Why my emails land in spam (and how to get out)
Content is rarely the first cause. In order of impact: your mailboxes' provider, authentication, domain and IP reputation, volume, and only then content and targeting.
Are you really in spam?
Nobody can tell you, recipient by recipient, whether an email landed in spam. You read it from trends: an open rate under 30% on a varied audience, replies drying up.
Two checks first: open tracking must be on and your tracking domain must resolve, otherwise a 0% measures nothing (see here). And a test email sent to yourself doesn't count (see why).
1. Your mailboxes' provider
Emelia connects to your mailbox and your emails go out through your provider's servers. Its reputation becomes yours. It's the number one factor, far ahead of content.
| Provider | What our support sees | Our take |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | The most reliable for outreach. | Recommended |
| Microsoft 365 | Very good too. A brand-new Microsoft 365 tenant can be held back at first (error 550 5.7.708, see below). | Recommended |
| OVH | Decent and cheap. A cap of 200 messages per hour for the whole OVH account, across all domains. | Fine to get started |
| Shared hosting providers: o2switch, Infomaniak, Hostinger, Gandi, IONOS, LWS… | Strict hourly quotas, outbound filters, shared IPs that degrade. | Avoid for sending |
| Personal Gmail, internet service provider addresses (SFR, Orange, Free…) | No domain of your own, very strict outbound spam filters. | Not recommended for outreach |
Sending from Google to Outlook recipients, or the other way round, makes almost no difference: no need to try to match providers.
If your company already uses Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, ideally use a separate tenant for outreach.
Moving your sending mailboxes to Google or Microsoft doesn't touch your website hosting. See Buying your domains and sending mailboxes.
2. Authentication: SPF, DKIM, DMARC
These three records prove to your recipients' servers that you really are the sender. They're set in your domain's DNS zone, following your provider's documentation.
To check their status, use a public tool such as mail-tester.com or dnschecker.org: the details are in SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
A DNS change often takes 10 to 20 minutes to propagate, sometimes up to 24 hours. Wait before checking again.
SPF and DKIM
- SPF: a single TXT record per domain that covers all your services. The most common mistake is an SPF still pointing to your old provider.
- DKIM: provided by your email provider, switched on in its settings. At OVH, allow up to 24 hours on a new mailbox before it shows up.
DMARC: stay on p=none
DMARC is a TXT record named _dmarc, one per domain. For outreach, stay on p=none: a strict policy (p=quarantine, p=reject) can get your emails rejected. A missing DMARC won't block you, but it's recommended.
Recommended DMARC : TXT record named _dmarc, replace the address with one on your own domain.
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@your-domain.com3. Domain reputation
- Your main domain: never run outreach from it. If something goes wrong, your quotes, invoices and client emails are the ones landing in spam. See Prospecting from your main domain.
- Too many mailboxes on one domain: spam reports add up on the domain, not on the mailbox. Stick to 3 mailboxes per domain (5 at most).
- A domain that's too young: with no history, it starts with a handicap. Start with small volumes.
- A domain with a past: a "new" domain may have been used before you bought it. Check it against blacklists (see below).
- A subdomain: it doesn't protect your main domain and causes MX issues. Buy real domains, close to yours, and redirect them to your website.
4. Sending IP reputation
With a shared hosting provider, sending IP addresses are shared between its customers. As soon as it detects campaign activity, it automatically moves the account to a pool of lower-rated IPs. It doesn't block your mailbox: it gives it a bad IP, and your sending reputation drops.
To be fair: a drop right after a campaign starts can also come from targeting or content. Until you switch providers, stick to 25 new contacts and 75 emails per day per mailbox.
Microsoft 365 and error 550 5.7.708 ("traffic not accepted from this IP"): the IP at fault is Microsoft's, never Emelia's, because a mailbox connected through the Microsoft connection sends via Microsoft's API. Microsoft refuses mail from IPs it considers low-reputation, especially on a new or trial tenant. Move to a paid licence assigned to each mailbox, wait about a day, then, if the error persists, ask Microsoft support for an exception from the admin center. Send nothing from these mailboxes in the meantime: every refusal makes the reputation worse. See Connecting Microsoft 365.
The provider won't put an outreach sender back on its clean IPs. The lasting fix is to move your sending mailboxes to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
5. Volume and pace
Emelia imposes no technical cap: your provider, then your recipients' servers, are the ones that penalise excessive volume.
- 35 new contacts and 100 emails per day per mailbox at most, follow-ups included.
- About 20 emails per hour per mailbox: use a wide window (for example 8:30 am to 5:30 pm), Emelia spreads sends across it. A short window packs sends into bursts.
- One mailbox, one campaign (two at most, at different hours). The limits of each campaign add up on the mailbox.
- To send more: more domains and more mailboxes, never more emails per mailbox. Plan 5 to 10 mailboxes for about 5,000 sends a month.
- Repeated blocks from your provider: pause for 24 hours, then halve all your quotas.
6. Content and links
- Short, simple text, in the recipient's language
- A link to an online document rather than an attachment
- Zero or one image, few links, all https
- A plain-text signature (a LinkedIn link is fine)
- Spintax as soon as you send lots of identical emails
- A real first and last name as the sender
- A custom tracking domain
- Attachments: the worst thing for deliverability
- URL shorteners (bit.ly…) and broken links
- Rich HTML, heavy signatures, text all in bold
- Words that smell like promotion: free, discount, offer
- White text (written in dark mode): the email looks empty
- A sender name like "outreach 2"
- All your prospects in blind copy
To check your variants, send yourself a real test. Spintax isn't A/B testing: it varies the text so that hundreds of identical emails don't leave the same mailbox. See Writing your sequence.
7. Targeting
- Two or three contacts per company at most, and a shuffled list. Emailing one company in bulk triggers its security.
- Consumer addresses (Gmail, Hotmail, Orange, Wanadoo…) filter outreach more heavily, and Orange blocks it whatever your provider. You need business addresses to write to business addresses.
- An old or purchased list pushes bounces up, and bounces damage domain reputation. See I have too many bounces.
8. Blacklists
Public blacklists (Spamhaus, UCEPROTECT, SURBL…) list IPs and domains. Check your domain and your provider's IP on MXToolbox.
- Your domain is listed: fix the cause, then request removal from the list in question.
- Your provider's IP is listed: it's up to the provider to act. If it keeps happening, switch providers. At UCEPROTECT, level 2 is a problem, level 3 (which targets a provider's whole network) less so.
The Emelia blacklist is something else entirely: it's the list of addresses and domains you never want to contact again.
Getting a mailbox or domain back in shape
- 1. Stop campaigns on the mailbox for one to three weeks, or drop to 5 new contacts a day.
- 2. Fix what's wrong: DNS, content, tracking domain, volume per mailbox, provider.
- 3. Restart at a lower volume and watch the open rate step by step.
Changing providers doesn't reset everything: the domain keeps its age, and the new mailbox restarts at low volumes. Sometimes buying a new domain and creating a fresh mailbox is faster than repairing the old one.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we get asked on this topic, answered briefly.
Should I ask my provider for a new IP?
No. On shared hosting, the IP degrades because the provider moves outreach accounts onto lower-rated IPs, and it won't move you back. The lasting fix is to move your sending mailboxes to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
How long does it take to get out of spam?
Allow one to three weeks of rest for the mailbox (or 5 new contacts a day) after fixing the cause. If the provider is the problem, nothing will change until you leave it.
Does open tracking hurt deliverability?
With a custom tracking domain, no: it's actually a plus, especially towards Gmail and Outlook. Keep open tracking on at the start so you can measure. Click tracking, however, is unreliable (security filters click links): leave it off unless you have a specific need.
Do I need to add an Emelia SPF or IP?
No. Emelia has no sending server: there is nothing from Emelia to authorise in your SPF. The only Emelia-specific record is the tracking domain CNAME.