Email marketing · Deliverability
Inbox placement comes down to four things: proving who you are, mailing people who want to hear from you, sending steadily, and watching the numbers.
Authenticate before anything else
Engaged lists beat big lists
Send steadily, not in bursts
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To improve email deliverability, work through four areas in order. Authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Clean your list so you only mail people who opted in and still engage. Send steadily, without sudden spikes, starting with your most engaged subscribers. And write email people want, with a clear sender name and an easy way to unsubscribe. Then monitor your spam complaint rate and domain reputation in Google Postmaster Tools every month.
Mailbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo decide where your email lands largely by how recipients react to it. Gmail says that when messages from a domain are often reported as spam, future messages are more likely to go to spam, and the domain’s reputation can fall. Mailing people who want your email, and dropping dead addresses, keeps those signals healthy.
Authentication is the entry ticket. Without it, Gmail says unauthenticated mail may be marked as spam or rejected. Bulk senders must have SPF and DKIM, plus a DMARC record that passes with alignment. Even if you send less, setting all three up is the single biggest technical fix.
For the detailed Gmail and Yahoo rules, including one-click unsubscribe and the 0.3% spam rate ceiling, check each provider’s sender guidelines or ask us for a review.
Google’s sender guidelines recommend confirming each address before subscribing it, periodically checking that recipients want to stay subscribed, and considering unsubscribing people who do not open or read your messages. In practice:
Google recommends sending at a consistent rate, avoiding bursts, and starting with a low volume to engaged users before slowly increasing. That matters most when:
A simple warm-up: send first to people who opened in the last 30 days, then 60, then 90, before mailing the full list. If bounces or deferrals rise, slow down.
Book a free 30-minute call. We check your domain setup, platform settings and recent campaign results with you and tell you what we would fix first. No obligation. Pick a time.
Setting up Postmaster Tools takes a few minutes: verify your domain with a DNS record and data appears once you send enough volume to Gmail.
These settings exist in Mailchimp, Klaviyo and HubSpot under different names. Checking them once a quarter prevents most slow declines in inbox placement.
Our email marketing team handles domain authentication, list hygiene, segmentation and campaign design on MailChimp, Klaviyo and HubSpot. If bot signups are filling your list, our web design team can add validation and spam protection to your forms. Choosing a platform first? Read Klaviyo vs Mailchimp vs HubSpot.
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Pick a time. We look at what you have now with you and tell you what we would change first. No obligation.
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The usual causes are missing or failing authentication, mailing people who did not opt in or no longer engage, sudden volume spikes, and a high spam complaint rate. Check each in turn.
Send a test to Gmail and use Show original to confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass, then set up Google Postmaster Tools to track spam rate and domain reputation.
Yes. Removing bounced and long-unengaged addresses lowers complaints and bounces, which mailbox providers use to judge your reputation.
Technical fixes like authentication take effect quickly. Reputation recovers over weeks of sending to engaged subscribers with low complaints.
