If you are engaged in email outreach, you have probably faced delivery issues. Even with perfect campaign setup and quality content, your messages may end up in the "Spam" folder.
Don’t worry — this is a problem that can be managed. Poor deliverability can significantly impact business, reducing engagement and missing opportunities. The reasons often lie in the sender's reputation, the content of the email, or authentication settings.
In this article, we will discuss the main delivery issues and ways to resolve them.
We will consider three key questions:
How to identify email deliverability problems by analyzing signs and reasons.
How to eliminate these problems and improve email delivery.
How to increase sender reputation — a key factor for successful email campaigns.
How to find delivery issues?
Email deliverability is the main factor that affects the effectiveness of your campaign. It makes sense to argue that the more emails get to the recipient, the more emails will be read, and the more sales will eventually be made. A simple funnel applies.
But how to understand that your emails are not reaching the recipients? There is no direct way to know this, but you can analyze the number of “bounces” and check the metrics.
To check if there are issues with your email technical setup, you can use the Mail-tester service. It will show what is lacking for the quality operation of the domain during mailing. Most often, a low rating can be due to incorrect DMARC, SPF, DKIM configuration, but more on that later. If the email rating is higher than 9/10, then you need to look for the problem elsewhere.
There are several clear reasons that indicate problems with email delivery.
High spam word count
One of the main reasons why emails do not reach the inbox is a high level of spam. Modern spam filters evaluate not only the content of the email but also its structure and the sender's reputation. They pay attention to stop words such as "free", "guarantee", "act now", etc., as well as suspicious links and unusual formatting.
For example, SpamAssassin uses a scoring system to evaluate emails: the higher the score, the greater the chances of landing in the spam folder. Other filters, such as Barracuda and Postini, also block emails from unreliable sources. To understand why your emails are ending up in spam, check the number of complaints and analyze the content for trigger words.
Blocking by email providers
Not only spam filters can impede email delivery. Major email services such as Gmail, Yandex, and Mail.ru can also block emails at the server level, preventing them from even reaching the spam folder. This often occurs due to a bad sender's reputation — for instance, a high number of complaints, low recipient engagement, or suspicions of spam distribution. If your IP address or domain is blacklisted due to suspicious behavior, your emails will be automatically blocked. It is important to regularly monitor the sender's reputation and the state of the IP address.
Domain or IP address blacklisted
Being blacklisted is one of the most serious obstacles to successful email delivery. When your domain or IP address ends up on a blacklist, email providers consider your messages harmful and block them. This can happen due to spam complaints or a poor sender's reputation. To avoid this, regularly check your domain and IP address using specialized tools. If you end up on a blacklist, act promptly to restore your reputation.
Engagement metrics
A low level of engagement can negatively affect the delivery of your emails. Email providers monitor how users interact with your messages. If emails are frequently unopened or deleted, it tells providers that they are uninteresting. Consistently low open and click rates can damage your reputation and decrease the chances of landing in the “Inbox”.
Now that you understand the main causes of delivery issues, let’s figure out how to fix them.
How to fix email deliverability issues?
If you have problems with the delivery of emails, here are some steps that can help get your messages back into the “Inbox”. To improve deliverability, it is important to follow a strategic approach: clean the address list, monitor engagement, and optimize content. Let’s examine each of these points in detail.
Improving sender reputation (warming up)
The sender's reputation is crucial for determining whether your emails land in the inbox or end up in spam. If you are starting to use a new domain for your mailings, it is important to gradually "warm it up". Use Coldy’s automatic interaction between all mailboxes connected to the service to build trust with email providers.
Setting up infrastructure
Without the proper infrastructure setup, your emails may be sent to spam. Configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols are essential steps to improve the quality of your mailings. SPF defines which servers can send messages from your domain, protecting against spoofing. DKIM adds a digital signature to emails, confirming their authenticity. DMARC combines both of these protocols and allows you to manage actions for emails that fail verification. These protocols are typically configured through your domain registrar's website.
Optimizing email text
Ensure that your email contains nothing but text. Images, links, and complex HTML can lead to your email landing in the spam folder. Also, do not forget about the stop words we mentioned earlier. A list of examples of such words can be found in our blog.
Checking email address list
The first step to improving deliverability is to maintain an updated list of addresses. Sending emails to invalid or outdated addresses not only wastes resources but can also lead to high bounce rates. This negatively impacts the sender's reputation and decreases delivery effectiveness over time.
If you are using Coldy, we have a database validation service. After verification, you will receive a list without invalid addresses, allowing you to load only quality leads and confidently use them in your campaigns, ensuring that your emails reach valid recipients.
Tackling deliverability issues is critical to ensuring your messages reach the target audience and drive sales growth. Improving deliverability helps maintain the sender's reputation, increase engagement, and achieve successful results in your email campaigns.
