Proof
This is what fixing it looks like.
A client, in their own words. See the full story on our cases page.
If your emails land in spam or the Promotions tab, nothing else in email matters, because nobody sees them. These guides cover how inbox placement really works and how to fix it. It is also one of the core things we do for clients: rebuild the setup, clean the list, and get your sends landing where people read them.
Emails not landing? We will find why and fix it, usually within a week or two. This is one of the things we do for clients, not just write about. Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is stuck.
Get a free auditFor coaches and consultants with small lists (500 to 20,000), deliverability (whether your emails reach the inbox) comes down to rhythm and engagement, not volume.
Kit (ConvertKit) broadcasts land in Gmail's Promotions tab because Kit's defaults make every email look like a newsletter: a padded template with a logo, links wrapped through the shared ck.page tracking domain, and a convertkit-mail.com sending address.
To get your emails into Gmail's Primary tab, work through six steps in order: set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC (the records that prove the email really came from you), remove anyone who has not opened in 90 days, make the email look like a plain letter, drop sales-style wording, send only to recent openers for three or four campaigns, and ask a question that invites replies.
Your emails land in Promotions because Gmail's classifier reads signals that say 'marketing': a newsletter-style template with a header image and several buttons, weak authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC, the records that prove you sent it), a list full of people who never open, salesy wording, and where your last few campaigns landed.
Emails go to spam when something specific is broken, usually one of five things: SPF or DKIM (the checks that prove you really sent the email) failing, your sending IP on a blacklist, bought or scraped addresses hitting spam traps, a spike in spam complaints, or risky content like shortened links.
To stop emails going to spam, work through this order: set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC (DNS records proving mail is genuinely yours), warm up new domains gradually, remove bounces and anyone who has not opened in 90 to 180 days, cut spammy formatting, send on a predictable schedule from a real person's name, and check Google Postmaster Tools weekly.
No switch forces Gmail to put you in Primary, but you can stack signals that make your mail look like person-to-person email.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC are three DNS records that prove your email really comes from you, and setting them up is the biggest deliverability fix.
A custom Return-Path domain means bounce messages and SPF checks (the record listing who may send for your domain) point at a subdomain you own, such as bounce.yourdomain.com, instead of your email platform's shared domain.
If you send 5,000 or more emails a day to Gmail or Yahoo, you must have SPF and DKIM passing, a DMARC record published (at least p=none) with your From domain aligned, one-click unsubscribe through List-Unsubscribe headers that is honoured within two days, and a Gmail spam rate under 0.10%, with 0.30% as a hard ceiling.
Email warmup tools rebuild sender reputation by placing your inbox in a network of inboxes that send, open and reply to each other for two to four weeks, so mailbox providers see a real, engaged sender.
To warm a new dedicated IP, start at 50 to 100 emails a day to subscribers who opened or clicked in the last 30 days, roughly double every day or two towards 500 to 1,000, then keep doubling every two to three days until you hit full volume around the end of week four.
To get your domain off a blacklist, first confirm which list flagged you using a checker like MXToolbox, because Spamhaus, Barracuda, SpamCop and the major mailbox providers each have separate systems.
Most small and medium senders do not need a dedicated IP address.
A good email deliverability rate (the share of accepted mail that reaches the inbox rather than spam) is 90% or higher for an established list, with 95%+ being excellent; delivery rate, which only counts mail that did not bounce, should sit above 95%.
The free tools worth using to test whether your emails reach the inbox are Google Postmaster Tools (Google's own view of your domain reputation and spam rate), Mail-Tester for a quick score out of 10, GlockApps to see whether test sends land in inbox, Promotions or spam, MXToolbox for blacklist and DNS checks, and dmarcian for DMARC.
A hard bounce means the address is permanently undeliverable (it does not exist, the domain is invalid, or the account is closed), so remove it straight away.
Clean an email list in three groups rather than deleting everyone who went quiet: remove hard bounces, role addresses like info@ or admin@, anyone who marked you as spam, and unsynced unsubscribes immediately.
Spam trigger words still matter in 2026, but only as one signal among many: words like free, guarantee, act now, buy now, click here, risk-free, winner and congratulations appear so often in old spam that filters still weigh them, especially when stacked together or sent from a domain with weak authentication.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) inflates your open rate because it loads every email's tracking pixel automatically on delivery, so Apple Mail subscribers count as 'opened' whether or not they read it.
A client, in their own words. See the full story on our cases page.
Start with a free audit. We will look at your setup and tell you where your growth is stuck and what we would fix first. No pitch, and the diagnosis is yours to keep.