Explanations, comparisons and practical tips, written by the people who run the technology at 2Mail themselves.
For most companies a shared IP address is the better choice: it already has a reputation, the combined volume of many senders keeps that reputation stable, and…
Read more →Before the first send through a new platform you remove five things from your list: addresses that hard-bounced on the old platform, unsubscribers and complaine…
Read more →A webhook is a message your sending platform pushes to your own system as soon as something happens to an email: delivered, bounced, reported as spam, opened. B…
Read more →Choose SMTP when an existing package sends the mail and all you can do is change settings: a webshop, an invoicing package, a CRM, a scanner. Choose the API whe…
Read more →Having a newsletter written by an AI model is not in itself a problem under the GDPR or the AI Act. What does matter is what you feed the model (customer data?)…
Read more →When SMTP AUTH is switched off in Microsoft 365, devices and applications that send through a mailbox with a username and password — multifunction printers, sca…
Read more →Retention emails are automatic messages a webshop sends based on what one customer did or did not do: a cart that was not checked out, a product that must be ne…
Read more →WooCommerce order emails land in spam because WordPress sends them straight from the web server by default, without authentication and without reputation. The r…
Read more →When invoices, quotes or reminders from Odoo do not arrive, it is almost always one of three things: the outgoing mail server is missing or misconfigured and me…
Read more →An A/B test of subject lines works like this: you send the same mail with two subject lines to two random, equally sized parts of your list, measure which versi…
Read more →BIMI is a standard that lets receiving mail providers show your logo next to your messages. It requires a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject, a logo in a stri…
Read more →Four figures tell you whether your newsletter works: inbox placement (does it arrive where it can be read), click rate (does anyone do something with it), conve…
Read more →You move from p=none to p=reject in four stages: first weeks of collecting reports, then getting every source that sends on behalf of your domain in order, then…
Read more →From sent mail you keep what you may later need to prove something, and no longer than that requires. In practice that comes down to three categories: messages…
Read more →Anyone sending larger volumes to Gmail and Yahoo addresses needs three things in order: full authentication with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, an unsubscribe that works…
Read more →Your internet provider's SMTP server was built for a family's private mailbox, not for a company's mail. As soon as your webshop, invoicing package or CRM sends…
Read more →MTA-STS is a policy with which you tell sending servers that mail to your domain may only be delivered over an encrypted and verified TLS connection. TLS-RPT is…
Read more →A warm-up schedule is a plan in which you grow the daily sending volume from a new IP address or domain step by step, usually over two to four weeks, starting w…
Read more →A hard bounce means the address is permanently unreachable: it does not exist, or the domain does not exist. A soft bounce is temporary: mailbox full, server br…
Read more →Proximus, Telenet, Gmail and Outlook each judge the same message in their own way: the Belgian providers lean more on classic filters and reputation lists, Gmai…
Read more →Your email lands in spam because the receiving server does not trust your message, and that distrust almost always comes down to four causes: missing authentica…
Read more →SPF, DKIM and DMARC are three records in your DNS that together prove an email really comes from your domain. SPF says which servers may send on your behalf, DK…
Read more →An SMTP relay is a sending server that your applications use instead of sending mail themselves. Your webshop, CRM or invoicing package hands the message to the…
Read more →A bounce is an email that comes back because the receiving server could not or would not deliver it. There are two kinds: a hard bounce means the address does n…
Read more →Your webshop's mail usually does not work because the shop sends its messages straight from the web server, with no authentication and no reputation. To the rec…
Read more →A large list without engagement is worth less than a small attentive one. That sounds obvious, and yet almost everybody optimises the wrong number.Ask for littl…
Read more →IP warming is the gradual building of trust with receiving mail providers when you start sending from a new IP address or a new domain. You begin with small vol…
Read more →The open rate was the headline figure for newsletters for years. It is not any more, and it is worth knowing that.How it is measuredThrough an invisible image t…
Read more →The subject line decides whether the rest gets read. A few rules do most of the work.Keep it shortOn a phone only the first few words are visible. Put the most…
Read more →Outlook renders email differently from other clients. That is not a flaw in your template but a reality to design around.Why it is differentSome versions of Out…
Read more →A spam trap is an email address created purely to catch senders who do not maintain their list. Sending to one is immediately expensive.Pristine trapsAddresses…
Read more →These are two kinds of mail with two different requirements, and mixing them creates unnecessary risk.Transactional emailOrder confirmations, password resets, i…
Read more →The question is not only what your platform allows, but what mail providers will accept from you.What countsYour history. A sender who has sent a thousand messa…
Read more →A sending subdomain is a separate name under your main domain, for example news.yourcompany.com or mail.yourcompany.com, from which you send your automated or c…
Read more →The rule is simple in principle: you need a legal basis to send commercial mail. The nuances matter.ConsentSomebody actively signed up. You must be able to show…
Read more →A mistake in an email cannot be corrected afterwards. Ten minutes of testing saves you an apology message.Test the linksAll of them, including those on images a…
Read more →DMARC reporting is the stream of daily files that receiving providers send you as soon as you publish a DMARC record with a reporting address. Each file lists,…
Read more →Sending a newsletter with a free address as the sender no longer works. That is not a matter of style but of technology.What happensThe large mail providers hav…
Read more →There is no right number, but there are wrong patterns. Three questions beat a rule.Do you have something to say?A monthly send with no real content is worse th…
Read more →Inbox placement is the question of where your email ends up after the receiving server has accepted it: in the inbox, in the Promotions tab or in the spam folde…
Read more →This is the most-opened message you will ever send, and yet many organisations send none at all.Send it immediatelyWithin minutes of sign-up, while the person i…
Read more →Automation means letting an event trigger a message rather than a person. A handful of automations covers most needs.The welcome messageTriggered by a sign-up.…
Read more →A contact who has opened nothing in a year does not only cost you money: they cost you deliverability for everybody else.Why it hurtsMail providers look at the…
Read more →It is the page you least want used, and yet it deserves attention. A bad one turns an unsubscribe into a spam report.One clickNo login, no password, no form. Ev…
Read more →It is the line shown next to your subject in the inbox. Many people ignore it and throw away free space.What shows by defaultThe first words of your message. Of…
Read more →Many mail clients do not display images until the recipient allows them. Without alt text your message is then empty.What happens without itGrey boxes where you…
Read more →A growing share of recipients read in dark mode. Mail clients then invert colours, sometimes clumsily.What breaks most oftenA black logo on a transparent backgr…
Read more →Most email is read on a phone. Designing for the wide screen first is designing for the minority.One columnTwo- and three-column layouts break or become unreada…
Read more →Many people panic when their newsletter lands in the Promotions tab. That is not the spam folder.What it actually isA classification, not a filter. The message…
Read more →There is no official standard, but there are thresholds above which mail providers grow suspicious.For a maintained listRegular sending to a list you clean shou…
Read more →This is the measurement mail providers take most seriously, and the one most senders never look at.What it isThe proportion of recipients clicking "report spam"…
Read more →The unsubscribe button that some mail programs show at the top of a message, next to the sender, does not come from your text but from a technical element in th…
Read more →Some mail clients display the sender's logo next to the message. That takes configuration, not just a nice template.What is requiredAuthentication in order, wit…
Read more →A typo at sign-up means you will never reach that person, and every send produces a bounce.The basic checkThe format. That removes obvious errors but lets domai…
Read more →Should you send a verification message before a sign-up counts? It costs volume and gives a lot back.Single opt-inThe address typed goes straight onto the list.…
Read more →Transactional messages are the most-read email you will send, and often the most neglected.They get openedAn order confirmation or an invoice is read by almost…
Read more →An email address is personal data. Keeping it forever is neither permitted nor useful.As long as the purpose existsSomebody is subscribed to your newsletter: th…
Read more →This is a common and confusing pattern: your messages to personal addresses arrive, the ones to company addresses vanish.Why the differenceCorporate mail server…
Read more →Ten minutes of checking avoids the apology message nobody enjoys writing.Sender and subjectThese are the only two things everybody sees. Reread them last, when…
Read more →Most reports show activity figures, not results. Four measurements actually say something.Revenue per sendWhat a campaign returns, divided by what it cost in ti…
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