I thought it would be helpful for marketers to know what it takes to perform a comprehensive deliverability audit. Even an email marketer with satisfactory sending results should take an hour or so a month to make sure all the checks and balances are in place. If an email marketer finds their open rates dropping and bounce rates rising, a thorough audit can almost certainly right the ship.

Check the delivery report
Delivery reports should be closely monitored for hangups and postponements. All deliverability issues should be handled promptly by first correcting the mailing practice that caused the problem and then contacting the ISP. Most of the time, the contact method is included in the bounce reason.

Do an open rate analysis by domain
Take the time to ensure that the top domains within your mailing list actually open your message. For example, if your mailing list is 15% yahoo.com addresses, but only 3% of your opens are from yahoo members, you may have messages bouncing or going to the bulk folder.

audit complaints
Spam complaints are the biggest cause of delivery problems. By closely monitoring complaints reported through feedback loops, sent to the message return address or sent directly to the abuse mailbox account for the ‘from addresses’ domain, marketers can isolate the source. complaints, take corrective action and prevent further delivery problems. Moving the unsubscribe link to the top of the message content and making it visible can greatly reduce your complaint rate, by up to 75%!

Try the unsubscribe link
Nothing will generate spam complaints faster than a malfunctioning unsubscribe link. A quick test message to a personal account can quickly verify that the unsubscribe process is easy and functional.

Check the SPF record
Many ISPs, large and small, will use Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records to verify that the mail actually came from the sender. SPF records, included in senders’ DNS, have become a key tool in preventing “sender address” forgery. For more information on SPF, visit openspf.org/.

To test the validity of your SPF record you can use the following site: kitterman.com/spf/validate.html

Always check that the SPF record includes the IP address of your mail server.

Send to a custom seed list
Send to email accounts created for testing purposes only. All the big ISPs offer free email accounts, so open one or two accounts per ISP. Send to this address list can provide information about whether the message is going to the inbox, the bulk folder, or is being filtered by the ISP. These test accounts are also a great way to test the rendering of the message and to verify that the “call-to-action” of the message is above the scrollbar fold.

Check your IP address’ SenderScore
Although it is something of a marketing tool for ReturnPath, it does provide a quick analysis of your mail server’s IP address. The score uses various factors to rate the IP from 0 to 100 (with 100 being the best). Low scores can lead to deliverability issues. To find out your IP score and score details, go to senderscore.org/.

Periodically reviewing some or all of the seven tips above will not only help identify deliverability issues, but will also give email marketers a better understanding of the challenges they face when it comes to getting their messages across. the members of your list.