Website Tech

Tag: Brevo

  • Enhancing Email Deliverability for Your WordPress Website

    Ensuring seamless communication between your business and your customers is crucial. One important aspect of communicating is the “deliverability of emails” sent from your WordPress website.

    These emails include WooCommerce order confirmations, password reset requests, or any other transactional emails.

    Here are some key steps to consider, to enhance the email deliverability for your WordPress website:

    1. Utilize an SMTP Plugin:
      • Many email providers require proper validation to ensure that you (or in this case, your website) are the authorized sender of the emails. Utilizing an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) plugin such as WP Mail SMTP can facilitate this by connecting your WordPress website to a reputable email hosting service.
    2. Choose a Reputable Email Host:
      • Good email hosts like GMail, Outlook, Brevo, and Zoho Mail are preferred as they have robust mechanisms to ensure email deliverability. They require setting up specific email authentication records like DMARC, DKIM, and SPF which help in verifying the sender’s identity.
      • Sending emails from your website is not as good, even if your website hosting company also provides email hosting. Email hosting is an “aside” for website hosting companies; pay the small monthly fee for an excellent email host.
    3. Email Authentication:
      • Set up necessary email authentication records:
        • SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Helps prevent email spoofing by specifying which IP addresses are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.
        • DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Allows receiving email servers to confirm that an email claiming to come from a specific domain was authorized by the owner of that domain.
        • DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): Builds on SPF and DKIM protocols, adding linkage to the author (“From:”) domain name, published policies for recipient handling of authentication failures, and reporting from receivers to senders, to improve and monitor protection of the domain from fraudulent email.
        • Your email hosting company can guide you in how exactly to configure these, for settings on their system and settings with your Domain Name Registrar.
    4. Configure Your Domain Properly:
      • Ensure your domain name settings (DNS records) are correctly configured with your email provider to ensure smooth email deliverability. Tools like MX Lookup Tool – MxToolbox can help verify your DNS settings.
    5. Avoid Sending Emails from Hosting Provider:
      • It’s often not advisable to send emails directly from your website hosting server (unless it’s specifically configured for email hosting). Doing so may lead to poor email deliverability.
    6. Monitor Email Deliverability:
      • Use tools and services that provide insight into your email deliverability performance, such as open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. This data can provide valuable insights and alert you to potential issues before they affect your communication with your customers.
    7. Maintain a Clean Mailing List:
      • Regularly update and clean your mailing list to remove invalid or inactive email addresses. This will help improve your sender reputation and overall email deliverability.
    8. Stay Updated on Best Practices:
      • Email deliverability standards and best practices evolve. Stay updated on the latest recommendations and ensure your WordPress website’s email configuration remains compliant and optimized for deliverability.

    By taking these steps, you will significantly improve the chances of your emails reaching your customers’ inboxes, thereby ensuring better communication and enhancing customer satisfaction.

    Should you have any further questions or need assistance with improving your email deliverability, feel free to reach out to me or leave a comment.

  • Email Attachments Made Easy — Reliable Delivery Strategies

    I do the scheduling of the flood irrigation for our street, sending out an email every 2 weeks to 75 people. It consists of a JPEG (different each time), then a standard message pasted from my clipboard, and then the schedule as a pdf. 

    Then, when my preset alarm would sound, I could send it from my phone no matter where I was.

    Since I upgraded, I make up the email on my computer, and it is saved as before and shows up on my phone, except that the JPEG and PDF do not show up on my phone, only the text shows up. When I send from the phone, all that sends is the text.

    It doesn’t make any difference if I attach the JPEG and PDF, or drag and drop them.

    If I send it from my computer, all 3 will send.

    Hopefully someone out there will know if there is some little box or something that has to be checked or unchecked.

    A mystified computer user

    There are several things that affect email attachments getting delivered with your emails.

    1. Attachment Issues: It’s possible that the attachments you’re including in your emails are getting blocked during the delivery process. Here are some potential reasons to consider:
      • Display Images: Most email reader programs have a feature to reduce Internet download size and increase privacy, by not download images until you click “display images” or similar.
      • Attachment Size: Many email providers, including Hotmail/Outlook, have limitations on the size of attachments that can be sent. If your JPEG and PDF files are too large, they might not be getting through. You could try using cloud storage links, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, for larger attachments and provide the link in your email.
      • Attachment Format: Some email services might block certain attachment formats. To ensure compatibility, you might want to consider using widely accepted formats for your attachments. JPEG is “standard” but some graphics programs might use non-standard headers or formats. PDF is “pretty standard”, check the options in your software so nothing not necessary is included.
      • Spam Considerations: Attachments with large images and minimal text can sometimes trigger spam filters. To avoid this, try balancing text and image content in your emails.
      • Check Email Headers: Check the “source code” or “headers” of the email you receive, it usually mentions problems with emails. There are Email Header Analyzers online.
    2. Email Service Providers: Hotmail and Yahoo are known for their deliverability challenges and high spam rates. For more reliable email delivery and a more professional appearance, consider switching to more reputable providers like GMail (part of Google Workspace) or Zoho Mail. These providers offer advanced security features and better deliverability.
      • Domain Reputation: If you have a domain name, configure your domain’s email settings (MX records, DKIM, SPF) to send emails via GMail or Zoho. This can help improve the credibility of your emails and reduce the chance of them from being flagged as suspicious.
      • “Send Later” Feature: Both Zoho Mail and GMail offer a “send later” feature, allowing you to prepare emails in advance and schedule them for sending at a specific time. This would help reduce the steps you have to take for sending these emails.
    3. Website Integration: Moving your irrigation schedule information to a website, particularly using a platform like WordPress, could offer several benefits:
      • Publication Control: With WordPress, you can schedule the publication date and time of your content. This ensures emails go out when you want, without you having to manually send them.
      • Display Flexibility: Websites provide better control over page layout compared to emails. You can design your content using text, images, all of WordPress elements, creating a more engaging experience for everyone. Have the PDF as a “download link”. You probably want to have all the information that is in the PDF also be in WordPress as text and images.
    4. Email List and Newsletter Services: Consider using email list and newsletter services for improved deliverability and professionalism. Services like Brevo, AWeber, GetResponse, and MailChimp offer features to enhance your email campaigns. You can create professional-looking emails, manage subscribers, and increase the chances of successful email delivery.
      • Integration with WordPress: Many of these services integrate seamlessly with WordPress. You can use plugins (most of them are free) to gather subscribers from your website and design emails directly within the WordPress interface.

    These suggestions should provide you with a clearer path forward, to address your email challenges. If you have any further questions or need assistance with any of the solutions mentioned, please contact me, I’m here to help.