About Tom Sather
20+ years building, advising, and troubleshooting email systems at scale.
The Inside View
I've spent my career inside the email deliverability industry — not consulting from the outside, but actually building the systems, talking to ISPs, and solving problems at massive scale.
At Return Path (acquired by Validity), I led deliverability consulting and ran marketing. That meant direct relationships with ISPs like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Outlook. I understood their infrastructure, their concerns, and how to navigate the political landscape of corporate email systems. I also worked with 500+ enterprise clients — from e-commerce giants to financial institutions — diagnosing why their emails weren't reaching inboxes and building strategic fixes that lasted.
I've advised some of the biggest brands in tech on email deliverability strategy. I've consulted with smaller brands scaling from 10M to 1B emails annually. I've fixed reputation crises, architected authentication infrastructure, and trained teams on email fundamentals that most people don't understand.
What separates me from other consultants: I've actually run marketing departments — email marketing, content, the whole operation. Most deliverability consultants come from a purely technical background. Their advice tends to start and end with "send less." I understand what marketing teams are trying to accomplish, and I build deliverability strategies that protect your reputation without killing your business.
My Philosophy
Problems Have Root Causes
Bad inbox placement isn't random. It's the result of specific technical, reputational, or process issues. My job is to find them and fix them strategically — not with band-aids.
Relationships Matter
I've spent years building relationships with ISPs, spam filtering companies, and industry experts. Those relationships help me diagnose and solve problems faster than most consultants can.
Expertise Must Transfer
My goal isn't to create dependency — it's to make your team smarter. I teach as I consult, so you understand the decisions and can maintain excellence after I leave.
Email Matches Revenue
Every improvement in deliverability translates to measurable business impact. I'm focused on the metrics that matter: inbox placement, open rates, and ultimately revenue.
In the Media
“These are things that professional email marketers prepare for.”
On diagnosing why Trump's first fundraising email hit a 60% spam rate — a domain switch that broke sender reputation.
“Marketers were largely unable to convince Gmail users to move their messages.”
On Return Path research showing less than 0.1% of Gmail users moved promotional emails to their primary inbox.
“Trump's campaign switched domain names when he sent his first email out, causing many email services to flag it as spam.”
On identifying the technical cause behind Trump campaign emails being flagged internationally.
“If more than one in a thousand email recipients complain, your messages will be blocked altogether.”
On the complaint threshold that determines whether your emails reach the inbox.
“Most big email providers now use sophisticated reputation-based filtering and rely less on simply flagging offensive words.”
On the shift from content-based spam filtering to sender reputation systems.
Credentials & Recognition
- ✓Led Deliverability Consulting, Return Path & Validity
- ✓Advisor to major ISPs including Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Outlook
- ✓Consulted for Fortune 500 companies on email strategy
- ✓Speaker at industry conferences on email deliverability
- ✓20+ years of email industry experience
- ✓500+ brands helped across all industries
Ready to Fix Your Deliverability?
Let's start with a free, no-pressure assessment of your email program. I'll identify the biggest issues and what to fix first.