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What is email deliverability?

Email deliverability is the ability of an email to reach a recipient's inbox, without landing in the spam folder or being rejected. It is influenced by factors such as sender reputation, email content, and subscriber engagement.

Email deliverability vs. email delivery

Email deliverability and email delivery are often confused, but they refer to two separate concepts:

  • Email delivery refers to the recipient's mail server accepting the email and placing it in a mailbox, regardless of which folder.
  • Email deliverability goes further: it takes into account where the email lands, whether in the inbox, spam, or another folder the recipient may not check regularly.

What factors influence email deliverability?

Several factors determine whether your emails reach the inbox, including your technical setup, the quality of your contact list, and how your recipients engage with your emails. Monitoring your metrics regularly and following best practices is what keeps your emails landing in the inbox over time. 

Here are the main factors to keep in mind:

  • 📧 The email address you send from
    Sending from a free email address (@gmail, @yahoo, etc.) or an unauthenticated domain will likely cause your emails to be rejected or filtered to spam, particularly following Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft's sender requirements.
  • ✉️ Email content
    The quality of your HTML, the wording in your subject line and body, and the type of links you include can all trigger spam filters.
  • ⭐ Sender reputation
    Your sending behavior, including bounce rates, spam complaint rates, and sending consistency, directly affects whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mailbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) deliver your emails to the inbox or spam folder.
  • 🚩 Spam complaints 
    When contacts mark your emails as spam or unsubscribe, it signals to ISPs that your emails are unwanted. Brevo automatically blocklists these contacts to protect your deliverability.
  • 📉 Bounce rate
    Bounces occur when an email is rejected and never reaches the recipient. Hard bounces signal a permanent issue, such as an invalid address, while soft bounces indicate a temporary one. A high bounce rate signals to ISPs that your contact list is unhealthy and damages your sender reputation.
  • 💬 Subscriber engagement
    ISPs take into account how recipients interact with your emails. Regular opens and clicks signal that your emails are wanted and improve inbox placement.

⏭️  What's next?

To start improving your deliverability:

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo Agency partner.

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