How to test emails with SpamAssassin

This article explains how to test your emails with SpamAssassin and address issues that negatively impact your email rating.

How does the Spam Assassin test work –>

How does the email score affects deliverability –>

How to understand the email rating –>

What is SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is an open-source platform used to analyze emails and detect spam. Besides being a famous spam filter, it also serves as a tool to rate the email’s quality before sending campaigns.

You can check your SpamAssassin score as a part of Snov.io’s Deliverability check.

SpamAssassin is widely used by email providers and companies to automatically filter out unwanted emails. Compliance with SpamAssassin will guarantee that your emails avoid spam filters.

How does the Spam Assassin test work

The goal of this test is to ensure that your emails successfully avoid spam filters when you send campaigns. It works by performing tests on an email based on multiple parameters. These tests look for any signs or attributes of spam, as well as issues with the email’s technical details.

Here are the primary aspects that are being checked:

• Sender reputation;
• Email headers;
• Email authentication (DKIM signature, SPF record);
• Email content and HTML source code.

How does the SpamAssassin score affects deliverability

Once the test is completed, each tested parameter receives a certain number of points.

What the points in the test results mean:

• Red points indicate serious spam issues.
• Yellow points mean the test failed and indicate possible issues.
• Gray points represent a neutral result (little impact on deliverability).
• Green points mean the test was passed.

All the individual points are summed up to calculate the total score.

How to understand the email rating

The total score shows how likely it is that an email will be marked as spam. A higher score, up to a maximum of 10, means it’s more likely to be seen as spam. A lower score, which can even be below zero, means it’s less likely to be marked as spam.

You should aim for a score as low as possible; a score close to zero or below is ideal.

Here’s a simple way to understand the total score:

• Scores from below 0 up to 2 points: Great

With this score, most systems won’t see your email as spam. There’s a low risk that it won’t get delivered, so you can send your campaigns safely.

• Scores between 2-5 points: Neutral

This score is acceptable, but there’s still a chance your email could be marked as spam. Emails with scores in this range have a moderate risk of not being delivered. However, this usually doesn’t cause big problems.

You can still make your email better by looking at the test results and fixing any issues that caused the score to drop (red and yellow scores).

• Scores above 5 points: Poor

If your score is above 5, most providers will consider your email spam.

Emails with scores this high shouldn’t be used for campaigns. To improve their deliverability, you should check the test results and fix the issues that caused the high score (marked in red and yellow).

If you have a question that we haven’t covered, feel free to reach out to our Customer Care team. You can contact us at help@snov.io or through live chat. We’re here to assist you!