Email deliverability

Deliverability is about where your email ends up. It's useful to separate two things: delivery (the receiving server accepted the message instead of bouncing it) and inbox placement (it landed in the inbox rather than the spam folder). A campaign can show a high delivery rate and still have poor deliverability if most accepted messages go to spam.

The main inputs are: a clean list (few bounces, no spam traps); authentication with SPF, DKIM and DMARC; sender and domain reputation; recipient engagement and complaints; consistent volume; and content that isn't misleading. Infrastructure basics count too: Google's guidelines ask for valid forward and reverse DNS (PTR) for sending IPs and TLS connections.

For outbound teams, deliverability decides whether a good sequence gets read at all. Problems compound: bounces and complaints lower reputation, lower reputation pushes more mail to spam, and fewer replies make it worse. Google says to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.1% and never reach 0.3% or higher. The cheapest single fix is not sending to addresses that don't exist.

Skrap.ai works on the list side of deliverability. Verify first with the free email verifier or a bulk CSV upload (Invalid and Unknown results are free), then use the email finder to fill gaps with verified work emails. The email deliverability guide covers the rest of the checklist.