Email Deliverability Tools - 250ok, Glockapps, ReturnPath, Litmus

[Josh_Hill13]

These are all wildly different services, but somewhat diff in their best use. 

• Litmus = email rendering. They also have a full feature toolkit as described. 
  • In order to use the deliverability, spam tests, audience tests, and inbox, you need to:
    • Add Seed List to every send and/or
    • Place pixel in every send
• 250ok 
  • similar in feature set and data to ReturnPath and Litmus
  • UI isn't that good.
  • limited to 15 tests/campaigns per month (at least in the Marketo package)
    • Inbox Tests - big issue is that I'm sampling the Seedlist and not getting a smooth daily view into what's working and what's not by type of email. I bet the others have a similar issue if they limit by campaign.
    • Audience Tests - so you have to choose which email sends to add the pixel to. A bit inconvenient. This is likely your best bet to get real data from your actual list.
  • Mostly uses Seedlists to gather data on inboxing
    • Sender data and MSFT tracking is helpful as a guide. Doesn't really give you any actionable information.
    • Handles multiple IPs.
  • Spam Assassin type info isn't that helpful, IMO. Honestly, if you have a good coder, they know the right email code to not get flagged on silly items.
• EmailOnAcid -
  • Believe it renders better than Litmus for email. We use it.
  • Disappointed they stopped rendering landing pages.
• ReturnPath
• • has all the features, looks more deeply into technical delivery and offers more of a dashboard for tracking blacklists and direct links to remove yourself. Except, you can do this part yourself in 10 mins.
  • Whitelisting help.
  • Audience - they use a panel audience with their pixel rather than just rely on your sent audience. Supposedly provides deeper inbox data.
  • I'm a bit skeptical it does any more than 250ok so I haven't switched. 
  • control your pricing and options.
• G Lock Apps
  • haven't used it.
  • Seems like their core proposition is tab and inbox monitoring
  • automated testing sounds cool.
  • relies on seed lists.

[Mackenzie_Warre]

Here's a fun thing I learned from one of Marketo's deliverability experts who used to work at Return Path. Return Path is very consumer email centric. We were checking our Sender Score with them to monitor the health of our dedicated IP, but our list is heavily B2B with lots of Outlook & Proofpoint users, so the deliverability consultant said the Return Path Sender Score doesn't give us an accurate picture. We will likely continue to use it as one component of our deliverability monitoring, but will be placing less stock in it going forward.

[Pierce_Ujjainw3]

Litmus has an amazing community and we have been using their testing tools for years and have been really happy with them.