Deliverability index

The Deliverability Index is a tool that allows you to understand how much the management of your campaigns, in all its aspects, complies with industry best practices.

The term deliverability should not be confused with the delivery rate (a metric that indicates how many messages reach the recipient's inbox out of the total sent), but has to do first and foremost with the concept of trust - between sender and recipient - and with that of the reputation – of who sends the email campaigns.

Inside MailUp you will find timely suggestions that will help you understand which activities can negatively impact the deliverability and performance of campaigns and what to do to intervene and improve the Deliverability Index.

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What influences the Deliverability Index

The Deliverability Index consists of the evaluation of multiple aspects. Each of them, depending on how it is solved, is assigned a positive or negative score, defining a single final value for the entire platform. The actions that influence the Deliverability Index are:

• How you acquire contacts (e.g. recipient consent)

• How you manage contacts (for example by deleting unreachable recipients)

• The compliant rate you receive (e.g. abuse reports)

• The relevance and engagement of your communications (e.g. open rate and engagement)

• How senders are authenticated

• How do you organize the sending of domains

• How to set up sending practices (volume/consistency) for IP reputation and delivery results

All of these aspects are evaluated based on campaigns completed in the last 30 days. For example, the deliverability index could be low if multiple campaigns were sent in the last month with an incorrectly authenticated sender while, with subsequent campaigns, it could improve simply because a different correctly authenticated sender is used.

How to improve the Deliverability index - Deliverability Dashboard

For Starter, Plus, Premium and Enterprise editions, clicking on the Deliverability Index in the main menu of your platform, the new Deliverability Dashboard will be open. The Deliverability Dashboard it is an area of ​​the platform where you can:

• discover the health status of your emails independently

• intervene promptly to improve it

• automatically activate the necessary tools and corrective actions from a single point

• improve the performance and ROI of your campaigns

Check back periodically to monitor the dashboard and see new opportunities for improvement.

Furthermore, for all editions, within MailUp you will find some suggestions that will help you understand what influences your deliverability performance and how you can improve it. These messages are placed in different sections of the platform, where you have the tools to monitor and intervene.

So let's start from the problem, to understand where to find the suggestion.

Sender Authentication

To trust the identity claimed by a sender, a mechanism that validates the use of the identity is needed, and this is called authentication. Properly authenticating your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC makes it much harder for a malicious actor to use it for nefarious activities (phishing and spam).

When a sender is authenticated, both the sending and receiving systems can reliably and accurately validate who is responsible for the message.

This validation allows for precise identification of the sender and associates a unique and stable reputation, avoiding, for example, weakening it (as could happen with domains shared among multiple senders).

Another advantage of correctly authenticated senders is that the message is not subject to the rigorous analysis applied to mail from an unknown source.

If you are sending with senders who are not correctly authenticated, which can negatively influence your delivery rate, you will find suggestions on the page Settings > Account settings > Senders authentication > Verified senders.

Contact acquisition

The golden rule for sending massive marketing campaigns is to have the explicit consent of the recipient before adding it to any type of communication whether sporadic, continuous or repeated. Recipients are less likely to report messages as unwanted or offensive if they signed up voluntarily.

The Deliverability index helps you understand if you are implementing a good strategy by considering:

• the acquisition and cleaning of contacts so as not to send, for example, to addresses with spelling errors or to "spamtrap";

• the method of acquisition, with or without confirmation of registration;

• the frequency of importing new subscribers and the main deliverability metrics of the first sending (opens, bounces, spam complaints).

If you're having trouble capturing leads, you can find suggestions on the Recipients > List page.

Reports of abuse

The rate of abuse reports is visible for each message sent in the Statistics section. These reports come from recipients who mark the message as spam directly from their inbox.

It is important to keep this rate to a minimum since ISPs (such as Gmail, Libero, Yahoo and others) according to internal rules can impose penalties - up to total blocking of delivery - for communications arriving from senders with too high a number of reports. The number of reports is therefore a factor that influences the Deliverability index score, even in an important way.

If you're receiving a high number of abuse reports that are jeopardizing delivery rates and Inbox bounces, you'll find suggestions on the Statistics > Email > List > Message Sent page.

Or, if you use the SMTP+ sending system, go to the Statistics > Email > SMTP+ Messages > Message sent page.

Relevance / Engagement

The importance of relevance and engagement has been confirmed by email providers at several public conferences over the years.

From a brand's perspective, this aspect is important because:

• Engagement with an email address tells us how the general public views our company.

• Engagement with providers gives information on how our recipients view our messages.

• Engagement with the brand provides insights into how our customers see us.

If you are sending to a high rate of contacts with low engagement, which worsens your reputation, you will find suggestions on the page Statistics > Email > List.

Alternatively, if you use the SMTP+ sending system, go to the page Statistics > Email > SMTP+ Messages.

The stages of the Deliverability index

The Deliverability index can go through 5 stages, from the most critical to the optimal. Depending on the actions you take on the platform you can continue to improve the performance of your campaigns.

An excellent way to progress is to follow the advice on the platform, continue to send campaigns and contact our deliverability experts to understand your situation and be accompanied on this path.

Open	Level: critical Score: 0 to 29 The reputation of your campaigns is low and some of your emails end up in spam or are blocked.
	Level: improvable Score: 30 to 49 The reputation of your campaigns is at risk and you may experience performance degradation. Follow the tips to improve.
	Intermediate level Score: 50 to 69 There are still some best practices to follow to get the most out of your campaigns. Follow the tips to improve.
	Advanced level Score: 70 to 89 You're on the right track, but there are still some best practices to follow to get to the top.
	Level: excellent Score: 90 to 100 You're doing great! To maintain your status it is important to know the continuous evolution of anti-spam filters. Consider ongoing counseling to preserve these results.