Summary
Switching to a private domain in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) often aims to enhance brand consistency and email deliverability. However, many marketers experience an unexpected drop in inbox placement and open rates following this transition, despite fulfilling standard authentication requirements. This issue primarily stems from the new private domain lacking established sender reputation and, often, a missed or insufficient domain warming process, which is crucial for building trust with mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo.
Key findings
- Domain reputation: A new private domain starts with a neutral or unknown reputation. Mailbox providers assess this reputation based on sending patterns, engagement, and recipient feedback.
- Warming necessity: Unlike what some agencies may claim, domain warming is often necessary even for private domains in SFMC, especially with the latest Google and Yahoo requirements. Skipping this step can lead to immediate deliverability issues.
- Authentication status: While Salesforce Marketing Cloud's Sender Authentication Package (SAP) is intended to manage critical authentication, misconfigurations of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can still impact deliverability. Ensuring proper alignment and reporting is vital.
- Engagement metrics: A decline in open rates, clicks, and conversions, coupled with anecdotal spam complaints, strongly indicates an inbox placement issue rather than just a reporting anomaly.
Key considerations
- Implement domain warming:Gradually increase your sending volume to highly engaged subscribers on the new domain over several weeks. This helps build a positive sending history.
- Verify compliance: Use tools like About My Email to check technical compliance with sender requirements from major mailbox providers.
- Monitor domain reputation:Register your domain with Google Postmaster Tools and other postmaster tools to gain insights into your sender reputation, spam rates, and DMARC failures.
- Address spam traps: Mailing to old or invalid addresses can lead to hitting spam traps, severely damaging your reputation. Regularly clean your lists.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often face significant challenges when transitioning to private domains in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Many report immediate declines in deliverability metrics, despite previous assurances that private domains inherently offer better performance or require less warming. The general sentiment points to reputation issues, the critical role of proper domain warming, and the nuanced impact of new email authentication guidelines from major mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo.
Key opinions
- Domain reputation is key: Issues with emails landing in junk folders are often tied to the domain's reputation, not necessarily inherent SFMC problems.
- Warming is crucial: Many marketers believe that skipping domain warming after switching to a private domain is a common mistake that leads to deliverability penalties.
- Measurement challenges: Declining open rates might be influenced by broader industry changes, but a simultaneous drop in clicks and anecdotal spam reports suggest genuine deliverability problems.
- Unsubscribe issues: While technical checks might flag non-one-click unsubscribes, many marketers find that a proper List-Unsubscribe header often suffices and this isn't the primary cause of deliverability issues.
Key considerations
- Domain warming strategy: For B2B senders, consider warming by segmenting sends based on engagement, starting with the most engaged contacts over several days or weeks, avoiding weekend sends if engagement drops.
- Postmaster tools access: Gaining access to Google Postmaster Tools for your new private domain is critical, even if your ESP or agency controls DNS settings. This provides vital insights into deliverability.
- Monitor key metrics: Look beyond open rates to clicks and conversions as primary indicators of inbox placement, especially since open rate tracking has become less reliable.
- Address old lists: Sending to very old or unengaged segments (which may contain spam traps) can severely harm domain reputation and should be done with extreme caution, or not at all during warming.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that they are experiencing a significant decline in deliverability, noting both anecdotal reports of emails going to spam and a 40% year-over-year decrease in open rates, which is concerning. They switched to a private sending domain in mid-January as advised for upcoming Google changes, but deliverability has worsened compared to when they used a non-private domain, while some communications from the old domain still land fine.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks questions the legitimacy of the sender's initial domain, stating that a domain like tk.com does not convey a legitimate company impression. They also point out that the provided subdomain, email.tk.com, does not appear to exist, suggesting a potential issue with the domain setup itself or the information provided.
What the experts say
Deliverability experts agree that a new private domain, even in a robust platform like Salesforce Marketing Cloud, requires a careful warming process. The recent changes introduced by Google and Yahoo have amplified the need for strict compliance with authentication standards and a strong sending reputation. Ignoring these can lead to severe inbox placement issues, highlighting that even seemingly minor technical discrepancies or a lack of proper ramp-up can significantly impact email performance.
Key opinions
- Domain warming is critical: Despite historical leniency, the new Google and Yahoo requirements make proper domain warming essential. Skipping it can lead to immediate and painful deliverability drops.
- Technical compliance checks: Regularly testing compliance with tools like AboutMy.Email is crucial to identify and fix authentication issues related to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
- IPv6 is not a requirement: While important for future-proofing, having an IPv6 address is not currently a prerequisite for good deliverability from any major mailbox provider.
- Some senders may struggle: The stricter requirements mean some senders who previously got away with less optimal practices might find it difficult to recover their reputation under the new guidelines.
Key considerations
- Detailed deliverability audit: If issues persist, a professional audit can help identify underlying problems and create a targeted plan for recovery.
- Leverage SFMC reporting: Utilize Salesforce's email performance by domain reports to pinpoint specific problematic domains or mailbox providers.
- Inbox testing: Regularly test inbox placement across major providers (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple) to quickly detect filtering issues.
- Clean your list: Ensure your subscriber list is clean and remove invalid or unengaged addresses to reduce spam complaints and bounce rates.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks outlines a five-step process for SFMC clients experiencing deliverability issues. They recommend reviewing Salesforce's "email performance by domain" reports to identify low open rates, testing Yahoo/Google compliance with tools like About My Email, fixing highlighted authentication issues, conducting inbox tests with deliverability tools, and considering hiring a consultant for a comprehensive audit and remediation plan.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise notes that domain warming for new or private domains is crucial. They highlight that historical hand-waving about domain warming has led to issues, particularly with the new Google and Yahoo requirements, where skipping this process entirely can result in severe deliverability penalties.
What the documentation says
Official documentation from Salesforce and related digital marketing resources consistently emphasizes the importance of proper email authentication and sender reputation management, especially when using private domains or Sender Authentication Packages (SAP). The recent updates from Google and Yahoo underscore the need for strict adherence to new guidelines, focusing on bulk sender requirements like authenticated sending, easy unsubscribes, and low spam rates. These changes imply a heightened scrutiny of domain practices and reputation.
Key findings
- Authentication is paramount: Salesforce documentation stresses that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are crucial for avoiding spam and improving deliverability.
- Private domains enhance branding: Private domains ensure mail is authenticated and branded to the company, moving away from Salesforce branding.
- Sender reputation impact: A poor sender reputation leads to filtering and spam classification, influenced by various factors like complaints and bounce rates.
- New requirements from providers: Google and Yahoo have introduced new rules for bulk senders effective early 2024, demanding stricter authentication and lower spam thresholds.
Key considerations
- One-click unsubscribe: New guidelines heavily emphasize a simple, one-click unsubscribe mechanism. Senders must ensure this is implemented correctly.
- Regular list hygiene: Proactively removing invalid addresses is essential to reduce spam complaints and hard bounces, as noted by Salesforce Marketing Cloud's automation recommendations.
- DNS configuration: When editing DNS records for private domains, caution is advised as misconfigurations can negatively impact email deliverability.
- Monitor deliverability rates: Use tools and reports within SFMC to continuously monitor email performance and identify deliverability issues early.
Technical article
Documentation from Salesforce states that a poor sender reputation can result in emails being filtered out, undelivered, or marked as spam. They highlight that sender reputation is influenced by a variety of factors, making it a complex but critical aspect of email deliverability.
Technical article
Documentation from Digital Marketing on Cloud explains that private domains are essential for ensuring mail is authenticated and that Cloud Pages are branded according to the company. This helps align email communications with brand identity rather than relying on Salesforce's default branding.
Related resources
15 resources
Related pages
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Why your emails are going to spam in 2024 and how to fix it
How to improve domain reputation using Google Postmaster Tools [2025 guide]
A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM
A practical guide to understanding your email domain reputation
Understanding and troubleshooting DMARC reports from Google and Yahoo
