August 2018 Summaries

Domain reputation is a crucial factor in email deliverability, as mailbox providers assess how your domain is perceived by receivers. It's calculated based on complex algorithms that evaluate the performance of your messages and their impact on inbox placement. Your domain doesn't have a single reputation; instead, it has multiple reputations unique to each receiver's proprietary scoring processes. To gain insight into your domain's overall health, you can use free online tools such as Google Postmaster Tools, Talos Intelligence, third-party filtering software like Barracuda and McAfee, SpamAssassin filters, and public block lists. By monitoring these tools and following best practices for improving your domain reputation, you can optimize deliverability to mailbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and others.

To receive emails in a Rails app using Postmark's inbound email processing, one needs to set up a Postmark account and configure it to forward incoming emails to a specific server. This server must be configured with an inbound email address that can be used to identify which articles a response should be associated with. The article ID is added to the email address by appending a '+' symbol. A Rails app must then create a controller method, such as `create`, to handle the incoming webhook payloads sent by Postmark. This method parses the JSON payload, extracts the article ID and user information, creates a new response record in the database, and returns a 200 response code. The `create` method must be configured to disable CSRF protection on the webhook endpoint. A route must also be set up for the controller action. Once all these steps are completed, the Rails app can receive and process incoming email responses from users.

We've made significant design improvements in the Postmark app, including a new activity feed, DNS Settings page, and redesign of webhook pages. The new Servers page has been redesigned to provide better search options, sorting, and features such as pinning frequently used servers and displaying current spam complaint percentages. Hovering over a server also provides shortcuts for saving time, including basic activity page searches and direct access to Outbound or Inbound activity pages. The updated design aims to make navigating the Postmark account faster and more efficient.

The welcome email is a crucial part of a customer's first interaction with a product, providing an opportunity to offer useful information that helps them explore the product. Effective welcome emails from popular products like Slack, Harvest, Basecamp, and FreeAgent highlight the importance of friendly copy, clear call-to-actions, important account details, resources for getting started, reply-To addresses for customer support, and links or phone numbers for contacting support. A well-designed welcome email can help improve engagement rates by providing a positive first impression and setting customers up for success with the product.