Deliverability Help: Information checklist

When asking a for assistance with email delivery, there are some pieces of information that are required before anyone can help. Be prepared with the information so you can get timely assistance. This advice is true whether you’re looking for help from peers or working with paid deliverability consultants.

What is the problem?

Be very specific about the problem you see. The fix for mail going to the bulk folder can be very different from the fix for a Spamhaus listing. The fix for a Spamhaus DBL listing is going to be different than the fix for a ROKSO listing. The more specific you can be about the problem the more likely people can answer your question.

Bad:

  • I’m having a delivery problem.
  • None of my mail is delivering.
  • I need delivery help.

Better:

  • My mail is going to spam.
  • My IP address is listed on the SBL.
  • ISP is deferring my mail.

Where are you seeing this?

It’s important to be specific about where the problem is happening. Are you actually having mail problems? Or did you drop your IP or sending domain into a webpage that came back and told you that it was listed somewhere?

Bad:

  • My mail is blacklisted
  • We’re being blocked

Better:

  •  toolname is telling me that our IP is listed on blocklist
  • My delivery reports show that ISP is deferring mail from our IP address
  • We’re not getting any opens at ISP and my tests show mail from our domain is going to the bulk folder.

When did this start?

Many delivery problems are transient and will come and go in a matter of hours. Once the delivery problem is gone, it’s difficult to troubleshoot it. Waiting a few hours or even overnight will make it clear if this is something transient or if it’s the start of a real problem. Jumping at every little delivery problem is exhausting.

On the other hand, if a delivery problem goes on for a few days it’s unlikely to self resolve. You don’t want to let problems fester for weeks or months. The longer a delivery problem goes on the longer it’s going to take to repair any reputation damage.

Bad:

  • Worrying about delivery problems in the first few moments after sending mail
  • Waiting more than a year before addressing delivery problems.

Better:

  • Giving mail 12 – 24 hours before looking at delivery.
  • Monitoring delivery on an ongoing basis and addressing things within a few weeks of the first sign of problems.

Know your mail

Every, and I do mean EVERY, delivery person should know how to check headers and should be at a minimum able to identify the headers used in authentication. (the description I’ve been meaning to write but haven’t yet). The really easy way to do it is grab the information out of your gmail inbox. Gmail provides an easy to read interface into headers that shows exactly what they’re seeing in terms of SPF, DKIM and DMARC. There’s also a handy “how long it took mail to get from the google.com mail servers into the users’s inbox” counter – letting you know if problems are on the sending or the receiving end.

Knowing your mail includes knowing what you’re using as a mail from (5321.from, bounce string). Is it your domain or the ESP’s domain? Are you signing with DKIM? What’s the from address your recipients see?

Do you know if you’re sending from a dedicated IP? A shared pool? Are you using an ESP, a mail relay service or are you sending out over self hosted servers?

One of the big use cases here is Google Postmaster Tools. Many senders are confused because they are seeing DKIM passing but SPF failing, only to discover that the domain authenticated by SPF is actually the ESP domain, not theirs.

Anyone answering questions is going to need to know the following information. And, yes, you’re probably going to have to share the actual IP address and domain if you really want folks to help.

Collect the information:

  • Sending IP
  • Pool type (shared or dedicated IP)
  • 5321.from
  • 5322.from
  • d= value
  • ESP or MTA
  • Email address sources (including those of less than squeaky clean provenance)
  • Frequency of mailing
  • How long the IP has been in use
  • Age of domain

How we help

These days there are very few magic wands to fix delivery problems, whether you’re peer sourcing delivery help or working with a paid professional. Anyone helping you troubleshoot and fix delivery problems needs to know the who, what, when, and where in order to understand the why. Only once they understand they why, can they help you with the how to fix it.

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Predictions for 2008

I did not have a lot of predictions for what will happen with email at the beginning of the year so I did not do a traditional beginning of the year post. Over the last 3 – 4 weeks, though, I have noticed some things that I think show where the industry is going.
Authentication. In January two announcements happened that lead me to believe most legitimate mail will be DK/DKIM signed by the end of the year. AOTA announced that approximately 50% of all email was currently authenticated. They did not separate out SPF/SenderID authentication from DK/DKIM authentication, but this still suggests email authentication is being widely adopted. AOL announced they will be checking DKIM on their inbound mail. I expect more and more email will be DKIM signed in response to this announcement.
Filtering. The end of 2007 marked a steady uptick in mail being filtered or blocked by recipient domains. I expect this trend to continue throughout 2008. Recipient domains are rolling out new technology to measure complaints, evaluate reputation and monitor unwanted email in ways that tease out the bad actors from the good. This means more bad and borderline email will be blocked. Over the short term, I expect to see more good email blocked, too, but expect this will resolve itself by Q2/Q3.
Sender Improvements. As the ISPs get better at filtering, I expect that many borderline senders will discover they cannot continue to have sloppy subscription practices and still get their mail delivered. Improved authentication and better filtering let ISPs pin-point blocks. Instead of having to block by IP or by domain, they can block only some mail from a domain, or only some mail from an IP. There are a number of senders who are sending mail that users do not want mixed with mail that recipients do want. Right now, if there is more mail that recipients want in that mix, then ISPs let the mail through. This will not continue to happen through 2008. Senders will need to send mail users actively want in order to see good delivery.
Less is more. A lot of other email bloggers have talked about this, and I will echo their predictions. Less email is more. Send relevant mail that your customers want. Target, target, target. Good mailers will not send offers to their entire database, instead they will send mail to a select portion of their database.
Feedback loops. Use of feedback loops by recipient domains will continue to grow.
Mobile email. More recipients will be receiving email on mobile devices.
Suggestions for 2008

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Thinking about filters

Much of the current deliverability advice focuses on a few key ideas:

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Tools aren’t a luxury

I was on the phone with a colleague recently. They were talking about collecting a bit of data over the weekend and mentioned how great it was they had the tools to be able to do this. Coincidentally, another colleague mentioned that when the subscription bombing happened they were able to react quickly because they had a decent tool chain. I’ve also been working with some clients who are dealing with compliance issues but don’t have the tools they need.

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