{"id":3610,"date":"2024-11-01T09:13:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T13:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/the-difference-between-deliverability-and-delivery-rate\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T15:21:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T19:21:49","slug":"the-difference-between-deliverability-and-delivery-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/the-difference-between-deliverability-and-delivery-rate","title":{"rendered":"Email Delivery vs. Email Deliverability: What\u2019s the Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHow\u2019s our deliverability doing? Oh, it\u2019s really strong\u2014we\u2019ve seen a delivery rate of 98% for the last few email campaigns, with only a small handful of bounces.\u201d If you&#8217;ve ever heard someone say this sentence, you\u2019ve witnessed someone fall for the often-confused difference between email delivery rate and email deliverability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Deliverability is not the same as delivery rate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if the latter is healthy, you can still have issues with the former.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post, we\u2019ll go over each term and cover what you need to know to optimize your <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-email-deliverability-matters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email delivery rate<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-email-deliverability-matters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email deliverability<\/a> so they\u2019re working together for your email marketing program.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email delivery rate vs. email deliverability<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The biggest mix-up we see when we talk to customers is that deliverability is discussed in terms of delivery rate. But that\u2019s not how it works. Delivery rate is a valuable metric to consider, but it is not the same as deliverability.<\/span><script src=\"\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/medias\/963vdrb8wk.jsonp\" async><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"\/\/fast.wistia.com\/assets\/external\/E-v1.js\" async><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_padding\" style=\"padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_responsive_wrapper\" style=\"height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;\">\n<div class=\"wistia_embed wistia_async_963vdrb8wk seo=false videoFoam=true popover=true\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\nLet\u2019s set the record straight:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is email delivery rate?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>Delivery rate <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tells you whether or not your emails were received by the servers of your subscribers\u2019 inbox providers. An email counts as delivered if it did not <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/blog\/whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-and-soft-bounce\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bounce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So your delivery rate is the percentage of the number of emails delivered divided by the number of emails sent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your delivery rate is the first step in the journey an email message goes through after you hit \u201csend.\u201d It\u2019s the equivalent of a mail carrier knocking on the door of your house with a package. You can either accept the package and bring it inside your house, or leave it out on your front stoop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is email deliverability?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>Deliverability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is where your message lands if your subscriber does receive your email, such as the spam folder or the <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-utilize-gmail-promotions-tab\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gmail Promotions tab<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s based on your domain\u2019s setup, authentication, and <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-email-reputation\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">email reputation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014so if something goes wrong, the burden is on your shoulders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your deliverability is what happens <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">after<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a message gets delivered. The same way you decide if you put that new package on your kitchen table or leave it by the door, your ISP has additional processes in place to determine whether your message goes into the spam folder, one of your other folders, or the recipient\u2019s inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does bounce rate relate to delivery rate?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email providers actively monitor your bounce rates. If you consistently have high bounce rates from sending too many emails to fake or incorrect email addresses, then you may get blocked in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two kinds of bounces (<a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-and-soft-bounce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hard bounce vs software bounce<\/a>) to look at:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/whats-the-difference-between-a-hard-and-soft-bounce\">soft bounce<\/a><\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a temporary bounce due to email volume, a temporarily suspended account, or a receiving server outage. Though the delivery of your current message was unsuccessful, you may be able to deliver another email to that address at a later date.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>A hard bounce<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a permanent bounce due to an invalid or incorrect email address or from being blocked. You won\u2019t ever be able to email this address from your current domain.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We recommend removing any emails from your email list that hard bounce right away. Soft bounces you can try 1-2 more times before removing from your list, but definitely keep an eye on any email address that bounces, or you risk hurting your delivery rate and, thus, your deliverability.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The relationship between delivery rate and deliverability\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what does this all mean? Even if your delivery rate looks healthy\u2014you see few bounces, and most of your emails are being delivered\u2014it\u2019s still possible that your emails never make it to the inbox. To address this, it&#8217;s important to familiarize yourself with <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-deliverability-glossary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">email deliverability best practices<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many marketers conflate delivery rate and deliverability because mailbox providers often tell you if they <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deliver<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a message (with metrics like bounce rate or delivery rate) but rarely give you any insights into deliverability (where your emails land.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even with a stellar delivery rate, you can still have deliverability issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\">\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Unlock 2026 inbox benchmarks now<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Download Validity\u2019s 2026 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report and learn how your inbox placement compares before your next send.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.validity.com\/resource-center\/2026-email-deliverability-benchmark-report\/\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Get the report<\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why marketers should care about email delivery rate and deliverability<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The average email takes <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/resources\/state-of-email-workflows\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about two weeks to produce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and at any given time, 46% of email marketers have up to five emails in production. Your team is spending a ton of time and energy getting the segmentation, design, and copy of an email just right\u2014so why ruin all that work with a poor delivery rate or poor deliverability? If your email gets rejected from a mailbox provider\u2019s algorithm, or if your email gets hidden in the spam folder, then none of your subscribers will see the email campaign you worked so hard to produce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only that, but an issue with your delivery rate or your deliverability can continue a downward spiral that impacts engagement for the subscribers who do receive your email. All of this reduces the effectiveness of your email campaigns\u2014aka reducing the revenue you receive. <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/why-email-deliverability-matters\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Email deliverability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can make or break your email marketing strategy. It\u2019s that important.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to calculate email delivery rate and your deliverability\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most ESPs (or tools like <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/email-analytics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Litmus Email Analytics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, cough cough) can calculate KPIs like open rate, click-through rate, or conversion rate. But what about your email delivery rate? That\u2019s something you can calculate yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Delivery Rate = # of emails sent &#8211; # of bounces \/ # of emails sent x 100<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Calculating your deliverability rate is a little trickier in practice because mailbox providers don\u2019t <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to actually tell you whether or not you\u2019ve landed in the spam folder. In theory, you can calculate your deliverability like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Deliverability = # of emails delivered to the inbox \/ # of emails sent x 100<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your best bet is to use a deliverability platform like Google Postmaster or MX Toolbox (both free) or a pre-send spam testing tool like <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/spam-filter-tests\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Litmus Spam Filter Testing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, what\u2019s a \u201cgood\u201d email delivery rate and deliverability rate?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an ideal world, 100% of your emails would be delivered\u2014and most email marketing programs get fairly close to that, with a goal<\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/agencyanalytics.com\/kpi-definitions\/email-delivery-rate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of 90-98%.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Here at Litmus, we aim for 95% or above, and any email delivery rate below 80% should give you cause for concern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you had to choose between the two, it\u2019s important to prioritize your delivery rate first, since you can\u2019t have deliverability without delivery. (And good news, working to improve one can improve the other!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mailchimp.com\/resources\/email-marketing-benchmarks\/success\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to MailChimp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the average hard bounce rate was just 0.21%, with an average soft bounce rate of 0.79%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deliverability benchmarks are trickier to come by, but know that you\u2019re not alone if you\u2019re struggling to reach the inbox. 22% of email geeks who took <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/state-of-email-reports\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> admitted they don\u2019t measure their deliverability (or aren\u2019t sure if they do). After analyzing thousands of emails, we found that <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/spam-filter-tests\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70% of emails show at least one spam-related issue<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As a result, many really have no idea whether or not their emails are going to spam.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are a few things to look at if you need to fix your delivery or deliverability issues, stat:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3 factors that impact your email delivery rate and your deliverability (and how to fix them)<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Too often, marketers only learn about an inbox placement issue when they start to see a drop in campaign performance. <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/customers\/gasbuddy\">Litmus customer GasBuddy<\/a> had this happen to them, and they only noticed it because a test email went to everyone\u2019s spam folder. But what exactly went wrong?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melanie Kinney, Email Marketing Manager at <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/customers\/gasbuddy\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GasBuddy<\/span><\/a> says, \u201cThe domain we use to send email through had expired. Imagine that? It\u2019s probably the last thing I would\u2019ve considered at the start of this whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their expired domain caused GasBuddy to end up on a blocklist and, understandably, they were at a loss for how to fix the problem quickly. From blocklistings to issues with your infrastructure\u2014like an expired domain\u2014to content, there are a lot of things that can cause your email to be delivered to the spam folder, but it can be difficult to keep up with. Plus, many of the resources online can leave you even more confused. If you wait until after a problem arises, you might not have the ability or tools internally to handle the issue, and outsourcing to a contractor or other service might be a huge financial investment.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re having trouble with either your delivery rate or your deliverability, here are the three steps you can take to evaluate these <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/7-common-deliverability-myths\">email deliverability problems<\/a> and find a solution:<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Set up proper authenticated infrastructure<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe baseline is your authentication. It\u2019s the first thing I would check if you\u2019re troubleshooting deliverability issues. Make sure you have all of your details sorted,\u201d says Jaina Mistry, Director Brand and Content Marketing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your infrastructure is the first thing to look at for both your delivery rate and your deliverability. For delivery rate, make sure you\u2019re using a reputable email service provider (ESP) and have set up your servers correctly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This includes domain authentication, which is also a prerequisite for deliverability. If you haven\u2019t authenticated your emails, <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/new-yahoo-gmail-email-deliverability-rules\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gmail and Yahoo\u2019s sender requirements<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mean you\u2019re guaranteed to land in their spam folders, so using these security protocols to verify your company\u2019s identity is the place to start.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You have four different authentication methods available\u2014we recommend starting with these three:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Sender Policy Framework (SPF):<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> SPF indicates multiple IP addresses or domains that can send mail on your behalf via a DNS TXT entry. This way, mailbox providers know that if it\u2019s sent from your company\u2019s domain or IP address, it\u2019s from you.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: DKIM allows your organization to claim responsibility for your email as part of the authentication process by matching a public and private key, like a digital signature.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/dmarc-what-it-is-how-it-helps-protect-your-brand-against-email-fraud\"><b>Domain Message Authentication and Reporting Conformance (DMARC)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: DMARC protects a domain from being used in phishing and spoofing attempts by defining how receiving inbox providers should handle messages that fail an authentication check.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re feeling ~up for it~, you can also go for <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/what-is-bimi-and-why-should-email-marketers-care\"><b>Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI)<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: BIMI allows you to display a sender logo alongside your messages in the inbox after completing authentication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\">\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Is your infrastructure hurting you?<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Validity Everest checks your technical setup for errors that affect inbox placement\u2014before they hurt your performance.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.validity.com\/everest\/infrastructure\/\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Audit setup<\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Subscriber engagement and email content<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second factor for your delivery and deliverability is how your subscribers react to the messages you\u2019re currently sending. That means positive engagement metrics like open rate and click rate, but it also refers to negative signals like unsubscribers and spam complaints. Use Gmail and Yahoo\u2019s benchmark of a 0.3% spam complaint rate, or no more than three spam reports for every 1,000 messages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every email marketer has to deal with unsubscribes and spam complaints. The best way to avoid them? Send emails that your subscribers want to read, at a cadence that they prefer. The more you can send emails that your subscribers open, click, reply, or otherwise engage with, the better off your delivery and deliverability will be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen it comes to spam filters, it\u2019s much more about user behavior,\u201d says Mistry. \u201cYes, you want to get your authentication right, and you want to make sure you\u2019re sending great emails, but it also comes back to what\u2019s relevant to your subscribers, and what they\u2019re going to engage with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start by identifying which campaigns you send\u2014and which audience segments you send to\u2014perform the best and which needs improvement. Then, take a look at your email list and work on a re-engagement campaign for folks who haven\u2019t opened or clicked your email marketing campaigns in a while. This email is a great example of a simple re-engagement campaign (the subject line alone, \u2018Ghosting us?\u2019 makes you want to click.)<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-scroll mb-3\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Myles-email-delivery.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you still don\u2019t see any engagement, remove them from your target audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the rest of your email list, you can increase engagement with your existing audience by gathering more data about what they want to receive, as well as eye-catching tactics like dynamic or interactive content.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Sender reputation<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your email sender reputation is a measure that ISPs assign to organizations that send emails, which ultimately determines your email deliverability. There are three main elements to your sender reputation that ISPs evaluate:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sender behavior<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: ISPs are closely watching the volume of emails you send and your consistency. Sudden spikes can make it look like you\u2019re engaging in spammy behavior.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Subscriber behavior<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Your subscriber engagement doesn\u2019t just matter for spam filters, but for your overall sender reputation. The more you can encourage subscribers to open, click, or reply to your emails, the better your sender reputation will be.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-list-hygiene-how-to-build-a-clean-email-list\">Email list hygiene<\/a><\/strong><b>: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s where your email delivery comes in. Keeping a clean email list with minimal bounces is crucial for maintaining a good reputation. Hitting spam traps\u2014those sneaky addresses designed to catch spammers\u2014or being listed on a <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/what-to-do-if-youve-been-blocklisted\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blocklist<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can seriously damage your standing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both email delivery and deliverability play a role in your success as an email marketer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\">\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Monitor your sender reputation<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Stay ahead of blocklists, spam complaints, and MBP blocks with Validity Everest\u2019s real-time reputation monitoring.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.validity.com\/everest\/reputation-monitoring\/\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Protect your reputation<\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take a preventative approach to your delivery and deliverability<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But nobody wants to wait until something goes wrong to find out you have a delivery or deliverability issue. Our team does regular check-ups each quarter to make sure that we\u2019re monitoring both delivery and deliverability as part of tracking other success metrics like opens, clicks, and conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To help prevent issues with the spam folder, consider:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Running infrastructure checks to make sure your authentication hasn\u2019t expired or otherwise run into issues each quarter<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evaluating your email volume and send frequency<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practicing good list hygiene, like removing bounced email addresses and unsubscribes immediately<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Switching to double opt-in for your email address acquisition\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Testing your emails against common spam filters on a regular basis with Litmus Spam Testing<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if you aren\u2019t a deliverability expert, pre-send <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/putting-fires-vs-preventing-happening-difference-pre-post-send-deliverability-tools\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deliverability tools<\/span><\/a> or do an <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-deliverability-audit\">email deliverability audit<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0can help you take control of your deliverability and take the necessary steps to improve it if you find yourself in trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make it to the inbox\u2014not the spam folder\u2014with Litmus Spam Testing<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using a tool like <\/span><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/spam-filter-tests\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Litmus Spam Testing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can help flag these issues and give you actionable advice to fix them before you hit send.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"row p-5 my-5 background-light-gray rounded-5\">\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote\"><p>\u201cIt took us less than 48 hours to identify and fix our issue, and to get removed from the blocklists. Without Litmus, we wouldn\u2019t have known where to start.\u201d<\/blockquote><figcaption class=\"blockquote-footer\">Melanie Kinney, Email Marketing Manager at <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/litmus.com\/customers\/gasbuddy\">Gas Buddy<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take control and own your emails\u2019 deliverability health. Identify issues that may prevent emails from being delivered\u2014discover if you\u2019ve been blocklisted, validate your email authentication, and get actionable advice on how to fix issues before you send.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\">\n<div class=\"container pt-3 pb-5\">\n\t<div class=\"row blog-cta-blue  p-4\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-12 mx-auto\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-lg-6 col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t<p class=\"bold fs-4\">Deliverability from every angle <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get the insights and tools to improve inbox placement, sender reputation, and email performance. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button-blue arrow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/email-deliverability\" class=\"text-white text-decoration-none\">Explore Litmus Deliverability <\/a><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-6 d-none d-lg-block\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/blog-cta-12172024.svg\" width=\"208\" height=\"171\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><!--col-6-->\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!--row-->\n\t\t<\/div><!--col-12-->\n\t<\/div><!--row-->\n<\/div><!--container-->\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover the key differences between email deliverability and delivery rate, and learn how to optimize both metrics to boost your email marketing success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[45,10247],"blog_category":[53],"class_list":["post-3610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-deliverability","tag-performance-metrics","blog_category-tips-resources"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Email Delivery vs. Email Deliverability: What\u2019s the Difference? 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