Email deliverability: stop landing in spam

You email your prospects or customers, and… silence. Before deciding your message was bad, ask the real question: did they even receive it? An email that lands in the junk folder doesn't exist. Deliverability is the art of reaching the inbox — and it largely comes down to technical settings nobody explains to you. Here's the clear guide.

What is deliverability, exactly?

Sending an email is easy. Getting it to the right place is much harder. Between your "Send" and the recipient's inbox, providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo…) ask one simple question: can this sender be trusted? If they doubt it, it's off to spam. Deliverability is all about answering "yes" — with proof.

The 3 must-have settings: SPF, DKIM, DMARC

These are three "ID cards" for your domain. Without them, you're a stranger knocking at the door. Since 2024, major providers require them to accept your email at volume.

• SPF: the list of servers allowed to send on your behalf. It stops anyone from spoofing your domain.
• DKIM: an invisible signature added to each email, proving it really comes from you and wasn't altered in transit.
• DMARC: the rule telling providers what to do when an email fails the two checks above — and it sends you reports to monitor spoofing.

The good news: these three are set up once, in your domain configuration, then keep working for you continuously.

Domain reputation: your history matters

Even perfectly authenticated, a brand-new domain starts with a handicap: it has no history. Providers distrust a domain that suddenly starts sending hundreds of emails. That's where warmup comes in.

Warming up a new domain, in practice

You ramp volume gradually, over roughly 3 to 4 weeks: a few emails a day at first, then a little more each day, favouring recipients who open and reply early on. You build a solid reputation, brick by brick. Trying to send everything on day one is the fastest way to burn the domain.

Warm a domain like an engine: you don't floor it on the first turn of the key.

The mistakes that send you straight to spam

• Buying email lists: high bounce rates, complaints, reputation destroyed in a few sends.
• An "all image" email or one stuffed with trigger words ("free", "urgent", "win"…).
• No clear unsubscribe link: both illegal and a spam signal.
• Sending too fast, too hard, especially on a new domain.
• Ignoring bounces: emailing dead addresses wrecks your reputation.

In short

Deliverability isn't magic: it's authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), reputation (warmup, list hygiene) and common sense (honest content, reasonable pace). Get these basics right and your emails stop vanishing. It's exactly what we configure when we set up Orbit's automated follow-ups: messages go out clean, and — most importantly — they arrive.