Email Deliverability
GLOSSARY
Definition
Deliverability is the measure of whether your emails actually reach the inbox instead of the spam folder. It depends on sender reputation, authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, engagement rates, and the content of the email itself.
Why it matters
Deliverability used to be a dark art. You'd warm up an IP address over weeks, monitor blacklist status, and pray. The big mailbox providers — Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo — now publish clearer requirements, and Google's 2024 bulk sender guidelines forced a lot of companies to finally set up DMARC. The tools in this space have gotten better at telling you why an email bounced instead of just that it did.
Tools in this space
ActiveCampaign
AI-powered marketing automation and CRM for small to mid-size businesses
BillionMail
Open-source mail server, newsletter, and email marketing platform — fully self-hosted and free
Customer.io
Data-driven messaging platform for automated email, push, SMS, and in-app messages
Related terms
Marketing automation · MQL / SQL · Lead scoring · Email sequence · Marketing ops