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Thanks for your interest in Inbox Denied: Email Deliverability Q&A

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Before you dive in, here's a taste of what's inside the resources:

  • Why your emails might be landing in spam (and how to check)
  • The sending habits that damanage your domain reputation
  • How to clean and maintain a healthy list
  • What moves the needle on deliverabilty vs. what doesn't
  • And more!

FAQs

How can I tell if my emails are landing in spam instead of the inbox?

Test with your own seed addresses across providers, or use an inbox-placement tool to see where mail actually lands. Watch your open-rate trend, too — a sudden, unexplained drop is often a sign mail is getting filtered.

Is there a safe number of emails I can send per day?

There's no universal cap for marketing email — what matters more is consistency. Sudden spikes or wildly inconsistent monthly volume are bigger red flags to mailbox providers than the raw number itself.

What's the first thing to check if deliverability suddenly gets worse?

Start with spam complaint rates by individual provider, not just in aggregate — then check your authentication setup (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for gaps.

How often should I be cleaning my email list?

Treat it as ongoing rather than annual. If it's been more than six months since your last cleanup, it's overdue — and B2B lists in particular can decay faster than most people expect.

Do SPF, DKIM, and DMARC actually make a difference?

Yes — they're table stakes. Major mailbox providers will reject unauthenticated mail outright, regardless of how good your content or reputation is otherwise.

Can I still trust open rate as a performance metric?

Not on its own. Bot activity and privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection have added enough noise that open rate is better used as a trend indicator than a precise measurement.

Does the image-to-text ratio in an email affect deliverability?

It can. An email that's all images gives spam filters (and AI-generated inbox summaries) very little real text to evaluate — a healthy mix is generally safer.

What's the best way to protect domain reputation long term?

Send from a proper ESP, separate different mail types (like cold outreach vs. opt-in marketing) onto different subdomains, and warm up any new subdomain or IP gradually before sending at full volume.