email-best-practices

Email deliverability requires SPF, DKIM, and DMARC DNS records to authenticate sending domains. You must configure these records, verify them with dig, and apply DMARC policies to stop emails from being filtered as spam or rejected.

Handling email bounces and complaints requires processing signed webhooks with idempotent event processing and deduplication. This ensures reliable delivery tracking while safely managing suppression lists to prevent sending to invalid or complaining recipients.

Transactional email sending reliability requires idempotency keys to prevent duplicate sends, retry logic with exponential backoff for failed deliveries, and safe timeouts with queuing to ensure critical messages reach recipients without causing system overloads.

Marketing email systems must support CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL compliance by managing region-specific consent records, processing unsubscribes, and maintaining suppression lists. Proper list hygiene and retention management ensure legal sending requirements are met.

Transactional email goes to spam when deliverability thresholds are not met, requiring IP warming schedules and mobile-first formatting. Differences in transactional versus marketing design, subject lines, and preheader patterns also impact inbox placement.

Transactional and marketing emails require different design patterns, compliance handling, and reputation management. Separating infrastructure or applying distinct sending rules ensures optimal inbox placement and appropriate consent management for each message type.