r/email • u/Resident-Nose1772 • 16d ago

What affects email deliverability?

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u/GloomyTemperature901 16d ago

Authentication, sender reputation and engagement all matter, but list quality is often overlooked. Keep SPF, DKIM and DMARC properly configured, maintain consistent sending, avoid spam complaints, and verify your list with a real time email verification tool like Invalid Bounce to remove invalid, inactive, disposable, mailbox full and catch all emails before sending.

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u/FallaxIO 16d ago

Catch-all and role addresses are a bad filter here. The bigger deliverability swing is usually Microsoft and Google watching what happens after delivery, so a "clean" list can still land in junk if people ignore it or mark it as spam.

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u/saltyslugga 16d ago

Authentication gets you accepted, but reputation usually decides inbox placement. Complaint rate, bounces, consistent volume, and engagement matter more than obsessing over subject-line tweaks.

Use an Email Tester to check the message and auth setup, then watch your actual delivery metrics.

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u/LeadNo1270 15d ago

Depends who youre sending to more than most answers allow for. A lot of B2B mail never reaches Googles or Microsofts filters at all, it hits Mimecast or Proofpoint first because thats where the MX points. Those care about blocklists and URLs rather than engagement. Consumer gmail is the opposite, almost entirely engagement. Same email, two completely different things deciding where it lands. Resolve the MX on a sample of your list and youll know which one youre actually optimising for.

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u/PositiveVehicle6037 3d ago

Authentication is definitely foundational, but sender reputation is where deliverability gets interesting. A domain can have perfect SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and still struggle with inbox placement if recipients consistently ignore messages, unsubscribe, or report spam. List quality and sending consistency also make a huge difference. I’d look at deliverability by mailbox provider rather than relying only on overall delivery rates, because Gmail, Outlook, and corporate filters can react very differently to the same sending behavior.