Email Checker Tools, Statistics, and Tips to Monitor Your Sending Reputation

Introduction

At Twilio SendGrid, we understand the importance of maintaining a strong email reputation, also known as your sending reputation. Your reputation is determined by how subscribers react to your emails, and it plays a crucial role in whether your messages reach their intended recipients’ inboxes or end up in the spam folder. In this article, we will explore various tools, statistics, and tips that can help you monitor and understand your sending reputation better.

Why is Sending Reputation Important?

Your sending reputation directly impacts the deliverability of your emails. If your email outreach generates a high number of spam complaints, it can harm your reputation and make it difficult for your future messages to reach subscribers’ inboxes. On the other hand, when recipients engage positively with your emails, such as opening, clicking, and not marking them as spam, your sending reputation improves. This, in turn, increases the chances of your future messages reaching the inbox.

According to the Data & Marketing Association’s 2020 Consumer Email Tracker Report, only 58% of users check the spam folder of their personal inbox daily, while 95% of users check their general inbox daily. This signifies the importance of maintaining a good sending reputation to ensure that your emails are delivered to the intended recipients’ primary inboxes.

Understanding Email Reputation

Email reputation refers to the evaluation and monitoring of the reputation of your email domain and IP addresses from which you send emails. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and email services use this reputation to determine how they handle your emails. Your email reputation can determine whether your emails are delivered to the recipient’s inbox, land in the spam folder, or get blocked entirely.

Your email reputation, often referred to as sender reputation, can be compared to a credit score for your email sending practices. It is based on several factors, including:

1. Volume of emails sent: Sending large volumes of emails in short periods, inconsistent with your usual sending patterns, can affect your reputation.
2. Bounce rates: High rates of bounced emails, which fail to reach recipients, can harm your reputation.
3. Complaint rates: The rate at which recipients mark your emails as spam.
4. Engagement: Recipients’ interactions with your emails, including open rates, click-through rates, and whether they delete the email without opening it.
5. Blocklists: Being listed on one or more email blocklists, which track domains and IP addresses known for sending spam, can severely damage your sender reputation.

While there is no universal sender score used by all mailbox providers, there are third-party and mailbox-specific tools that can help you evaluate your email reputation and understand how mailbox providers might perceive your messages.

Monitoring and Checking Your Email Reputation

To monitor and check your email reputation, you can utilize various tools that provide insights into your sending practices and reputation. These tools can help you identify any reputation challenges and take proactive steps to address them. Here are some popular tools:

1. Validity’s Sender Score

Validity’s Sender Score is a free email reputation measurement tool that operates similarly to a credit score. It reflects your sending reputation on a scale from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating a better reputation and improved email deliverability. The Sender Score is calculated based on a rolling 30-day average and compares your IP address’s ranking to others.

2. Barracuda Networks Reputation System

Barracuda Networks offers an IP and domain reputation lookup service through its Reputation System. This real-time database provides ratings for IP addresses, categorizing them as either “poor” or “good.” By using this service, you can check your domain’s IP score to determine whether your emails are likely to be perceived as legitimate or spam.

3. McAfee

McAfee offers a service for looking up information on your domain’s email and web reputations. Depending on the product you choose, you can access data about your domain’s history, associations, the domain name system, and mail server. This information can help you gain insights into how your sending practices may be perceived by email providers and security systems.

4. Google Postmaster Tools

Google’s Postmaster Tools is a service that helps senders track data on high-volume email batches sent to user Gmail accounts. This tool provides insights into your IP and domain reputation, feedback loops, and specific delivery errors. By utilizing Google’s Postmaster Tools, you can better understand how Gmail treats your emails and take necessary actions to improve your reputation.

5. Microsoft Smart Network Data Services (SNDS)

Microsoft’s Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) offers a service similar to Google’s Postmaster Tools. SNDS provides insights into your spam complaint rate, IP sending reputation, and the number of deliveries to Microsoft spam traps. By monitoring these data points, you can identify any reputation issues affecting your email deliverability to Microsoft accounts.

6. MXToolbox

MXToolbox offers a specific tool for checking if your domain or IP address is listed on any email blocklists. Being listed on a blocklist can significantly impact your email deliverability, as some email providers use these lists to filter incoming emails. By regularly checking for blocklist listings and taking appropriate actions to address them, you can maintain a good sending reputation.

7. Spamhaus Project

The Spamhaus Project is an international organization that tracks spam and related cyber threats. They offer several DNS-based blocklists (DNSBLs) widely used by ISPs and email servers to filter out harmful or unwanted content. Regularly checking if your IP or domain is listed on a Spamhaus blocklist can provide insights into potential issues affecting your email deliverability.

8. Talos Intelligence

Talos Intelligence, a service by Cisco, offers a reputation lookup tool that allows users to check the reputation of their IP address or domain. Talos has a vast database of threat intelligence, and being flagged in their system can affect your email deliverability. Their tools provide detailed reports and scores, giving you a clear picture of how your sending practices may be perceived by email providers and security systems.

By utilizing these tools, you can gather valuable information about your email reputation and identify any areas that need improvement. However, it’s important to note that relying solely on these scores may not give you the complete picture. It’s essential to consider other data points and follow best practices to maintain a good sending reputation.

Monitoring Your Statistics

Your email statistics can provide valuable insights into the overall trend of your reputation. By analyzing these statistics, you can identify any existing or potential reputation degradation. Here are some tips for monitoring your statistics:

1. Consider how your statistics trend over time. Decreasing open rates or increasing spam complaint rates can be reliable indicators of reputation degradation, while improvements in deliveries or open rates indicate an improvement in your sending reputation. It can be helpful to monitor these changes on a domain-by-domain basis to identify reputation issues unique to specific providers.

2. Watch for increases in denylisting events. Denylisting refers to when your IP, domain, or both are added to a denylist, which can impact your email deliverability. While not all denylists significantly impact delivery rates, an increase in denylisting events can indicate a decline in your sending reputation. Utilize free tools to monitor denylistings and take appropriate actions if needed.

3. Send test emails to multiple addresses at different mailbox providers. Observing how your emails land in your inboxes or spam folders can provide insights into the perception of your reputation. If your messages consistently land in the spam folder, consider conducting an email deliverability test by positively engaging with them and returning them to your inbox.

By keeping a close eye on your statistics and monitoring any changes, you can proactively identify and address reputation issues before they significantly impact your email deliverability.

Proactive Reputation Management

While monitoring and checking your email reputation is crucial, it’s equally important to proactively manage your reputation. By following email best practices and utilizing the right tools, you can maintain a strong sending reputation. Here are some proactive measures you can take:

1. Utilize SendGrid’s email testing tool to catch errors before sending your emails, ensuring that they are error-free and have a higher chance of reaching the inbox.

2. Use SendGrid’s spam score checker to analyze your emails and identify any spammy-looking content that might trigger spam filters. This tool can also run your email through popular spam-check platforms to predict how your content will perform.

3. Run your emails through SendGrid’s link checker to ensure that your messages don’t contain broken links or links that lead to the wrong place. This tool can also provide recommendations if your links direct to sites with poor domain reputation or too many redirects.

4. Make use of SendGrid’s inbox render test to visualize how your email appears across different clients, browsers, and devices. This ensures that your message looks great, regardless of where the recipient opens it.

5. Validate email addresses using SendGrid’s real-time email address validation API. By validating email addresses before sending, you can reduce bounce rates and improve your sending reputation with mailbox providers.

6. Take advantage of SendGrid’s deliverability insights to monitor and improve your entire email program. This tool provides a single dashboard that gives you actionable insights and enables you to understand your email performance at a glance.

By incorporating these proactive measures into your email practices, you can effectively manage your sending reputation and increase your email deliverability rates.

Conclusion

Monitoring and understanding your email sending reputation is crucial for successful email outreach. By utilizing the right tools, keeping an eye on your statistics, and proactively managing your reputation, you can ensure that your emails reach the intended recipients’ inboxes. Remember to regularly check your reputation using the available tools, make necessary improvements based on the insights, and follow email best practices to maintain a strong sending reputation. With these strategies in place, you can maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing programs and achieve better deliverability rates.

Partner with Twilio SendGrid to gain access to our Expert Services, which offer over 130 years of combined email industry experience. We can help ensure that your email program is set up for success and guide you in managing your sending reputation effectively. Use the Twilio SendGrid tools, statistics, and tips mentioned in this article to improve your email deliverability and achieve your email marketing goals.