We have compiled a list of common deliverability terms below.
What is Email Deliverability?
Put simply, deliverability is how successfully your marketing emails reach subscribers’ inboxes. Sounds easy enough, but in fact there are many contributing factors that impact deliverability such as list quality, subscriber engagement, a subscriber’s spam filters, and the content within the email. Optimal deliverability rates are 98% or higher; unfortunately, many marketers are seeing far lower numbers.
So, why does this matter? Think about it: a smaller number of delivered emails means lower open and
click-through rates, and low engagement has negative effects for acquisition, retention, and overall revenue and success for the business. (Source: Maropost)
Businesses depend on email, and it's important to keep up to speed on concepts pertaining to deliverability. Mailbox providers have gotten smarter and more complex when it comes to filtering emails and placing them in the inbox. Being up to date on terminology and concepts means you can shift sending strategies to focus on key concepts and be able to achieve the best deliverability possible.
Glossary of Terms
A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - L - M - O - P - R - S - T - U - W
A
A Record
A type of record that maps a domain name to the IP address hosting the domain.
Anti-Spam
Using software and back-end processes to block spam from entering a system or domain.
Average Open Rate
Average open rate is the percentage of email recipients that open an email message from a sender.
Authentication
Authentication is the process of attempting to verify the digital identity of the sender of a communication. There are three main types of email authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
B
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)
A type of DNS record that is used to display a company logo inside an email inbox.
Block
This occurs when a message is rejected by the recipient domain without first attempting to deliver to the inbox.
Blocklist
A list of IP addresses and domains that have been reported and listed as known sources of spam. There are public and private blacklists. Public blacklists are published and made available to the public, either as a free service or for a fee. There are hundreds of well-known public blacklists. Being listed on a blacklist can have a serious negative impact to email reputation and deliverability.
Block
Many mailbox providers block email from IP addresses or domains that have been reported to send spam or viruses, or have content that violates email policy or spam filters.
Bots
Malicious emails and procedures used by hackers to flood forms with email traffic, mark emails as spam, and cause delivery issues due to non legitimate emails being put into sender lists.
Bounce Rate (Hard & Soft)
Indicates the percentage of emails not delivered due to an issue with the recipient’s email address server. A hard bounce is a permanent bounce that occurs when an email account is no longer valid, while a soft bounce occurs due to a server issue and is typically temporary.
C
Call to Action (CTA)
A phrase aimed to prompt email viewers to do something, whether it’s to view a web page, activate a deal or start the purchase process. Increased engagement within emails can improve a brand’s sender reputation, and therefore, deliverability.
CAN-SPAM Act
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email sending in the United States.
CASL
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, the federal law that controls and is in charge of regulating and preventing spam and other various election threads. To be compliant, one must obtain consent, provide identification information and also an unsubscribe procedure.
CCPA
California's Consumer Privacy Act, which gives California consumers new privacy rights and control over personal data that businesses can collect from them. Included are the rights to opt-out of the sale of personal information, their right to know about what information a business collects, and how it is used and shared - among others.
Click to Open Rate (CTOR)
A metric that measures the effectiveness of your email's content. It is calculated by the number of unique clicks divided by the number of unique opens.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
A ratio that compares how many people click a specific link to the number of total users that view a webpage or email. It's used as a metric to measure the success of a marketing campaign.
Clipping
This occurs when an email is sent that exceeds a file size, and at which point the email mail is "clipped," and requires the user to click on a prompt to see the full message.
CNAME
A record used to create and map an alias from one domain to another. They are typically used to map a subdomain (such as mail. for example) to the domain being hosted.
Confirmed Opt-In (COI)
Also known as Double-opt in (DOI). A process for confirming that recipients want your email. Involves recipients confirming their subscription via a form, email, clicking a link, or other means.
Consent
A recipient opting in to receiving communications. They are giving their permission to be contacted by the sender.
D
Dedicated IP
A static IP address that is only used to send email on behalf of one sender/company/brand, which is responsible for the content of all the messages sent from that IP. If a client opts to choose a dedicated IP, the client owns the responsibility to maintaining their IP reputation, and establishing themselves as a trustworthy, spam-free sender.
Deferral
This occurs when messages are held up at the domain level for a period of time, before being accepted and routed for delivery - or rejected.
Deliverability
Deliverability is the measurement of email success in reaching a contacts inbox. Calculated by dividing the volume of emails delivered by the volume of emails sent. Overall email deliverability is impacted by many factors, including list quality, domain reputation, content, and identification as spam via complaints. Because there are so many factors, improving deliverability is a constant goal. Staying on top of best practices will help you achieve goals more efficiently and consistently. Note: “delivered” doesn’t necessarily mean your email hit the inbox—just that it was accepted by the receiving server and wasn’t bounced or rejected.
Delivery
Delivery tells you whether or not your emails were received by the servers of your subscribers inbox providers. An email counts as delivered if it did not bounce. It does not take into account other details (placement for example) - that is where deliverability comes in.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
An authentication piece which supports transparency by identifying the sender of a message, and providing a "signature" by way of a key that verifies the sender as legitimate and allows ESPs to send their behalf.
DMARC (Domain Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance)
An email authentication/policy/reporting protocol that is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use. There are three policies that a domain administrator can implement (none, quarantine, reject) - and mail will be filtered or blocked based on the policy and the level of authentication.
DNS (Domain Name System)
The Internet's system for converting alphabetic names into numeric IP addresses. For example, when a URL address is typed into a web browser, DNS servers return the IP address of the Web server associated with that name.
Domain Authentication
Domain authentication is a process that allows a sender to mask SendGrid as your relay point in all of your emails and replace it with your domain. This can be accomplished with the addition of DNS records and can lead to a better sending reputation and more consistent inbox delivery.
Domain Reputation
Domain reputation is the overall health of your branded domain as interpreted by mailbox providers. This reputation is determined by various factors such as engagement, spam complaint rates, spam traps, bounce rates, and your sending history.
E
Email Click Rate
Email click rate is the percentage of people who click on an email link after receiving an email campaign. Email click rates measure the immediate response rate of an email, and are often used as the primary conversion metric for a campaign.
Email Harvesting
The process of obtaining lists of email addresses from various sources in order to send illegitimate bulk email campaigns.
Email Service Providers (ESPs)
An email service provider (ESP) is a company that handles email sending for its clients. SendGrid is an email service provider.
Engagement
The various ways in which a contact interacts with your emails - opens, clicks, and responses to name a few. Engagement is a key tenet of deliverability, and is crucial to keeping sender reputation high.
F
Feedback Loop
A service offered by mailbox providers that offers insight into complaints. For mailbox providers, a feedback loop provides signals from subscribers to determine what is wanted email versus unwanted. For senders, feedback loops provide a way to identify and remove subscribers who complain about email they receive via the “This is Junk/Spam” button. Senders must sign up for feedback loops with each mailbox provider that offers this service.
From Domain
The domain used when setting up a From Email Address. When setting up a new Sender in your SendGrid account, you will create a From Name and From Email Address.
G
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation, a regulation on data protection and privacy standards in the EU. It requires businesses to protect personal data and privacy of citizens for transactions and communications that occur between the member states of the European Union.
H
Hard Bounce
A permanent error. Occurs when the address/domain doesn't exist at all. This can be caused by anything from typos to deleted user accounts. If you receive a hard bounce, immediately removing them from your list is the best course of action, as a hard bounce indicates a permanent reason that an email cant be delivered and that this address should not be mailed to in the future. Typically, hard bounced emails can
be identified with a 500 series SMTP reply code.
Header
Contains identifying routing information of the message, including the sender, recipient, date and subject. Reviewing email headers and source code can help identify potential delays, issues, or reasons for mail not being delivered.
Honeypot
Inactive email addresses set up specifically to catch spammers. These emails are not used by real people and therefore never opted-in to any email campaigns. So if a sender tries to send to these addresses, they will be flagged.
HTML
A language used by email coders. Clean, uncluttered HTML can help lower the chances of an email ending up in spam.
I
Inactive Subscriber
A contact within an email list who has not opened or engaged with an email for an extended period of time.
Inbox Placement Rate
Inbox placement rate is the key email deliverability metric, which measures what percentage of sent emails reach the recipients’ Inboxes.
Inbox placement rate = Inbox placements / total email sent
Inbox placement rate is often seen as more accurate and pertinent than the classic deliverability rate.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
Companies that provide access to the internet to both personal and business customers. Oftentimes, these providers also provide email inboxes to their customers as part of their service. Verizon Media and Comcast are examples of ISPs.
IP Address
A unique string of characters that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over a network. It is used to distinguish senders, websites, etc. and allow the transfer of information between addresses.
IP Block
Blocks and listings that occur on a specific IP.
IP Reputation
Based on various metrics a mailbox provider has historically seen from that IP address and how users engage with mail that originates from it, both positively and negatively.
L
Landing Page
Where a person ends up after clicking on a link in an email. If a landing page is irrelevant or does not reflect what a CTA promises, it may frustrate recipients and reduce their engagement in the future.
LGPD
General Law for Personal Data Protection, a law that is applicable to companies and individuals who use personal information belonging to Brazilians located in Brazil at the time the data is gathered. The law considers any information related to a person as personal data. Actions that can be performed with personal data - such as collecting, accessing, or distributing - must have a legal basis such as consent or legitimate interest order to be in compliance. Learn about the specifics of the LGPD.
List
Contact or mailing list of all email subscribers. An important factor in determining deliverability, as poor list health (i.e. inactive subscribers, invalid email addresses, etc.) can impact sender reputation.
List Hygiene
This is a process where you remove inactive, bounced, and other non-engaging email addresses from your lists on a consistent basis. Keeping subscribers on your email list who have no interest reduces your deliverability rates.
M
Mailbox Providers
Companies who offer email inboxes for their customers and consumers. The level of sophistication in regards to filtering is more comprehensive as opposed to ISPs. Gmail and Hotmail are examples of mailbox providers.
Mail Exchange Record (MX)
This record includes the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain name.
Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
Software that transfers electronic mail messages from one destination to another.
O
Open Rate
The percentage of subscribers who opened an email out of the total number of subscribers that received it.
Opt-In
When a person subscribes to an email list or explicitly gives a brand permission to send them emails.
Opt-Out
When a recipient opts out, it means they no longer wish to receive communications from a specific sender. In many cases, opting out involves clicking the unsubscribe link in an email and therefore being added to an exclusion list.
P
Personalization
Creating different content targeted at different segments of an email contact list. Personalized email communications lead to better engagement.
Phishing
Sending fraudulent emails under the guise of pretending to be a reputable company and sender. These emails are used to target and obtain an individual's personal information.
Postmaster
The persons or entities responsible for managing a specific domain as it relates to support requests - such as block removals and various deliverability issues.
Pristine Spam Trap
Also sometimes called “honeypots,” these are addresses/domains that were created for the sole purpose of existing online anonymously and have never actively signed up to receive email. Pristine traps most commonly end up on mailing lists when senders purchase, rent, or scrape addresses
R
Recycled Spam Trap
These are addresses that used to be actual users that have since abandoned or closed the email accounts. ISPs and other filtering companies obtain control of these addresses to collect data on companies that continue to mail to unengaged users. Large amounts of recycled traps alludes to opportunities in list hygiene.
Responsiveness
The ability for an email to reformat for different screen sizes (mobile phone, tablet, computer, etc.).
Return Path
An email header that indicates where and how bounced emails will be processed.
S
Safelist
Lists or filters that your recipients can create in their respective email clients. When a sender is added to a safe sender list, their emails are more likely to be delivered to the inbox. This also helps ensure that recipients won't miss future messages that they opted into receiving.
Segmentation
A way of separating your contact lists - it is recommended to split lists into active and inactive segments. Active refers to those who have opened or interacted with an email in the last 60-90 days. Inactive refers to recipients with little to no activity historically since sending to them.
Sender-ID
A now deprecated authentication protocol designed to protect against exploits such as phishing and domain spoofing.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
TXT records on your domain that authorize certain servers to send mail using your domain name.
Sending Domain
The brand/domain a person or company has purchased for themselves or their business to use for email marketing.
Sender Reputation
A brand’s standing in the eyes of ISPs and email monitoring groups, impacted by spam complaints.
Shared IP
An IP that has many different senders (i.e. Hotels/Properties) using it simultaneously. It is important to monitor the health and reputation of Shared IPs, because if one sender does something problematic, it can negatively impact the whole lot. If a client opts to use our Cendyn Shared IP, it means that Cendyn has monitored reputation and the client does not have to worry about sending specific volume of emails, etc.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
The process used to transfer and send email over the internet.
Single Opt-In (SOI)
The process of a recipient indicating that they wish to receive the messages from a particular sender. This can be done via forms, emails, and other means.
Soft Bounce
Indicates that an email cannot be delivered to the recipient due to temporary failures such as: a full mailbox, a connection problem, a technical issue at the mailbox provider, or deferral of the connecting IP by the mailbox provider due to volume thresholds and other various factors.
Spam
Unsolicited emails. An email might be deemed spam officially, by rules set in the CAN-SPAM Act, or marked as spam from a recipient.
Spam Complaints
An action taken by the end user to report your email as spam, this is done by hitting the "mark as spam" button in your respective email client. These are reported to providers and ESPs; if you have a high spam complaint rate (over 0.10%), your sender reputation can come down which can lead to deliverability issues.
Spam Placement
Emails being routed to spam folders for recipients. This can be for a variety of reasons, but mostly centers around sender reputation and content.
Spam Trap
Spam traps are email addresses that don’t belong to active users and are used to identify both spammers and senders with poor data quality practices. Mailbox providers, filtering companies, and blacklist administrators create and manage spam trap networks to monitor email received at these addresses. Spam traps can be either recycled or pristine.
Spear Phishing
An effort to target a small group or specific individual to gain information or access. Pretending to be a bank in an email sent just to a person with that bank is an example of spear phishing.
Spoofing
A tactic used by spammers in which they falsely identify themselves as a means to acquire access to a system to steal data, spread malware, and can be used through various forms such as IPs, emails, and text messages.
SPF Domain
As part of the authentication process, you must create a subdomain (such as email.yourdomain.com) which is used for click and open tracking as well as in the Return-Path email header. SPF uses the domain value in the Return-Path header for the DNS lookup to determine the permitted senders for the domain.
Subdomain
An extension of a base domain. Subdomains are useful in terms of deliverability, as they can be used to isolate mail streams from one another for both branding and reputation purposes.
Subject Line
The headline of an email that appears in an inbox before a subscriber opens it.
Suppression
The automated process of contacts being removed from your lists due to reasons such as an invalid email, too many soft bounces for a particular contact, or the contact has unsubscribed. Contacts who are suppressed are added to an exclusion list.
T
Throttling
Controlling the amount of email messages sent to a mailbox provider at one time. Sometimes providers will throttle messages when there is a large amount of volume originating from one sender because they may be concerned about potential spam.
Transactional Email
Functional emails sent to users after a certain action takes place on a platform, app, or website. Types of transactional emails can include password resets, purchase receipts, and email verifications.
TXT Record
A type of DNS record that contains text information for sources outside of your domain. You add these records to your domain settings. You can use TXT records for various purposes. For example, Google uses them to verify domain ownership and to ensure email security.
Typo Trap
An email address with a misspelled domain name, used to catch senders who have poor list hygiene practices.
U
Unsubscribe
When emails are no longer relevant or important to a contact, they can unsubscribe to cancel their subscription to the list or service. In some countries, the law requires all emails sent to a mailing list to include an unsubscribe button or a similar functionality.
W
Warm Up
The process of starting with smaller sending volumes and scaling up over time to help build sending history and reputation. A usual warm up will take about 30 days on average.
Whale Phishing
Targeting a group or company to gain sensitive information by imitating a key stakeholder at the company. Pretending to be the CEO and asking to have money transferred from one business account to another is an example of whale phishing.
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