Everything you need to know about SMTP relay providers and the benefits of a professional SMTP relay.
Sending an email might seem like a simple process. You write your content, press the Send button, and the message lands directly in your readers’ mailboxes. Easy, right?
However, sending an email is a much more complex process.
Sure, creating contact lists and preparing your message are excellent starting points. But there are risks that can hinder your communications: malfunctions, security issues, or poor management of deliveries.
Fortunately, these issues can be easily resolved through an SMTP relay service, which can help you smoothly reach your recipients’ inboxes, thus improving your delivery rates. A professional email relay service also assists in safeguarding your corporate domain, thereby preserving the effectiveness of your communication strategies.
But what exactly is an SMTP relay? And why should you consider using one?
We’ll explain it to you right away!
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What is an SMTP relay?
An SMTP relay is a protocol that enables the sending and delivery of emails over the Internet, from one SMTP server to another. This protocol was established in 1982 and continues to be a widely used standard even today.
In the past, an SMTP relay server consisted of an SMTP server that allowed sending emails without authentication to the recipient’s server. Due to their security limitations, open relays caused issues and many of them were added to blacklists.
Today, an SMTP relay is an email forwarding service that operates in two phases:
- Receipt of outgoing email from the sender’s SMTP server.
- Delivery to the recipient SMTP server.
Modern SMTP relays require authentication, thus excluding open relays, ensuring a better delivery rate.
Why should you use an SMTP relay service?
But let’s get to the point: how does the SMTP relay process affect your email deliveries? And why should you use a professional SMTP relay like turboSMTP?
To begin with, if you rely on a public SMTP for sending your emails, you should know that the delivery of your messages also depends on the behavior of individuals who share the same server. This means that if other users were to send spam to their contacts, your deliverability would also be harmed.
On the other hand, an SMTP relay service provides an independent SMTP server with a good reputation, avoiding security issues such as phishing, spam, and identity theft.
But here are the main reasons why you should start using a professional SMTP provider.
1. Using an SMTP relay provider can help you improve your IP address reputation.
If you send a low volume of emails, you might be perceived as a spammer due to the inconsistent activity of your IP address. But, as we mentioned earlier, you could also share your IP address with someone who sends spam, and then you would face some delivery issues.
By using a cloud SMTP relay like TurboSMTP, you’ll have the assurance that your emails reach their destination, thanks to the use of an IP address with a good reputation.
2. An SMTP relay service helps you manage poorly functioning anti-spam filters.
Even if you use an anti-spam filter, it doesn’t mean you’ll avoid all delivery issues. In case there’s an outbound anti-spam filter evasion, it could compromise the reputation of your IP address. If this leakage isn’t intercepted, “unwanted” emails might prevail over legitimate ones, resulting in the non-delivery of your messages. A simple solution to address this kind of problem is to rely on an email relay provider, which ensures an alternative route for message delivery, thus ensuring better reliability.
3. An SMTP relay provider enables you to manage your sending securely and professionally.
SMTP supports authentication mechanisms like SMTP AUTH and allows you to implement basic authentication methods such as SPF and DKIM records.
Moreover, SMTP servers like turboSMTP employ systems to encrypt communication between email servers, further enhancing the security of your email communications.
Furthermore, only a professional SMTP server allows you to communicate with email clients through feedback loops. This way, you’ll see an improvement in your IP address reputation and reduce security risks for your domain, enhancing deliverability.
TurboSMTP also operates in full compliance with the European GDPR regulations, ensuring proper management of personal data.
TurboSMTP agisce inoltre nel completo rispetto della normativa europea del GDPR, per garantirti una corretta gestione dei dati personali.
4. An SMTP relay enables email performance tracking.
The SMTP protocol allows email delivery and tracking platforms, such as turboSMTP, to more accurately analyze the performance of your sends.
Monitoring SMTP response codes can provide key insights into your deliveries, including delivery, open, and click rates, as well as help you identify any issues to address.
5. A cloud SMTP relay enables bounce monitoring.
When an email cannot be delivered to the recipient’s mailbox (due to a non-existent email address, a full mailbox, etc.), the receiving server sends a bounce notification to the sender.
The SMTP protocol aids email delivery and tracking platforms in handling these bounce notifications, allowing you to clean your lists to improve delivery and sender reputation.
SMTP relay service: here’s how turboSMTP can help you reach your subscribers.
TurboSMTP provides you with a mail relay service that enhances the security of your communications and the deliverability of your messages. But let’s take a look at some of the benefits of turboSMTP.
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TurboSMTP ensures better performance for your deliveries.
When you send an email, your server connects to your recipient’s server to get the message to its destination. This means that if you send the same message to multiple people, as in the case of mass email sending, your server will connect differently to each of your recipients.
By using a professional relay server, you will see improved performance: in fact, your mail system will be the single point of delivery to connect to.
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The SMTP relay provided by turboSMTP offers you enhanced security.
Thanks to the integrated authentication service, only authorized senders will be able to send messages using your email relay.
This means that you will reduce security issues associated with public SMTPs and that more emails will reach their destination.
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TurboSMTP allows you to monitor reports and statistics.
This way, you can keep track of all the data related to your deliveries and improve your future campaigns based on the results achieved.
Among the metrics you can track are: open rates, click rates, bounce rates, etc.
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TurboSMTP’s relay service provides you with customer support in your language.
TurboSMTP offers a customer support team that speaks your language and will help you solve any issues you might encounter during your deliveries.
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TurboSMTP’s relay service allows you to keep your mailing list clean.
When the emails you send don’t reach recipients’ inboxes, those addresses will be added to suppression lists and won’t receive your messages anymore. This is because, when your emails don’t get delivered, they can harm your future sends.
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You can achieve increased security through DNS records.
The authentication service of turboSMTP enables you to protect both yourself and your recipients from phishing, spam, and spoofing attempts.
Your sender address will be recognized as secure and authorized by various email clients.
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It allows you to enhance your reputation and boost your deliverability through the Custom Tracking Domain service.
A Custom Tracking Domain is a personalized domain you can use to track your email data.
A custom tracking domain helps create a sense of greater reliability in your email recipients, isolates your reputation from that of other users, thus improving your deliverability.
