My emails go to spam — how do I fix it?

Landing in the inbox is mostly about trust: proving who you are, and only emailing people who want to hear from you. Here's the checklist, roughly in order of impact.

1. Authenticate your domain (biggest factor)

Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This is non-negotiable — Gmail and Yahoo now require it for bulk senders. See Verify your domain.

2. Only email people who opted in

• Never buy or scrape lists — it's the fastest way to get blocked.
• Use a signup form and, ideally, double opt-in.

3. Warm up a new domain

If your domain/provider is brand new, don't blast 50,000 emails on day one. Start small and increase volume gradually over a couple of weeks so inboxes learn to trust you.

4. Keep your list clean

• Remove hard bounces (Mailbo does this automatically — see Bounces).
• Periodically drop people who haven't opened anything in months. A smaller engaged list beats a big stale one.

5. Make unsubscribing easy

Counter-intuitive but true: an easy unsubscribe means fewer spam complaints, and complaints hurt far more. Keep your complaint rate under 0.3% (Gmail/Yahoo's limit). Mailbo includes the required one-click unsubscribe automatically.

6. Write like a human, not a spammer

• Avoid ALL CAPS, "FREE!!!", and misleading subject lines.
• Keep a healthy text-to-image balance and include a plain unsubscribe link.
• Send from a consistent, recognisable From name and address.

7. Send relevant content to the right people

Segment your audience so people get emails they actually care about. Engagement (opens, clicks, replies) is the strongest long-term signal to inbox providers.

Quick diagnosis

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