We decided to write a checklist article for anyone who is interested in sending opt-in mass emails but worry about the email delivery. If you are targeting the highest delivery rate, we strongly recommend you to follow this check list.

• Mail Server IP Address(es)
  Use a consistent IP address to send bulk email. Be sure that your mail server IP address(es) are clean and not black listed. Use http://dnsstuff.com/ for detailed reporting and monitor daily.
• Reverse DNS
  Be sure that valid reverse DNS records for sender IP addresses set correctly. This is a must-have.
• From: Email Address
  Be sure to use the same “From:” email address for your emails. Never change from email address when sending bulk emails. You may be banned from email services and considered as a spammer.
• SPF/SenderID Records
  Publish SPF record for your sender domains (http://spf.pobox.com/wizard.html)
• DKIM/DomainKeys Authentication
  Sign your domains with DKIM/DomainKeys (http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys and http://www.dkim.org/)
• Unsubscription Link
  There should be clearly described and noticeable unsubscription link inside your emails. Don’t afraid about inserting remarkable unsubscription links inside your emails. Let your recipients go if they don’t want to read your emails. Otherwise, you will let them to mark your emails as “spam”. Unsubscription process must be a single-click process.
• Bounced Emails
  Ability to filter and delete bounced email addresses. Never send emails over and over again to bounced email addresses.
• List-Unsubscribe
  List-unsubscribe email header. This header will let your recipeints to unsubscribe with a single click through their email clients or services usch as Hotmail/Live Mail.
• Recipient Email Address
  Explicitly indicate the recipient email address inside the newsletter. By doing this, you may avoid misunderstandings when the recipient forwards your email to a friend.
• Reply-To Address
  Be sure that reply-to email address is being monitored. All replies will be sent to reply-to email address. So, be sure that it’s being monitored.
• Multi-Part Email
  Be sure to include plain version of the content if you are sending HTML newsletter.
• Bulk Sender
  Precedence:bulk header should be included. In this way, email services will consider you as a bulk sender and it will decrease the chance of marking you as a spammer.
• Individual White Listing
  Request recipients to add the “from:” email address into their contact lists. This will help you to pass spam filters easier.
• Abuse Registration
  Include abuse email address in the email body. And don’t forget to register your abuse email addresses in http://abuse.net/
• Domain Life-Time
  Be sure that your sender domain WHOIS record information is up-to-date and on abuse.net. Be sure that your domain expiry date is not close as this will decrease the reputation of your domain.

We hope this checklist help you to maximize your email delivery. Every item in this list is a must-have for professional email marketing.

Addition to this check list, don’t forget to follow all terms written in http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm