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MxToolbox Blog Email Delivery Experts MenuHome Blacklists Email Delivery Fraud and Phishing MX News How to Make the Most of MxToolbox Why Blocklist is really the correct term For decades, the industry has used the term blacklist” to refer to IP addresses that have sent spam or domain names included in spammy email, but that’s not really what these lists are. Aside from other issues with the term Blacklist” (ahem, thank you James Spader) it really is not the most appropriate. Let’s examine the real definitions for email: Blocklist/Blacklist A list of IP addresses or domains that should not be trusted because the IP address has sent email to a spam trap, sent email repeatedly marked as spam or may be misconfigured in such a way to encourage spam or other nefarious activity. Domains listed have been included in spam emails or are known to host malware. Note: MxToolbox is not a blacklist/blocklist. We are not blocking your email, but curate a list of blocklists to provide information about who has listed your IP address or domain as problematic. In some cases, we can help you get delisted, but, in general, you’ll need to work with the blocklist to be removed. There are details on how to be delisted on the Problem Details page for each blocklist. As always, DO NOT PAY to be delisted. Allow-list/Whitelist A list of IP addresses that are highly trusted. This is usually used for VPNs, internal traffic, etc. where that IP address should always be allowed. Note: When dealing with Blocklists, do not ask to be Whitelisted” as you are not completely trusted. Ask to be Delisted” and be prepared to prove that you have fixed the issue that caused your IP to be listed. De-list/Greylist If you are not 100% trusted, or not mistrusted by being blocklisted, then you are unlisted, or as some would say, greylisted”. In reality, no company is going to go through the exercise of listing every single IP address that is not Blocklisted or Allowed, so those IP’s are simply unlisted, but still not 100% trusted. Typically, email from an unlisted IP goes through a multi-step process to determine if the email should be allowed in the inbox. MxToolbox Aids Email Delivery Focus on the basics of Email Delivery: Technologies like SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and Best Practices in email list management and content relevance. Once your DMARC configuration is really set, then issues like blacklisting are actually more rare and less damaging to your email delivery. Get started today with MxToolbox Delivery Center to get to the Inbox. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Blacklist , blacklists , Email Delivery , Inbox placement on May 3, 2024 by stephenmxtoolbox . Email Definitions: Bulk vs Transactional In an effort to weed out spam and make email more relevant, Google and Yahoo! have recently made changes to their Bulk sender requirements that affect all legitimate email senders. But, what are the definitions of Bulk” sender and Bulk” email and how does that affect your email mix? The Effect Google and Yahoo! will now require bulk email from bulk senders to pass will SPF , DKIM , and DMARC compliance checks to be considered for delivery and provide a 1-Click Unsubscribe button. Failure to meet these requirements will result in short-term warnings, medium-term placement in Bulk or Junk folders and long-term email rejection. Normal business correspondence, Transactional Emails and senders who do not meet Bulk Sender” status are exempt from the requirements. What is Transactional Email? A transactional email is any email sent with to a single user or account for a single purpose, typically in response to that user’s actions or interactions with the sender and typically with user or account specific content. Good examples of transactional emails are: Account Creation Acknowledgements Account Update Notifications Login/2-factor Notifications Password Changes Order Acknowledgement Invoices or Order Summaries Shipment Notifications Usage Summaries Billing or Credit Card Issues (failure, update necessary, etc.) Account Termination Reminders What is Bulk Email? Bulk email is any email that is sent in large quantities or with marketing content. Examples of bulk email include: Newsletters Limited-time Offers Sales/discounts Campaigns Event Announcements Vouchers, Coupons and Giveaways Transactional Emails with any of the above content That last one is the kicker. Any transactional email that contains marketing content could count as a bulk email. If you are layering your marketing content into transactional email, you should stop now. What is a Bulk Sender? The definition of a Bulk Sender requires sending bulk email but also varies across Inbox Providers. We’ll use the parameters that are the most conservative. The important thing to know: Once you’re labeled a bulk sender, you are forever a bulk sender . Therefore, it’s important to use email best practices when sending messages. Email Volume You could be classified as a bulk sender for sending any email to more than one person. While Google requires a single 24-hour period volume of at least 5000 emails to be classified as a Bulk Sender, Yahoo! has refused to define a volume limit. MxToolbox therefore recommends adhering to the bulk sender limits if you send any bulk/marketing email. Emailing Domain Email counts are by primary emailing domain. This means that all subdomains are included. So, emails from example.com, and email.example.com and marketing.example.com are all included in the message count. Email Content Email volume limits only look at Bulk Email. But that definition is based upon content. Again, most importantly, remove marketing content from transactional email to ensure that it is not classified as bulk. How Can MxToolbox Help? Tools like MxToolbox Delivery Center provide deep insight into your DMARC, SPF and DKIM configurations allowing you to meet basic requirements for Bulk Senders. In addition, our Inbox Placement feature will tell you if your campaigns are being sent to the Spam/Junk folders or actually making it to inboxes, as well as which Inbox Provider(s) you are having trouble sending to. MxToolbox is the Expert on email delivery. We offer a wide range of email delivery services, including a fully managed email delivery service, so be proactive now and take advantage of them before these Bulk Sender guidelines affect your email. This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Email Delivery , how to , Inbox placement on April 12, 2024 by stephenmxtoolbox . Think that you’re on Google’s Blacklist? Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that… Blacklists have been losing relevance Blacklists have been a first line of defense against malicious emails since the dawn of the Internet. Every marketer knows that if their sending IP addresses are on a blacklist, their messages are going to be denied. Most email marketers long ago moved to 3rd party senders with large blocks of IP addresses to limit the risk. If legitimate senders can easily change IP addresses, so will spammers, somewhat limiting the long-term value of an IP-based blacklist. Google, Yahoo! and other Inbox Providers know this and have been developing alternative technologies for years. Blacklists are only the first layer of protection Blacklists are still relevant for blocking large networks of bad actors and increasing the difficulty of sending spam, however, Inbox Providers like Google and Yahoo! have long taken a layered approach to Inbox Placement. Rather than relying on a simple binary approach with a Blacklist, Inbox Providers use: TLS Encryption for connection Blacklists (both internal and external) DMARC Compliance (SPF Authentication, SPF Alignment, DKIM Alignment) Spam Content Scoring Rules Bulk Sender Spam Reporting Rules Individual Spam/Junk Rules If you are a legitimate sender of emails, more than likely, you are not on Google’s Blacklist. More likely, your email is being filtered by these other layers of their...