Help, My Emails Are Landing in Spam!
Have your email open rates tanked recently?
Are you noticing a deep drop in your email marketing performance, and you don’t understand what happened or how to fix it?
Chances are, you’ve fallen into an email deliverability hole and need to take a series of steps to climb out of it, swiftly.
We can get you back on track.
To fix deliverability issues, you first need to understand what happened.
Deliverability issues happen all the time, so take a deep breath. It’s recoverable.
However, to understand how to recover, you need to understand what happened and what specific issues got you into trouble.
Deliverability issues can take anywhere between a week and a few months to fix, depending on the severity of the situation and how early you catch the problem.
Whatever the situation, we can help you navigate back to performing email marketing with strong deliverability.
Understanding Email Deliverability
Email deliverability is a complex topic and there are a number of factors involved:
Content
What you’re sending, what specific words you’re using in subject lines/preview text, your email to text ratio in emails, and more.
List Hygiene
Who you’re sending emails to, how often, how and when you gathered consent.
Domain Reputation
Are you a reputable sender in the eyes of Email Service Providers like Gmail, Apple mail? Are you sending from a dedicated sending domain? Do you have SPF records, DKIM, DMARC setup?
Blacklists
Have you appeared on “spam blacklists” where ESPs will automatically block messages from you to protect their users? Which ones?
Results-Oriented Email Experts
Clients Served
Revenue Generated*
Emails Sent Last Year
*for eCommerce clients
Great Email Results Requires Strong Deliverability
Simply put: You can’t get results from email if your emails are not reaching recipients.
As an email-marketing agency, we have developed expertise in email deliverability over the years.
Our broad range of case studies illustrate our effective email deliverability strategies.
We monitor deliverability regularly for our clients, and have helped navigate many deliverability issues in a variety of industries, tech stacks, and root causes.
We’ve yet to come across a situation we can’t help our clients navigate.
How Can an Email Deliverability Consultation Help?
Our email deliverability consulting service includes:
- A mini-audit of your email deliverability, so we can diagnose the specific issues you’re facing.
- A 1-hr Zoom call to walk through diagnosis and recommended action strategies.
- 1-hr development time to fix technical aspects and prepare strategic recommendations, tailored to your specific needs.
This is a 1:1 consultation where we aim to diagnose your email deliverability issues, support you with technical aspects, and make clear recommendations that will help you get your email marketing performing again.
Browse our email deliverability resources.
Our Clients Appreciate Our Approach
Brandon O’Connor
Sara’s team is world-class and she understands this space better than anyone else I’ve ever worked with. On top of that, she is completely dedicated to clients’ success and always goes the extra mile.
Penny Bauder
Amazing and her team has exceeded all of my expectations and hopes for my product-based business.
Nick Sacco
We appreciate your ability to analyze and dig in to find deeper answers. I’m excited to be seeing the good results from campaigns and your fresh and interesting newsletters.
FAQs
How can I tell if I have deliverability issues?
You might have deliverability issues if you notice a significant drop in open rates, an increase in bounce rates, or your emails are frequently landing in the spam folder. Additionally, feedback from your ESP (Email Service Provider) indicating a high number of emails marked as spam by recipients or issues with your sender reputation can also signal deliverability problems.
What can I do if I have deliverability issues?
To address deliverability issues, start by trying to identify what caused them specifically. Often, email lists haven’t been cleaned in a few years so list hygiene is recommended. This means removing inactive subscribers and those who have not engaged with your emails for a prolonged period. If you’re able to diagnose problems with a specific ESP, we recommend creating a segment of those audiences in order to skip them for a few sends while your deliverability metrics bounce back. Meanwhile, you can also check that your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are set up properly to give you the best chance at deliverability. Depending on the ESP you use and your domain reputation, you can also check that you are sending from a dedicated sending domain. There are a number of different strategies – and often the solution is to implement a few fixes and make a few changes to how you’re managing your email marketing strategies.
I set up DMARC but it doesn’t seem to be working.
Setting up DMARC can be done in a few ways: “none”, “reject”, or “quarantine.” We recommend checking that you’re set to a minimum level of quarantine to be compliant.
Do I need to set up BIMI? How much does that cost?
Setting up BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is not mandatory, but it can improve your brand visibility and trustworthiness in your recipients’ inboxes by displaying your logo next to your email. There are some aspects of BIMI setup that are essentially free and we recommend our clients to pursue. However, there is also an option to purchase a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC), which is in the range of $1000-$1200/yr and recommended for enterprise level businesses and larger corporations.
How does your email deliverability service work and how much does it cost?
Our email deliverability service works because it’s personal and tailored to fix your specific deliverability problems. We first perform a mini-audit of your current email setup, sender reputation, and deliverability metrics. We then meet with you in a 1:1 Zoom call to explain to you what caused the deliverability issues for you and what can be done to fix them. We then save 1 hour of development support to help make these fixes on your account, or, if you prefer, to write up recommendations for your own development teams to implement. The cost for this service is $295.
What do I need to provide you with to troubleshoot technical deliverability issues?
Please provide us with access to your email platform or service provider, DNS records, and any recent deliverability reports or analytics you have. Details about your email sending practices, including volume, frequency, and segmentation strategies, will also be helpful – we look for this when we perform a mini-audit of your account.
How long will it take to fix deliverability issues?
The time to fix deliverability issues can vary widely, depending on the nature and severity of the problem. Some issues can be resolved quickly within a few days, while others, especially those related to blacklists, may take months to fully resolve. However, in all situations, you should be able to see improvement within a few weeks.
Will my email marketing metrics ever recover?
Yes, with the right strategies and adjustments, your email marketing metrics can recover and even improve. It requires a continual effort to keep your list clean, we recommend 2x a year for example. By following best practices in email sending and monitoring your sender reputation and metrics, you can exceed your email performance.
Do I need to set up a new domain for emailing?
Setting up a new domain for emailing should be considered a last resort, but sometimes it’s the best option. It’s essential to first try other, simpler remediation efforts. A new domain may be necessary if your current domain’s reputation is severely damaged and irrecoverable. However, this approach comes with its own set of challenges, including needing to warm up the new domain.
Why did this happen all of a sudden?
Sudden deliverability issues can arise from various factors, such as changes in email service provider spam filters, a sudden spike in email volume, or inclusion on a blacklist. It may also result from compromised email accounts or dramatic changes in email engagement patterns from your recipients.
In February of 2024, Google and Yahoo implemented new requirements that seem to have set off a wave of deliverability issues for those who were not prepared.
How can I avoid email deliverability issues in the future?
To avoid future deliverability issues, there’s a few best practices you can adopt immediately:
Maintain a clean email list.
Regularly monitor your sender reputation.
Send emails to audiences that want to hear from you, and make sure your messages are delivering value.
Email authentication and compliance regulations change occasionally, so staying informed of new requirements and remaining compliant is key to long term email success.