Emails Going to Spam
Checklist to improve inbox placement
Emails Going to Spam
If your emails are landing in recipients' spam folders instead of their inbox, there are several factors to investigate. This guide walks through the most common causes and their solutions, ordered from most to least likely.
1. Verify Your Sending Domain
The single most impactful step for inbox placement is proper domain authentication. In Mailnaptic, navigate to Domains and ensure your sending domain shows green checkmarks for all three records:
- SPF — Authorizes Mailnaptic's servers to send on your domain's behalf.
- DKIM — Cryptographically signs your emails to prove they haven't been tampered with.
- DMARC — Tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks.
If any of these are missing or misconfigured, many email providers will route your messages to spam by default.
2. Check Your Complaint Rate
Navigate to Analytics > Deliverability and review your complaint rate. If it exceeds 0.1%, spam folder placement increases significantly. Common causes of high complaint rates include sending to contacts who did not explicitly opt in, sending too frequently, or having unclear unsubscribe options.
3. Review Your Content
Spam filters analyze email content for red flags. Avoid these common triggers:
- Excessive use of capital letters, exclamation marks, or spam-associated phrases like "Act now" or "Free offer."
- Image-heavy emails with little text — aim for at least a 60/40 text-to-image ratio.
- Shortened URLs or links to domains with poor reputations.
- Missing or invalid unsubscribe links.
4. Warm Up New Domains
If you recently started sending from a new domain or IP, mailbox providers have no reputation data for you. Start by sending to your most engaged contacts in small volumes and gradually increase over 2–4 weeks. Mailnaptic's warmup features can help automate this process.
5. Clean Your Contact List
Sending to invalid addresses, spam traps, or long-inactive contacts damages your sender reputation. Regularly remove hard bounces (Mailnaptic does this automatically), suppress contacts who have not engaged in 6+ months, and never purchase email lists.
6. Include a Physical Mailing Address
CAN-SPAM and many international regulations require a physical mailing address in every commercial email. Mailnaptic automatically includes this in the footer if you have configured it in your domain settings. Verify it is present and accurate.
7. Test Before Sending
Use Mailnaptic's rendering checker to identify potential issues before sending. Send test emails to accounts at major providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) and verify they arrive in the inbox.