Keeping your emails out of spam
Inbox placement isn't magic words or a lucky template—it's reputation: the inbox providers' running judgment of your sending domain. Here's what moves it, roughly in order:
What matters most
- Complaints. Every "mark as spam" click is a strike against your domain. Even a fraction of a percent is dangerous—which is why an easy unsubscribe is your friend: a reader who leaves politely costs you nothing; one who can't find the exit hits the spam button instead.
- Bounces. Sending to dead addresses tells providers your list is old or bought. That's why addresses that hard-bounce are suppressed automatically and can't be mailed again.
- Engagement. Opens, clicks, replies, moving your mail out of Promotions—all positive signals. Sending to people who never open dilutes this, which is why mailing a smaller, engaged segment often beats blasting everyone.
- Authentication and consistency. Send from your verified domain, from the same From address, at a reasonably steady rhythm. (Your domain setup here handles the technical authentication automatically.)
Habits that keep you clean
- Send to people who asked, promptly—a signup who first hears from you months later has forgotten you exist.
- Write the way you'd write to one person. Spammy formatting (ALL CAPS, a wall of images and no text) still pattern-matches badly.
- Keep your reply-to real, and welcome replies—they're the strongest positive signal there is.
- Retire chronic non-openers to an occasional "still want these?" cadence rather than mailing them weekly forever.
A test send that lands in your own spam folder is data, not doom—check whether you're sending from the verified domain, and remember your own mailbox has extra knowledge about you (it's a biased judge). The trend across real sends is what counts.