If email marketing had a secret villain, it’d be poor deliverability. You could write the most brilliant copy, craft the best offer, design the perfect layout and still end up in your subscriber’s spam folder. Brutal, right?
The tricky part? Most marketers don’t realize there’s a problem until their metrics are nose-diving. That’s where an email deliverability audit comes in.
Think of it as your inbox health check. It pinpoints what’s dragging down your emails and what you need to fix to get back on track.
Whether nurturing leads or running e-commerce campaigns, improving your sender reputation is key to staying visible. Because if your emails aren’t reaching people, they’re not converting. And if they’re not converting… well, let’s fix that.
What Is an Email Deliverability Audit?
Before anything else, let’s clear this up:
Email delivery means your email was sent to the recipient’s server. While email deliverability is whether it landed in their inbox or was silently tossed into the spam folder. Just because an email is delivered doesn’t mean it’s seen.
Think of it as sending a gift. Delivery means it arrived at their front door, but deliverability means whether they actually unwrapped it or tossed it in the trash without opening it.
Think of it as sending a gift. Delivery means it arrived at their front door, but deliverability means whether they actually unwrapped it or tossed it in the trash without opening it.
Email Delivery vs. Email Deliverability
So What’s an Email Deliverability Audit?
An Email Deliverability Audit is like a full-body checkup for your email strategy. Instead of guessing what’s wrong, you look under the hood and review things like:
- Sender reputation (are inboxes starting to distrust you?)
- Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC—yep, they matter)
- Bounce rates and spam complaints
- Overall engagement levels (opens, clicks, replies)
Why It Matters
Even the best-crafted emails are useless if no one sees them. An audit helps you catch issues early before they snowball into bigger problems like:
- Lower open and click-through rates
- Damaged sender or domain reputation
- Emails are getting blocked or landing in spam folders
5 Key Signs You Need an Email Deliverability Audit
Not sure if it’s time to audit your deliverability?
The inbox doesn’t always send a warning flare, but these red flags are your signal to check what’s going on behind the scenes.
1. Your Open Rates Are Dropping
If your open rates have been tanking lately, your emails might not even be reaching the inbox. It’s a common sign that filters are catching your messages and tossing them into spam or promotions tabs where they go unseen. No opens = no clicks = wasted effort.
2. Bounce Rates Are Creeping Up
Getting a lot of “delivery failed” messages? That’s a bounce. Too many of these can hurt your sender reputation and signal that your list needs cleaning.
The average email bounce rate across industries is around 2%; anything significantly higher could indicate serious deliverability issues.
3. Unsubscribes Are Rising
A spike in unsubscribes tells you something’s off. Maybe you’re emailing too often, or your content’s missing the mark. But if they’re unsubscribing without engaging, your deliverability might be to blame; they could be seeing your emails in spam and jumping ship.
4. Spam Complaints Are Piling Up
Every time someone clicks “Report Spam,” your sender reputation takes a hit. A few complaints are normal, but consistent flags mean you need to rethink your subject lines, content, or how you’re collecting emails in the first place.
5. Engagement Is Low, Even With Big Sends
If you’re blasting campaigns to thousands of contacts and getting crickets in return, that’s a major red flag. Poor engagement is often the result of poor inbox placement. If people don’t see your emails, they can’t click – it’s as simple as that.
It’s like throwing a party and realizing no one showed up, not because they didn’t want to, but because the invites landed in the wrong mailbox.
How to Run an Email Deliverability Audit (Step-by-Step)
Running an email deliverability audit sounds technical, but it’s really just about checking the health of your email setup.
Here’s how to break it down:
1. Check Your Domain Reputation
Your domain is like your email’s digital ID.
If it’s been flagged for spammy behavior, even unintentionally, your messages might be blocked before they reach inboxes. Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools or Talos Intelligence to check if your domain is in the clear.
2. Review Email Authentication
Make sure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are set up correctly. These protocols prove to email providers that your messages are legit, not spoofed. If any of these are missing or misconfigured, deliverability takes a nosedive.
3. Analyze Bounce and Spam Complaint Rates
Look at recent campaigns. Are you getting a lot of bounces or “mark as spam” clicks? These are red flags. A bounce rate above 5% or a high complaint volume means it’s time to clean up your list and review your content.
2. Review Email Authentication
Spammy phrases like “Make money fast” or “Click here now” can ruin a good email. So can excessive punctuation, poor formatting, or overloaded links. Run your emails through spam checkers before hitting send.
Here’s an example:
Instead of writing, “MAKE MONEY FAST!!! CLICK HERE NOW $$$,” try something like, “Get expert tips to grow your income; no spam, just value.”
5. Test Inbox Placement Using Tools
Platforms like GlockApps or MailReach let you test where your emails are landing: Primary, Promotions, or Spam. This gives you a reality check on how mailbox providers see your emails.
Want a pro move? Try sending yourself a test campaign with a subject line like:
“Just checking in, did you get my last email?”
If it lands in your spam folder, it’s time to dig deeper.
Running this audit every few months helps you stay ahead of issues before they snowball. It’s not about perfection, it’s about staying in control.
How to Improve Your Sender Reputation
So you ran your email deliverability audit, and yep, there’s room for improvement.
Don’t worry; even big brands slip up now and then.
The good news? Your sender reputation isn’t permanent.
Here’s how to clean things up and get back in the inbox where you belong.
1. Clean Your Email List
Stop sending emails to ghosts. If your list is packed with inactive or invalid addresses, it’s tanking your reputation. Use tools like ZeroBounce or NeverBounce to regularly scrub your list and say goodbye to high bounce rates.
Even better? Set up a double opt-in. It adds an extra step to confirm new subscribers are real and actually want to hear from you.
You can even give it a friendly touch:
Subject: Just one more step!
Body: “Hey [First Name], we’re excited to have you! Just click the button below to confirm your subscription; it helps us make sure we’re sending emails to the right inbox.”
2. Segment and Personalize
Sending the same promo to your entire list? That’s a fast track to the spam folder. Break your audience into meaningful segments, like recent buyers, frequent openers, or inactive subscribers, and send content that matches where they are.
Even small touches make a big difference:
Subject: A little something we thought you’d like
Body: “Hi [First Name], since you’ve been eyeing our skincare line, here’s 15% off our newest serum. Just our way of saying thanks for sticking around.”
When subscribers feel seen, they’re way more likely to engage, and engagement keeps you out of spam.
3. Set Clear Expectations
You know what makes people hit “Mark as Spam”? Getting emails they didn’t ask for. Fix that from the get-go.
Let them know what’s coming:
Subject: You’re in! Here’s what to expect
Body: “Thanks for signing up, [First Name]! We’ll be sending you weekly product drops, exclusive discounts, and a few behind-the-scenes goodies.”
Stick to what you promised. Surprise birthday deals? Great. Surprise daily emails after promising one per week? Not so great.
4. Monitor Regularly and Adjust
mproving your sender rep isn’t a one-and-done thing. Keep tabs on your open rates, click-throughs, bounce rates, and spam complaints. If something’s off, tweak your strategy.
Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools to stay in the loop. The more proactive you are, the better your inbox placement will be.
Final Thoughts
A deliverability audit isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s your inbox insurance policy. If your emails aren’t making it to the inbox, everything else falls flat. Great subject lines, killer design, and even irresistible offers all go to waste if your sender reputation is in the gutter.
So do yourself a favor and run the audit. Clean up your list.
Personalize your content. Monitor what’s working (and what’s not). Because better audits = better inbox rates = better ROI. And if you’ve been wondering why your open rates are sinking or why your campaigns aren’t hitting like they used to, this might just be the fix you need.
Now go give your emails the deliverability glow-up they deserve.
