Deliverability
Email deliverability that wins the inbox
About 1 in 6 marketing emails never reaches the inbox, roughly 84% global placement per Validity's 2024 benchmark. We fix authentication, warm-up and list health, then prove the result with GlockApps seed tests so your mail lands where people read it.
Deliverability is whether a real person sees your email, not whether a server accepted it. Those are different numbers. Delivery rate can read 99% while a quarter of your mail sits in spam. We measure the one that matters, inbox placement, and across managed senders it runs at a 94% median, against the roughly 84% global average and a 0.04% median complaint rate. Figures for Email Path senders are illustrative.
What do the Gmail and Yahoo bulk-sender rules require?
Since February 2024, senders above roughly 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail must pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC, offer a one-click unsubscribe under RFC 8058, and keep spam complaints below the 0.30% hard limit. A mailto-only unsubscribe does not satisfy the rule. We treat the 0.10% target as the real ceiling, since drifting toward 0.30% means Gmail is already throttling you. Yahoo applies the same standard.
How does domain and IP warm-up protect reputation?
Warm-up earns trust by ramping volume slowly so Gmail and Yahoo learn your sending pattern. A cold domain that suddenly blasts a full list looks exactly like a spammer, and the filters respond accordingly. We start with your most engaged subscribers, the people most likely to open, and grow volume over days to weeks. Engagement early in warm-up is the signal that builds sender reputation.
Why does list hygiene and a sunset policy matter?
Dead addresses cost you twice: bounces hurt reputation and unengaged contacts inflate spam complaints. A sunset policy retires subscribers who have not opened in 90 to 180 days, which pulls the complaint rate toward our 0.04% median and well under Gmail's 0.10% target. Shrinking a list often raises placement, because mailbox providers reward senders whose recipients actually engage.
How do we measure real inbox placement?
With GlockApps seed-list tests across 30 or more providers, run before and after every change so we can prove the lift. Tools like Litmus and Email on Acid cover the same ground. In a recent rebuild, moving DMARC from monitoring to enforcement lifted placement from 88% to 97%, a change you only see when you test placement directly instead of trusting the delivery figure your platform reports.
How does deliverability connect to the rest of the program?
Placement is the precondition for everything else. The best lifecycle email automation earns nothing from the spam folder, which is why we fix authentication first. See the SaaS onboarding rebuild in B2B SaaS onboarding sequence, walk through the method in how it works, or compare plans on pricing, where deliverability monitoring is included from the Starter tier up.
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FAQ
Deliverability questions
What do the Gmail and Yahoo bulk-sender rules require?
For senders above roughly 5,000 messages a day to personal Gmail, the February 2024 rules require SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication, a one-click unsubscribe under RFC 8058, and a spam-complaint rate below the 0.30% hard limit. The practical target is below 0.10%. Yahoo mirrors the same requirements.
What is domain and IP warm-up?
Warm-up is the gradual ramp of sending volume so mailbox providers learn to trust a new sending domain or IP. Jumping from zero to a full blast trips spam filters and burns reputation. We start small, send to your most engaged subscribers first, and increase volume over days to weeks until the sender is established.
How do you measure real inbox placement?
With GlockApps seed-list tests across 30 or more providers, which show whether mail lands in the inbox, the spam folder, or nowhere. Delivery rate only tells you the server accepted the message. Inbox placement tells you a human can see it. Global placement averages about 84%, so we test rather than assume.
What is a sunset policy and why does list hygiene matter?
A sunset policy stops mailing subscribers who have not engaged in a set window, often 90 to 180 days. Mailing dead addresses raises bounces and spam complaints, which drags reputation and placement down for everyone on the list. Pruning the list keeps complaints under the 0.10% target and protects the people who do open.
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