# What You Should Know About Email Deliverability in 2025

Email deliverability has gotten tougher—privacy shifts, bot clicks, and stricter inbox rules mean the old playbook doesn’t work. The upside? Brands that treat deliverability like performance marketing are winning by sending less, but smarter.

If it feels like email deliverability got a lot more complicated, it’s because it did. Between privacy protections, bot clicks, inbox filtering rules, and the end of open rate reliability—getting into the inbox has never been harder. But here’s the good news: brands who treat deliverability like performance marketing (because it is) are seeing measurable results. And the best part? Most of it comes down to doing less, but doing it better. Let’s unpack what’s happening—and what your brand can do about it. Inbox ≠ Delivery We’ll say it louder for the people in the back: just because your email was “delivered” doesn’t mean it landed where you wanted it to. Landing in Gmail’s Promotions tab or worse—Spam—means lower engagement, lower revenue, and an uphill climb back to trust. Here’s the math: Bloomreach estimates a 1-point drop in inbox placement can cut peak-season revenue by up to 3%. At Roswell, we’ve seen this firsthand with brands like Hyperlite, Pura Vida, and Rotor Riot.  Deliverability isn’t a technical afterthought—it’s a growth lever. Big Tech Has Spoken: The 2025 Deliverability Rulebook Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) Remember when open rate was your go-to health check? Not anymore. Apple now preloads email content and masks real user behavior, inflating opens by 15–35%. Gmail & Yahoo If you’re sending more than 5,000 emails per day, Google and Yahoo now require: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication One-click unsubscribe A spam complaint rate below 0.3% Ignore these? You risk getting filtered or blocked altogether. Outlook / Hotmail As of May 2025, Microsoft is taking a similar approach—emails from unauthenticated domains go straight to Junk. Translation: deliverability is no longer a best practice. It’s table stakes. Open Rates Are Lying to You With Apple’s MPP inflating opens and security bots pre-clicking links to scan for malware, engagement metrics are murkier than ever. What should you look at instead? Unique click-through rate Revenue per recipient Spam complaint rate Inbox placement via seed testing or Postmaster Tools Klaviyo, Iterable, and Attentive all recommend putting less weight on opens and more on true behavioral signals. We agree. Bot Clicks & Spam Filters Are Getting Smarter (and Stricter) Security filters now open your emails, click every link, and analyze everything in milliseconds. These aren’t your customers—they’re bots scanning for threats. We suggest using timestamp analysis to detect bot behavior. If a click happens before an open, or within 1 second of delivery, it’s probably not human. There’s also a rise in spam-kit reuse—sophisticated layouts that mimic brand emails to dodge filters and fool users. The takeaway? Inbox providers are on edge. Your job: Minimize tracking parameters in links Avoid recycled design patterns Monitor complaint rates obsessively (keep them under 0.1%) Less Is More: Segmentation is the Secret Sauce If you’re still sending every email to every person on your list—stop. It’s tempting to think bigger lists = bigger results. But wide sends to cold or disengaged contacts are a fast track to the spam folder. Statistics show that brands that send to only their most engaged 70% see a 15% higher inbox placement rate. Platforms like Orita AI are taking this to the next level—automatically excluding low-likelihood openers and optimizing for revenue per send. The result? Brands send 25% fewer emails but make more money. At Roswell, we’ve seen clients cut spam complaints in half just by capping sends to those who clicked in the last 90 days. Less volume. More impact. Smarter Monitoring = Better Performance There’s no such thing as “set it and forget it” with deliverability. Keep a constant pulse: Google Postmaster Tools: See how Gmail rates your domain reputation Seed List Testing (Litmus, Email on Acid): Understand where your emails actually land Orita AI: Detects risk-prone segments and surfaces high-impact micro-audiences Attentive’s Spam Filter Warnings: Predict content that might trigger blocks before you send Think of it as a CRO loop—but for your inbox health. Your 2025 Deliverability Checklist Here’s your cheat sheet. Bookmark it. Use it. Share it with your ESP manager. ✅ SPF, DKIM, DMARC (p=quarantine or higher)  ✅ BIMI + Verified Mark Certificate  ✅ Dedicated IP or subdomain (warmed gradually)  ✅ Remove hard bounces immediately  ✅ Suppress disengaged contacts  ✅ Segment by recent clicks, not just opens  ✅ Real-time unsubscribe options  ✅ Keep spam complaints <0.1% ✅ Monitor inbox placement regularly  ✅ Run spam tests before every campaign  ✅ Secure all links (HTTPS, no redirects)  ✅ Review your settings quarterly  The TL;DR Inbox placement isn’t about luck—it’s about discipline. In a world where privacy is protected, bots behave like buyers, and open rates mean nothing, deliverability is earned—not assumed. The brands winning in 2025 are the ones playing the long game:  ✔ Authenticating properly  ✔ Segmenting intelligently ✔ Watching their data like it’s a P&L line We’ve seen it time and time again: the more strategic your targeting, the more primary inboxes you land in—and the less you rely on praying for opens. Want help with that strategy? Start with a retention audit or segmentation consultation. We’ve got you. 📥 Ready to land in more inboxes? Let’s talk: roswell.nyc/contact

## Contact Information
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Phone: 212.227.6140
Email: contact@roswellstudios.com

## About Roswell
We are a full service eCommerce agency providing conversion focused experiences for direct-to-consumer (DTC) and B2B brands. Our portfolio grossed over $350M USD in 2024.