How to fix poor Gmail delivery rate and domain reputation?

Key findings

• Misleading metrics: A 0% spam complaint rate in Google Postmaster Tools, despite a 'bad' domain reputation, often indicates emails are going directly to the bulk or spam folder rather than the inbox.
• Open rate decline: A sharp drop in Gmail open rates (e.g., from 30% to 4%) suggests a significant deliverability problem, with a very small percentage of emails reaching the primary inbox.
• Authentication impact: While setting up DMARC and DKIM is essential for proper authentication, it alone may not immediately fix a bad domain reputation if underlying sending practices are problematic. Refer to our guide to email authentication.
• Sender reputation: Google's algorithms are sophisticated, and they assign a reputation based on various factors, not just explicit spam reports. A poor reputation means Google thinks your client's email is unwanted, even if users aren't explicitly marking it as spam.

Key considerations

• List segmentation: Sending only to active subscribers (those who consistently open or click emails) can help rebuild your domain reputation. This ensures positive engagement signals are sent to Gmail. For more details, see our article on how to improve your domain reputation with Gmail.
• Double opt-in: Implement double opt-in for all new subscribers to ensure a high-quality list and explicit consent, which significantly boosts engagement signals. MailMonitor provides insights on how to repair a bad domain reputation.
• Content relevance: Ensure the content sent is valuable and relevant to your audience, prompting positive interactions (opens, clicks, replies) that signal good sender behavior to Gmail.
• No quick fixes: Repairing domain reputation is a gradual process and cannot be sped up artificially. Consistency and adherence to best practices over time are key.

Key opinions

• Engagement segmentation: A common strategy is to segment email lists to only send to recently engaged subscribers, hoping this will positively influence domain reputation. However, this depends on the ESP's segmentation capabilities.
• Postmaster tools data: Marketers frequently check Google Postmaster Tools for insights into domain and IP reputation, but sometimes the data (like 0% spam complaints) can be misleading if emails are going straight to bulk.
• Whitelisting campaigns: Some marketers recommend running specific campaigns to encourage subscribers to add the sender's email address to their contacts, believing this can help improve deliverability.
• List validation: Using an email validation service for list scrubbing is seen as a useful step to clean up inactive or invalid addresses, even for smaller lists.
• ESP relationship: There's an understanding that a good domain reputation can sometimes be initially boosted by 'piggy-backing' on the ESP's domain reputation, but this is not a sustainable long-term solution. Learn more about strategies to improve Gmail sender reputation.

Key considerations

• Specific segmentation capabilities: The effectiveness of segmenting to engaged users relies heavily on the specific filtering options provided by the email platform (e.g., 'opened any of the last X campaigns' versus 'opened/clicked in the past 30 days').
• Client persuasion: Marketers often face the challenge of convincing clients that reducing send volume to unengaged segments is beneficial for long-term deliverability, despite short-term sales goals.
• Impact of poor deliverability on sales: The immediate impact of poor deliverability, such as near-zero open rates during critical sales periods, underscores the urgency of addressing reputation issues.
• Proactive list management: Regular list cleaning and validation should be standard practice to prevent deliverability issues, rather than a reactive measure. Shopify has a guide on how to improve email reputation.

Key opinions

• Zero complaints, high bulk: Experts agree that if emails are consistently going to the bulk folder, the spam complaint rate will naturally be zero. This does not indicate good deliverability but rather a severe filtering issue. This is a key aspect of recovering from a bad domain reputation.
• Inboxing vs. opens: A very low open rate (e.g., 4%) indicates that a minimal percentage of emails are actually reaching the inbox. Google’s use of proxies for opens means that marketers cannot rely solely on reported open rates to determine inbox placement. Focus on genuine inboxers.
• Systemic problems: A sudden drop in reputation, especially after changes like setting up DMARC (and potentially no longer piggy-backing on an ESP's DKIM domain), suggests underlying systemic issues with the email program that Google is now able to identify and penalize. For more details, refer to why your emails are going to spam.
• Engagement definition: Defining what constitutes 'wanted' mail is crucial; it refers to recipients who actively interact with emails in ways that signal desire to Google (e.g., opening, clicking, replying, moving to primary inbox).

Key considerations

• Reputation rebuilding: The only way to rebuild reputation is by consistently sending wanted mail that generates positive engagement. This process takes time and cannot be accelerated.
• Stop sending to bulk: It is critical to stop sending mail that Google is classifying as bulk. Every message sent to the bulk folder contributes negatively to reputation, reinforcing the problem.
• Holistic program review: While rebuilding reputation with engaged segments, a comprehensive review of the entire email program is necessary to identify and fix systemic issues contributing to poor deliverability. Spam Resource provides insights on email deliverability best practices.
• Strategic re-engagement: Once reputation improves, gradually reintroducing other recipients should be done very selectively, prioritizing those who are likely to actively engage with the mail.

Key findings

• Sender compliance: Gmail's sender guidelines, particularly for bulk senders, are increasingly stringent. Compliance with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is now mandatory for good deliverability.
• Engagement signals: Mailbox providers heavily weigh positive and negative user engagement. Positive interactions (opens, clicks, replies, moving from spam to inbox) improve reputation, while negative ones (spam reports, unsubscribes, non-opens) hurt it.
• List quality: Maintaining a clean and engaged subscriber list is fundamental. Sending to invalid addresses or unengaged users leads to bounces, spam traps, and low engagement, all detrimental to reputation.
• Postmaster tools: Google Postmaster Tools is the authoritative source for domain and IP reputation data specifically from Gmail. Senders should use this tool to monitor their status and identify issues. For help, refer to the ultimate guide to Google Postmaster Tools V2.

Key considerations

• Content and unsubscribe: Ensuring email content is relevant, desired by the recipient, and includes an easy-to-find unsubscribe link is crucial for avoiding spam complaints and improving user satisfaction.
• Gradual list warm-up: When rebuilding reputation, gradually increasing sending volume to highly engaged segments (warming up) is a recommended practice to demonstrate consistent positive behavior to ISPs.
• Spam trap avoidance: Regular list cleaning and using double opt-in help avoid spam traps, which are a major reputation killer. Learn more in our guide on what spam traps are and how they work.
• Monitoring blocklists: Periodically checking if your domain or IP is on any public blocklists (blacklists) is important, as this directly affects deliverability. You can check your status on various lists via our blocklist checker.