Delivery, opens, and clicks measure server acceptances and tracking requests, not a clean count of humans reading your email. Here's how to interpret them (and what to watch instead).

What Email Delivery, Opens, and Clicks Actually Mean

Can You Use a PO Box for CAN‑SPAM? Yes.

CAN-SPAM and PO Boxes: Clearing Up the Confusion

We're thrilled to announce **AI Mode** — a powerful new way to create, edit, and refine your emails and automations with the help of Tanuki AI, your intelligent assistant built right into Bento.

Introducing AI Mode: Your New Creative Agent in Bento

Compare the best email marketing services and choose the right ESP. Find platforms that deliver real results, not just impressive feature lists.

Best Email Marketing Services: Choosing the Right ESP for Your Business

Test email headers, authentication, and Yahoo/Gmail compliance with AboutMyEmail. Get detailed reports on SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI, and more from this free tool.

AboutMyEmail: Free Email Testing Tool for Headers and Compliance

Ever wondered how to land in the primary inbox? We've got you covered in this post!

Predicting Inbox Placement

Learn trial expiration email best practices to reduce churn. Understand what makes effective trial expiration emails and how to convert trial users to paid.

Trial Expiration Email Best Practices: Reduce Churn

Reply-To seems convenient, but it adds hidden complexity to marketing emails. Here's why sending from a real inbox and forwarding replies is usually the better setup.

Stop Using `Reply-To` to Catch Marketing Replies

Find the best hubspot alternatives for your business. Compare features, pricing, and find the right solution.

HubSpot Alternatives: Email Marketing and CRM Without Paying Thousands of Dollars a Month

Compare omnichannel marketing solutions that unify email, SMS, and messaging. Find platforms with real deliverability infrastructure and value-based pricing.

Omnichannel Marketing Software: Email, SMS, and Messaging in One Platform

Learn how to check your domain reputation for email deliverability. Understand reputation monitoring tools, factors that affect reputation, and how to improve it.

How to Check Your Domain Reputation: Email Deliverability Guide

Compare the best membership platforms with built-in email marketing. Find tools that help course creators and communities grow recurring revenue.

Best Membership Platforms: Email Marketing for Course Creators and Communities

When deliverability drops, bounce messages show you where to start. Here is Bento's practical process to debug, contain issues, and recover inbox placement.

How To Handle An Email Deliverability Crisis Calmly

Ways to get your logo to show up in the inbox reliably!

BIMI Alternatives: How to Get Your Logo to Show Next to Your Emails

Learn broadcast email best practices for sending to large lists. Understand how to send bulk emails responsibly, maintain deliverability, and avoid triggering spam filters.

Broadcast Email Best Practices: How to Email Every Day Without Annoying Your Subscribers

Learn how to show different CTAs, headlines, and content to visitors based on their Bento data. Brennan Dunn walks through RightMessage's visual flow builder.

How to Personalize Your Website with RightMessage + Bento

Understand the difference between transactional and marketing emails. Learn why separating them matters for deliverability and how to use each type effectively.

Transactional vs Marketing Email: Key Differences Explained

Learn the differences between transactional and bulk email delivery. Understand how ISPs treat different email types and how to optimize delivery for each.

Transactional vs Bulk Email: Delivery Differences Explained

Bento's $30 starting price protects deliverability and ensures every customer gets the support they deserve.

Why Bento Starts at $30 (and Isn't Free)

Compare top affiliate programs, evaluate payout models, and integrate affiliate offers into Bento-powered funnels that respect your readers.

Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers: Monetize Your Audience

Find the best free landing page builder for your business. Compare features, pricing, and find the right solution.

Free Landing Page Builders: Capture Leads Without Breaking the Bank

Discover marketing software that keeps deliverability, automation, and CRM in one operator-friendly stack so your team can move faster without risking inbox placement.

Best Marketing Software: One Platform for Email, Automation, and CRM

Upgrade your email capture strategy with value-driven offers, smart popups, and Bento integrations that balance growth, compliance, and deliverability.

Email Capture Ideas: Forms, Popups, and Progressive Profiling

Learn why your emails are going to spam and how to fix inbox placement. Understand spam filters, reputation issues, and deliverability best practices.

Why Are My Emails Going to Spam?

Learn the difference between accepted and delivered email status. Understand email delivery stages, what each status means, and how to track email delivery.

Accepted vs Delivered: Understanding Email Status

Learn what the List-Unsubscribe header is and how to implement it. Understand email compliance requirements and how List-Unsubscribe improves deliverability.

List-Unsubscribe Header: Email Compliance Best Practices

Compare email outreach tools for cold sales vs marketing campaigns. Find platforms that actually deliver emails to inboxes with proven deliverability.

Best Email Outreach Tools: Cold Email vs Marketing Email Platforms

Learn from transactional email examples and best practices. Understand what makes effective transactional emails and how to design emails that engage users

Transactional Email Examples: Best Practices and Templates

Learn what DKIM is and how to set it up for email authentication. Understand DKIM signatures, DNS records, and how DKIM improves email deliverability.

DKIM: What It Is and How to Set It Up for Email

Identify risky email spam words, learn safer alternatives, and follow Bento deliverability workflows that prevent inbox placement issues before they start.

Email Spam Words to Avoid: Deliverability Checklist for Serious Senders

Discover the best MailChimp alternatives that fit your needs and budget. In this guide we will offer you comparison of platforms that scale without breaking the bank or limiting growth, and help you with steps for migration from MailChimp.

MailChimp Alternatives: Find the Right Email Platform

Most 'Bento alternative' posts are written by competitors who've never used us. Here's what they get wrong, and an honest take on when Bento is right for you.

Bento Alternative: The Truth About Other Review Posts

Find the best drip email campaign software for automated sequences. Compare tools to build email workflows that nurture leads and drive conversions.

Drip Email Campaign Software: Sequences That Convert

Learn user invitation email best practices. Understand what makes effective invitation emails and how to design invites that get accepted.

User Invitation Email Best Practices: Design Effective Invites

Compare Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for ecommerce. Find which platform delivers better automation, segmentation, and ROI for your online store's email marketing.

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: Which Email Platform Fits Your Ecommerce Store?

Find the best landing page builder to grow your email list fast. Compare tools built for conversion with email marketing integration.

Best Landing Page Builders: Convert Visitors into Email Subscribers

Learn password reset email best practices for secure user authentication. Understand what makes effective password reset emails and how to design secure reset flows.

Password Reset Email Best Practices: Secure User Authentication

Plan, write, and ship a high-performing newsletter with Bento, covering strategy, content, design, automations, and growth.

How to Create a Newsletter That Readers Love

Use high-performing opt-in email examples to grow a compliant list, protect deliverability, and launch automation sequences that deliver value from day one.

Opt-In Email Examples: Grow High-Intent Lists the Right Way

We're excited to announce that Bento has successfully completed a SOC 2 Type II audit to further demonstrate our commitment to security.

Bento is now SOC 2 Type II Compliant

Find SendGrid alternatives for email sending. Compare email API services, SMTP providers, and platforms that offer better pricing, features, or deliverability.

SendGrid Alternatives: Compare Email API Services

Learn what magic links are and how to implement them. Understand passwordless authentication, security considerations, and how to send magic link emails.

Magic Links: Passwordless Authentication Email Guide

Data breach? Product recall? Legal notice required? Sometimes you have no choice but to email everyone—including people who unsubscribed years ago. Here's how to send those high-stakes, legally mandated emails without tanking your sender reputation.

How to Send Mandated Emails Without Destroying Your Reputation

Steal ready-to-launch marketing automation workflows for onboarding, nurture, and retention. Learn how Bento keeps them flexible, compliant, and deliverability-safe.

Marketing Automation Workflows: Templates for Onboarding, Nurture, and Retention

If you send bulk emails to Outlook, Hotmail, or Live.com addresses, Microsoft has new rules starting May 5, 2025. Miss these requirements, and your emails will struggle to reach your customers' inboxes (some may be rejected entirely).

Microsoft has new email rules starting May 5th

Google just updated their email guidelines with specific rules about display names. Get this wrong, and your emails may struggle to reach Gmail inboxes—even if everything else is perfect.

Google has new email display name rules

Learn what SPF records are and how to set them up for email authentication. Understand SPF syntax, DNS configuration, and how SPF improves deliverability.

SPF Records: Complete Guide to Email Authentication

Learn what BIMI is and how to implement it. Understand brand indicators for message identification, logo display in email clients, and BIMI requirements.

What Is BIMI? Brand Indicators for Message Identification

Starting with a new domain for email? Finally got the new .com? Planning to ramp up your email volume significantly? Then domain warming isn't optional—it's essential.


How to warm up a new domain

Learn transactional email best practices to improve deliverability and user experience. Understand what makes effective transactional emails and how to design them.

Transactional Email Best Practices: Complete Guide

Discover the best scheduling app to automate client bookings with email integration. Compare top appointment scheduling tools that streamline your workflow.

Best Scheduling Apps: Automate Client Bookings with Email Integration

Discover CRM with automation that actually scales. Compare sales automation tools that combine customer data with powerful workflows for growing teams.

CRM with Automation: Sales and Marketing Workflows That Scale

Explore recurring subscription models, packaging tactics, and automation flows that help operators grow reliable monthly revenue with Bento.

Recurring Subscription Ideas: Build Predictable Revenue

Pick the wrong transactional email provider and watch support tickets pile up. Here's what actually matters: API quality, real deliverability, and honest pricing.

How to Choose a Transactional Email Provider: Complete Guide

Find the best email automation software for marketing automation workflows. Compare platforms to build email automation that drives real conversions.

Email Automation Software: Workflows That Convert

Learn how to troubleshoot email delivery issues. Understand common delivery problems, how to diagnose issues, and how to fix email delivery failures.

Troubleshooting Email Delivery Issues: Fix Delivery Problems

Design welcome email series for SaaS, ecommerce, and communities using Bento automations that accelerate activation while keeping deliverability strong.

Welcome Email Series: Automation Recipes That Onboard Faster

Learn how to check your IP reputation for email deliverability. Understand IP reputation monitoring tools, factors that affect reputation, and how to improve it.

How to Check Your IP Reputation: Email Deliverability Guide

Learn how to warm up a domain for email sending. Understand domain warmup strategies, volume increases, and best practices for building sender reputation.

How to Warm Up a Domain: Email Deliverability Best Practices

Build a practical lead scoring model that combines behavior and fit signals, then automate follow-up with Bento while safeguarding deliverability.

Lead Scoring 101: Prioritize Contacts with Bento Automations

Find the best online form builder for email capture. Compare features, pricing, integrations, and conversion tools that actually drive signups

Best Online Form Builders: Capture Leads That Actually Convert

Find the best email marketing software for ecommerce stores. Compare Shopify-native platforms and tools that drive sales through product automation.

Ecommerce Email Marketing: Drive Sales with Automation

Google Workspace pricing starts at $7/user/month but businesses often need more. Compare plans, hidden costs, and alternatives for serious email operators.

Google Workspace Pricing: When You Need More Than Just Email

Learn email design best practices for transactional emails. Understand what makes effective email design and how to create emails that engage users.

Email Design Guide: Create Effective Transactional Emails

Learn what an email API is and how to use it. Understand REST APIs, webhooks, SDKs, and how to integrate email APIs into your applications.

What Is an Email API? Complete Developer Guide

Understand the fundamentals of email marketing, why deliverability is non-negotiable, and how teams use Bento to run marketing, product, and transactional emails in one place.

What Is Email Marketing? Complete Guide for Product and Marketing Teams

Learn transactional email subject line best practices to improve open rates. Understand what makes effective subject lines and how to write subject lines that get opened.

Transactional Email Subject Lines: Best Practices for Opens

Learn receipt and invoice email best practices. Understand what makes effective receipt emails and how to design emails that build trust and reduce support requests.

Receipt and Invoice Email Best Practices: Design Guide

Learn how test emails can hurt domain reputation. Understand why test emails cause problems and how to send test emails without damaging reputation.

Test Emails Could Be Hurting Your Domain Reputation

Discover sales funnel software that boosts earnings per click, average order value, lifetime value, and more.

Sales Funnel Software: Boost EPC, AOV, LTV and more

Learn welcome email best practices to improve user onboarding. Understand what makes effective welcome emails and how to design emails that engage new users.

Welcome Email Best Practices: Design Effective Onboarding

Learn what transactional email is and how it's used. Understand the difference between transactional and marketing emails, and why transactional emails need specialized services.

What Is Transactional Email? Complete Guide for Developers

Learn about email bounces and how to handle them. Understand hard bounces vs soft bounces, bounce handling best practices, and how to reduce bounce rates.

Email Bounces: Complete Guide to Handling Bounce Messages

Find email deliverability tools that ensure your emails reach inboxes. Compare authentication, reputation monitoring, and inbox placement solutions.

Email Deliverability Tools: Fix Inbox Placement

Learn from dunning email examples and best practices. Understand what makes effective payment recovery emails and how to design emails that recover failed payments.

Dunning Email Examples: Payment Recovery Best Practices

Learn what DMARC is and how to set it up for email authentication. Understand DMARC policies, DNS configuration, and how DMARC protects your domain from spoofing.

DMARC: Complete Guide to Email Authentication and Protection

Choosing the right domain for your email campaigns isn't just a technical decision—it's the foundation of your email deliverability. Get it wrong, and even your best content lands in spam. Get it right, and you build lasting trust with both recipients and email providers.

How to organize your email sending domains (basic guide)

Learn how to design modern emails. Understand current email design trends, best practices, and how to create emails that look great and engage users.

Designing a Modern Email: Best Practices and Examples

Learn the difference between dedicated and shared IPs for email. Understand when to use dedicated IPs vs shared IPs and how IP reputation affects deliverability.

Dedicated vs Shared IPs for Email: When to Use Each

Learn which SMTP port to use for email sending. Understand port 25, 465, and 587, when to use each, and how to configure SMTP ports correctly.

Choosing the Right SMTP Port: Port 25, 465, 587 Explained

Find affordable email marketing software that works. Compare budget-friendly options from free plans to low-cost paid platforms that deliver results.

Cheap Email Marketing Software: Get Results on a Budget

Find the best transactional email services for developers. Compare APIs, reliability, and speed to build infrastructure that delivers emails fast.

Best Transactional Email Services: Fast, Reliable Delivery

Find Amazon SES alternatives for transactional email. Compare email API services that offer better features, deliverability, or easier setup than AWS SES.

Amazon SES Alternatives: Compare Transactional Email Services

Getting hit with Microsoft's S3150 or S3140 errors? Your emails are being rejected, customers aren't getting important messages, and you're probably starting to panic.

Don't worry—we've been through this process dozens of times. Here's exactly how to get your IP delisted from Microsoft's blocklist, explained in plain English.

How to get your IP delisted after a S3150 & S3140 bounce

Learn how to check spam scores for emails. Understand spam score testing tools, what affects spam scores, and how to improve email deliverability.

Checking Spam Scores: Email Deliverability Testing Guide

Learn customer segmentation fundamentals, build behavior-driven segments, and execute personalized email journeys with Bento while safeguarding deliverability.

Customer Segmentation Basics: Personalize Every Email and Journey

Find the best newsletter platforms for content creators. Compare tools to build your audience, monetize content, and manage subscribers effectively.

Best Newsletter Platforms: Build and Monetize Audiences

Find the best email API services for developers. Compare REST APIs, SDKs, webhooks, and developer experience across email service providers.

Best Email API for Developers: Compare Developer-Friendly Email Services

Find the best email API services for developers. Compare reliable delivery, API quality, and features to build infrastructure that scales effectively.

Best Email API Services: Reliable Infrastructure for Sending Emails

Find the best DMARC tools for monitoring and implementing email authentication. Compare DMARC monitoring services, analyzers, and implementation tools.

Best DMARC Tools: Monitor and Implement Email Authentication

Find behavioral targeting tools that personalize experiences based on user actions. Compare platforms to boost engagement and drive conversions effectively.

Behavioral Targeting Tools: Personalize Each Buyer's Journey

Find Mailgun alternatives for email sending. Compare email API services that offer better pricing, features, or deliverability than Mailgun.

Mailgun Alternatives: Compare Email API and SMTP Services

Discover why emails land in the promotions tab during the holiday season and learn best practices for improving deliverability. Embrace the promo tab and focus on sending valuable emails to your subscribers.

During the holiday season expect emails to land more in the Promotion tab

Stuck on a nice, compliant plain text email signature? We got you covered! 

Quick Email Signature Examples

In this article, we'll talk about the benefits of Confirmed Opt-In aka Double Opt-In.

Confirmed Opt-In aka Double Opt-In Benefits

A few years back, the ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, etc) began asking email marketers to identify themselves and classify the type of email they were sending upfront (in the email headers). This was done to help the ISPs process the email quicker and make sure they were landing in the right places. Continue reading ... 

What is the Precedence: Bulk header?

A fun story diving into debugging a customer's issue landing in the inbox.

Debugging Deliverability: A Real Life Example

During the onboarding process for our customers, regardless of their size, we strive to ensure that each one receives the best deliverability advice possible.

One key piece of advice we offer is to encourage our users to send emails via a subdomain rather than their root or apex domain. In other words, use @mail.example.com instead of @example.com.

Should I Use Subdomains For Sending Email?

One of the biggest challenges of email marketing is trying to make a creative and unique campaign that will stand out in the inboxes of your subscribers. To help you with this, we offer you ideas for three different campaigns you have not tried yet, but that will stand out. 

Beyond the Inbox: 3 Promotional Email Campaigns You Haven't Tried Yet

The art of marketing is not just composing a good message - it is also how you deliver the message and keep the engagement. This is why it is of crucial importance to start building up a relationship with your subscribers and customers. Here are a few ways to start and maintain engagement in order to keep the cycle of marketing going. 

Mastering the Customer Lifecycle with Email Marketing

Good email testing helps you find out how your email looks to your users, and whether they can read it at all. 

Bento blog

Email Testing: What To Check Before You Hit Send

Blacklisted Email: How To Protect Your Emails From Ending Up on a Blacklist

Browse Abandonment Emails: How To Bring Customers Back Again & Again

How To Craft Email Subject Lines With High Open Rates

Designing Abandoned Cart Emails For Fun & Profit (Strategic Tips + Examples)

Crafting A High Converting Welcome Series for Your Ecommerce Store

Thinking Through Abandon Cart For Software Businesses