Inbox placement

Find out whether your email reaches the inbox or the spam folder, read the headers that explain why, and fix the usual causes.

delivered means the receiving server accepted your email. It does not say whether it landed in the inbox or the spam folder — that decision happens after acceptance, inside the mailbox provider. This page shows how to test placement yourself and what to change when a message is filtered.

Test with a real message

Send to a few inboxes you own

One Gmail, one Outlook and one Yahoo address cover most recipients. Include at least one account that has never received mail from your domain. An inbox where you have already opened your messages or clicked "Not spam" has learned to trust you and will flatter the result.

Send what your users will actually get

Use a real password reset, receipt or notification — not "hello world". Filters are trained on throwaway test messages, so a probe like this is far more likely to be filtered than your production mail:

likely spam

{
  "from": "Test <test@acme.com>",
  "subject": "hello world!",
  "html": "<p>Just testing if this goes to spam.</p>"
}

representative

{
  "from": "Acme <support@acme.com>",
  "subject": "Your support request #1042",
  "html": "<p>Hi Sam,</p><p>Thanks for getting in touch. We've received your request and will reply within one business day.</p><p>In the meantime, our setup guide covers the most common issues: <a href=\"https://acme.com/help\">acme.com/help</a>.</p><p>— The Acme team</p>"
}

Note the folder, then read the headers

Check each inbox, then open the raw message: in Gmail, ⋮ → Show original; in Outlook, … → View → View message source.

Reading the headers

Start with Authentication-Results. All three should pass:

Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
  dkim=pass header.i=@acme.com;
  spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=bounce@eusend.dev;
  dmarc=pass header.from=acme.com

Result	What it means
`dkim=fail` or missing	The DKIM record is missing or changed. Re-check it under Domains.
`spf=pass` but `dmarc=fail`	Neither DKIM nor SPF is aligned with your From domain — usually DKIM. See DMARC.
All pass	Authentication is fine. The filter is judging content or reputation, covered below.

Outlook adds its own verdict:

Header	Inbox	Junk
`X-MS-Exchange-Organization-SCL`	`-1` to `4`	`5` and above
`X-Forefront-Antispam-Report`	`SFV:NSPM`	`SFV:SPM`

In Gmail, a message in Spam usually carries a grey banner explaining why — "similar to messages identified as spam" points at content, "the sender's reputation" points at your domain.

Isolate the cause

When one message is filtered and another isn't, change one thing at a time — recipient, content or From address — and send again. Placement depends on all three, so comparing two messages that differ in several ways tells you nothing.

ℹ

One message in spam is a data point, not a verdict. Look for a pattern across a few sends and providers before changing anything.

Common causes

Cause	Fix
Test-looking content	Send real copy with a specific subject, a greeting and a few sentences.
Generic sender	Use a recognisable display name and a real mailbox (`support@`, `billing@`), not `test@` or `noreply@test`.
Mostly images or a single link	Keep a reasonable amount of text, and link to your own domain rather than URL shorteners.
No plain-text part	eusend generates one from `html` when you don't pass `text`. Pass your own for full control.
New domain or subdomain	Providers have no history for it yet. Start with low volume to engaged recipients and let it build.
Marketing mixed with transactional	Send newsletters from a separate subdomain (`news.acme.com`), so complaints about them don't affect your password resets.
Mail people didn't ask for	Only email people who expect it, and honour unsubscribes. Spam complaints weigh more than anything else on this page.

Track it over time

A single test shows you one day. To watch your domain's reputation as it builds:

Google Postmaster Tools shows your domain's reputation and spam-complaint rate at Gmail. Verify your sending domain there; data appears once you send roughly a hundred messages a day to Gmail users.
Open and click rates are the earliest warning. A sudden drop usually means mail is landing in spam, well before it shows up as bounces.
Bounces and complaints — eusend suppresses recipients who bounce or mark you as spam, so a growing suppression list is a signal to look at what you send and to whom.

Inbox placement

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