As you read this article, you will learn how to measure your email deliverability and troubleshoot various factors that affect whether your emails reach the Inbox.
How to start Deliverability Check –>
How to review test results (with tips to improve deliverability) –>
What is email deliverability
Email deliverability, is the email’s ability to reach the Inbox and avoid filters that would direct it to the Promotions, Categories, or Spam folders.
Why use Deliverability check:
With Snov.io’s Deliverability check, you can make sure your email domain’s technical settings are correct, check that your email content won’t trigger spam filters, and see how likely your emails are to land in the inbox.
When you should run Deliverability check:
It’s a good practice to check your deliverability before launching any campaign and during active campaigns if you notice certain metrics are lower than expected.
It’s recommended to run a deliverability check if:
- Your email open rate is below 30%.
- Your bounce rate is above 10%.
Step 1: Create a test
In your Snov.io account, find the Deliverability –> tab in the menu at the top.
On the Deliverability Check page, click New test.
Step 2: Choose email account
On the test settings page, select the email account from the pop-up window. The list will include all accounts previously connected to Snov.io.
You can test one account at a time – if you have multiple sender accounts, create a separate test for each.
Step 3: Choose sending strategy
Here you can choose how you want to perform the test. The strategy you select will determine how the test emails are sent.
A quick test: All test emails are sent without an interval between them. We’ll add all test recipients as CC (carbon copy) recipients and analyze their email placement.
A real campaign simulation: Test emails will be sent with a 10-second delay between each email. A test with a delay between emails provides more accurate results, as it simulates the real way of sending campaigns.
Step 4: Add email content
Next, add the email content for the test. Select from the following options:
Option 1: AI-powered (default)
This option uses AI-generated content in the test emails.
Best for: If you want to test the overall condition of your email account.
Option 2: Custom email
Use this option to test the actual email you plan to use in your campaigns. Add images, links, and attachments to check for any potential issues.
Best for: Testing the email copy you plan to use in campaigns and checking how well it is delivered.
Step 5: Start test
Snov.io conducts the test by sending a series of emails from your account to our specially maintained test mailboxes. These mailboxes are regularly updated and verified to ensure accuracy.
Each test costs 25 credits from your balance. If the test cannot start due to connectivity issues with your mailbox, the credits will be refunded.
Step 6: Review test results
During the test, we analyze multiple factors such as your sender reputation, your domain’s DNS settings, and the email content. By reviewing the test results, you can fix the issues that cab affect your email placement in real campaigns.
The test results provide two key metrics:
–> (1) Domain health:
Domain health score reflects the technical condition and trustworthiness of your email domain.
It is calculated based on the status and accuracy of DNS records — they are used for email authentication and increase your sender reputation.
You’ve passed the check if: your domain health is 75-100%.
A score below 100% means that some DNS records are missing/incorrectly configured and need to be updated.
Sending campaigns with a score below 75% is not recommended — it may negatively affect your deliverability. Review advanced test results under the Details section to improve your score.
–> (2) Email placement:
Email placement score shows how your test emails were categorized.
The Inbox score shows the percentage of emails that went to the main Inbox folder.
You’ve passed the check if: your Spam score is below 2%; Categories is below 10%.
If the spam rate is above 2%, or Categories rate is above 10%, it means certain aspects need improvement.
Sending campaigns with a Spam score above 10% or Categories rate above 40% is not recommended.
Review advanced test results under the Details section to improve your score.
Advanced test results
Here we provide detailed information for each metric separately.
–> Domain health
In this section, you can see the status of your domain’s DNS records.
Email providers consider domains with valid DNS records as more reliable, confirming that an email is sent from a trusted sender.
If any parameter is missing, click on the corresponding section to view instructions on how to set it up.
How to improve domain health:
Ensure all required DNS records (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) are properly set up and have valid status.
Valid DNS records boost your domain’s health score and enhance your sender reputation.
–> Email placement
In this section, you can view the folders where your test emails were delivered:
- Inbox: The ideal destination for an email’s visibility.
- Categories: Indicates your email is seen as promotional.
- Spam: Potential issues with email content or sender reputation.
- Not Delivered: Your test emails were rejected by the receiving email server.
The test mailboxes include several popular email providers: Google Workspace, Microsoft, Namecheap (Private Email), Zoho, Amazon Workmail. They are selected due to their widespread use.
This helps you effectively track and optimize how your emails perform across different email clients.
How to improve email placement:
Your email placement largely depends on your sender reputation and the content of your emails.
- If the Spam rate is above 2% or Categories rate.
- If they are above 10%, consider pausing any ongoing campaigns and start a warm-up –> to increase your reputation.
- If the Not delivered rate is above 10%: pause your active campaigns, start a warm-up and work on improving your domain health and email content.
Each provider may use their own criteria to filter emails and protect their users from spam.
You should adhere to the sender guidelines of major providers, as they are applicable to other providers as well.
Read how to comply with Google’s requirements for senders –>
Next, review and improve your email content to avoid spam filters.
–> Email content
In this section, you can see what in your email’s content affects its deliverability and how to prevent it from being flagged as spam.
- Email content for spam-triggering words: Our system scans for specific words or phrases that could activate spam filters.
- Image size and format: We ensure that your images are of the optimal size and format. This is important for quick loading and correct display on the recipients’ screens.
- Added links: We confirm that all inserted links are accurate and work correctly when clicked.
How to improve email content:
- Remove spam trigger words;
- Compress large images to improve email loading speed;
- Replace broken links.
- Follow best email writing practices: keep your email text short, personalized, and full of value for the recipient.
What’s next:
Remember, real-campaign situations are tougher than test conditions, and there are additional factors that should not be ignored.
To be fully prepared for campaigns:
- Do regular deliverability checks before launching campaigns and while sending them.
- Always do a proper warm-up period –>
- If you have multiple sender accounts, use Mailbox rotation –> and do deliverability checks for each of them.
Here are some additional tips to achieve best results in campaigns:
1) Send campaigns to targeted leads
Don’t send generic emails to random prospects.
Learn how to collect your leads based on your ideal customer profile –>
Accurate lead targeting + relevant email content = increase in engagement → increase in reputation → increase in deliverability.
2) Be consistent in email sending volumes
Don’t overload your sender accounts. ESPs (Email Service Providers) and spam filters view the sending of large volumes of emails daily as spamming.
A safe volume per account to avoid risking the sender’s reputation is 50-100 emails per day.
3) Maintain positive sender reputation
Your sender reputation is a score that email providers assign to your domain – the higher the score is, the more likely you’ll land in the inbox.
To build a good reputation:
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!