CRM
02 Jun 2026

Deliverability: what it is and how to improve it

Salomé Boukobza
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Head of CRM
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Reading time
7 min
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Deliverability in email marketing is essential to ensure that your emails reach your recipients' primary inbox, rather than the spam folder or being blocked. It depends directly on the reputation of the sender and the domain, which in turn influences the effectiveness of your campaigns.

If your emails only reach a fraction of your subscribers, it may be due to spam filters or a poor domain reputation. Understanding and optimizing deliverability is essential to maximize click-through rates.

In this article, discover what deliverability is, its impact on your campaigns and the best strategies to improve it. Whether you are a marketing expert or a beginner, these practical tips will help you avoid spam traps and optimize your results. In addition, integrating a CRM can help you better segment your audiences and personalize your communications.

Definition and importance

Deliverability in email marketing refers to an email's ability to reach the primary or secondary inbox of its recipient while avoiding spam filters and junk mail folders. In other words, an email is considered "delivered" when it lands in the recipient's mailbox, whether in the primary inbox, the Promotions tab or the Social tab, and not in the spam folder or removed by filters.

The importance of deliverability lies in its direct impact on the performance of your email campaigns. If your emails do not reach their recipients, open and click rates will suffer, which can lead to a drop in engagement and conversions.

Deliverability is therefore essential to maintain the trust of your subscribers and to ensure that your messages are read and generate the expected impact.

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Factors that influence deliverability

Many factors influence the deliverability of your emails. The reputation of the sender and the domain is one of the key elements, because email providers rely on this information to determine whether an email should be considered spam. Security protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) also play a role by authenticating your emails, which improves their deliverability.

In addition, the quality of your recipient list and the frequency of your sends are decisive factors. A clean, regularly updated mailing list, combined with a thoughtful sending strategy, helps avoid bounces and spam complaints, thereby preserving the sender's reputation.

The difference between deliverability and delivery rate

It is essential to distinguish deliverability from the delivery rate. The delivery rate represents the percentage of emails accepted by the recipient's server. However, this does not guarantee that these emails reach the primary inbox.

Indeed, an email can be accepted by the server but redirected to the spam folder or another secondary section of the mailbox.

Deliverability, on the other hand, takes into account the final location where the email is received. It therefore better reflects the real success of your email campaign. So, even if an email is "delivered" (accepted by the server), its deliverability can be compromised if it does not reach the recipient's primary inbox.

Strategies to improve the deliverability of your emails

Maintain a clean and up to date contact list

Maintaining a clean and up to date contact list is essential to improving the deliverability of your emails. A poorly maintained list, containing inactive or incorrect addresses, can lead to a high bounce rate and harm the sender's reputation. It is important to regularly clean your mailing list by removing addresses that do not respond or that generate delivery errors.

In addition, using double opt-in methods to validate email addresses at sign-up can help ensure that only valid and engaged addresses are included in your list.

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Email authentication and technical configuration

Email authentication is a key step to strengthen deliverability. Authentication protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) help ensure that your emails are indeed sent from a trusted source. These protocols allow email service providers to verify the authenticity of emails and reduce the risk of them being marked as spam.

Using a dedicated IP address for your marketing sends can also help control the reputation of your IP and avoid issues related to malicious senders sharing the same IP.

Improving the quality of email content

The quality of your email content plays a significant role in deliverability. Avoid using suspicious language, excessive capitalization and keywords that could trigger spam filters. Make sure your content is clear, relevant and personalized for your subscribers. In addition, including a clear and easy to find unsubscribe link can help reduce spam complaints and maintain a good sender reputation.

It is also important to test your emails before sending them to make sure they do not contain elements that could cause them to be classified as spam.

Managing the sender's reputation

The sender's reputation is a critical factor in email deliverability. Email service providers monitor sender reputation based on several indicators, such as the bounce rate, spam complaints and the quality of the mailing list.

To maintain a good reputation, it is essential to regularly monitor your campaigns and take corrective action if necessary. This includes monitoring blocklists to check whether your domain or IP is listed, and taking action to be removed from these lists if that is the case.

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Tools and methods to measure deliverability

Key indicators to monitor

To effectively measure the deliverability of your emails, it is essential to track several key indicators. The email deliverability rate, which measures the percentage of emails arriving in recipients' inboxes, is a central indicator. Other important metrics include the bounce rate, spam complaints, as well as open and click rates.

These indicators help identify potential problems and adjust your strategies accordingly.

The reputation score of the sender and the domain is also important. Tools such as Litmus make it possible to monitor these scores to ensure that your emails are delivered successfully. At the same time, tracking invalid email addresses and addresses generating bounces helps clean your mailing lists, thereby improving overall deliverability.

Using postmaster reports and analytics tools

Postmaster reports and specialized analytics tools play a key role in evaluating and improving the deliverability of your emails. Solutions such as MailMonitor, Bouncer and Mailflow provide detailed reports on aspects such as inbox placement rates, bounce rates and spam complaints.

These tools are compatible with various email service providers, such as Gmail, Outlook and AOL, which allows for more precise optimization of your campaigns.

Platforms such as Litmus and Mailtrap offer advanced analytics, deliverability alerts and reports on the email deliverability rate. These tools often include sandbox features to test and debug emails before sending them in bulk.

A/B testing to optimize open rates

A/B testing is an effective method to optimize open rates and, consequently, the deliverability of your emails. By testing different versions of your emails, you can determine which subject lines, content and send times generate the best engagement.

Tools such as Litmus offer built-in A/B testing features, making it possible to compare the performance of different versions of an email and choose the one that delivers the best results.

These tests make it possible to further personalize your campaigns based on your audience's preferences. This can considerably improve deliverability and open rates. By continuously adjusting your strategies based on the data collected, you maximize the effectiveness of your email campaigns and ensure that your messages reach your recipients in an optimal way.

Conclusion

In summary, email deliverability plays an essential role in any email marketing strategy. To improve it, it is important to maintain a clean and up to date contact list, to authenticate your emails using protocols such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and to personalize the content of your messages through segmentation.

Analytics tools and postmaster reports are essential resources to monitor and optimize your deliverability and open rates.

By applying these strategies, you will be able to considerably strengthen your sender reputation, avoid spam filters and increase the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Do not hesitate to test, adjust and continuously improve your approaches to maximize your results. Acting today to optimize the deliverability of your emails will help you strengthen your presence in your subscribers' inboxes, while boosting their engagement and your conversions in collaboration with Klaviyo agencies.

FAQ

What is the definition of deliverability?

Email deliverability is the ability of an electronic message to reach the recipient's primary or secondary inbox, without being marked as spam or blocked by the anti-spam systems of Internet service providers or mailboxes.

What is a good deliverability rate?

A good email deliverability rate is generally greater than or equal to 93%. This means that at least 93 out of 100 emails sent reach recipients' inboxes, with a maximum bounce rate of 2 to 3% and a spam rate not exceeding 1%.

What is the difference between delivery and deliverability?

The delivery of an email refers to the successful transfer of the email to the recipient's mail server. Deliverability, by contrast, concerns the ability of the email to arrive in the primary inbox, avoiding spam filters and other rejections.

What is deliverability in emailing?

The deliverability of an emailing project refers to an email's ability to reach the recipient's inbox, whether the primary or secondary inbox, without being marked as spam or blocked by anti-spam systems.