Bounced emails can disrupt your workflow and affect how you connect with your customers and suppliers, especially in the fast-paced worlds of travel and event planning. Ensuring your emails reach the correct inbox is essential for managing bookings, sharing itineraries, and coordinating events seamlessly.
In this article, we’ll provide tips to help you reduce email bounce rates, improve deliverability, and keep your communication on track.
💡 If the information below seems confusing, don’t worry—it’s technical!
Feel free to reach out to your IT department for assistance if you’re unsure about any of the details.
ENSURE YOUR SETUP IS OPTIMISED
We use authentication methods such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to secure our emails. In addition to initial email verification, implementing technical measures like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and configuring a return-path can significantly enhance email deliverability. Consult with your IT department to ensure these protocols are properly implemented and recognized by your systems.
Enable DKIM: DKIM ensures email integrity by adding a digital signature that confirms the email hasn’t been altered and verifies the sender’s domain.
Implement DMARC: DMARC provides instructions for handling emails that fail authentication and prevents phishing by blocking unauthorized use of your domain.
Set up SPF records: SPF helps ensure that authorized email servers—such as Mandrill’s email servers, which Qondor uses—are allowed to send messages on behalf of your domain. By publishing an SPF record in your domain’s DNS, you can prevent unauthorized use of your domain, reduce the chances of emails being marked as spam, and improve overall deliverability.
Configure a return-path: A correctly configured return-path is crucial to avoid emails being blocked. If the return-path is not set up properly, it can result in DMARC authentication failures. This address is where bounced emails are sent, allowing you to monitor issues and take corrective action. In the recommended setup for our customers, bounce emails are routed to Mandrill, which can forward a notification if needed.
RESOLVING EMAIL DELIVERY ISSUES ON THE RECIPIENT'S END
When you have ensured your setup is optimised, but emails still aren’t reaching your recipients inbox, the issue might lie with your recipient's specific email or network settings. In some cases, local firewalls or spam filters could block emails from our platform. To address this, we’ve compiled a list of suggestions that might help ensure our emails reach your recipients without issues.
Tips to share with your customers to ensure email delivery
To help ensure our emails reach your customers' inboxes, we recommend sharing these tips with them:
Allowlist Mandrill's IP addresses
Advise your customers to ask their IT department to allowlist Mandrill's email server IP addresses in their system. This ensures smooth delivery of emails sent on your behalf and helps prevent them from being blocked or marked as spam.
A list of Mandrill's IP addresses can be found here: https://mailchimp.com/about/ips/.
Verify email authentication
Your emails are sent using secure authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Encourage your customers to ensure their IT systems recognise and accept these mechanisms for smooth delivery.
Check spam or junk folders
Remind customers to check their spam or junk folders, as emails may occasionally land there. By marking your emails as "safe" or "not spam," future communications will be directed to their inbox.
Review log files (for IT departments)
If emails are being blocked or filtered, suggest that customers request relevant log files from their IT department. Sharing these with you can help identify and resolve the root cause of any issues.
If further assistance is needed, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!