Logo
  • Solutions
    • SMTP Service
    • Email API
    • Concierge Service
    • Deliverability & Reporting
    • On Premises
    • StreamScore
  • Why SocketLabs?
    • About
    • Success Stories
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • eBooks
    • Tools
    • API Documentation
    • Help Center
  • Pricing
  • Contact Us
Login Start Free Trial
Login Start Free Trial

SocketLabs Blog

Email Best Practices, Advice, Trends and Tips

Popular Categories
  • Authentication & Security
  • Best Practices
  • Community
  • Customer Experience
  • Deliverability

Category

On-Demand

View All
How to Fix WordPress When It’s Not Sending Email

WordPress Not Sending Emails? Here’s the Easy Way to Fix

Is your Wordpress not sending emails? Find out what’s likely causing your WP email delivery issues and discover a fast and easy solution.

How to Fix WordPress When It’s Not Sending Email

WordPress Not Sending Emails? Here’s the Easy Way to Fix

Is your Wordpress not sending emails? Find out what’s likely causing your WP email delivery issues and discover a fast and easy solution.

by John Porrini - September 13, 2021
Web api send email

How to Use a Web API to Send Email

With just a simple API, any developer can enable their organization to send email at scale. Learn more about using a Web API to send email…

by John Porrini - November 19, 2018
Secure Email API

Secure Email API: Best Practices for Message Protection

Does using an API make email more secure? In this blog post we’ll discuss whether or not an Email API will make your email more secure. Ready? Let’s go…

by John Porrini - November 19, 2018
server dashboard

Announcing New Dashboard Enhancements

As we continued to improve the SocketLabs experience, one of our goals is to make it easier for you to access your Server Dashboard. That’s why starting today, you may notice a few slight but meaningful changes in your user experience. Here’s what you need to know: Have one server? Now you’ll be sent directly […]

by John Porrini - March 19, 2018
Get Server Id

How To Configure The SocketLabs WordPress Plugin For Optimized Email Delivery

The SocketLabs WordPress Plugin allows you to easily route email generated by WordPress through SocketLabs for improved deliverability.

by John Porrini - December 14, 2017
Customer Support PIN

Introducing The Customer Support PIN

At SocketLabs, we take the security of your account and data very seriously. That’s why we created a new feature called the Customer Support PIN. Now, when you call or live chat with us, we may ask you to provide your four digit PIN to verify that you are associated with the account. In this […]

by John Porrini - December 4, 2017
email list segmentation is here

Email List Segmentation Is Here – Introducing Segmentation & Smart Lists

With our new email list segmentation feature now you can segment your email lists so you can send the right content to the right people

by John Porrini - October 19, 2017

Best Practices with Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

What is SPF? Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is one of the primary means of authenticating email messages as they transit the Internet. The importance of SPF is growing as additional technologies, such as DMARC, are built on top of the standard. As more domains implement SPF records, greater value is derived from the framework for anti-spam […]

by Brian Godiksen - September 14, 2017
Verb Address

Big Improvements to Our Custom Bounce Domain Feature

We have made yet another huge update to the SocketLabs On-Demand platform. Now you can add Multiple Custom Bounce Domains to your SocketLabs account for a fully white-labeled experience and other benefits such as: More control and flexibility over your messages. Improved branding of your emails. Put SocketLabs deeper in the background of your email […]

by John Porrini - July 28, 2017

A Monumental Leap for Our Best Email Designer Yet

In our effort to help anyone build and send effective email campaigns, we have taken our suite of Simple Email Marketing Tools to a whole new level. And today, we’re happy to introduce our biggest update yet to the SocketLabs Email Designer. Here are just a few of the improvements that we made: With a […]

by John Porrini - July 3, 2017
Drag and drop is here

Our Email Designer Just Got Even Better With Sections & Elements

See how we made it even easier for anyone to create a great looking email with our Email Designer. Today, we’re proud to unveil the first of many big changes to the Email Designer coming from our dedicated developers and designers who managed to do some awesome work, even with Nerf Darts blazing past their […]

by John Porrini - May 2, 2017

Take Your Notification API and Inbound Parse API Endpoints Serverless with Azure Functions

Take Your Notification API and Inbound Parse API Endpoints Serverless with Azure Functions SocketLabs offers a suite of powerful programming language agnostic APIs, which enable application developers to integrate with the SocketLabs On-Demand platform. Two of our popular APIs are the Notification API and the Inbound Parse API. When you send mail through SocketLabs On-Demand, […]

by John Alessi - March 9, 2017
JSON example

How to Unleash the Power of Merge Fields

SocketLabs offers the ability to send messages through your server using our Injection API. With the Injection API you can use JSON or XML to create a large number of messages and send them to your SocketLabs server over HTTP, rather than SMTP. This allows for some significant flexibility in sending email, especially in cases […]

by Brian Godiksen - March 3, 2017
API Templates

Introducing API Templates

Send email content programmatically using SocketLabs new API templates. Learn more about our email content templates, the benefits and how they work!

by John Alessi - February 16, 2016

Today Google Announced Their DMARC Plan, and It May Affect Your Email

Google’s DMARC implementation plan may affect your outbound email. Discover what you need to know online here at SocketLabs, and try us for Free!

by Brian Godiksen - October 20, 2015

Is Poor Message Formatting Hurting Your Inbox Placement?

Is poor message formatting hurting your inbox placement? Find out now at SocketLabs! Read about error codes now to discover if your messages are compliant.

by Brian Godiksen - February 12, 2015

Protecting Your Email From Abuse

SocketLabs goes to great lengths to ensure your email server is protected from abuse. Learn about the techniques we use to maintain your email reputation!

by Bill Volz - January 13, 2015

The Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Email Results in 2015

Increase your email results in 2015 by following these 5 simple recommendations.

by John Alessi - December 23, 2014

The Importance of WHOIS Data for Email Senders

WHOIS data plays an important role in the deliverability of your email messages. Come to SocketLabs, and learn how concealing your identity may hurt you.

by Brian Godiksen - November 6, 2014

Mobile HTML Email: A First Step

Mobile HTML design can be complicated & difficult to get working for multiple email clients. Learn quick, easy tips for creating a mobile friendly email!

by John Alessi - October 22, 2014

Email Marketing With Newsletters

Send email newsletters to your customers and track engagement with SocketLabs SMTP service. Use our simple list management, & create your email campaign!

by John Alessi - September 24, 2014

Autoresponders: How They Benefit Your Business

Autoresponders provide an automated way to communicate and engage your prospects and customers. Learn about SocketLabs’ automatic email response services.

by John Alessi - September 9, 2014

How the Suppression List Feature Improves Deliverability

SMTP server deliverability can be affected by a number of factors. By using suppression list technology our hosted service protects IP reputation.

by John Alessi - August 26, 2014

Securing and Protecting the Privacy of Your Email with SSL/TLS

Learn about SSL and TLS and how they can protect your email data with a layer of security. Discover how SocketLabs provides secure email delivery and relay!

by Brian Godiksen - August 5, 2014
bot spam

Preventing Bot Spam From Damaging Your Sender Reputation

Left unchecked, bot spam can quickly damage your sender reputation with ISPs and cause delivery problems with all of your email. Learn more at SocketLabs.

by Brian Godiksen - July 14, 2014

Everything You Need to Know About Cloudmark

Cloudmark is among the largest providers of content reputation analysis. Discover everything you need to know about Cloudmark online today at SocketLabs!

by Brian Godiksen - May 16, 2014

Bring Your Email to Life With Our New HTML Editor

Bring your email marketing to life with our new HTML email editor! Learn more about the system and our HTML email services at SocketLabs today.

by John Alessi - March 17, 2014

Setting Up Your Scanner to Send Email

Learn how to set up your scanner to send email with these simple steps! Give us a call, send us an email, or come to SocketLabs blog to learn more.

by John Alessi - December 10, 2013

The Effects of Changes at Gmail on Engagement Tracking

Changes to Gmail have some effect on engagement tracking metrics. This article explains what google is doing and how SocketLabs is handling it.

by Brian Godiksen - December 6, 2013

Increase Deliverability By Separating Your Mail Streams

Transactional and Marketing email messages are looked at differently by ISPs. This article focuses on increasing deliverability by separating mail streams.

by John Alessi - November 11, 2013

The Top 5 Smart Host Mistakes An SMTP Provider Can Help With

Don’t damage your email deliverability reputation. Avoid these top 5 smart host mistakes by partnering with a free smart host service provider like SocketLabs.

by John Alessi - October 28, 2013

The Danger of Auto-Forward Rules

Use SocketLabs smarthost smtp service to help you easily find & solve email delivery issues associated with auto-forwarding rules. Read today at SocketLabs!

by Brian Godiksen - October 21, 2013

Has Your Email Exchange Server Been Blacklisted?

SocketLabs helps companies using Microsoft Exchange Servers overcome problems with blacklisting that prevent email from getting delivered. Learn more today.

by John Alessi - October 11, 2013

How Can An SMTP Smart Host Helps Solve Your Email Deliverability Issues?

SocketLabs Email On-Demand system acts as an effective SMTP smart host to deliver corporate email when your email platform falls short. Learn more today!

by John Alessi - October 7, 2013

How Transactional Email Can Affect Your Bottom Line

Transactional email delivery can be critical to establishing and keeping customers engaged. What happens when your critical transactional email doesn’t make it to your customer’s inbox?

by John Alessi - September 4, 2013

8 Easy Ways to Improve Your Transactional Email Messages

Discover these 8 easy ways to improve your transactional email messages! Come to SocketLabs, and learn how to create a positive customer experience.

by John Alessi - September 4, 2013

Email Content Analysis: An Inbound Parse Sample Application – Part 2

In Part 2 of our series on Inbound Parsing sample applications, we’re examining a simple web application built with Node.js, MongoDB, WebSockets, and D3.js. Though aimed more at developers, this post also might serve to inspire some business use cases for SocketLabs’ Inbound Parse feature. To start off, let’s take a peek at the front […]

by John Alessi - August 26, 2013

Email Content Analysis: An Inbound Parse Sample Application – Part 1

Interested in email content analysis? Discover how to get these interesting results using SocketLabs’ inbound parsing feature. Learn more today!

by John Alessi - August 19, 2013

Best Practices Using Custom DKIM Signatures

Interested in using custom DKIM signatures? We have the information you are looking for! Discover the best practices using custom DKIM signatures.

by Brian Godiksen - August 5, 2013

The Top 3 Uses of Our Inbound Email Parsing Service

SocketLabs Inbound Parsing Service is an incoming email processing capability as part of SocketLabs On-Demand SMTP relay service. Learn more today!

by John Alessi - July 29, 2013

Why you should think twice before sending to a purchased list

Growing email lists may take more effort rather than buying lists, but it is effort well spent. Learn why you shouldn’t purchase email lists at Socket Labs.

by Brian Godiksen - July 15, 2013

Feature Highlight: Engagement Tracking

This week we’re going to look at all of Engagement Tracking, discuss its benefits, and show how to use and manage this feature.

by John Alessi - July 8, 2013

New Unsubscribe Support

SocketLabs has added an Unsubscribe feature to its SMTP Relay Service. Customers can now have SocketLabs automatically add an unsubscribe link to email.

by John Alessi - July 1, 2013

Feature Highlight: Automatic BCC

Use SocketLabs automatic bcc emailing feature to copy messages and send them to the addresses of your choice! Learn more about the BCC feature online today.

by John Alessi - June 13, 2013

DKIM White Label Now Available!

Discover two ways to white label your DKIM signature within your email. Learn about custom DKIM signing and advanced DKIM signing online at SocketLabs! 

by John Alessi - May 7, 2013

Introducing SocketLabs New Inbound Parsing Service

Since the start of our SocketLabs On-Demand SMTP Relay Service we have provided outbound email message delivery only. Today we are proud to announce our all new Inbound Parsing feature.  This powerful new feature opens brand new possibilities for companies looking to outsource inbound message delivery.  For CRM, message board, or support oriented applications that […]

by John Alessi - April 30, 2013

New SocketLabs On-Demand API and More!

New API and Other Great New Features This past week we released some brand new Socketlabs On-Demand features and functionality that we think our customers are going to love.  We have a brand-new email API which we call our Notification API.  The new Notification API delivers real-time event tracking notifications (messages sent, failed, etc…) via […]

by John Alessi - March 15, 2013

Control Panel Reports Get New Graphs and Charts

SocketLabs hosted Email Delivery service adds new analytical graphs and charts to its online control panel reporting system.

by John Alessi - February 12, 2013

2012 in Review

2012 was another great year at SocketLabs. We maintained strong growth and expanded our SMTP Server and SMTP Relay systems. Here is what we accomplished:

by John Alessi - January 30, 2013

Best Practices for Using Custom MailingIDs and MessageIDs

Socket Labs provides information on the best practices for using custom MailingIDs and MessageIDs. Find email delivery solutions at SocketLabs.com!

by Brian Godiksen - January 24, 2013

Don’t Let Blacklisted Domains Affect Your Deliverability

Over the past few months, we have been working on designing and implementing a new ultra-efficient spam detection system across our entire outbound email delivery infrastructure.  Processing billions of messages a year through our SMTP servers makes it difficult to scrutinize each and every message to the level of detail we desire.  As we have incrementally […]

by Brian Godiksen - January 15, 2013
The new Control Panel Dashboard

The All-New SocketLabs On-Demand Control Panel

SocketLabs is excited to announce that today we will be releasing a major update to the SocketLabs On-Demand Control Panel. We have completely rewritten the all-new SocketLabs On-Demand Control Panel from scratch and we have included some great new features.  While maintaining a similar look and feel, we have drastically improved the Control Panel’s performance. Below […]

by Brian Godiksen - January 7, 2013

Comcast Moves to Block Port 25 for Residential Customers

Comcast has recently announced several changes to its residential Internet service.  The most notable change is the block of TCP port 25.  Port 25 is the default SMTP port used to send email on the Internet.  Most email clients by default use port 25 to send email.  The net effect of this block is that […]

by John Alessi - August 8, 2012

Configuring an IIS SMTP Server to Relay to SocketLabs On-Demand

Learn how to configure an IIS SMTP server to relay to SocketLabs’ On-Demand. Follow these 5 simple steps to increase performance and reliability!

by Brian Godiksen - June 14, 2012

Getting Serious About Security

Today we will be releasing an update to the  SocketLabs On-Demand Control Panel with many new security improvements.  We understand the importance of protecting your email data and we want to make sure you know we are serious about it.  Most of today’s changes should go completely unnoticed.  There are, however, a few important changes […]

by Brian Godiksen - February 22, 2012

All new Suppression List management features now available!

SocketLabs is excited to announce some great new features to help you manage your Suppression List! If you are unfamiliar with the Suppression List page, it can be found in the Control Panel. Once you’ve selected a Server to manage just click on Configuration menu in the top menu bar and then select “View Suppression List”. Upon […]

by Brian Godiksen - October 11, 2011

New Search Features

We are always hard at work trying to enhance your experience with our SocketLabs On-Demand service.  This week we released an update that contained some fantastic new enhancements.  If you haven’t already noticed, here is a quick overview of what we added. Searching in the Control Panel and API You will find it is much […]

by Brian Godiksen - July 15, 2011

360 Degree Monitoring

I am happy to announce that we have launched our 360 Degree Email Monitoring project. What is 360 Degree Email Monitoring? This is an aggressive monitoring system that we developed to help us instantly detect and correct any bottlenecks that may occur in our outbound email delivery network, and measure real outbound email delivery performance every […]

by John Alessi - May 19, 2011

New SocketLabs On-Demand Features

I am proud to announce version 4.0 of the SocketLabs On-Demand control panel which includes exciting new features. Version 4.0 has been months in the working, and represents a complete restructuring of the underpinnings of our data systems. This update not only provides great features today, it also lays the groundwork for many new and […]

by John Alessi - February 23, 2011

Changes to SocketLabs On-Demand Suppression Handling

We are making a change to our suppression systems of which you should be aware. The SocketLabs On-Demand automatic suppression system dramatically increases your deliverability by automatically blocking email to addresses which have previously hard bounced or previously complained about one of your mailings. This year we are reinforcing our email delivery infrastructure to make […]

by John Alessi - February 1, 2011

The Buzz about Amazon’s SES

I love Amazon. When recently asked, I quickly named them as one of my favorite brands. I buy everything I can through Amazon. Their fast shipping and great prices are hard to beat. Recently we have been contemplating putting some of our resources into the Amazon Cloud (AWS) and we have therefore spent a LOT […]

by John Alessi - January 26, 2011

Important SocketLabs On-Demand API Change

If you are using the SocketLabs On-Demand API, there is a change coming that may affect you. This change only applies to the messagesProcessed method of the SocketLabs On-Demand API. If you are not using the messagesProcessed method, then this change will not affect you. Currently the messagesProcessed method of the SocketLabs On-Demand API returns […]

by John Alessi - January 10, 2011

Some Changes to our SocketLabs On-Demand Billing

Corrected Charges for Suppressed Messages You may be aware of our suppression system which blocks delivery to email addresses which are invalid or which have previously complained about your mailing. ISPs penalize you for attempting delivery to invalid addresses or addresses which have complained about your mailings, so the SocketLabs On-Demand suppression system is a […]

by John Alessi - January 3, 2011

Some Updates to SocketLabs On-Demand

Failure Report and API Now Show Suppressed Items The SocketLabs On-Demand Failure Report which shows all delivery failures, now includes messages which have been suppressed. If you are unfamilliar with our suppression system, follow this link to learn more. Suppressed items show up on the report with the Failure Type set to “Suppressed”. In addition, […]

by John Alessi - December 21, 2010

Domain Name / URL Changes for SocketLabs On-Demand

When we launched the SocketLabs On-Demand control panel in 2009, we began using the domain email-od.com for the control panel, and then followed suit with the API. I am not sure exactly why we started using a different domain name. I guess we weren’t sure how we wanted to integrate SocketLabs On-Demand into the socketlabs.com […]

by John Alessi - October 18, 2010

New “Quality Score” in SocketLabs On-Demand

Each SocketLabs On-Demand account has a new “Quality Score” which is now displayed prominently on the control panel dashboard. The Quality Score is a measure of how well we think your email is performing on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best). It is important to note that the score is based solely on […]

by John Alessi - August 5, 2010

The 5 Key Components to Email Deliverability

I often get asked as I am talking to perspective customers, “What do you do to make sure our email goes into the inbox?”.  It’s a valid question and really the number one concern for the people who are coming to us looking for help.  It isn’t until they start experiencing deliverability problems that they […]

by John Alessi - June 9, 2010

SocketLabs On-Demand Control Panel Update Brings Timezone Support

A new update pushed out last night brings full timezone support to the SocketLabs On-Demand control panel. Previously all times displayed were Eastern time. Now your dates and times are displayed and treated according to the local timezone of the computer you are using to view the data! Follow John Alessi on Twitter: @johnalessi

by John Alessi - April 28, 2010

New SocketLabs On-Demand API Update Includes Time Zone and Open/Click Support

Last night we rolled out an updated SocketLabs On-Demand API with the following new functionality: A new messagesOpenClick method can be used to get information on each message open or click event. Full timezone support. By default the API now retrieves dates and times as UTC, however a new timeZone parameter enables developers to specify […]

by John Alessi - April 28, 2010

Open / Click Tracking Now Live in SocketLabs On-Demand

SocketLabs On-Demand customers can now see who opened their outbound messages or who clicked on links in their messages. A snapshot of the data is available on the dashboard: And there is also a new dedicated report for open and click tracking: There is no charge for this new feature, but you must enable it […]

by John Alessi - April 27, 2010

New SocketLabs On-Demand API Released

I am pleased to announce the much anticipated release of our new API for SocketLabs On-Demand. On-Demand is SocketLabs’ cloud-based SMTP server platform. With a SocketLabs’ On-Demand account, users simply relay their outbound email to our cloud based server and let us take care of the rest. SocketLabs actively manages all aspects of your email […]

by John Alessi - December 16, 2009

Ready to get started?

Sign up for a free trial and start sending in minutes.

Start Free Trial
Solutions
  • SMTP Service
  • Email APIs
  • Tailored Solutions
  • Deliverability
  • Pricing
  • Login
Socketlabs vs
  • SendGrid
  • SparkPost
  • MailGun
Company
  • About Us
  • Case Studies
  • Security & Compliance
  • Careers
  • Blog
  • News & Press
Help
  • Help Center
  • API Documentation
  • Contact Us
  • System Status
Sign up for our newsletter

© Copyright 2022 SocketLabs. All Rights Reserved.

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy and Cookies
  • Acceptable Use Policy
  • GDPR