sendsend.email
Sign inStart building

Learn · 4 minute read

An email deliverability checklist for small businesses

Work through this in order. The early items fix most problems, and each one links to a guide with the detail.

Set up

  1. Send from your own domain, not a free-mail address, and use a subdomain for each kind of mail.
  2. Publish SPF. One record, every sending service listed, under 10 lookups. How.
  3. Turn on DKIM for each service that sends as your domain. How.
  4. Publish DMARC, starting with p=none and a reporting address. How.
  5. Check it all. Run your domain through the free domain checker to see it.

Before you send

  1. Warm up a new domain with small volumes to people who want your mail. How.
  2. Collect addresses properly: a clear signup form, and confirmation by email so typos and strangers never reach your list.
  3. Never buy or scrape a list.
  4. Make sure replies reach someone.

Every message

  1. Include a plain-text version and keep images in proportion to text.
  2. Make unsubscribing easy on marketing mail: a visible link and the one-click header. Why.
  3. Avoid misleading subjects, link shorteners and mismatched link text.
  4. Keep receipts and resets plain and about the transaction. More.

Keep it healthy

  1. Remove bounces straight away, and stop mailing people who never engage.
  2. Watch complaints. Keep them under 0.1%.
  3. Change volume gradually and never jump to ten times your usual.
  4. Test regularly to seed addresses at Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, and read the headers if something lands in spam. Why mail goes to spam.

Common questions

What is the single most important thing?

Authenticate the domain you send from with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, then email only people who asked for it. Most deliverability problems trace back to one of those two.

How often should I check my DNS records?

After any change to your email services, and every few months otherwise. Services get added and removed over time, and records drift.

Can an email service guarantee delivery?

No. A good one sets up authentication, suppresses bounces and complaints, and shows you what happened, but where mail lands also depends on your reputation and your content.

Check your own domainSee your SPF, DKIM and DMARC in seconds, free.
Open the checker

Keep reading

SendSend is an email API that checks these records for you and tells you when a domain is verified. Get started free.