We’ve been telling the story of SocketLabs for almost 20 years now. While it’s evolved in some ways, we’re primarily known as a solution for senders needing on-premises MTA solutions or transactional email.  But today, that only scratches the surface of what we do. 

In fact, we’re no longer just an ESP. 

SocketLabs is much more today, which is why we’d like to officially re-introduce ourselves to you. 

Why SocketLabs Has Evolved Beyond the Traditional ESP 

We aren’t the same ESP today that we were just nine months ago. Quite frankly, we’re offering products and services to senders that simply aren’t available within traditional ESPs. 

Why? Because historically, transactional mail and the large volumes of email sent via API by ESPs on behalf of their customers has been set-and-forget.” If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” In fact, don’t even think about touching it unless you’re an expert. 

We realized our senders could do so much to improve the email experience for their customers if only they had a way to better manage their email — whether they send different kinds of mail for one brand, or on behalf of hundreds or thousands of brands. 

Which is why our platform was built API-first, with a UI offering simple, no-code solutions to empower and enable experts and non-email experts alike to…well, expertly manage their email performance. 

But then we wondered, how can you better manage your performance if you don’t have powerful first-party data and insights at your fingertips? 

Enter: Advanced Email Analytics 

At the start, we believed the way to send better email was by making the pipe smarter and more informed by data. What we learned is you don’t actually have to build a smarter pipe; you need to build things around the pipe to make it smarter. 

Once that door to more powerful yet still simple tools opened, we decided to run straight through it with our new email analytics and performance management platform, Spotlight email analytics. 

Built on top of Snowflake’s trusted and efficient data warehouse, Spotlight provides granular diagnostics and visualizations of your email performance and also applies proprietary algorithms to all of the first and third-party data that normally sits collecting dust within most ESPs. 

Now, instead of spending huge dollars for historical insights from third-party deliverability platforms, senders can turn their classic-but-basic ESP data like opens and clicks into forward-looking guidance and clarity to inform better decisions for greater email ROI.  

Advanced Analytics Aren’t Limited to SocketLabs Senders 

We believe the applications we’ve built to make our own email pipe smarter shouldn’t be limited to only our pipe. That’s the best part about building things around the pipe to make it smarter. 

Today, senders at SendGrid and Mailgun can make their systems more intelligent and efficient using the same tools our senders use. You read that right…you don’t even need to send through our pipe to have your email data transformed into actionable insights.  

Connecting your ESP data to Spotlight takes less than 5 minutes, and additional ESP connectors are coming soon. 

Predictive Analytics, Powered by AI 

“Why stop there?” We couldn’t find a reason. 

Which is why soon, we’ll offer predictive analysis on email performance using AI, enabling senders to bridge the gap between email best practices and the results they drive. By identifying opportunities for growth within email, in addition to highlighting areas of concern, you’ll be able to help you foretell the future so you can make better, faster decisions. 

When you look at SocketLabs as a whole, you’ll see tried-and-true email sending capabilities, reliable delivery, unparalleled data reporting, and exclusive AI-assisted email analytics to not only look back and learn from past results but also predict future performance. 

We’re creating more integrations as we speak, and ultimately, we anticipate SocketLabs becoming both an incredible ESP partner and the preferred analytics platform for large-scale ESPs without similar tools.  

And, since we know migrating ESPs can be a major challenge, we are making it easier than ever for you to at least use your real data for real insights rather than third-party data amounting to an educated guess about your performance. 

Our Product is Only Part of the Story 

We strive to offer a holistic experience at SocketLabs, so you can trust all aspects of working with us will provide the same level of care. Our engineers are email-focused and know how to build analytical tools couched in email context. Our customer success staff have years of experience in the industry and provide more than just “did you try turning it off and on again” solutions. Our procurement processes are notably flexible and easy to work with even in the most complex contractual situations. 

We’ll be releasing blogs for each major area of our business so you as a sender can understand what it means to work with SocketLabs and how trust and experience are baked into every facet of our model. 

We’ve got really good people working here, both behind the scenes and in the front of the house, and we want to make sure the email community knows about the work they’re putting in to move email into the future economy. 

Our intent with this series is to highlight who SocketLabs is as a partner, as a facilitator or force multiplier, for your email channel. 

The Moral of Our Story is Trust 

I hope as more of these blogs are shared with you, the clearer it becomes that the thread of the SocketLabs story is trust. 

You can trust our processes to keep your data as secure as possible because we don’t even need access to any PII (personally identifiable data). You can trust our tools to work consistently and exceptionally. You can trust our peoples’ expertise to be felt in all aspects of the product, whether in how the tools are built or how we support you when you need help using them. You can trust our processes will put your needs first. 

Overall, you can trust SocketLabs to provide you with the peace of mind you need to know your email performance is optimized and will only get better with us over time. 

Let’s Begin! 

I’m excited to show you the new SocketLabs. We have so much going on every day, with new things being built and shared every week. We have some big product news coming and there will be a steady stream of improvements through the rest of the year. 

We’re confident 2025 is going to be a big year for email, thanks to all the technology emerging around us today. Let’s hit the ground running together.