized and legitimate sender, not a relay server. 

• DomainKeys Identified Mails (DKIM): DKIM ensures that the message is not altered while transmitting it. Public-key encryption helps encrypt a particular message. It involves linking the digital signature with the domain name in the DNS. The recipient system can verify using the public key to decrypt the signature. DKIM ensures that the message is not modified while transmitting and thus authenticates the email.

• Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC): DMARC ensures that the email is not a spam or phishing attack. DMARC uses both SPF and DKIM techniques to authenticate the email. In addition, it blocks all fraud messages sent from any specific domain. 

2. Warmup Your IP Address

Doing an IP warmup is imperative before sending emails from a new IP address. This process is also known as domain warmup. You should contact your ESP; they’ll help you set up the whole warmup program. 

Theoretically, the process works like this: 

• Send emails to your most active and engaged users. 

• When these users open and engage with your emails, it signals to the ISP that your emails are relevant and help build up your IP reputation. 

• As your reputation score builds up, you can send many emails within a week or two without any deliverability issues. 

3. Regularly Monitor Sender Reputation And Blacklists 

It is essential to have a good sender reputation or sender score. You can measure it based on: 

• Complaints filed against you by the user

• The total number of spam reports in your company

• Your company's email history to date

• Your domain's reputation

• The bounce rate

You can use many tools to check your sender's reputation, including: 

• Senderscore.org

• BarracudaCentral

• Google Postmaster

• Microsoft SNDS

All you need to do is put your IP or domain address in these tools, which will generate your sender score and insights to improve it. A lower sender reputation can get your IP blacklisted, which plunges your campaign's deliverability. 

4. Use Double Opt-In Or Confirmed Opt-In 

Ensure that all the subscribers on your email list are genuinely interested in receiving your emails and have valid email addresses. One way to do this is to use double opt-in. Asking users to verify their email addresses once they sign up is an easy way to check their validity. It also prevents sending emails to users who aren’t genuinely interested in your product, increasing email interaction and engagement.

5. Make It Easy To Unsubscribe 

This may sound counterintuitive, but the fact that people are unsubscribing from your list isn’t a big problem. Why? Because that means they’re receiving your emails – they’re just not into them. 

The problem starts when they’re not unsubscribing but: 

• Filtering out your messages into the spam folder or, worse, 

• Reporting them as spam

Both are a big challenge, but if you’ve followed our advice in #5, you should have already dealt with those who stopped reading your emails. The situation is slightly more complicated when managing spam complaints because it requires changes in multiple places. 

• You should review your subscription process and ensure everything’s transparent and clear. Your contacts must fully understand what they’re signing up for and what content I’ll send them. Add this information to: 

1. My landing pages

2. Web forms

3. Thank you pages

4. In your email footers 

• You’ll need to make unsubscribing from your list more manageable. In most cases, it’s enough if the unsubscribe process doesn’t require additional steps, like logging into your platform, and the removal link can be easily found in your emails. In extreme cases, bring your unsubscribe link to the fold section above – maybe even into the preheader. 

This may not seem ideal from a marketer’s perspective. But considering that each spam report affects your deliverability, for that specific campaign and in the future, having more unsubscribes doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. 

6. Avoid Spammy Words In Your Emails 

It’s easy to get trapped in a spam folder due to a single spammy word you used in your email: 

• The subject line

• Preheader text

• Email copy

These words trigger the spam filters and signal them that the email contains spammy content. Thus landing in the junk folder. Some of these trigger words are as follows: 

• Claim your discount NOW! 

• Act immediately

• Jackpot 

• 100% FREE 

• For only XXX amount 

Besides spammy words, you should also avoid: 

• Using characters in my subject line like ", >,! etc. 

• Writing in all caps symbols or exaggerated numbers like 777, $$$, and 0% risk. 

7. Provide A Preference Center 

Once your recipients have agreed to receive emails from you, provide a preference center so that they can decide just how frequently they want to receive emails from your brand. Doing so helps put your recipients in control and keeps them happy. This happiness generally translates to better engagement (which the ISPs notice).

8. Don't Use A Purchased Email Lists 

Buying email lists is the easiest way to reach the maximum number of people. But, it might impact your email deliverability for the following reasons: 

• You don’t have the approval of the recipients. 

• The email address might be invalid or doesn't exist. It's against the email laws and can have legal repercussions. 

So, be a good email marketer and create your email list using proper practices. 

9. Clean Your Lists Regularly 

Over time some subscribers will stop engaging with your emails or change their email address due to a change in job or any other external reason. If you keep sending them emails, you might not get any engagement due to such reasons. That's why periodically cleaning such addresses from the email list is imperative to maintain a healthy deliverability rate. 

10. Segment Your Email List 

You must engage your subscribers with relevant and valuable content to improve deliverability. No one likes to hear a generic email that seems impersonal and invaluable. This is why you need to segment your email subscribers based on different criteria, such as: 

• Demography: 

  • Gender

  • Age

  • Ethnicity

  • Occupation 

• Geography: 

  • Country

  • City

  • Pincode

• Behavioural data: 

  • Past interactions

  • Engagement level 

• Stage in buyer's journey: 

  • Awareness

  • Consideration

  • Decision-making 

• Lifecycle stage: 

  • New or existing customers

  • Frequent buyers

  • Loyal customers 

A segmented email is more targeted and resonates with the recipient. When you try to go the extra mile, it gets reflected in my email's performance. Besides, when you combine segmentation with personalization, you'll see a tremendous increase in email engagement, boosting your deliverability rate and brand name. 

11. Maintain A Consistent Sending Frequency And Schedule 

You must create a consistent schedule for sending your emails with the right frequency and timing so people don’t ignore them. There is no use in sending emails when people cannot view them, so choosing the right time and day is essential based on: 

• Industry

• Email campaign type

• Your receipt’s interaction behaviors

12. Send Emails That People Love To Engage With 

Your emails should hook readers and offer value simultaneously. The more engaging your email is, the more people will wait for it, and you'll see higher engagement. 

Higher engagement signals to ISPs that recipients enjoy your emails, and it will put emails in the recipient's inbox. 

13. Monitor Your Email Metrics 

Monitor your email performance metrics to maintain and improve your deliverability rates. 

Here's why it matters:

• Identify issues early: Regular monitoring helps you spot potential deliverability problems before they become critical. 

• Track improvements: Analyzing your metrics over time shows the impact of your deliverability efforts. 

• Optimize my strategy: Use data-driven insights to refine your email marketing approach. 

14. Implement A Sunset Policy 

A sunset policy is a strategic approach to managing inactive subscribers, which can significantly impact your email deliverability. Regularly removing unengaged subscribers keeps your list healthy and responsive. ISPs view consistent sending to inactive addresses as a red flag, which can harm your reputation. Your overall engagement metrics will likely improve by focusing on active subscribers. 

15. Get Your IP Removed From Email Blacklists 

If your emails go into the spam folder, there’s a big chance that blacklists are involved. Major mailbox providers look at the more reputable blacklists when assessing the quality of mailings sent to their users. 

16. Create A Unique Brand Identity 

A strong and unique brand identity can help increase recipients’ engagement with your emails. And since engagement is an essential element of email deliverability, let’s look at ways how you can improve your brand identity: 

• Use your custom domain to send your email campaigns, as opposed to free email domains like Gmail 

• Use consistent Email fields (From, Name, and Address) across all your campaigns 

• Use the same design across all my marketing channels (color scheme, fonts, graphics) 

• Use Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) and add your brand’s logo to your emails. 

17. Partner Up With A Reliable Email Service Provider (ESP) 

If you’re serious about improving your sender reputation and email deliverability, you’ll want to partner with a reputable email marketing software provider. If you’re not sure whether your current platform is the right one, check if it: 

• Has relationships with all the major Internet Service Providers 

• Has set up feedback loops with all the critical mailbox providers 

• Automatically handles: 

  • Bounces

  • Unsubscribes

  • Spam complaints 

• Does not allow its users to upload purchased or scraped lists 

• Participates in all significant ISP industry initiatives to prevent spam, like: 

  • MAAWG

  • EEC

  • ESPC 

• Is compliant with all the major regulations such as: 

  • CanSPAM

  • CASL

  • GDPR

  • CCPA 

• Authenticate your custom mailing domain and emails with SPF and DKIM 

• Has robust Deliverability and Compliance Teams onboard 

• Uses IPs with high reputation 

• Uses AI to identify potential email deliverability issues 

• Provides you with the Data Processing Agreement 

• Has servers in the country you’re most interested in 

• Ensures all my data is safe and secure 

• Regularly updates its tools to adapt to the latest industry standards

• Has a good and established reputation on the market. 

18. Get A Dedicated IP Address   

You probably use a shared IP solution if you send your marketing emails using email marketing software. While for most marketers, that’s the right approach, there are some downsides to it, too. For marketers with smaller email lists, a shared IP solution gives more flexibility and stable deliverability. 

An alternative approach is to use a dedicated IP address. This is usually reserved for more prominent senders with substantial email lists (e.g., 100,000+ records) and a regular communication schedule. The main difference is that when you use a dedicated IP address, you’re the only one building its reputation. 

Related Reading

• Best Cold Email Software
• How Long Should a Cold Email Be
• B2B Cold Email Response Rates
• Unlimited Email Hosting
• Email Testing Tools
• Best Email Deliverability Tools
• Mailscale Alternatives
• Sales Email Automation Tools
• Email Scraping Tools
• Mailforge Alternatives
• Best Sales Prospecting Tools
• Email Warm Up Tools
• Email Personalization Tools

21  Best Tools to Improve Your Email Deliverability

Get Your Emails to the Inbox with Email Deliverability Tools

Email deliverability tools help identify and fix issues that affect whether your emails reach their intended recipients. The correct email deliverability tools can help you effectively troubleshoot your email deliverability problems, improve your sender reputation, and get your emails to the inbox. 

21 Email Deliverability Tools to Improve Your Cold Email Outreach

1. Inframail

At Inframail, we are revolutionizing cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a flat rate. 

We provide: 

• Microsoft-backed deliverability

• Dedicated IP addresses

• Automated technical setup 

This helps customer outreach efforts efficiently like: 

• Agencies

• Recruiters

• SDRs

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. 

InfraMail provides the robust email infrastructure you need without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're an: 

• Agency looking to scale outreach

• A recruiter connecting with candidates

• An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and setup your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool. 

2. Mailtrap

Mailtrap is an advanced tool that simulates safe and comprehensive email testing. Its standout feature is the ability to preview and debug emails without risking actual delivery, making it perfect for catching issues early and improving email content for better deliverability. 

Highlights: 

• Safe Testing Environment: Sends emails to a virtual inbox to test without affecting real recipients. 

• Detailed Logs: Access in-depth logs for debugging and improving email content. 

• Responsive Design Testing: Ensure your emails look great on all devices. 

3. SendGrid

SendGrid facilitates email testing by providing tools for pre-send diagnostics such as A/B testing and email validation testing, allowing you to preview and validate emails across various clients and devices. This helps identify potential rendering issues, ensuring your emails appear correctly in different inboxes. 

Highlights: 

• Inbox Rendering Test: Preview how an email will be displayed across a curated selection of inbox providers and devices, ensuring consistent presentation and design. 

• Spam Test: Check your email against leading consumer (B2C) and enterprise (B2B) spam filters. 

• Link Validation Test: To verify: 

1. All hyperlinks within an email

2. Checking for validity

3. Redirects

4. Domain reputation

5. Essential metadata like title text

4. Email on Acid

Email on Acid provides the assurance to perfect your email campaigns before reaching your live audience. It is a comprehensive testing platform known for its extensive email client compatibility checks. It's particularly valuable for businesses that need to ensure: 

• Their emails are pixel-perfect across a wide range of email clients

• Reducing the risk of rendering issues 

• Minimizing inbox blindspots that could affect engagement. 

Highlights: 

• Cross-Client Testing: Preview emails in over 70 email clients to ensure broad compatibility. 

• Code Analysis: Identify and fix coding issues that could disrupt email rendering. 

• Pre-Send Checklist: Run a comprehensive checklist to catch common email mistakes before sending. 

• Accessibility Testing: Ensure your emails are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. 

5. Clearout

Clearout is one of the most trusted email verification tools known for its speed and 99% data accuracy. Its AI email verification system performs 20+ real-time checks to help you filter all bad emails including: 

• Gibberish

• Disposable

• Spam-trap

• Blacklist

• Invalid

• Typos

• atch-alls, and more

The “guaranteed deliverables” feature marks the email addresses that are most likely to receive emails without hampering your reputation or bouncing back reducing your bounce rate to 0-3%. You also get AI insights into optimizing your campaigns and data enrichment features that can help you build and maintain quality email lists. 

Highlights: 

• AI-powered Email Verification: Offers 99% data accuracy and insights to improve deliverability. 

• Bulk Verification: For uploading or importing email lists for real-time validation. 

• On-form Verification: Validating email addresses at the entry level ensures that no bad email users are entering your database. 

• Advanced Catch-All Resolver: Identifies and resolves catch-all domains, which could lead to bounces. 

• Data Enrichment: Build pre-verified email lists using: 

  • Email finder

  • In-app prospecting

  • Extension for data finding

• API, JS-widget, Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with your existing: 

  • CRM

  • Forms

  • Sales or marketing platforms with Clearout

6. Zero Bounce

ZeroBounce is another email list verification tool with decent accuracy and a comprehensive validation process. It ensures that companies sending complex and high-volume emails avoid deliverability issues. Along with email verification, it provides additional data to enhance your segmentation and targeting efforts. It can also give an in-depth activity level scoring on the emails on your list. 

Highlights: 

• Bulk list cleaning: Efficiently removes invalid or risky email addresses from your list. 

• DMARC Monitor: Continuously tracks DMARC reports to ensure the domain is protected against email spoofing and phishing attacks. 

• Blacklist Monitor: Check your IP and domain to ensure they are not listed on any blacklists, protecting your sender's reputation. 

• Inbox Placement Testing: Tests and optimizes your email campaigns to ensure they land in the recipient's primary inbox. 

• Email Server Testing: Evaluate the performance and security of your email servers that can affect your campaign and server performance to ensure reliable and secure email delivery. 

7. NeverBounce 

NeverBounce is an email verification and list-cleaning tool designed to improve your email marketing campaigns. It ensures your emails reach the right inboxes, reducing bounce rates and improving deliverability, with a commitment to delivering accurate and reliable results. NeverBounce maintains a healthy clean email list, with: 

• Seamless integration capabilities

• Bulk email verification

• Automated list cleaning

Highlights: 

• Bulk List Cleaning: Process large volumes of email addresses quickly and efficiently, removing invalid, duplicate, and disposable addresses. 

• Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with popular email platforms like Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Marketo for a streamlined workflow. 

• Comprehensive Reporting: Get valuable insights with detailed reports on your email list's health, helping you make informed decisions about optimizing your campaigns. 

• API access allows developers to embed powerful email verification directly into their apps, ensuring real-time accuracy and effortlessly improving data quality. 

8. GlockApps

GlockApps offers a comprehensive and detailed suite by checking your IPs against more than 50 of the most common industry blacklists for:

• Spam tracking

• Monitoring your sender's reputation

• Inbox placement

• Blacklisting status

It identifies the origin of malicious activity and initiates the delisting process to protect your sender's reputation from potential harm. 

Highlights: 

• Blacklist Monitoring: Continuously monitor your IP and domain against major blacklists. 

• Inbox Placement Test: Analyze where your emails are landing:

  • Inbox

  • Spam

  • Promotions

• Spam Filter Testing: Test emails against popular spam filters to identify potential issues. 

• Deliverability Alerts: Receive real-time notifications about any deliverability problems. 

9. Mxtoolbox

Mxtoolbox is a reliable and comprehensive solution. Its adaptive blacklist monitoring feature completely analyses the: 

• Blacklist the reputation of every email-sending source

• Regularly monitors it

• Sends immediate alerts in case of any reputation-based changes

This tool autodetects when senders change their IP address and offers real-time adaption for blacklist monitoring when new senders are added, ensuring high deliverability. 

Highlights: 

• Real-time Monitoring: Instantly alerts you if your domain is listed on any of over 100 blacklists. 

• Detailed Reporting: Provides in-depth reports on your domain’s status with actionable insights. 

• Customizable Searches: Allows you to tailor monitoring preferences to specific blacklists relevant to your needs. 

10. SpamCheck by Postmark

SpamCheck by Postmark is designed to help users evaluate the likelihood of their emails being flagged as spam. Giving users a comprehensive understanding of what might be affecting their email deliverability, it examines factors such as: 

• The email's content

• Headers

• HTML structure

Postmark also offers other features that help with better campaign performance such as: 

• SMTP service

• Blacklist monitoring

• Email delivery, and more

Highlights: 

• Spam Filter Testing: Postmark checks your emails against major spam filters to ensure they pass through smoothly. 

• Blacklist Monitoring: Continuously monitors your IP and domain against blacklists, alerting you to any issues. 

• Real-Time Analytics: Provides instant feedback on email deliverability, helping you address problems immediately. 

• Domain Reputation Management: Maintains a high sender reputation by monitoring and managing your domain’s health. 

11. MailGenius

MailGenius is an excellent tool for spam testing, thoroughly analyzing your email's deliverability. It ensures: 

• The SPF record meets best practices

• Verifies if the email is properly signed with DKIM

• Ensures DMARC is properly implemented and matches other settings preventing it from being flagged as spam

Highlights: 

• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Validation: This process verifies that email authentication protocols are properly configured, ensuring that recipient servers trust your emails. 

• Comprehensive Spam Testing: Analyzes your emails against multiple spam filters to identify potential deliverability issues. 

• Detailed Scoring: Provides a clear score indicating how likely your email is to reach the inbox, along with explanations for any deductions. 

• Domain and IP Reputation Check: Evaluate the reputation of your sending domain and IP address to ensure they are not negatively impacting your email deliverability. 

12. Google’s Postmaster

A positive sender reputation leads to higher deliverability rates, and Google's Postmaster tool helps with that. This tool will help you assess your reputation with an easy-to-read graph. Based on different engagement metrics, it generates a reputation score and places it into one of these four categories: 

• High

• Medium

• Low

• Bad 

A high score indicates the best chance of inbox delivery, while a bad score indicates the risk of being blacklisted. 

Highlights: 

• Domain and IP Reputation Monitoring: Google Postmaster provides detailed insights into the reputation of your sending domain and IP address. 

• Spam Rate Tracking: This feature tracks the percentage of your emails that recipients mark as spam, allowing you to monitor and improve email content and delivery practices. 

• Feedback Loop (FBL) Reports: Postmaster offers: 

• Feedback loop reports

• Showing how recipients interact with your emails, including:

  • Spam complaints 

  • Other user feedback

• Authentication Performance: It monitors the success rates of email authentication protocols ensuring your emails are properly authenticated like: 

  • SPF

  • DKIM

  • DMARC

13. EmailConsul

EmailConsul offers detailed insights and metrics to help troubleshoot and manage sender reputation effectively. This includes: 

• Data on DNS blocklists

• Sender reputation scores

• Seed testing results

The tool provides proactive alerts to notify users of any issues before they affect deliverability, allowing for timely interventions 

Highlights: 

• Comprehensive Email Monitoring: Including: 

1. Bounce rates

2. Spam complaints

3. Engagement metrics to ensure optimal deliverability

• Sender Reputation Management: To evaluate your sender reputation, providing actionable insights to maintain high deliverability and avoid blacklisting. 

• Authentication Protocol Analysis: Checks for email authentication protocols ensuring compliance and enhancing email security like: 

1. SPF

2. DKIM

3. DMARC

14. Folderly

Folderly specializes in inbox placement by analyzing and optimizing your email-sending practices to ensure your messages land in the primary inbox rather than being filtered into spam or promotional folders. It offers dailed insights into factors that affect inbox placement, such as: 

• Sender reputation

• Email content

• Domain health

Highlights: 

• Inbox Placement Optimization: Analyze and improve the placement of your emails in the primary inbox. 

• Domain Warm-Up: Gradually build and maintain a positive sender reputation for new domains. 

• Deliverability Audit: Conduct a comprehensive audit of your email practices to identify areas for improvement. 

• Actionable Insights: Receive clear, data-driven recommendations to enhance your email deliverability.

15. Litmus

Litmus performs detailed checks, including validation of authentication records and evaluation across major spam filters. This helps identify and resolve potential deliverability issues before sending emails​. Although Litmus excels in pre-send testing, it does not offer post-send inbox placement or continuous monitoring services. The focus remains on ensuring that emails are optimized for deliverability before they are sent. 

Highlights: 

• Email Rendering Preview: Ensure your email displays perfectly across various clients and devices. 

• Inbox Placement Testing: Optimize and verify the precise inbox location where your emails will be received. 

• Advanced Analytics: Monitor key performance indicators like open rates and engagement metrics. 

• Collaboration Tools: Seamlessly share and review email designs and testing outcomes with your team. 

16. SendForensics

SendForensics is a powerful tool for risk assessment and comprehensive email deliverability analysis. It provides real-time insights into deliverability issues, identifying potential risks before they impact campaigns. With its data-driven approach, SendForensics helps optimize inbox placement, ensuring that emails reach their intended audience. 

Highlights: 

• Deliverability Scoring: SendForensics provides real-time deliverability scoring to assess the likelihood of emails reaching the inbox, helping optimize performance. 

• Preemptive Risk Detection: The tool identifies potential deliverability risks before they impact campaigns, enabling proactive adjustments. 

• Detailed Analytics: Offers comprehensive reporting on email performance, including: 

1. Bounce rates

2. Spam traps

3. Inbox placement

• ISP-Specific Insights: This service provides insights tailored to different internet service providers (ISPs), allowing businesses to optimize email deliverability across various platforms.

17. Proofpoint

Proofpoint is a multi-layered threat detection tool that prevents email threats from reaching any intended inbox. This helps distinguish between phishing emails and legitimate messages, and employees are less likely to need to be trained to do the same. This tool constantly monitors and assesses local and global IP addresses for signs of malicious behavior or compromised block servers. 

Highlights: 

• Email Encryption & Archiving: Prevents email interception and provides secure storage for sensitive messages. 

• Signature-Based Detection: Filters incoming emails by blocking and reporting known threats or suspicious content. 

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): This process scans outgoing emails for sensitive data and triggers alerts if employees leak valuable information. 

• Targeted Attack Protection: Removes malware attachments and sanitizes URL links to prevent malicious threats from reaching inboxes. 

18. Smartlead

Smartlead is an email deliverability tool that offers automated solutions to convert cold email leads to consistent revenue. Smartdelivery will change your entire email marketing game with their: 

• Unlimited email warmup

• Mailboxes

• AI automation

• Webhooks

• Email campaign insights 

Its analytics dashboard provides real-time insights into key performance metrics, such as: 

• Bounce rates

• Unique positive replies

• Spam complaints 

It allows marketers to optimize their outreach strategy in real-time. 

Highlights: 

• Multi-Inbox Management: Smartlead allows users to send emails from multiple inboxes simultaneously, helping distribute sending load and improving email deliverability. 

• Deliverability Insights: Provides real-time metrics for monitoring email performance, with actionable insights to improve future campaigns and ensure optimal engagement. 

• Advanced Automation: From follow-up sequences to list management, Smartlead automates much of the email marketing process using its powerful cold email API and AI automation. 

• Custom Domain and IP Rotation: This feature helps ensure emails are sent from different domains and IPs, reducing the likelihood of emails being marked as spam and improving the sender's reputation. 

• Smartdelivery: This feature will help you access data that are not found anywhere else, like: 

1. Where your emails are landing

2. Get insights from SpamAssassin scores

3. Identify low-performing emails, and more 

19. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a versatile platform that combines powerful email marketing with in-depth risk analysis tools. These tools provide a comprehensive assessment of your email campaigns to help you: 

• Monitor the performance

• Identify potential risks

• Optimize your strategy for better deliverability

Highlights: 

• Email Campaign Reporting: Detailed analytics on open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber engagement help identify what works and doesn't. 

• Compliance Monitoring: Tools to ensure your emails comply with GDPR and other regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of legal issues. 

• Segmentation and Personalization: Advanced segmentation options to: 

1. Target specific groups

2. Improving engagement 

3. Reducing spam complaints

• A/B Testing: Test different versions of your emails to see which performs better. This will allow you to refine your strategy based on data-driven insights. 

20. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a unique marketing platform that uses advanced algorithms to analyze email performance and sender reputation, ensuring optimal campaign results. It provides a dashboard with comprehensive deliverability insights by monitoring key metrics such as: 

• Open rates

• Spam complaints

• Engagement levels

The platform offers real-time reports and actionable insights to optimize future campaigns using industry best practices. 

Highlights: 

• Real-Time Deliverability Tracking: This feature provides real-time insights on email performance, including bounce rates and engagement metrics, allowing users to monitor campaign success instantly. 

• Automated List Hygiene: For identifying and removing inactive or unengaged contacts, improving deliverability. 

• Custom Domain Tracking: Users can personalize tracking domains, enhancing brand consistency and improving deliverability by reducing the likelihood of emails being marked as suspicious. 

21. Validity Everest

After acquiring not one, but three popular email deliverability and verification platforms (Return Path, 250ok, and BriteVerify) in 2020, Validity merged these together. It launched Everest, one of the most compelling deliverability solutions in the market today. Validity Everest is targeted to B2B organizations, with the ability to choose whether to include hosting and filtering providers within seedlists, and have more granular control over how seedlists are weighted. 

Its lowest-level plan includes additional features such as reputation monitoring and email validation. Upgrading to the higher level plan adds: 

• Design testing (allowing you to preview what your emails will look like across various devices)

• Spam tests

• Advanced analytics

Related Reading

• Amazon SES Alternatives
• Cold Email Marketing Services
• Mailreef
• Maildoso Alternatives
• Sendgrid Alternatives
• Smartlead vs Instantly
• Cold Email Services
• Lemlist vs Instantly
• Mailgun Alternatives

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

Inframail: What Is It? 

Inframail is a cold email infrastructure provider that scale their outreach efforts efficiently. It helps: 

• Agencies

• Recruiters

• Sales development representatives 

With Inframails unlimited inboxes at a flat rate, you can forget about traditional email infrastructure providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations. Instead, Inframail streamlines the entire cold email process so you can focus on reaching your outreach goals. 

Benefits of Using Inframail 

Inframail is like having an email nerd on speed dial. You won't need to waste time fumbling through technical documentation to configure your email infrastructure for deliverability with automated setup for: 

• SPF

• DKIM

• DMARC protocols

Inframails dedicated servers for each user and priority support from real experts mean you can scale your outreach efforts without the usual technical headaches.