One of the most effective ways to reach your customers is by increasing the deliverability of your email campaigns. This guide walks you through proven practices that help protect your sender reputation and improve inbox placement.
In the past, email authentication was optional. Today, it is required by major mailbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo. Without these, your emails are likely to be blocked or sent directly to spam.
You need to configure three specific DNS records for your sending domain.
If you use User.com email providers then, you can find your specific values under “Settings” → “Workspace Settings” → “Domains”.
Check one of the dedicated articles about DNS configuration:
What are these DNS records?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): This acts like an ID badge, listing the IP addresses, that are authorized to send email on your behalf.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): This adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying that the message hasn't been tampered with during transit.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): DMARC tells inbox providers what to do if an email fails the SPF or DKIM checks (e.g., "reject it" or "do nothing").
Gmail and Yahoo have set a clear threshold: senders with a spam complaint rate of 0.3% or higher will see their emails blocked. Ideally, you should aim to keep this number below 0.1%.
To monitor this, you cannot rely solely on your marketing tool's dashboard. You need to see what Google sees. Possible solutions:
Set up Google Postmaster Tools (free). It gives you a direct view of your domain reputation, spam rate, and authentication success from Gmail's perspective.
Blacklist Check: Continually verify if your domain or IP is blacklisted. We recommend using tools like MultiRBL . If listed, follow that specific blacklist’s removal instructions immediately.
Sending emails to invalid addresses or people who never open them is the fastest way to ruin your deliverability.
Remove invalid email addresses: Watch for obvious typos, such as “gmal.com”. Sending messages to invalid addresses can negatively impact your sender reputation and lead to your domain being treated as spam.
Use Double Opt-in: Prevent bad data from entering your system in the first place. When a contact signs up, send a confirmation email they must click to activate their subscription. [LINK]
Implement a Sunset Policy: If a contact hasn't opened an email in 6 months, stop sending to them. Unengaged contacts drag down your engagement rates, signaling to spam filters that your content is unwanted. Create an automation in User.com to tag and suppress these recipients automatically.
To verify the database and keep only valid contacts you can try dedicated User.com <> Bouncer integration. Bouncer helps you validate the email addresses of your contacts, so you can easily remove invalid or suspicious addresses before sending an email campaign. Find more info here.
The quality of your message matters as much as your database.
Create engaging emails that include real text content, rather than sending only a single image file. Text helps spam filters better understand your message and improves accessibility.
However, spam filters don't just scan for keywords; they look for engagement. If people open, scroll, and click, your reputation improves.
Balance Text and Images: Avoid sending "image-only" emails (like a single large JPG flyer). These are unreadable by spam filters and inaccessible to screen readers. Aim for a 60/40 balance of text to images.
Personalize: Use dynamic content to include recipient's name or and other details about their behaviour on your website to make the content relevant.
Unsubscribe link: Always keep your visible unsubscribe link easy to find in the footer. Hiding it frustrates recipients and leads them to mark you as spam instead. (User.com also handles the technical headers for "One-Click Unsubscribe").
