You are about to begin your shipments and now that you have your license and your credits, you are surely eager to launch your first shipments. And we understand!
But before clicking "Send", it is essential to pay attention to several important points.
Before arriving in your inbox, each email goes through a series of checks. This can be compared to the passage of a package through customs: your identity, your reputation and the content of your message are verified.
If everything is compliant, your email is properly delivered. Otherwise, it may be redirected to spam or even blocked.
We assure you, with a few good practices and appropriate preparation, it is entirely possible to optimize your shipments. We guide you step by step.
Configuring your sending domain is somewhat like presenting your identification card to mailboxes. This allows them to verify that you are the legitimate sender.
Concretely, this configuration allows you to authenticate your emails, strengthen your domain's reputation, increase your chances of reaching the inbox (and avoid spam).
With Sarbacane, you have two options:
Reserve a dedicated domain name for your mailings
Configure a subdomain from your existing domain
Important: when using a new domain or new address, it is recommended to go through a warm-up phase.
The idea? Send progressively to build a good reputation, just as you gradually acclimate to a new environment. To learn more about warm-up, follow this link.
The design of your email also plays a key role. Imagine that spam filters are like customs officers who check each email sent to your contacts' mailboxes, with more or less strict instructions.
To maximize your chances, avoid, for example, emails composed solely of images, as spam filters cannot decrypt an image, making each one a potential risk.
Also pay special attention to your email subject line, the true gateway to your message, by avoiding techniques used by spammers such as repeated capital letters or the use of spam words...
This is merely an overview: there are many other best practices that you can explore in greater detail by following this link.
Your contact database is a key factor in your deliverability. It can be compared to a customer portfolio: its quality matters far more than its size. A poorly qualified or low-engagement database can quickly degrade your performance… and your sending reputation.
Why?
Because email providers analyze their behavior: opens, clicks, or complete lack of response. A low-engagement database sends a poor signal… and can harm the delivery of your emails.
For a healthy database, send only to opt-in contacts, remove inactive users (link), and monitor your metrics (NPAI, unsubscribes, engagement score). A clean and engaged database means more emails reaching the inbox. To learn more about best practices regarding your contact databases, follow this link.
⚠ Purchasing lists should be avoided at all costs.
These contacts have not given their consent: they interact little and significantly increase the risk of spam.
Final step before the big moment: testing.
When you create an email in Sarbacane, you are essentially writing a "code" that will be interpreted differently depending on the email client. It is somewhat like translating an English text into French; depending on the tool or person, the result can vary!
Result: your email may display perfectly in one email client… and much less well in another. For example, the Outlook mailbox, depending on the version, may interpret the code sent differently and produce a different rendering.
This underscores the importance of testing to verify the rendering across different email clients or simply to ensure that all links function properly or that the personalization of your content is operational.
A successful send is not magic:
It is a combination of technical configuration, best practices, and attention to detail.
And good news: once these fundamentals are in place, you are already on the right path to successful campaigns.
For more information, refer to our best practices guides.
