The whole category in one page.
WHAT ACTUALLY DETERMINES DELIVERY
Authentication and reputation. Content matters far less than people assume.
Rewriting your message rarely fixes a delivery problem. Fixing authentication usually does.
THE THREE RECORDS
- SPF: which servers may send for you. Exactly one record, including every sending service.
- DKIM: a signature proving the mail is genuinely yours.
- DMARC: what receiving servers should do with failures, plus reporting.
Start DMARC at none and read the reports. They show you what is sending as your domain.
THE MOST COMMON FORM EMAIL FAULT
Sending with the visitor's address as the sender.
Send from your own domain and put their address in reply-to.
THE THING PEOPLE FORGET
Every sending source needs authenticating separately.
Your ordinary mail can arrive perfectly while order confirmations fail.
AFTER MIGRATING HOSTING
Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They do not travel automatically.
FOR REPUTATION
Only send to people who asked. Make unsubscribing immediate.
Someone who cannot unsubscribe marks you as spam instead, which is far worse.
Remove hard bounces immediately and clean inactive addresses.
TEST MONTHLY
Send to major providers and check whether it lands in the inbox or spam.
Delivery fails silently. Nothing tells you.
