Email is required for any program that requires user identification; nevertheless, email does not always receive the attention it deserves. It's simpler than ever to give your consumers a first-class transactional email experience thanks to current email service providers, but the difficulty for most of us is that we don't know what we don't know.
We'll take a look at everything you'll need to bring your transactional email up to speed with the rest of your online application from beginning to end.
The distinction between transactional and bulk emails, as well as how and why to employ email authentication, will be discussed. We'll also go through how to gracefully handle delivery edge situations, how to write great email content, and what infrastructure you'll need to send email and track delivery. You'll be well on your way to being an expert in transactional email in no time.
Read Also: Set Incoming DMARC validation using TWO simple steps
Transactional email's challenges
An email has always been treated as a second-class citizen since it's more difficult to track and comprehend how well you're navigating through it. There are a plethora of performance monitoring solutions available for your application to give insights into the front-end, back-end, database, issues, and much more. The tools for using email are lesser-known and slightly difficult to master. So let's look at some of the issues that come with email monitoring and reporting. We'll then discuss the tools and methods that may help you overcome those obstacles and gain a better understanding of your transactional email.
The main problem with email monitoring is that it's tedious to check every recipient's inbox to determine if they've received the email. As a result, the greatest insights we can expect right now are essentially proxies or estimates of performance. The second significant issue is that each ISP has its own set of restrictions. What Outlook would classify as spam, and could end up in Gmail's inbox? Moreover, inbox providers can't divulge their ‘secret sauce’ since spammers would quickly abuse it. So, what should a developer do?
Open rates can offer you a general estimate, but they're incomplete since they rely on tracking pixels, which can be readily obstructed. Inbox rates and delivery times can't be measured directly, however. As a result, you'd have to make do with sending frequent tests to seed accounts that you can test. These aren't ideal, but they're the greatest proxy for understanding delivery to multiple inbox providers currently available. Later in the article, we'll talk about technologies that can help you automate this process.
Adding domain authentication in the form of DKIM, SPF, and DMARC may be complicated and confusing, and acquiring access or approval for DNS modifications, depending on the size of your firm, might be difficult or impossible. Even then, it's all too simple to make a mistake with the DNS entries. Don't worry if you're unfamiliar with domain authentication; we'll go over it in detail later.
Of course, even if you can consistently produce excellent results, bounce handling adds to the unpredictability. It's possible that the recipient's inbox is full. People move jobs, and their email addresses become dormant. Further, when it comes to email addresses, people make mistakes. When people join up using a group alias, one of the addresses in that group may cause a bounce. To add to that, temporary server or DNS failures might affect everyone on a domain's delivery. And then there's the issue of spam complaints.
So the odds are stacked against you from the start. There are several edge circumstances, and obtaining an accurate picture of your email delivery is quite challenging. Ongoing monitoring is difficult, and there's a lot of room for error. I realize it creates a bleak image. Fortunately, email has gone a long way, and while there are no easy fixes, there are viable alternatives to these issues.
Differences between transactional emails and bulk promotional emails
Before we proceed any further, it's important to understand the distinctions between mass promotional email and transactional email. Nobody will notice if an email is lost or delayed in the former case. A missing or drastically delayed password reset, on the other hand, might result in extra support requests. Transactional emails are just as important as a page in your app. A missing or delayed email might be compared to a malfunctioning page in your online application. Although email is a distinct medium, it is still an important part of the user experience when using your app.
Transactional emails generate greater open and click rates than mass promotional emails because people expect and want to receive them. Similarly, transactional emails will receive far fewer spam reports than bulk emails. All of this contributes to your transactional email having a higher reputation than mass promotional emails. That might mean the difference between the inbox and the spam folder in some circumstances. It might also be a question of which tab/label Gmail places the email in. Regardless, the distinction between transactional and bulk email is significant enough that Gmail suggests separating the two streams. Your transactional reputation will not be harmed as a result of your bulk reputation.
How can email authentication help
You've probably heard of acronyms like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC, and you've probably copied and pasted some DNS entries to put them up. You could even have skipped it because it seemed a little too difficult to implement. In any case, they are all important criteria to follow, and they all complement one another and work together to help you create and defend your reputation. The specific method for these will differ based on the supplier, but it's always worth putting in place.
Without going into too many technical specifics, DKIM accomplishes two goals. To start off, it functions as a virtual wax seal on your emails, ensuring that they haven't been tampered with in route. Second, you may use it to establish a domain reputation. While DKIM focuses on the domain, SPF provides a list of permitted IP addresses for sending emails. This gives recipient mail servers a better understanding of whether an email is coming from a valid source.
One of the most important advantages of DKIM is that it allows you to eliminate ‘via’ labels in Gmail and ‘on behalf of labels in Outlook. These components provide the impression that your emails are spam, and they might erode your receivers' confidence. As a result, DKIM is much more than a standard for behind-the-scenes communications. It's something that may have a direct impact on your receivers' experience.
While authentication cannot promise delivery, it is an important part of establishing your email reputation and doing everything possible to provide an excellent user experience and service. DMARC was created to aid in the prevention of phishing attempts. It combines DKIM and SPF to enable you to monitor your domain's sending and defend its reputation by allowing you to post a DMARC policy. When an email fails DMARC alignment, this policy instructs inbox providers what to do.
To increase your chances of alignment, create a bespoke return path. Then, keep an eye on your DMARC reports and make modifications as needed to verify that any genuine email sources are aligned. Finally, if your product or brand has been the subject of a large number of phishing assaults, gradually implement a more stringent quarantine or reject policy.
Closing note
When it comes to sending emails, you have a lot of alternatives. If you want to transmit for yourself, you can set up a server and Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), but you'll be taking on a lot of responsibility. It's tough to manage one's reputation. It's significantly more difficult to build partnerships with ISPs.
Regardless of how you handle email, make it an extension of your app's user experience rather than a last-minute addition. Take the time to produce clear, informative emails, and do everything you can to incorporate them smoothly into the user experience. Make sure you're not sending too many emails, and provide your users with the option to customize their email alerts.
Both delivery and engagement may be influenced by the content of your emails. While some regulations are apparent, others are more nuanced. Taking the time to carefully design good content may significantly boost open rates and engagement.
To learn more about email security, deliverability, and safety, head to EmailAuth.
Original source: https://www.reddit.com/user/emailauth-io/comments/u8kuwv/what_is_transactional_email_and_how_does_it_work/
