Getting your emails into the inbox

Deliverability is how many of your emails reach people's inboxes. The rest go to spam folders, or aren't delivered at all. Each email provider, such as Gmail or Outlook, decides where an email goes, based on the sender's track record and on the email itself.

What SplashSend does for you

• Every email has an unsubscribe link in its footer and carries the one-click unsubscribe that Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook and other email apps show beside your name. People who can leave in one click are less likely to report you as spam.
• Addresses that bounce for good, and people who report you as spam, are never emailed again. See Bounces and spam complaints.
• Every email is checked before it goes out, for things like a missing unsubscribe link or a button that goes nowhere. See What's checked before an email goes out.
• If someone chooses on your preferences page to hear from you less often, they don't get more emails than they asked for. The one exception is the review request drip that Collect sets up for you, which asks for a review a few days after an order whatever they chose.
• If too many of your emails bounce or are reported as spam, your sending is paused until the cause is fixed. See If your sending is paused.

Finish the Sending part of Setup

The Sending group at the top of the Setup menu holds the settings that matter most for deliverability. The Setup progress box above it lists any that are still to do.

1. Sender details: your business name and an email address at your own domain, verified with a code. See Setting up your sender details.
2. Domain: a few records added to your domain, so your emails come from your own address and are judged on your own sending. It's free on every plan. See Authenticating your domain.
3. Business address: the postal address shown at the bottom of every email.

Habits that help

• Only email people who asked to hear from you. A bought or borrowed list brings bounces and spam reports, and our Terms don't allow it.
• Send at a steady pace. The Pace label on the Calendar reads Getting heavy when people get more than four emails a week from you on average. Hover over it to see the number.
• Give every email some real words as well as pictures, and avoid subject lines written in capitals or full of exclamation marks.
• The first time you send to a large list, start with the people most likely to open, such as recent customers, and send to the rest over the following days. Once you've sent them an email or two, a group where Engagement is Engaged picks out the people who open.
• Stop emailing people who haven't opened anything for months. See Sending responsibly.

Checking how it's going

• In Reports, the Campaigns dashboard has a Deliverability card: the share of all your emails delivered each day, drips included, with a count of bounces, soft ones included. It also names your weakest day.
• The Drips dashboard in Reports shows the bounce rate of each drip next to your campaigns' rate.
• A sent campaign's Insights tab shows its Bounce rate and lists the addresses it couldn't reach.
• In People, the groups under We never email these list everyone who bounced, complained or unsubscribed, and anyone you stopped emailing yourself.

If your emails are landing in spam

1. Open Setup → Domain. If it doesn't say Authenticated and sending as yourself, finish setting up your domain.
2. Look at where your newest people came from. A large import of people who haven't heard from you for a long time is a common cause.
3. On your next campaign, use Send a test first to send it to your own Gmail and Outlook addresses, and see where it lands.
4. Look at the email itself. One large picture with very few words, or a link shortener, can count against it.
5. Ask anyone who found you in spam to move the email to their inbox and add your address to their address book. Their email provider takes that into account.