My emails are going to spam: a troubleshooting guide

If contacts are not seeing your emails, or you are seeing low open rates, here is a structured way to diagnose and fix the issue.

1. Check your DNS setup

The most common cause of spam placement is missing or misconfigured SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records. Use MXToolbox or mail-tester.com to verify all three are correctly configured. See "DNS setup for email deliverability: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC" for setup instructions.

2. Check your inbox warm-up

New inboxes should not send cold outreach at full volume immediately. Start at 20 to 30 emails per day and build up gradually over 2 to 4 weeks. Sending high volume from a new inbox is a strong spam signal.

3. Check your list quality

Sending to INVALID email addresses damages your sender reputation. Run your contacts through Email Verification in Data Studio and filter to VALID emails only before sending.

4. Review your email content

Spam filters flag certain patterns:

• All-caps subject lines or excessive punctuation
• Spam trigger words (free, guaranteed, no risk, act now)
• Emails that are one image and no text
• Emails with too many links

Keep your emails short, text-heavy, and conversational. Personalised emails that read like one-to-one messages perform better than formatted marketing emails.

5. Check your sending volume

Even well-configured inboxes can get flagged if they suddenly send at unusually high volume. Use inbox rotation across multiple channels to distribute volume.

6. Send a test

Send a test email via mail-tester.com to get a spam score and specific flags. This is the fastest way to identify what is triggering filters.