Introduction This guide is designed to give users everything they need to know to avoid the SPAM folder and land their emails into the Inbox. Below you will find a detailed guide on how to get sending emails in the platform.

Caution: Ignoring this guide can result in emails going to SPAM. We want your emails to arrive in the inbox and not in the SPAM folder. Please learn and apply this guide to your Email Sending Practices.

Who is this guide for? While this guide is for anyone sending emails in the platform... It is specifically designed for those utilizing Email services and Email Dedicated Domain Features. Those utilizing a Custom SMTP Provider will need to consult their provider. Our team will be limited on how much we can assist in some of the email compliance and best practices as they are not managed by us.

Email Best Practices Now that your new sending domain is set up, it is critical for you to set yourself up for a successful landing into people’s inboxes and NOT their spam folder. Before you get started sending, ensure you have set up and followed these necessary best practices.

1. Set Up a Dedicated Email Sending Domain What is it? Your Sending Domain is how the internet routes emails. Rather than sharing the domain provided for all users, a dedicated email domain is a single private domain you use to send and receive emails. Within the platform, when you are using the platform's Email service, you have the ability to create your own dedicated domain. If you are using a non-platform Email (or SMTP Provider), you will not have this ability in-app.

Why it matters? Not having a Dedicated Email Sending Domain often results in your emails going into SPAM despite good emailing practices. When you set up a Dedicated Email Sending Domain, you can gain full control of your reputation and email deliverability. This means you can work your way into all emails going into the inbox while avoiding that SPAM folder.

**How to Set it Up?**If you haven't already, it is highly recommended to have your own Dedicated Domain for sending emails. To set up your Dedicated Email Sending Domain, check out this step-by-step guide.

What if I already have a Dedicated Email Sending Domain and my Emails are going to SPAM? If this describes you, please click here to learn more.

2. Set Up a Dedicated Sending IP Address What is it? Dedicated IPs offer a distinct advantage by sending your email messages from a unique, exclusive IP address. Email service providers (ESPs) closely monitor the reputation and behavior of an IP address to determine the deliverability of emails linked to specific domains associated with that IP.

Getting a dedicated IP address provides your organization with exclusive ownership, giving you full control over the management of the email sender's reputation and deliverability tied to that IP. Learn more here: What is a Dedicated Sending IP Address?

Why it matters? If you have a platform Email Dedicated Sending Domain (see point 1 above), you share the same Sending IP Address with all other users on the platform. Mailbox providers give a reputation to IP addresses, so this could negatively impact your sending, especially at high volume. A dedicated sending IP address helps you control more of your email-sending health to build your own IP reputation. This becomes more important when sending high-volume, especially 200k emails or more.

**How to Set it Up?**While everyone can benefit from a Dedicated Sending IP, businesses sending more than 200,000 emails a week will benefit the most from this service. To set up and learn more about Dedicated Sending IP Address, check out this guide.

3. Enable Email Validation What is it? Email Validation will check if the email you are sending is valid or not. Sending to an invalid email can negatively impact your email deliverability.

Why it matters? If you send emails that do not exist or are not valid, it harms your domain reputation leading to poor email deliverability. This means emails will go to spam or not be accepted into the mailbox at all.

How to enable it? We’ve actually made it as easy as possible to validate your emails; it is a setting in your account's settings.

Enabling Email Verification for your account:

  • Account View > Business Profile > Scroll to the “Verify Email Address when the first email is sent to a new contact” checkbox.
  • Email Validation every 90 days: Account View > Accounts > Click on the account name > Scroll down to “Enable Re-validation for 90 days.”

4. Enable “Mark Email Invalid from Hard Bounce.” What is it? An email bounce occurs when an email is not delivered or rejected by the recipient's email provider. There are two types of bounces:

  • A hard bounce occurs when an email address does not exist.
  • A soft bounce is a temporary failure, like the recipient servers being down or the mailbox being full.

Why it matters? Too many bounced emails will harm your domain reputation, leading to emails going to SPAM. This is why marking hard-bounced emails as invalid is important to enable.

**How to enable it?**You can choose to mark emails as invalid if they bounce from within your account settings.

Enabling Email Verification for the account:

  • Account View > Business Profile > Scroll to the “Mark Emails as invalid due to Hard Bounce” checkbox.

Learn more here: What is email Bounce Suspension, and how to avoid it.

5. Add Your DMARC Record What is it? A DMARC Record provides instructions to receiving servers about how to handle incoming mail. In order to get delivered, messages need to pass DKIM and SPF alignment checks according to the requirements set by the DMARC policy. Messages that do not pass DMARC checks can be rejected, reported back to the domain owner, or placed in the spam folder.

**Why Add it?**Not having a DMARC Record can negatively impact your domain reputation and email deliverability. Often, mailbox providers count it against you when DMARC Records are not set up properly, resulting in emails going to SPAM.

**How to Add it?**To add a DMARC record, you must log into your DNS provider and add the following TXT record:

  • Type: “TXT”
  • Name: “_dmarc”
  • Content: “v=DMARC1; p=reject"

To confirm your DMARC Record is applied correctly, you can use this DMARC Checker.

6. Use the Proper “From Email” **What is it?**The “From Email” is the email a recipient will see when receiving an email. For example, your Sending Domain might be “mail.yourplatformdomain.com” however, you can send your From Email as “test@yourplatformdomain.com” or as “test@mail.yourplatformdomain.com.”

**Why it matters?**Using a “From Email” that does not match the primary domain you are sending from can result in poor email deliverability.

How to Set It Up? Whenever you are sending from the platform, be sure your “From Email” has your primary domain in the “From Email.” So if you set up "replies.company.com" as the sending domain, you can then send from sender_name@company.com because the root domains match. Do not set the "From Email" with an email that does not contain the root domain, which in this case is "company.com."

For example, if I have a sending domain of “mail.yourplatformdomain.com” – My From Email needs to have “yourplatformdomain.com” in the email address, such as “user-test@yourplatformdomain.com.” Any other record will result in poor email deliverability.

See more information here: Masking Sender Emails - From Name & Address.

7. Add Unsubscribe Links **What is it?**An unsubscribe link allows your users to “unsubscribe” from receiving emails from you in the future.

**Why it matters?**Not having an unsubscribe link will severely harm your email deliverability rates.

How to Set It Up? We make it as easy as possible to add an unsubscribe link to all of your emails. Within the email builder, use the “Footer” element. Be sure to use this or edit and create your own.

You have two options: you can use the default unsubscribe link we’ve automatically set up for you, or you can create your own!

  • Default Unsubscribe Link Set Up: If you are using the platform Email service, it’s quick and easy to use the default unsubscribe links. This will not work for non-platform Email users. Refer to the next point for non-platform Email users.
  • Custom Unsubscribe Link Set Up: Make the best possible unsubscribe link and process, giving you full control. Get started here with this Custom Unsubscribe Link Set Up Help Doc.

8. Use Double Opt-In What is it? A Double Opt-In is when you ask subscribers to opt-in twice. For example, they fill out a form and then “verify” their email address by clicking a link to “Verify” their email. Only after someone has double opted-in will you start sending them emails. This is in contrast to a single opt-in, which will start sending emails to recipients right after the first opt-in.

**Why it matters?**Double opt-ins are highly beneficial to your domain reputation and email deliverability. This is because users have double opt-in to receive emails from you. Think about it… the act of a recipient receiving their first email from you, then opening and clicking on a link within this email, looks really good for your domain. In addition, it ensures your list knows and wants to receive emails from you. This is invaluable when list building.

**How to Set It Up?**To set up a Double Opt-In Email Flow, some quick building is required in the platform. See how to build a Double Opt-In Flow here: How To Build A Double Opt-In Flow.

9. Stop Sending to Unengaged Emails **What is it?**As simple as it sounds… When sending to your email list, do not send to unengaged emails. Meaning if they do not take the action to open or perform the next step in your campaign, stop sending to them.

Why does it matter? When you send to a more engaged group of people, your emails go into the inbox more often. Fewer open or links clicked (engagement) will result in emails going to spam.

How do I do this? If you have been sending to the same person who has taken no action for weeks, send to them less frequently or not at all.

While it hurts to trim the list, it’ll hurt more to ruin your email deliverability due to unengaged recipients. It just isn’t worth it, and there are no hard feelings for users not wanting to engage with you. Focus your efforts on those that ARE engaging with you.

It is better to stop sending to an unengaged recipient than it is to have them "unsubscribe" or "mark as SPAM."

10. Send Regularly… Just Not Too Regularly **What is it?**Another large factor in your sending domain's reputation is how often you send emails. If you only send out an email blast to your list once a month or once every couple of weeks, it can negatively impact your reputation. In contrast, if you send it every day or multiple times a day, it is just as bad. Especially if in the past you didn’t send it like this.

**Why does it matter?**Thus, it is important to consider how often you send. When someone has opted in and is engaging (opening emails, clicking on links in those emails), then you can send a bit more. But after they are not engaged, slow it down to weekly. And as covered above, if users are unengaged, stop sending them altogether. How often you send and how engaged your recipients are can play a huge role in ensuring emails arrive in the inbox.

How do I do this? There are many opinions out there on how often to send and when to send. In general, we've found success in only sending to opt-in (preferably double opt-in) recipients. After they have signed up, we send them about an email a day for the first 5 days, then we slow down to a couple a week. This continues until they take the action we want. If they take no action after 20 days, we only send weekly emails until we have another planned promotion.

Email Warm-Up Mailbox providers will often flag emails from new dedicat