Summary
Troubleshooting email deliverability issues in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), particularly when emails land in spam folders, requires a comprehensive approach. While general spam tests like Email on Acid can identify failure points (e.g., Apple Mail or Gmail filters), they often lack the detailed insights needed to understand the underlying causes. Effective diagnosis hinges on analyzing specific data points, rather than relying solely on generic tools.
Key findings
- Incomplete tool insights: Generic spam tests might indicate which filters are failed, but they typically do not provide the root cause analysis required to resolve the issue.
- Data-driven diagnosis: The most effective way to understand why emails are going to spam is by combining insights from Google Postmaster Tools with your Email Service Provider's (ESP) response data, such as bounces, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. This combination helps paint a clearer picture of your sender reputation and content performance. You can read more about diagnosing email deliverability issues.
- Reputation is key: Spam placement is heavily influenced by IP, domain, and brand reputation. If your sending source resembles those associated with unwanted mail, filters will flag your messages. Maintaining a strong domain reputation using Google Postmaster Tools is crucial.
- Content analysis: Specific elements within your email content (links, phrases, patterns) can trigger spam filters, especially if they are commonly found in spam. This can be an inadvertent inclusion, particularly if using a shared sending service where others might have sent spammy content.
- Error message interpretation: The exact error message from mailbox providers can guide your troubleshooting. For instance, a 'similar to spam' message suggests potential for reputation salvage through cleaner data, while 'identified as spam' might necessitate a fresh domain.
Key considerations
- Postmaster tools access: Ensure you have access to Google Postmaster Tools for your sending domains to monitor reputation, spam rates, and delivery errors. This is a primary source of deliverability intelligence.
- Engagement metrics: Actively monitor subscriber engagement. Low opens, high complaint rates, or significant unsubscribes signal to mailbox providers that your emails are unwanted, negatively impacting your sender reputation and increasing spam placement.
- Content hygiene: Regularly review your email content for potential spam triggers. This includes scrutinizing links, images, and specific phrases that might be associated with unsolicited mail. Salesforce's own resources, such as The Art of Marketing Cloud Email Deliverability, often provide guidance on this.
- Audience segmentation: Segment your audience based on engagement levels and send highly relevant content to increase positive interactions. Mailing to a clean and active data set is paramount for improving deliverability.
- Authentication standards: Ensure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured. While passing these doesn't guarantee inbox placement, failing them almost guarantees spam folder delivery. Learn how to troubleshoot and fix SPF and DMARC settings.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often face the immediate challenge of identifying the 'why' behind spam folder placement when using platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud. While initial checks with tools like Email on Acid can show failure points, the consensus among marketers is that these tools rarely provide the full context needed for actionable solutions. The key to effective troubleshooting, they find, lies in a deeper dive into sender reputation and content analysis, often leveraging first-party data sources.
Key opinions
- Limited diagnostic tools: Many marketers express frustration that most readily available tools or websites do not explicitly explain why emails land in the spam folder, only that they do. This often leads to incomplete troubleshooting.
- Google Postmaster dependency: There's a strong emphasis on using Google Postmaster Tools as a primary resource for monitoring sender reputation and identifying issues with Gmail, a significant inbox provider. This is critical for any marketer using SFMC.
- Internal data analysis: Marketers frequently combine Google Postmaster data with their ESP's reporting (bounces, opens, clicks, unsubscribes) to gain a holistic view of performance. This combined data set is seen as essential for accurate problem identification.
- Content and behavior: Many believe that issues stem from either content that resembles spam or sending behavior that leads to negative recipient interactions, such as low engagement or high complaint rates.
- Reputation salvage vs. new domain: Some marketers suggest that certain spam folder error messages (e.g., 'similar to past spam') offer a chance to recover reputation by improving data hygiene and infrastructure, while more severe messages (e.g., 'identified as spam') might necessitate changing the sending domain.
Key considerations
- Consistent monitoring: Regularly checking Google Postmaster Tools and your SFMC deliverability reports is crucial for early detection of issues and preventing prolonged spam placement. This helps you determine if marketing emails are going to spam.
- Content review: Even for trusted brands, content elements can trigger filters. Marketers should review email copy, links, and images for anything that might inadvertently appear spammy. The Salesforce Trailblazer Community often discusses common content pitfalls related to deliverability, for example this post on Salesforce Emails Going into Spam?.
- Audience re-engagement: If engagement is low, consider re-engagement campaigns or list cleaning to remove inactive subscribers. Sending to an engaged list significantly improves inbox placement.
- Authentication check: While SFMC handles much of the technical setup, marketers should still verify that their Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) are correctly implemented for their sending domains. Proper authentication is a foundational aspect of diagnosing and fixing deliverability issues in Marketing Cloud.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks indicates that their client is experiencing deliverability issues within SFMC, with emails consistently landing in spam folders. They've used Email on Acid's spam test, which shows failures for Apple Mail 11 and Gmail filters.The primary challenge is that Email on Acid, while flagging the issue, does not provide sufficient detail on the underlying causes. This lack of insight makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for spam placement and formulate an effective solution.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks asks whether Google Postmaster Tools are being used to monitor sender reputation. This tool is often the first recommendation for anyone experiencing deliverability challenges with Gmail, as it provides specific data points related to your domain and IP reputation, spam rates, and delivery errors.Understanding reputation metrics from Postmaster Tools is crucial for diagnosing why emails might be filtered as spam. It offers a direct view into how Google perceives your sending practices.
What the experts say
Email deliverability experts highlight that superficial spam tests are inadequate for diagnosing complex SFMC deliverability issues. They consistently emphasize that the true reasons for spam folder placement are deeply rooted in sender reputation and email content patterns, which require more sophisticated analysis than simple pass/fail indicators. A combination of quantitative data from various sources is key to pinpointing the problem.
Key opinions
- Multi-faceted problem: Experts agree that mail going to spam, especially at Gmail, stems from two primary concepts: the source's reputation (IP, domain, brand) and specific content within the email that resembles spam patterns. This means a holistic view is needed.
- Beyond surface-level tools: It is a shared expert opinion that basic deliverability monitoring services or spam tests alone do not provide a complete explanation for spam folder placement. They often lack the nuanced data required to truly understand 'why' a message is filtered.
- Data integration is vital: To accurately diagnose the issue, experts recommend combining Google Postmaster Tools data with comprehensive response data from your ESP (SFMC, in this case), including bounces, opens, clicks, and unsubscribes. This integrated approach allows for a deeper analysis.
- Error message interpretation: Specific error messages from mailbox providers offer critical diagnostic clues. For example, a 'similar to past spam' message indicates a chance to recover by focusing on cleaner data, whereas a 'domain identified as spam' message points towards needing a new sending domain.
- Sender responsibility: The sender largely controls the factors that lead to spam placement. This includes managing list quality (mailing to engaged recipients) and ensuring content does not contain inadvertently spammy elements, especially when using shared IP pools.
Key considerations
- Active data management: Focusing on mailing to highly engaged and active subscribers is paramount for improving reputation and avoiding spam folders. Filters prioritize user engagement as a strong signal of desired mail. This is key to fixing why your emails are going to spam.
- Content cleansing: Regularly audit your email content for any problematic elements that could trigger spam filters. This includes reviewing URLs, specific phrases, and even the formatting of the email, especially in a complex environment like SFMC.
- Holistic reputation view: Understand that IP reputation, domain reputation, and even brand reputation collectively influence deliverability. A strong brand can sometimes mitigate minor technical issues, but consistently poor practices will always lead to blocklisting (or blacklisting).
- Long-term strategy: Avoid quick fixes. Sustainable deliverability improvements require a long-term strategy that focuses on consistent positive sending behavior, list hygiene, and continuous monitoring. You can learn more about the ultimate guide to Google Postmaster Tools V2.
- Sender mindset: Maintain a never-spam mindset. Even if a brand is trusted, practices that appear spammy to filters (e.g., sending to unengaged lists) will still result in poor inbox placement.
Expert view
Deliverability expert from Email Geeks explains that many reasons for emails landing in spam, particularly at Gmail, revolve around two core concepts: the sender's reputation and the email's content. They emphasize that the source of the mail (its IP, domain, and brand reputation) is constantly evaluated.If this source resembles those associated with unwanted mail, filters will respond accordingly. This aspect is largely within the sender's control and can be improved by sending to an actively engaged audience.
Expert view
Deliverability expert from Email Geeks further elaborates that a second key reason for spam placement is the presence of specific patterns within the email content itself. This can include particular links, phone numbers, strings, phrases, or general content patterns that are frequently found in mail that recipients mark as unwanted.The fix for this often involves identifying and removing such data. This is particularly relevant if the sender uses a shared service where other users might be sending spammy content, or if the sender's advertising partners are involved in questionable practices.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and research frequently outline foundational principles for achieving and maintaining strong email deliverability, particularly within complex platforms like SFMC. These sources typically focus on technical configurations, sending best practices, and the mechanisms by which mailbox providers evaluate incoming mail. They provide the rulebook for how emails should be sent to maximize inbox placement and avoid spam filters.
Key findings
- Authentication is mandatory: SMTP standards and mailbox provider requirements emphasize the critical role of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for sender authentication. Proper implementation verifies sender identity and reduces the likelihood of spoofing and spam, a key step in preventing emails from going to spam.
- Reputation is dynamic: Sender reputation (both IP and domain) is continuously assessed by mailbox providers based on various signals, including volume, bounces, complaints, and engagement. A positive reputation is built over time through consistent good sending practices.
- Engagement drives placement: Documentation increasingly highlights user engagement (opens, clicks, replies, non-complaints) as a primary factor in inbox placement algorithms. Unengaged recipients lead to negative signals and higher spam rates.
- Content best practices: Mailbox provider guidelines often include advice on content, such as avoiding spammy phrases, excessive images, and deceptive links, to ensure emails are not flagged by content filters. This includes recommendations on how to troubleshoot soft bounces in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
- List hygiene is fundamental: Maintaining a clean, opted-in list with regular invalid address removal is crucial to minimize bounces and spam trap hits, which severely damage sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Dedicated IP vs. shared IP: SFMC documentation often explains the benefits and considerations of using dedicated versus shared IPs. While shared IPs can be beneficial for lower volumes, dedicated IPs offer more control over reputation for high-volume senders.
- Subdomain delegation: For SFMC, proper subdomain delegation for sending (e.g., email.yourdomain.com) is critical for maintaining consistent brand identity and ensuring authentication records align correctly.
- Feedback loops (FBLs): SFMC and other ESPs leverage FBLs from major mailbox providers to report spam complaints back to senders. Monitoring these reports is vital for identifying and removing subscribers who are marking your emails as spam. This can be critical to troubleshooting transactional emails going to spam.
- Domain reputation management: Official guides stress the ongoing importance of monitoring and managing your domain reputation through tools like Google Postmaster Tools. This is a foundational element in improving domain reputation using Google Postmaster Tools.
Technical article
Salesforce Marketing Cloud documentation recommends consistent use of email authentication standards like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for all sending domains. It states that proper configuration of these records helps mailbox providers verify the sender's legitimacy and significantly reduces the chance of emails being marked as spam or rejected due to authentication failures.Regular validation of these records within your DNS is crucial, especially after any domain or sending platform changes.
Technical article
Google Postmaster Tools documentation highlights that 'spam rate' and 'IP/domain reputation' are key dashboards for understanding deliverability to Gmail. It explains that a high spam rate indicates that recipients are frequently marking your emails as unwanted, leading to a degraded sender reputation.Monitoring these metrics is essential for early detection of issues and proactive reputation management.
Related resources
11 resources
Related pages
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