email-best-practices

Email Best Practices Guidance for building deliverable, compliant, user-friendly emails. Architecture Overview [User] → [Email Form] → [Validation] → [Double Opt-In] ↓ [Consent Recorded] ↓ [Suppression Check] ←──────────────[Ready to Send] ↓ [Idempotent Send + Retry] ──────→ [Email API] ↓ [Webhook Events] ↓ ┌────────┬────────┬─────────────┐ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Delivered Bounced Complained Opened/Clicked ↓ ↓ [Suppression List Updated] ↓ [List Hygiene Jobs] Quick Reference Need to... See Set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC, fix spam issues Deliverability Build password reset, OTP, confirmations Transactional Emails Plan which emails your app needs Transactional Email Catalog Build newsletter signup, validate emails Email Capture Send newsletters, promotions Marketing Emails Ensure CAN-SPAM/GDPR/CASL compliance Compliance Decide transactional vs marketing Email Types Handle retries, idempotency, errors Sending Reliability Process delivery events, set up webhooks Webhooks & Events Manage bounces, complaints, suppression List Management Start Here New app? Start with the Catalog to plan which emails your app needs (password reset, verification, etc.), then set up Deliverability (DNS authentication) before sending your first email. Spam issues? Check Deliverability first—authentication problems are the most common cause. Gmail/Yahoo reject unauthenticated emails. Marketing emails? Follow this path: Email Capture (collect consent) → Compliance (legal requirements) → Marketing Emails (best practices). Production-ready sending? Add reliability: Sending Reliability (retry + idempotency) → Webhooks & Events (track delivery) → List Management (handle bounces).