Keep your emails out of spam
How warm-up works for a new sending domain, where to check your email health, and the habits that keep you in the inbox.
Inboxes like Gmail and Outlook decide whether your email lands in the inbox or in spam, based on how much they trust your domain. A new domain starts with no track record. This guide shows you how to build trust in the first few weeks and how to check that things are healthy.
Before you start
- Time: 10 minutes to read, then a few minutes a week.
- You need: a sending domain added on Email > Domains. See Set up sending email for your workspace.
How warm-up works
Step 4. Warming up on Email > Overview means your new domain is on a daily sending limit that grows over a few weeks. This is on purpose. If you hit the limit, you'll see "Your daily send limit is reached while your domain warms up." Wait until the next day and the rest will go.
The limit grows faster when people open your emails and nobody marks them as spam. It can shrink if many emails bounce or get reported.
Your first month on a new domain
- Week 1: send one-to-one emails and small batches to clients who know you well.
- Weeks 2 to 4: send your newsletter to your most engaged people first, then widen the list.
- Hold off on large sends to an old list until warm-up is done.
Check your email health
- Go to Email > Deliverability.
- Under Authentication, check your domain shows SPF and DKIM passing. DMARC is recommended (see below).
- Under Domain Health (30 days), read Readiness, Bounce, Complaints, Health and Warmup.
- Under Sending Guardrails, look for Safe to send.
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Safe to send | Your bounce and complaint numbers are in a healthy range. |
| Bounce climbing | Some addresses on your list don't exist anymore. Clean your list before the next send. |
| Complaints above zero | Someone marked you as spam. Check that everyone on the list asked to hear from you. |
| Readiness: Sender failed | Your domain needs attention. See Find out why an email didn't send. |
Health and readiness are separate checks
Safe to send can show while a domain still isn't ready. For each domain, go by Ready to send in the domain's Details on Email > Domains. That's the one signal that your email is ready: SPF and DKIM must pass, and DMARC is recommended.
Add DMARC (recommended)
SPF and DKIM must pass before you can send. DMARC is a third record that protects your domain from being faked. It won't block sending if it's missing, but inboxes trust you more when it's there.
- Go to Email > Domains and click Details on your domain.
- Under DNS Records, find the TXT record described as "Tells inbox providers how to handle unauthenticated emails". Its host starts with
_dmarc. - Copy the host and value and add the record at your domain company. Enter only the short host; most domain companies add your domain for you.
- Back on Email > Domains, click the re-check icon (circular arrows) in Actions.
Habits that keep you in the inbox
- Only email people who asked. Never import a bought list or a list of business cards. It's the fastest way to get blocked.
- Remove addresses that bounce. Don't keep retrying them.
- Make unsubscribing easy. Every marketing email gets an unsubscribe link automatically. It's far better than a spam report.
- Send what people signed up for. A client who booked a session didn't necessarily sign up for weekly promotions.
- Write like a person. Skip ALL CAPS subject lines, piles of exclamation marks, link shorteners and image-only emails.
- Use a From name people recognize, like your name or your practice name.
Check it worked
- Sending Guardrails shows Safe to send and step 4. Warming up eventually shows as done.
- Send a test to a Gmail and an Outlook address you own. Both should land in the inbox, not spam.
If something's off
- A test lands in the inbox, but your newsletter doesn't. Tests skip the warm-up limit. Your campaign may be waiting for tomorrow's allowance.
- Clients find you in Promotions. That's an inbox, not spam. Ask regular readers to move you to Primary.
- A record won't verify. See Domain says "DNS check failed".
- You changed your sending domain. Warm-up starts over for the new domain. Go slowly again.