Don’t let it damage your email performance further — the longer it goes undiagnosed, the more revenue slips into the spam folder.
Broken authentication — SPF, DKIM, DMARC
A damaged sender reputation — complaints, list quality, a blacklist
Lack of management of your recipient’s engagement
01 – Is it a trust problem?
02 – What’s hurting your deliverability
03 – Spam vs Promotions vs blocked
04 – How an expert fixes it
05 – Client results
06 – Frequently asked questions
Your emails aren’t “bad” or “broken”. The provider stopped trusting you
Providers score you on who you are and how recipients react to your emails. Rarely do emails go to spam just because of what you wrote or the tools you used to send the emails. If any of these sound familiar, it’s a reputation problem:
Open rates dropped suddenly
Often at one provider first.
Message delivered to spam at some providers.
Not all — Inbox at Outlook, Spam at Gmail.
Even transactional emails hit Spam
Resets & receipts affected too
Recipients complain they’re not getting your messages
Junk, Spam, or not receiving them at all
Bounces & complaints climbing
The strongest spam predictor
You got a blacklist warning
Bounce naming Spamhaus, Barracuda
Any of these could be quietly killing your deliverability
Each of these symptoms points to the same outcome: the inbox stops trusting you, and your campaigns stop performing. The tricky part: several can be true at once, and the wrong fix makes it worse. That’s why a proper diagnosis with a relevant implementation order matters.
01
SPF / DKIM / DMARC misconfigured
Providers can’t verify your identity, so they stop trusting every email you send.
02
Spam-complaint rate too high
A handful of “report spam” clicks can tank your reputation across an entire domain.
03
Poor list quality
Invalid addresses and spam traps quietly signal that you don’t maintain your list.
04
Domain or IP on a blacklist
One listing on Spamhaus & co., and your mail bounces before it’s even read.
05
Cold domain or IP, no warm-up
Sending volume from a fresh domain looks exactly like a spammer to filters. Cold emails (they didn’t subscribe for your message) usually receive a high rate of negative engagement – spam reports, unsubscribes, unengaged activity… These damage your domain reputation.
06
Low engagement
When nobody opens, providers conclude nobody wants it and route you to spam.
07
Content trips filters
Image-only emails and risky formatting quietly flag your campaigns.
08
Shortened or shady links
One abused shortener or blacklisted link can taint your whole message.
09
No one-click unsubscribe
Since 2024, it’s mandatory — miss it and Gmail & Yahoo throttle you outright.
10
Domain spoofed or compromised
Abuse sent under your name destroys the reputation you spent years building.
Recognize one of these problems? We solve them every day
Our senior consultants have fixed exactly these issues for 500+ brands. Book a free 30-min call and get your action plan.
“My emails aren’t in the inbox” covers three very different situations. Knowing which one you’re in tells you how urgent it is — and whether your deliverability is genuinely at risk.
Where they land
What it means
Deliverability risk
Promotions tab
Still in the inbox, just categorised. Recipients can see and open it.
Low — optimise
Spam / Junk
The provider distrusts you and quarantines your mail away from the inbox.
High — diagnose now
Blocked / Rejected
The message never arrives — it bounces, often citing a blacklist.
Critical — urgent
Where they land
Promotions tab
What it means
Still in the inbox, just categorised. Recipients can see and open it.
Deliverability risk
Low — optimise
Where they land
Spam / Junk
What it means
The provider distrusts you and quarantines your mail away from the inbox.
Deliverability risk
High — diagnose now
Where they land
Blocked / Rejected
What it means
The message never arrives — it bounces, often citing a blacklist.
Deliverability risk
Critical — urgent
Landing in spam or getting blocked means your sender reputation is already taking damage — and so are your open rates, clicks and revenue. The sooner the real cause is found, the faster it’s reversed.
A MailSoar expert finds the real cause and reverses it
You don’t need to become an email engineer. In a free 30-minute review, a senior consultant reads the signals most people can’t see, pinpoints what’s actually hurting you, and lays out the fastest path back to the inbox.
We read your authentication, reputation and blacklist signals to find the true root cause — not just the symptom.
2
Fix the right thing
We correct the actual cause, so you don’t waste weeks guessing and risk making it worse.
3
Back in the inbox
Placement restored and reputation rebuilt — typically within 2 to 6 weeks — so your campaigns perform again.
3
4
Send with confidence again
Whether it’s marketing, newsletters, promotional, transactional, or product emails, our team is here to help you achieve your goals while remaining a compliant sender and ensuring your emails land in the primary inbox while you scale to your sending goals!
A MailSoar expert finds the real cause and reverses it
You don’t need to become an email engineer. In a free 30-minute review, a senior consultant reads the signals most people can’t see, pinpoints what’s actually hurting you, and lays out the fastest path back to the inbox.
1
Diagnose
We read your authentication, reputation and blacklist signals to find the true root cause — not just the symptom.
2
Fix the right thing
We correct the actual cause, so you don’t waste weeks guessing and risk making it worse.
3
Back in the inbox
Placement restored and reputation rebuilt typically within 2 to 6 weeks, so your campaigns perform again.
3
4
Send with confidence again
Whether it’s marketing, newsletters, promotional, transactional, or product emails, our team is here to help you achieve your goals while remaining a compliant sender and ensuring your emails land in the primary inbox while you scale to your sending goals!
One framework, four services. For a spam problem, most clients start by diagnosing and fixing the cause — discover our complete deliverability consulting offer below.
“MailSoar audited our email deliverability and provided recommended next steps. The audit was extremely thorough, and recommended next steps well communicated with a clear perspective on prioritization.”
Agicap
Finance
60%→98%
Inbox Placement
“MailSoar helped us stop the bleeding quickly, then restructure our email marketing, sales, and product approach. Problem solved!”
“Pierre and his team from Mailsoar have helped our company improve our email deliverability metrics to ensure that we get as many of our emails in our customers inbox as possible. Prior to his team working with us we saw a large number of emails going into spam, junk, or for the case of gmail, promotions/social. . As an online marketplace, emails are a crucial component to our supply and demand components interacting efficiently. This has helped improve that efficiency.”
“MailSoar had a huge impact on our business and I highly recommend them. They helped us grow our open rate from ~10% to almost 50% for our eCommerce store by optimizing our email strategy and implementing various deliverability tactics. We have been using their service for a few months now, and I couldn't be happier with their knowledge, expertise, and great communication.”
“We came to MailSoar to help with our deliverability. We were so happy with their work on this, that we have continued to work with them for the past year to monitor our deliverability and to act as trusted consultants for a very important email marketing program. Our email deliverability metrics have drastically improved since starting with MailSoar. As a result of this email performance and revenue improved drastically.”
“We partnered with MailSoar to improve our email deliverability and sender reputation. They helped us set up a new dedicated subdomain to isolate our transactional/marketing mail flow from our primary domain, and worked with us to bring our DMARC compliance up to 97%. Since implementing MailSoar's recommendations, our email delivery rate has climbed to 99.6%. Just as importantly, the sender reputation for both humanx.co and mail.humanx.co went from "Bad" to "High". A great turnaround that's had a real impact on our ability to reliably reach our audience.”
“From time to time, we have had issues with our deliverability, and every time MailSoar has helped us resolve the problem and put in practices that have kept us out of trouble. We went from a place of having consistent issues with deliverability a couple of years ago to a place now where we rarely have them. And even when we do, these guys are the absolute experts in what is going on in the industry and know how to get deliverability issues resolved instantly. Cannot recommend them highly enough.”
“We are facing email deliverability issues, and Mailsoar gave us great free advice to start, and then we went forward with an email audit from them that set us up to fix the issues we have.
In just over a week, we received an audit and an action plan that we are implementing to recover our email deliverability.
We are highly confident that the plan will work and be successful.”
“I was running a complex, large-scale email campaign (...) and unfortunately, we discovered that poor hygiene and other technical issues meant almost all of our emails were going to spam.
The MailSoar team was so proactive, creative, and professional. I knew I didn't just have a vendor: I had a true partner whom I could trust completely, and who cared about the success of this project as much as I did. MailSoar saved my email campaign contract. I absolutely could not have done this without them.”
“Pierre understood the expectations of the job, was able to properly articulate the challenges we faced, and did a great job communicating with us through every phase of the project until it was completed. Most importantly he successfully completed the project in a timely manner. I would highly recommend Pierre.”
“Adaptable, Excellent client service, Client-minded, Proactive, Performance, Availability, Analytical skills, Skillness, Very good relational skills, Good coaching, Helpful, Trustworthy, Punctual, Friendly, Quality of execution, Professional, Flexible, Responsive, Attentive, Good communication.”
Brevite
E-commerce
“A growth partner that really makes a difference.
MailSoar has had a major impact on our business by helping us seize new opportunities and streamline processes that were holding us back. Their expertise and support have made them a true growth partner, capable of delivering concrete results while supporting our development in a committed and sustainable manner.”
Naoris Protocol
SaaS
“Open rates above 40% and a rebuilt reputation
MailSoar provided us with decisive expertise by quickly assessing our situation, advising us, and executing an effective plan. In a short period of time, we achieved open rates above 40% and high click-through rates, while rebuilding our reputation score. Their intervention allowed us to escape the constant pressure surrounding campaigns and calmly refocus on content.”
Is your situation slightly different?
Emails in spam often overlaps with these closely related problems. Start where it fits best:
My emails land in Spam or Promotions
SPAM & INBOX PLACEMENT
Diagnose why mailbox providers filter you out and the levers that move you back to the inbox.
Emails usually go to spam because mailbox providers no longer trust you as a sender. This is most often caused by authentication issues (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), a damaged sender reputation, or poor sending practices such as low engagement or sudden volume spikes. Identifying the root cause quickly is essential, as the longer the issue persists, the harder it is to restore inbox placement.
How do I stop my emails from going to spam?
Authenticate with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; keep your complaint rate under 0.1%; clean your list; warm up new domains gradually; and remove spammy content. If placement doesn’t recover within two weeks, it’s usually a reputation issue that needs expert diagnosis.
Why do my emails go to spam only for Gmail (or only for Outlook)?
Each provider scores senders independently. Gmail weighs engagement and domain reputation; Outlook relies more on IP reputation and SNDS/SmartScreen. Spam at one provider but not another means your reputation is damaged specifically there.
Does going to the Promotions tab count as spam?
No. Gmail’s Promotions, Updates, and Social tabs are still the inbox. Recipients see and open those emails. Based on user engagement, determine how often a message will be received in the Primary Inbox or one of these email tabs. Spam is the “junk” or “spam” folder, where deliverability is genuinely at risk.
How long does recovery take?
A pure authentication fix can restore placement in 24–72 hours. Reputation damage from complaints or a blacklist takes longer — typically 2 to 6 weeks of consistent, low-complaint sending to rebuild trust.
Can free email tests tell me why my emails end up in spam?
Seed and inbox-placement tests show where your emails land, but typically can’t answer why. Diagnosing the root cause requires reading headers, DMARC reports, blacklist status, email hygiene, sending practices, and postmaster data together, which is exactly what a deliverability audit provides.
How MailSoar helps
MailSoar helps companies whose emails land in spam by finding out why mailbox providers stopped trusting them: authentication, sender reputation, list quality or content. Our consultants fix the root cause with your team, then monitor inbox placement on Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo until it is stable again. Agicap went from 60% to 98% inbox placement.
MailSoar at a glance
MailSoar is an international email deliverability consultancy specializing in inbox placement, sender reputation, email authentication and email infrastructure.
