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Why do my emails
go to spam?
You send a quote or a newsletter and the recipient never sees it. The wording of your message is rarely the reason. In most cases your domain cannot prove to Gmail and Outlook that the mail really came from you. Below are the seven causes we see most often, with the checks you can run yourself in fifteen minutes.
Check in two minutes whether your mail authenticates
Send a plain email from your business address to a Gmail address. Open it in Gmail, click the three dots at the top right and choose Show original.
At the top you will see three lines: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If all three say PASS, your technical setup is fine and the problem sits in your list or in how the message is built. If one of them says FAIL, SOFTFAIL or nothing at all, you know exactly where to start. Run this check before you read on, because it decides which half of this page applies to you.
Your domain cannot prove who it is
Gmail and Outlook do not trust a sender they cannot verify. Three DNS records handle that, and most SME domains are missing at least one of them.
1. SPF is missing or wrong
SPF lists the servers allowed to send on behalf of your domain. If you send through Mailchimp, Brevo or a CRM and that service is not in your SPF, the receiving server reads it as someone abusing your name. Check: exactly one SPF record per domain, listing every sending service. Two SPF records side by side invalidate each other.
2. DKIM is switched off
DKIM puts a cryptographic signature on every message you send. In almost every mail platform that is one toggle plus two DNS records you add at your hosting provider. Without DKIM you lose the strongest proof that you are genuine, so every other doubt counts against you.
3. No DMARC record
DMARC tells the receiving server what to do when SPF or DKIM fails. Gmail and Yahoo now expect this record from anyone sending at volume. Start at p=none with a reporting address so you can see what happens without blocking anything, then tighten once the reports are clean.
The records are correct and you still land in spam
Then these four reasons are what remains. All four are about reputation rather than technology.
4. You send from a free address
A newsletter leaving from a gmail.com or telenet.be address on behalf of your company is filtered almost every time, because you cannot sign those domains. An address on your own domain is the condition for everything above.
5. Your list is old or bought
Every message to a dead address or a spam trap pushes your reputation down. Remove contacts who opened nothing in twelve months and stop using bought lists. One campaign to a bad list costs you months of deliverability for everyone else on it.
6. The message itself stands out
One large image with no text, shortened links pointing at another domain, rows of exclamation marks, FREE in the subject line and no unsubscribe link. Each item weighs little on its own, together they form the pattern filters are trained on.
7. New domain or new platform
Sending a thousand messages on day one from a fresh domain or a new platform reads as a spam run. Build the volume up over two or three weeks and begin with the contacts who reliably open your mail.
Deliverability is not luck. It is DNS plus hygiene.
Everything above you can verify yourself without paying for anything. If you get stuck on one of the seven points, we will look with you. In most cases it turns out to be a missing record or a list that sat untouched for too long.
Your checklist for tonight
| Check | Where | What you want to see |
|---|---|---|
| SPF record | DNS at your hosting provider | One TXT record covering every sending service |
| DKIM | Settings of your mail platform | Signing active, records published |
| DMARC | DNS, the _dmarc record | At least p=none with a reporting address |
| Sending address | Your most recent campaign | An address on your own domain |
| Unsubscribe link | Every commercial email | Visible and working |
| List hygiene | Your mail platform | No contacts inactive for 12 months |
| Reputation | Google Postmaster Tools | Spam complaints below 0.1 percent |
If you get stuck, our free tools take you a step further, or we review your email marketing with you. You get the findings in writing, even if you do nothing with us afterwards.
Emails going to spam
How long before deliverability recovers?
Expect two to six weeks after the records are correct and the list is cleaned. Reputation is built per domain over time, so a fix today does not change tomorrow's inbox. Send smaller batches to your most engaged contacts during that period.
Would switching mail platform help?
Rarely. Your domain and your list decide deliverability, not the platform. Move without fixing SPF, DKIM and DMARC and you carry the problem with you, on top of a cold sending IP.
My quotes sent from Outlook land in spam, is that the same problem?
Largely yes. Ordinary person to person mail is checked on SPF, DKIM and DMARC too. Quotes add two things: an attachment of several megabytes and a link to an unfamiliar domain both make a message look more suspicious.
Should I set DMARC to p=reject?
Not straight away. Start at p=none, read the reports for a few weeks and confirm every legitimate sender passes SPF or DKIM. Move to p=reject too early and you block your own invoicing system or CRM.
Let us review your deliverability
30 minutes. We read your DNS records and your latest campaign and tell you what we would change, in that order.
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