When you send an email marketing message to your event audience, it has to get through some really strict gatekeepers in order to land in inboxes where people will actually have a chance to see it. Those gatekeepers are email service providers (ESPs) – like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and so on – and they take extremely elaborate steps to analyze every message and then determine whether recipients actually want to receive those messages or not.
If ESPs think people will want your message, they send it to inboxes, but if they don’t think your message is wanted, it won’t make it to inboxes. That’s what makes event email marketing challenging.
To get the results your event depends on from your bulk email marketing efforts, you need to understand what could happen to your email messages after you hit the send button, because “delivered” doesn’t mean recipients will actually see your messages.
Key Takeaways
- Email delivery doesn’t mean your message reached someone’s inbox. A delivered email has been accepted by the recipient’s email service provider (ESP), but it could still end up in spam or another folder.
- Email deliverability determines what ESPs do with your messages after accepting them. Your sender reputation, technical settings, list quality, content, and prior recipients’ engagement all influence how ESPs handle your messages.
- Inbox placement tells you if accepted emails make it to inboxes. Your event marketing messages could be blocked or reach recipients’ primary inboxes, Gmail tabs, or spam folders, which affects their chances of being seen.
- A high email delivery rate doesn’t guarantee strong campaign performance. Even a 99% delivery rate means little if your messages aren’t reaching inboxes where ticket buyers can find them.
- Good sending practices help protect your event’s email marketing results. Keep your email list clean, maintain a positive sender reputation, and monitor engagement metrics to identify potential deliverability problems.
Table of Contents
After you send a message to promote your event, ESPs could send it to inboxes, send it to a different tab (for recipients using Gmail), send it to the spam or junk folder, or block it entirely. That’s the difference between email delivery vs. deliverability vs. inbox placement.
As explained in the Complete Guide to Event Email Marketing Deliverability, ESPs are extremely protective of users’ inboxes. It’s much harder to get into inboxes and stay there than it is to get kicked out.
Let’s take a closer look at what email delivery, deliverability, and inbox placement actually mean, so you get the full picture of what can happen after you click the send button.
Email Delivery
Email delivery tells you if the ESP gatekeepers accepted your message. This is the delivered metric that you see in the email marketing campaign reports provided by your event email marketing application.
This metric is typically calculated by subtracting the number of bounces from the number of messages you sent and dividing the result by the total number of messages sent.
For example, if you sent 1,000 email messages in a campaign, but 10 bounced, your delivery rate for the campaign would be 99% (1,000 – 10 / 1,000 = 0.99).
The delivery metric tells you if the email addresses on your list are good or not.
To keep your sender reputation high and ensure your messages have a chance to reach inboxes, you need to keep your list clean and remove bounced email addresses (as well as email addresses of recipients who don’t engage with your messages by opening them or clicking links inside of them).
Here are some general removal guidelines to keep your list clean and protect your sender reputation:
- Remove hard bounces (email addresses that will never work) from your list immediately.
- Remove soft bounces (email addresses that are temporarily not working) after two bounces.
- Remove unengaged recipients after sending three to five messages that they don’t open or click.
The key thing to keep in mind is that a great delivery rate does not equal great deliverability or inbox placement.
Email Deliverability
Once an ESP accepts a message, that still doesn’t mean the message will go to recipients’ inboxes. Using elaborate spam filtering processes that both look for words and learn from users’ behaviors, ESPs could decide to send your message to inboxes, the promotions or updates tab (for Gmail users), the spam/junk folder, or not send it to recipients at all.
It’s not an all or nothing deal though. What happens to your messages after ESPs accept them (i.e., they’re “delivered”) could be different for every ESP and could apply to all or some recipients.
For example, some recipients who use Gmail may receive your message in their inboxes while others receive it in their spam folders. Some might not get it at all in their Gmail accounts while all Yahoo users receive it in their inboxes. Remember, every ESP uses different processes to analyze your messages, evaluate if you’re sending content people actually want, and decide what to do with those messages.
Bottom line, it’s critical that you understand event email deliverability, have your technical settings configured correctly, work to build and maintain a high sender reputation, and avoid raising any spam flags in your message subject lines and content.
Again, review the Complete Guide to Event Email Deliverability for all of the details. Follow the best practices discussed in the guide, and make sure ESPs view you as a good sender. That’s how you improve your deliverability so ESPs send your messages to inboxes now and in the future.
Email Inbox Placement
Inbox placement refers to whether or not your event email marketing messages make it to recipients’ inboxes. Remember, after an ESP accepts your message, they analyze it and then decide what to do with it next. They could:
- Send it to the inbox
- Send it to a different tab for Gmail users
- Send it to spam/junk
- Block it entirely (i.e., not send it on at all)
Obviously, to get the best results from your event marketing email campaigns, you want all of your messages to make it to the inbox where recipients are most likely to see them.
Unfortunately, there is no way to track what ESPs do with your messages after you send them. While there are some inbox placement testing tools available, none are perfect and using them too often can actually hurt your deliverability.
Instead of relying on multiple tests and tools that don’t actually reflect real-world results, keep an eye on your open and click rates. If you see them degrading, then there could be a deliverability problem.
If you’re sending from your own domain, use Google Postmaster Tools to track your spam complaint rate and delivery errors. Google is known as one of the most difficult gatekeeper ESPs, and the majority of U.S. email accounts are Gmail accounts. Therefore, if your metrics look good in Google Postmaster Tools, your deliverability is likely okay overall.
Email Delivery vs. Deliverability vs. Inbox Placement – The Roadmap After You Hit Send
Email delivery, deliverability, and inbox placement are completely different things, but together, they give you the roadmap that messages follow after you click the send button.
- Delivery data tells you if ESP gatekeepers accepted your message.
- Deliverability relates to what ESPs do with your message after they receive it.
- Inbox placement tells you if your message made it to recipient inboxes or not.
If you’re sending from your own domain, you’re in control of what ESPs do with your messages because you alone control your domain/sender reputation.
If you’re sending campaigns through a shared domain, then you and everyone else who sends through that domain plays a part in the domain/sender reputation. Do your part to be a good sender and ensure you and everyone else using the domain travels a roadmap that ends in inboxes.
Frequently Asked Questions about Email Delivery vs. Deliverability vs. Inbox Placement
What is the difference between email delivery and email deliverability?
Email delivery measures whether recipients’ email service providers accept your messages. Email deliverability refers to what email service providers do with your messages after accepting them. ESPs could send your messages to recipients’ inboxes, filter them into spam, or block them. A message can be successfully delivered without reaching the recipient’s inbox.
Why are my emails going to spam if my delivery rate is high?
A high delivery rate only means that email service providers accepted most of your messages. It doesn’t guarantee inbox placement. If your emails are going to spam or not being delivered to recipients at all, your sender reputation, technical settings, or message content could be triggering spam filters. Review these factors to identify opportunities to improve deliverability.
What is a good email delivery rate for event marketing campaigns?
You should aim for an email delivery rate as close to 100% as possible. A high delivery rate generally indicates that most addresses on your list are valid and accepting messages. However, you should evaluate delivery rates alongside engagement metrics because even a 99% delivery rate doesn’t guarantee that your event marketing emails are reaching inboxes.
How can I tell if my event marketing emails are reaching inboxes?
There is no completely reliable way to see where every recipient’s email ends up. However, you can monitor open rates, click rates, and changes in engagement to spot potential deliverability problems. If you’re sending from your own domain, Google Postmaster Tools can also provide useful information about spam complaints and delivery errors.
How can I improve email deliverability to reach more ticket buyers?
Start by sending messages to people who have agreed to receive your event marketing emails. Remove hard bounces, address repeated soft bounces, and regularly review inactive subscribers. Make sure your email authentication (e.g., DNS, CNAME, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings) is configured correctly, avoid misleading subject lines and content spam triggers, and send content that your audience finds valuable. These practices can strengthen your sender reputation and improve your chances of reaching inboxes.
