• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 29, 2020

Marketers may think they are pretty well schooled on the subject of email deliverability. Still, it might pay to check out the 2020 Email Deliverability Guide, by Twilio SendGrid, providing updates on these topics:

Gmail’s Prefix Preferences

Gmail is urging brands to use a different “from” header based on different types of message. For example, a purchase receipt message might have the header: receipt@example.com.

Similarly, a promotional message might use the header: deals@example.com and an account notification alerts@example.com. The study states that this was not previously publicized.

In general, Gmail advises brands not to mix up marketing and transactional content in the same email.

Verizon’s Postmaster Data Feed

This new feature has already drawn some notice (and raising of eyebrows by privacy advocates), and the study notes that not everything is known about it. It is a “more comprehensive” postmaster engage feed or Yahoo and AOL.

The study acknowledges that not everything is known yet about this offering. What is known is that there will be a “positive feedback loop in addition to the standard negative feedback loop,” the study notes. This will include such metrics as “where an email lands in the inbox (e.g. primary, promotions, etc.), the length of time it took a recipient to read and email, and whether or not they skimmed the content.”

AMP For Email

AMP (accelerated mobile pages) for Email has received a good deal of notice in email circles over the past two years. But this interactive tool may not be for everyone. “AMP can be a double-edged sword,” the study notes. “While it gives the sender more freedom to create interactive or dynamic content, there’s also a lack of control over the environment it exists in for email.”

How so? When you use AMP in an email campaign, you set up the dynamic content you want to use and then send it away, losing the control you had over the interaction. 

BIMI

You’ve probably heard of this project, and may wonder whether it’s only hype. Far from it. BIMI is similar to the SPF, DKIM and MARC security standards, but with one added feature: it adds your brand logo next to your email.

“With your logo displayed, recipients will better recognize your emails in the inbox, building trust and helping prevent fraudulent activity,” the study says. Yahoo! Mail is the only inbox provider that now supports BIMI, but Google plans to run a Gmail trial this year.

SMS Deliverability

Email is not the only channel that may run into deliverability problems. SMS, the most widely used application in the world, might not be delivered due to invalid phone numbers, end-device errors like a handset being turned off, and network connectivity issues.

In addition, “it’s important to comply with state or local regulations and wireless carriers’ messaging policies to ensure SMS deliverability for both transactional and marketing messages,” the paper continues. “Wireless carriers have filtering systems to protect mobile subscribers from unwanted spam, fraud, or abuse.”

But it’s not either or -- remember that SMS and email are complementary channels.