Deliverability

Deliverability is whether your email reaches the inbox rather than the spam folder. Most of it is decided before you write a word.

The biggest win: send from your own domain

By default your email is sent by us on your behalf. That works, but mail from your own authenticated domain is trusted more, and shows your brand in the From line.

To set it up, open Settings > Email sending:

1. Set Sending method to Your own domain.
2. Add a sending domain - the domain you want to send from, for example acme.com.
3. We give you three CNAME records. Add them at your DNS provider, exactly as shown.
4. Wait. We check automatically and the domain flips to verified once DNS has propagated - usually minutes, occasionally hours.
5. Choose the verified domain under Send from and set your From address.

Only verified domains can be selected, so if your domain is not offered in the list, verification has not completed - re-check the three records for typos and stray spaces.

The other two fields on that page matter as well:

• From name - the display name recipients see. Use your business name, not "noreply".
• Reply-to - where replies land, if different from the sending address. Set it to an inbox a human actually reads.

What we handle for you

• Bounces and complaints stop automatically. An address that hard-bounces or marks you as spam is suppressed, so you cannot keep sending to it and damaging your reputation.
• List hygiene retires subscribers who have not engaged in a very long time.
• A spam-content check in the composer flags wording likely to trip filters before you send.

What you control

• Only email people who asked. Bought or scraped lists are the fastest way to ruin a sending domain, and the damage follows the domain, not the list.
• Make unsubscribing easy. People who cannot find the link press "spam" instead, which costs far more.
• Send consistently. A long silence followed by a huge blast looks exactly like a compromised account.
• Write like a person. ALL CAPS SUBJECTS, "FREE!!!", and a wall of images with no text are what filters are trained on.

If email is not arriving

1. Check the campaign's own stats - if it shows as sent, the problem is at the receiving end.
2. Check spam folders, including your own test address.
3. Confirm the sending domain still shows verified. DNS records get edited or removed by accident.
4. See Emails not sending for account-wide sending problems.

Next steps

• Set up how your emails are sent
• Send a campaign

Frequently asked questions

Why do my emails go to spam?

Most often because they are sent from an address at a domain that has not been verified as yours. Sending from your own verified domain is the single largest improvement available.

What do the three CNAME records do?

They let the receiving mail server confirm the message really came from you. Until they are in place, the mail is unauthenticated, which is what spam filters treat as suspicious.

How long do the records take to work?

The same as any DNS change: usually minutes, sometimes hours. Verification is checked rather than assumed, so re-check rather than re-adding records that are already correct.

Should I buy a list?

No. It is the fastest way to destroy a sender reputation you cannot easily rebuild, and in most jurisdictions it is also unlawful.

Related reading

• Email deliverability for a small business - the whole picture, including the habits that matter more than the records.