Your emails bounce or land in spam: what is going on

Few things are more frustrating than a customer saying they never got your email, or finding your messages in their junk folder. Nearly always, the cause is that the receiving mail system could not confirm your email really came from your business. Here is what is going on and how we keep your mail trusted.

Three records that vouch for your email

When your message arrives somewhere, the receiving system checks three public records attached to your domain name. SPF lists which mail servers are allowed to send for your domain. DKIM adds a digital signature to each message proving it was not altered and came from an authorized server. DMARC tells receivers what to do if a message fails those checks, and sends you reports about who is sending mail in your name. Together they stop criminals from sending email as you, and they tell Gmail, Outlook and the rest that your mail is genuine. Setting them up correctly is part of how we set up email for clients.

When they break

The records break most often when something new starts sending email on your behalf and nobody tells IT: a new newsletter tool, an invoicing system, a website form, a CRM, a scanner that emails PDFs. Each of these needs to be added to your SPF and ideally set up with DKIM, or its messages start failing. Tell us before you start using any service that sends email as your business, and we add it properly.

Reading a bounce message

A bounce, or non-delivery report, is the receiving system explaining why it refused your message. Look for the reason near the top. "User unknown" or "mailbox not found" means the address is wrong. "Mailbox full" is the recipient's problem. Anything mentioning SPF, DKIM, DMARC, "authentication", "unauthenticated" or "policy" points at the records above, and you should forward the bounce to hello@bitlogix.tech. "Blocked" or a reference to a blocklist means your server's reputation has taken a hit, which we also need to see straight away.

Landing in spam without bouncing

Messages that are delivered but filed as junk are harder to spot. Common causes are the records above being incomplete, a sudden burst of similar messages, link-heavy or image-only emails, and a domain that has been used for marketing without the recipients' consent. Ask the recipient to mark one message as not junk and add you to their safe senders; then tell us so we can check your domain's reputation and records.

Marketing email

Bulk email has rules of its own: consent, an unsubscribe link, and in Canada CASL requirements for commercial messages. Sending marketing from your main mail server can also hurt the delivery of your everyday email. If you plan a newsletter, talk to us first about the right tool and set-up.