"Why aren't our emails getting through?"

"Some of the emails end up in the Spam folder, how is this possible?"

"Why was my mailing stopped?"

"Why are the emails bouncing?"

"Why is my delivery not reaching the set speed?"

These are just a small part of the questions our support colleagues receive daily about deliverability. One answer is often hard to provide: there are countless reasons why a mailing might not arrive.

Globally, a considerable amount of spam is still sent, think of more than 50 billion messages per day. Spam filters are becoming increasingly strict, making it more challenging for your well-intentioned email messages to get through.

Deliverability is a complex subject because it involves various technical components on the backend that all need to align to work well. And foremost, good deliverability takes time and is never truly finished. Keep working on it!

Why is it important, and how does it work exactly?

Deliverability is crucial because it touches the essence of your goal: successfully delivering your email. Compare it to sending a package. Would you accept the package if the following situation occurred?

• The doorbell rings, you open the door.

• An unkempt delivery person stands at the door with the package in their hands.

• You're not expecting a package because you haven't ordered anything.

• The package's packaging is damaged.

• Your name and address are misspelled.

• The sender is from an unknown address in Uzbekistan.

Chances are, several alarm bells are going off right now. You might unpack the package out of curiosity, but it's more likely that you politely thank the delivery person and immediately send the package back to the sender. You have too many doubts about the authenticity of the package, and accepting it poses a risk.

This is essentially the same when delivering an email. First, you need to convince the mailbox provider (e.g., Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook/Ziggo) of your legitimacy and relevance. Based on your reputation, they decide whether to deliver your message to the recipient.

Then, you hope that the recipient positively evaluates your message, opens it, and takes action. If you fail in this and the recipient decides to delete your message immediately or even mark it as spam, it is detrimental to your reputation. If many people do this with your messages, it may even lead to them not being delivered in the future.