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Originally Posted On: Get Testy: What to Know About Inbox Placement Testing – Email Preview Services Blog

Businesses use aggressive email filters to stop 54 billion unsolicited messages daily. Unfortunately, legitimate marketing emails can become collateral damage in the fight. Inbox placement testing can help messages get to the intended recipients.

Jack put the finishing touches on his most remarkable email marketing campaign ever. He’d created a glorious landing page and intricate sales funnels. And it was all driven by inspiring email content.

Jack loaded addresses collected from a recent webinar into his email marketing tool. Little did he know, his email work of art joined 54 billion spam messages sent that day. His recipients’ spam filters blocked his emails or sent them to junk mail folders.

What Is Inbox Placement Testing?

What if you knew that your email marketing would end up deleted before it ever reached your audience? Would you send it out anyway? No, you would likely take steps to ensure its receipt.

You likely invest a lot of time creating and editing quality email marketing content. Spammers are also constantly revising their content to make it look good, but they’re selling fool’s gold. You want it to be clear that your message is the real deal, and inbox placement testing can help.

Sender Authentication

Your email server authentication records are important for deliverability. These records prove that a sender is not faking a From: address. A good test will identify any records that passed or failed.

Blacklists

Inbox placement tests check your IP address and domain name against known blacklists. If your addresses have found their name onto the blacklist, you need to have them removed. You may even have to change your addresses to ensure deliverability moving forward.

Spam Tests

Spammers are chameleons. They change their business names, techniques, and IP addresses to disguise themselves. ISPs are constantly changing their methods to identify spammers and lower spam levels.

ISPs use methods like barracuda spam scoring to detect and delete spam. Spam firewalls flag and block messages before they’re delivered to an organization. An inbox placement test can show you the content, images, and code that label your messages with spam IDs.

Inbox Rate

It’s not enough to have your messages delivered, but you need to get inboxed. What does inboxed mean? It means that your email doesn’t end up in a spam folder, but it ends up in the inbox itself.

Finding your way to the inbox is like finding the holy grail of internet messaging. ISPs and businesses are like the Knights Templar trying to keep the inbox safe. You’re going to need some help if you’re going to walk away with that cup.

Seed List

An inbox placement test checks deliverability by using a seed list. This list contains monitored email addresses like the addresses in your account. Your email’s sent to the list and a report shows you how many copies of the message made it to an inbox.

Try It Out

Spam is everywhere. It’s unavoidable. And it keeps on coming. Companies will continue to try to block it. Don’t waste your time sending out content that is never reaching an inbox because ISPs think it’s spam.

Contact Email Preview Services and have your email design tested. Don’t just hope that messages make it to inboxes. Try inbox placement testing risk-free with your 7-day trial today!