How to improve deliverability of your iPRO emails

There are many factors that can impact email deliverability and it can be frustrating if you're struggling to reach recipients, reliably. How do you know that you're doing everything you can to ensure optimal deliverability?

Understanding email deliverability

We've collated these articles to provide greater depth on the issue, and various solutions:

Email deliverability: Everything you need to know

How to improve deliverability of transactional emails

How to stop emails going to spam in Gmail?

The last guide is particularly helpful because Gmail is tracking your response rates and open rates - the lower the score, the more likely Gmail will treat the email as spam.

Please note that sending directly from within Gmail is different to sending from an external server like iPRO as you have already passed some of their SPAM scores when you login and send. 

How does iPRO comply with 'deliverability best practice'? 

iPRO's Message Hub transactional email system is authenticated with the three email authentication techniques currently in-use across the internet, namely:

1. Authenticate with DKIM
2. Authenticate with SPF
3. Authenticate with DMARC

What do I need to update within my DNS control panel?

Firstly you will need to ensure you understand how to update your DNS for your service provider i.e. Go Daddy, Site Ground, 123-reg.co.uk  etc...

Here is a useful guide provided by Mailchimp on Email Domain Authentication

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

After you signup with iPRO we will provide you with a DNS TXT record so that you can update your DNS accordingly.

What is a DKIM record?

A DKIM record stores the DKIM public key — a randomized string of characters that is used to verify anything signed with the private key. Email servers query the domain's DNS records to see the DKIM record and view the public key.

A DKIM record is really a DNS TXT ("text") record. TXT records can be used to store any text that a domain administrator wants to associate with their domain. DKIM is one of many uses for this type of DNS record. (In some cases, domains have stored their DKIM records as CNAME records that point to the key instead; however, the official RFC requires these records to be TXT.)

Here is an example of a DKIM DNS TXT record:

DMARC Authentication

What is DMARC?

Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is a method of authenticating email messages. A DMARC policy tells a receiving email server what to do after checking a domain's Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) records, which are additional email authentication methods.

Click here to view the guide on how to setup your DMARC records

N.B. We  recommend skipping the rua part as you will be inundated with delivery reports and it will spam your inbox.

Sender Policy Framework SPF

You will require an SPF recommend that is configured as shown below, please note you may need to add to your SPF record depending on which email marketing software you use.  You can read more on this on Mailchimp.

• The following SPF Record will enable emails only from only our servers
  • v=spf1 mx a include:iproprod.com ~all

• The following SPF Record will enable emails from our servers and GMAIL
  • v=spf1 mx a include:_spf.google.com include:iproprod.com ~all 

• The following SPF Record will enable emails from our servers and OUTLOOK
  • v=spf1 mx a include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:iproprod.com ~all

How can I confirm I have setup my DNS correctly?

Use the MxToolBox Super Tool to validate your settings

SPF record lookup

You will want to see a green success message that shows the SPF record you have setup

DKIM

DMARC

There is only so much that any SaaS provider can do to optimise deliverability. If, by following the advice and guides listed above, you are still struggling with email deliverability, reach out to our team to ask about one-to-one coaching.