Every day, 85% of global email traffic — or 122.3 billion emails — is flagged as spam. That’s a lot of wasted time, effort, and resources invested into emails that are never read. But how, exactly, can brands avoid having their most important messages end up in spam folders?
In our interview with GlockApps CEO Alex Arnaut, we discuss ways brands can overcome email deliverability challenges through email authentication and achieve a better ROI on email marketing campaigns.
Who Is Alex Arnaut?
With 15 years in tech, Alex Arnaut began as an IT Infrastructure Administrator, rising to COO and Partner at Shopping Cart Elite. Collaborating with Glocksoft sparked the idea for GlockApps, a tool to boost email deliverability. Since 2019, he’s led GlockApps as CEO, focusing on growth, marketing, and brand development.
Email deliverability issues are further exacerbated by the fact that many companies don’t have a clear picture of where their emails end up or why certain emails end up flagged as spam.
To address these challenges, Alex emphasizes the role of GlockApps, a leader in email deliverability tools, in enhancing email performance and protecting sender reputation:
“GlockApps’ goal is to provide customers with a complete picture of email deliverability and authentication in a detailed report and instruct them on fixing existing or potential issues.
If you notice a decrease in open rates, low response rates, or no replies from your recipients at all, these signal that you should test your emails for spam and we are happy to assist you most effectively.”
With tools like Spam Checker, GlockApps gives businesses a complete look at where their emails are going and provides recommendations to resolve these issues.
Email Authentication as the First Line of Defense
Email authentication is key for any business that wants to prevent security threats like phishing and spoofing. Alex explains:
“Global security organizations require businesses and strongly recommend that all domains set up proper authentication configurations to prevent malicious activity. This relates to all senders regardless of company scale or industry”
The most common way to address this issue is Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), which helps businesses control who can send emails on their behalf. This minimizes the chances of customers receiving fraudulent emails pretending to be from your brand.
Today, many organizations require a DMARC policy that either quarantines or rejects unauthenticated emails to ensure only legitimate messages reach inboxes.
Meeting Microsoft’s New Requirements for Safer Inboxes
Microsoft’s recent requirement for email authentication highlighted an industry-wide push for safer inboxes. Businesses were required to comply with strict authentication standards by September 2024 or risk having their emails filtered as spam.
This means businesses needed to set up Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and DMARC records, which confirm that an email is from a trusted sender.
According to Alex, these protocols aren’t difficult to set up, but they do require regular monitoring to ensure they’re working properly.
However, he’s also quick to remind brands that implementing these protocols is only the first step. Brands should also have automated authentication records monitoring in place to ensure uptime.
Building Trust for Better Deliverability and ROI
Strong email authentication is crucial, not just for security, but also as a critical trust-building tool with your customers.
Alex explains that this trust from both sides directly impacts inbox placement and open rates, which can ultimately drive higher revenue.
“Just imagine how your revenue could increase if all your marketing emails get read. I want to emphasize that although content is the king, deliverability can determine the success of your email campaign,” he adds.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is another way brands can build visibility and trust. Through BIMI, authenticated emails can feature a brand’s logo in inboxes, making them instantly recognizable and more trustworthy.
“BIMI Record allows you to add a favicon of your brand logo to emails so they would stand out in recipients' inboxes. A BIMI Record can also positively impact your deliverability since it’s a sign of a legitimate sender for ESPs like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft,” Alex explains.
Crafting Emails That Resonate
Personalization and knowing your audience are crucial for email success, and Alex recommends segmenting your audience and crafting tailored messages for each group, as this increases engagement and reduces the chance of emails ending up in spam.
“Don’t send everything to everyone, make sure that each segment receives an email they want to interact with — the behavioral factor is extremely important for providers.”
“Do not abuse spam techniques, take care of sending volumes, and the quality of content and links, and check how your email is displayed on different platforms and devices,” he adds.
Furthermore, Alex highly recommends that brands regularly run spam tests and monitor their email authentication to ensure optimal results.
A Case Study on the Power of Authentication
To prove his points, Alex shared a case study based on his company’s own experience.GlockApps added a new domain to their email-sending lineup but forgot to set up an SPF record before sending out nearly 200 emails.
Almost immediately, their emails started landing in spam folders. After realizing the issue, they updated the SPF settings.
Within a week, email performance improved, highlighting the importance of verifying all authentication records when adding new domains to maintain sender reputation.
Email authentication is no longer optional for businesses, and experts in the field can be your best allies in making sure your marketing messages land right in your audience's inboxes.
