Advanced emailing

Except for the built-in features in Bloomreach Engagement, there are a couple of 3rd party resources you can use to enhance your emailing strategy or reputation performance.

3rd party monitoring

The most valuable tools are the ones provided by mailbox providers - the most known are Google Postmaster, Yahoo Feedback loop, and Microsoft SNDS. In slightly different shapes, they give you an overview of your domain and point out anything negative - e.g. spam complaints, SPF/DKIM errors, spam trap hits.

You can set all of them up on your own, with one small exception - after you add your IP addresses on Microsoft SNDS, please contact us so we can approve the access. Google Postmaster requires adding a DNS record and Yahoo Feedback Loop requires a specific inbox to be created on your side.
To check for blocklisting, we can recommend two tools - Bulkblocklist and MXToolbox. Bulkblacklist gives you the option to check for multiple domains / IP addresses at once and also shows you your Senderscore.

Seed list testing

Seed list testing allows you to get an indication of how good is your inbox folder placement, or how many of your emails end up in spam. It is never a 100% precise result, but it gives you a good idea of your email performance and trends allowing you to quickly react to deliverability issues. Seed list testing works by always including a pre-set list of “seed addresses” in your campaign, and getting a report after emails are delivered. There are multiple 3rd party providers in the market, but you can also use Mailgun Inbox Placement testing with Bloomreach Engagement.

DMARC and BIMI

The importance of correct email domain verification is rising and is now pushed forward by the implementation of DMARC and BIMI standards. Why is setting up DMARC important? It gives you the ability to prevent phishing emails from going out from your domain and also pushes you to organize your email infrastructure.

It is important to point out that setting DMARC records can be a project that takes a few months - especially if you used to send from unverified domains in the past, which only used your name in the sender email, but did not have the correct SPF and DKIM records. As DMARC would stop these, you need to properly verify them and this might take a while. This is the reason why it is important to set DMARC for reporting at first and then monitoring who is sending emails in your name. Once you have the correct domains and subdomains verified, it is time to start rejecting unknown emails.

After you configure your DMARC, you can move on to setting up a BIMI record - this allows you to display your logo next to your sender name in emails. A new DNS record needs to be added, which will point to your logo. The support for this is increasing in email clients, so make sure to take this opportunity and be among the first few brands that do this! A great resource can be found at https://bimigroup.org/implementation-guide/, including the BIMI record validator.