Written by
Master incoming and outgoing mail servers with our comprehensive guide. Simplify email management for seamless communication.
Have you ever wondered what happens between when you click the Send button and when recipients read and reply to your emails? Do you know what an email server is and how it works? Have you ever heard of a dedicated mail server?
If none of the above terms don't ring a bell, worry not; you're not alone — very many people, including several seasoned marketers who use emails daily, are not familiar with the intricacies of incoming and outgoing mail servers.
While you might not see the need to think much about what happens to your emails behind the scenes, understanding how email servers work can be a handy expertise. It can help you troubleshoot problems, enhance deliverability, and safeguard your emails from cyber attackers.
In this article, we’ll explain how incoming and outgoing mail servers operate, outline different email protocols, compare POP3 and IMAP, and highlight the importance of SMTP servers in email marketing. Master incoming and outgoing mail servers with our comprehensive guide. Simplify email management for seamless communication.
Also known as the Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, an outgoing mail server transmits email messages from the sender to the recipient. Think of it as an intermediary or digital mailman relaying your messages from your email client to targeted recipients.
So, how does it work? How do email messages travel from your device to recipients' inboxes?
Here’s a step-by-step guide.
As outlined, the backend of an outgoing email server is very busy. Below are some of its components:
The most essential component of an outgoing email server is the SMTP client. It initiates and runs the email delivery process. If we equate email messaging to blood circulation, the SMTP client would be the heartbeat.
The Message Transfer Agent ( MTA) is another essential component of an outgoing server. As the name suggests, it facilitates the routing of emails between the outgoing and receiving mail servers. When your email client sends an email delivery request, the MTA automatically initiates the process of transferring the message to your target recipient's mail server. Usually, this involves conducting a DNS search to find the best route.
Several email clients have inbuilt prioritization mechanisms to protect their servers from overloading. That's where the mail queue comes in. During busy hours, the outgoing email server can temporarily hold some emails in the mail queue as it sorts out other pending messages. Besides preventing congestion, this strategy can also optimize the flow of outgoing messages.
If the MTP client is the heartbeat of email messaging, the SMTP server software is the heart. The program implements SMTP protocols to enable email clients to transfer messages. Usually, this involves interpreting commands from outgoing mail servers, validating sender and recipient credentials, and managing the email transmission.
Your data is your most crucial asset. Because emails are a common target for cyber attackers, deploying intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms to safeguard your email data from unauthorized access and use is essential. You can achieve this by deploying password complexity and expiration protocols, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and Transport Layer Security (TLS) on your outgoing server.
Nobody wants their emails to land in spam folders. Therefore, several organizations implement proactive spam filters in outgoing servers to analyze their content for spam triggers. Doing so can help you safeguard your sender reputation and improve email deliverability.
Most email clients offer logging and monitoring tools to help marketers track the performance of their campaigns. These tools typically record essential data like spam reports, delivery issues, open rates, bounces, and response rates. Some create detailed analytics outlining the best-performing sections of email lists, optimum sending hours, click-through rates, and so on. These insights can help you identify successful email strategies and pinpoint areas that require adjustments.
An incoming mail server is as essential to email communication as an outgoing server. Some people call it the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) server. However, as we'll outline later, the two terms should not be used interchangeably.
So, what is an incoming mail server? How does it work? And most importantly — what's its significance in email messaging?
Let's begin with the basics. An incoming server is the digital gateway serving as the intermediary between the sender's server and the recipient's email client. It manages the transfer of email messages between these two locations.
Here's a breakdown of its key components and how it works:
The first and arguably most crucial role of an incoming mail server is user authentication. This role involves validating the accuracy of the recipient's username and password before granting them access to the mailbox. This function can be crucial in corporate setups where administrators implement selective access to sensitive folders or emails. Sometimes, this involves requesting multi-factor authentication prompts whenever users want to access specific email subdomains.
When an incoming mail server receives an email, it first creates a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) connection with the concerned email clients. The TCP/IP connection is crucial because it secures your email data as it moves back and forth between the server and the client.
After confirming your identity, the incoming mail server will grant you access to your messages. This process involves downloading and presenting different emails based on when they landed in your inbox. While the process takes only a few seconds, it's more complex than you may think. First, the server must retrieve the email details (sender and recipient credentials, subject lines, preheaders, email text, images, and links) for all the messages. Next, it chronologically organizes the emails into different folders based on when they landed in your inboxes.
Synchronization is another crucial role of incoming mail servers. It involves ensuring any changes you make to an email, such as sending it to a different folder, are reflected in the email client and server concurrently. Several email servers have built-in real-time synchronizers.
Like outgoing email servers, incoming servers also have intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access. Different SMTP host servers have varying security measures. Before listing the services of an email service provider, ensure they at least have encryption protocols, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). It also helps if they allow users to implement additional measures.
Issues like corrupted emails or failed login attempts are inevitable. What matters is how fast you can identify and act on them. That's why incoming servers always have error detection and autocorrelation mechanisms. For example, if some of your messages have experienced soft bounces, the hosting SMTP server will either initiate a resend attempt automatically or ask you to do so manually.
Mail servers use the following three protocols to transfer and retrieve emails:
SMTP is an email transfer protocol that mail servers use to transmit email messages from senders to receivers. It's the most common emailing protocol and comes in two models — end-to-end and store-and-forward. The former is for external communication across organizations, while the latter is for internal communications.
IMAP is an email retrieval protocol that allows recipients to view or manipulate email messages without downloading them. It acts as an intermediary between mail clients and servers, allowing recipients to interact with emails directly from the email server. As a result, it's suitable for managing emails from different devices.
Unlike IMAP, POP3 requires recipients to download emails on their local devices. When you retrieve (download) a message via POP3, the protocol clears the original copy from the server. Because of this, this protocol can only be efficient if you prefer managing your emails from a single device. However, some ISPs allow recipients to modify their settings to retain email copies on servers. Another limitation is that when you perform an action, such as sending an email to a separate folder, on one device, the changes will not reflect on the other folders.
All email servers rely on POP3 and IMAP for email retrieval. Both protocols offer unique advantages and drawbacks. Below are some of their main differences:
Now that you understand how outgoing and incoming mail servers work, let's talk about the importance of SMTP in email marketing.
SMTP is the backbone of email communication. Without it, emails can't move from senders to recipients. A reliable SMTP ensures email messages reach recipients on time and consistently. And the opposite is true — malfunctioning SMTP software can cause deliverability issues, increase bounce rates, and affect your email marketing initiatives.
Email marketing campaigns often involve bulk messages simultaneously targeting hundreds or thousands of recipients. Without a proper system, the back and forth associated with bulk emailing can result in chaotic mailboxes, affecting the communication between you and your customers.
That's why email servers have SMTP software. These programs help servers manage large email volumes, prevent delays, and resolve bottlenecks automatically. Doing so ensures your messages reach the target audience on time and in an organized manner, ensuring smooth communication during email marketing.
Email security is very crucial in today's fast-paced information age. SMTPs can help you significantly enhance your cybersecurity posture by enabling you to implement authentication mechanisms such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM).
The protocols can help you and your customers identify unauthenticated email addresses that might belong to the bad guys. They can also help you show email servers you're not a malicious sender, enhancing your sender reputation and increasing deliverability.
No email system or campaign is flawless. Transmission errors are often due to systemic issues or sender negligence. When this happens, you need a reliable system to identify the problems and prompt you to make the necessary changes.
That's precisely what SMTP software programs do — they have robust error-handling mechanisms that automatically detect issues like invalid email addresses, failed or deferred deliveries, and bounces.
Several companies grapple with high email bounce rates. One of the leading causes of this menace is poor sender reputation. SMTP servers can help you address this by allowing you to deploy spam filters on your outgoing emails. These filters can help you identify spam trigger words in your email content before you click the Send button, enabling you to remove them and make your emails spam-free proactively.
Another common cause of email bounces is invalid email addresses. Effective SMTP servers can help you identify and remove such addresses from your email lists, enhancing your email list hygiene. The less you send emails to unresponsive or invalid email addresses, the higher your sender reputation becomes. In the long run, this will make your campaigns more effective.
Time is a crucial factor in marketing. Email marketing is no exception. The timing of your email message delivery can make your campaigns more or less effective.
For example, simultaneously sending them emails might not be the best decision if you have a global clientele. Doing so means that the emails will reach some clients in the dead of the night when they're less likely to open them.
How do SMTP servers solve this issue?
SMTP software programs allow email senders to schedule messages based on recipients' time zones. You can also use them to prioritize email broadcasts based on their significance to your bottom line or campaign, ensuring you deliver relevant emails at the most opportune moment. It also promotes a more strategic email campaign execution.
If you've been in the email marketing field for a while, you must have heard of the CAN-SPAM and GDPR Acts. Both regulations safeguard the public against unsolicited email messages. They require marketers to identify themselves and seek recipients' permission before sending commercial emails. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act stipulates that organizations must include precise opt-in or opt-out mechanisms in their email campaign messages. Similarly,
SMTP servers can help you comply with both regulations. You can use them to deploy features that support opt-in or opt-out mechanisms, enabling recipients to join or exit your email lists willingly. Besides the compliance benefit, doing so can reduce the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam. Instead of sending your emails to the spam folder, they'll unsubscribe.
There's no better email strategy than personalization and customization. As others target recipients with generic one-shoe-fits-all messages, you can distinguish yourself by personalizing your email content. Something as simple as using recipients' names in the salutation instead of genetic greetings like Dear Sir/Madam can make a significant difference.
SMTP servers contribute to email personalization by allowing marketers to incorporate dynamic content and customization elements into their messages. For example, marketers can use them to implement variables and dynamic tags to tailor email content based on recipient demographics, preferences, or past interactions.
When you look at it superficially, the mechanics of email servers seem too sophisticated. However, that's not entirely true. All you need to understand is how outgoing and incoming email servers communicate with each other and connect to email clients.
We have elaborated on how this works in detail above. Thanks, and all the best as you begin your newest cold email marketing campaign. We guarantee you success now that you know the inner workings of emailing.
We have the best cold email system in the industry because we screen and approve every customer.
