Interview: Alex Markov, CEO at G-Lock Software on achieving email deliverability with GlockApps
G-Lock Software has many software products for targeted bulk email marketing campaigns out of which GlockApps is their flagship product. GlockApps gives you quick visibility of your email platform and inbox placement and helps you take actions before you finally send your email campaign.
If you would like to know GlockApps features we published an article on GlockApps last week.
Here is an exclusive interview with Alex Markov, CEO at G-Lock Software. We talked with him about the journey of GlockApps, how it helps in improving email deliverability, and how he sees the latest changes in email marketing industry.
Postbox Services: Alex, could you tell us how you came up with the idea of GlockApp’s Inbox Insight initially and how has its journey been so far?
Alex: The idea for Inbox Insights was born out of the need to diagnose email deliverability problems that so many people struggle with. Every marketer wants their email to reach the client’s inbox, but for so many of them sending messages was guesswork, a hit or miss. We wanted to create a tool that will run inbox placement checks, and analyze all aspects of the email. Not just spammy content as other tools, but also blacklistings, subject line, all the links, etc. We also didn’t want the user to be left alone with the found issues, so each deliverability check provides suggestions and steps for further email improvement. Today, Inbox Insights is the most popular GlockApps tool, used by companies of all sizes all over the world, but we keep improving it to satisfy all the customers’ needs.
Postbox Services: Is it important for cold emailers who only need to send a small number of emails to run inbox tests and why so?
Alex: The answer is yes, it is important. The thing that many cold emailers have to deal with is being identified as spam. Of course, professionals always thoroughly research and validate their recipients, and don’t send any messages to someone who will not be potentially interested in what they have to offer. Unfortunately, the ever-evolving spam filtering systems may see such messages as spam, since they were sent to a certain amount of people who have not opted in to receive these messages.
What we need to do is help spam filters distinguish between spam emails and legitimate cold emails. Inbox testing helps achieve this goal. When you run a deliverability test with GlockApps, you can see a clear picture of what is going to happen to your email because we do not provide any positive engagement, and our seed lists work as cold emailing. With the received results it is easier to identify weak spots and make sure your email looks legitimate to the filtering systems.
What we need to do is help spam filters distinguish between spam emails and legitimate cold emails. Inbox testing helps achieve this goal.
Alex Markov
Postbox Services: Are there any exciting new features that you are planning to introduce in GlockApps?
Alex: We are constantly working on improving our existing tools as well as creating new ones. Right now we have several exciting things to look forward to. First of all, we are making a complete redesign that will WOW our clients and make their user experience even smoother than it is right now. We are also moving towards making more tools and features free. We have already started by adding 10,000 free DMARC messages each month for our DMARC Analytics users, and this is just the beginning. And last, but not least, GlockApps will provide all DMARC Analytics and Uptime Monitoring users with weekly reporting, which will provide stats and insights to better understand, keep track and visualize the state of their domains, IPs, authentication records, and web protocols.
Postbox Services: Have you got an in-house deliverability team? What do they look after day-to-day?
Alex: I would say that all our developers and customer support team are email deliverability experts. On a daily basis, they find better ways for our tools to operate and help customers with all sorts of deliverability issues. So although we can’t distinguish a particular group of people as a deliverability team, basically all of us are a part of one big email deliverability team. The mission of GlockApps is: “To solve email deliverability and security issues for businesses all over the world”. So it is at the core of what we do.
Postbox Services: Apple recently announced that iOS 15 onwards users will be able to block tracking pixels. Do you think it will change email marketing tools in general and inboxing testing tools in particular in any way?
Alex: This is really big news, and unfortunate for many. With this privacy update, marketers will not be able to track one of the most common metrics – open rate. It makes it harder to collect statistics and understand whether your emails really were not opened or was the pixel simply blocked.
I think regardless of the iOS 15 changes it’s still extremely important to keep track of where your emails are being delivered. Every mailbox provider has their own workflow for filtering emails and it’s important to have a proactive approach when it comes to your deliverability.
I also want to remind you that there are other metrics that can be evaluated when it comes to email marketing. We can see our email list growth, revenue growth, etc.
Postbox Services: Can there be any adverse consequences of using inbox placement tests? If yes, how can those be mitigated?
Alex: No, there are absolutely no negative sides to testing your emails as often as you’d like. When you run deliverability checks with GlockApps, you do it through our seed lists, not your real list of customers. You can see it as a safe environment that does not affect your sender reputation in any way. There are only pluses: you understand where your emails land, you learn how to create even better messages, you start delivering more emails to the inbox, and you sleep better knowing your emails are being read!
Postbox Services: Do you think Google’s recent announcement of rolling out BIMI for Gmail will help expedite the pace of BIMI’s adoption by other ISPs.
Alex: Absolutely! I know that a lot of marketers and email security experts are excited about BIMI becoming widely used. At GlockApps we constantly emphasize the need to keep your domains safe from phishing and spoofing, and BIMI improves brand recognition and email security at the same time! Until now, BIMI was adopted by Verizon media, and Fastmail. Now BIMI has one of the world’s largest mailbox providers on board, so I am sure we will see an increase in BIMI implementation. Just don’t forget, to start using this new standard, you have to first become BIMI ready, meaning that you must have DMARC protocol in place, with the ‘quarantine’ or ‘reject’ policy.
Postbox Services: Please tell us about your team and your company a bit. What do you guys do to bond together?
Alex: Our team has more than 15 years of experience in email marketing. Right now our team consists of 15 members, and growing! We have a strong corporate culture, we all believe in our vision and our mission. Each team member is passionate about what we do and that’s what unites us. Even though coronavirus limits our social interactions, we are communicating on a daily basis, solving problems, brainstorming new ideas, and sharing experiences. And, of course, we arrange meetups once in a while, because technology is great, but nothing works better than an offline event where you can see people for real and bond.
Postbox Services: Thanks Alex. It is great to get these insights from an expert like yourself. We at Postbox Consultancy Services have been using GlockApps for quite some time now and have been recommending it to our clients and they simply love it. Hope your interview insights and the review we published last week will further help email marketers in achieving deliverability with GlockApps.
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