📨 Why Are My Emails Going To Spam?

Updated as of February 6, 2025

This Knowledge Base article explains why emails may be flagged as spam and how to improve deliverability. Common issues include sending from a public domain, DMARC policy mismatches, poor list health, and internal mail filtering. To avoid spam filters, use a verified domain, maintain a clean email list, and follow best practices for authentication and consent.

There are many reasons that mailbox providers could flag your email as spam.

Here are the most common reasons we see and how to fix them.

Sending From a Public Domain

If you are sending messages from a free domain like gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc., your messages will likely go to the spam folder. You'll want to be sure to send mail from a domain that you own and that matches your branding.

DMARC

If the domain you use to send mail has a DMARC policy but you haven't verified the domain in with your SMTP provider, your messages will likely go to spam. Check with your SMTP provider for instructions on how to ensure your DealTrail messages pass DMARC.

List Health & List Collection

If all of the technical pieces above are covered, list health and list collection are the next most important factors to determine deliverability. Be sure that:

Everyone on your list gave direct consent to receive email marketing from you
Your cold subscribers are cleaned from your list regularly
Your forms are secured with double opt-in

Sending Internal Mail

Are you sending messages to the same domain that the message is coming from? For example, sending from info@exampledomain.com to suan@exampledomain.com. If so, it's common for these internal messages to go to spam. This is because your mailbox sees that it's receiving a message from itself, but it knows that it didn't send the message (DealTrail did). This makes your mailbox think it's being spoofed, and it sends the message to spam.

If you're just sending internal mail to test your messages, we recommend using a free email like gmail.com. If you need to send mail internally outside of testing, you'll want to have the person who manages mail for your domain whitelist the IP address of your SMTP provider.