Email Deliverability

Deliverability is the work of getting wanted email into the inbox. It depends on your technical setup, list quality, sending pace, content, and how people respond after the email lands.

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Start Here

If you are new to Bento, work through these in order:

1. Complete account approval.
2. Add and verify your DNS records.
3. Understand your current sending limit.
4. Start with your most engaged users during domain warmup.
5. Monitor bounces, complaints, opens, clicks, replies, and conversions.

Good deliverability is mostly about consistency. Send to people who asked for your email, increase volume gradually, and react quickly when inbox providers show signs of stress.

Baseline Setup

Use this checklist before sending serious volume:

Area	What to check	Guide
Account approval	Your business, website, list source, and sending plan are reviewed	Approvals
DNS authentication	SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and link branding are verified	DNS Setup
Sending pace	You know your daily cap and warmup path	Sending Limits
Email type	You know when to use marketing vs transactional email	Marketing vs Transactional
Required notices	You know how to send mandated emails without disrupting your main Site	Mandated Emails
Warmup	You are sending first to recent buyers, active users, or recent subscribers	Domain Warmup
List hygiene	Imported contacts are permission-based and cleaned before sending	Import Guide
Sunset policy	You stop emailing contacts who have gone quiet	List Hygiene
Complaint handling	You know the complaint thresholds and how FBLs work	Spam Complaints
Provider monitoring	Google Postmaster Tools is verified for your sending domain	Google Postmaster Tools
Domain strategy	Marketing and transactional streams are separated where needed	Subdomain Strategy
Bounce handling	You know which bounces are temporary, permanent, or reputation-related	Bounce Guide
Tracking	You know the limits of opens, clicks, bots, and privacy tools	Open and Click Tracking
Link safety	You know how to handle Gmail suspicious link warnings	Gmail Link Warnings
Image safety	You know how to handle Gmail hidden image warnings	Gmail Image Warnings

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Troubleshooting Paths

When something changes, diagnose the full pattern before changing strategy.

Emails suddenly going to spam

Work through the Landing in Spam recovery guide. It covers confirming real spam placement, checking authentication, complaints, blocklists, list changes, and content, then rebuilding volume safely.

Opens dropped

1. Check whether clicks, replies, purchases, or signups dropped too.
2. Review Open and Click Tracking for Apple Mail Privacy Protection, Gmail image proxying, and image blocking.
3. Validate DNS records, especially DKIM and DMARC.
4. Compare by inbox provider. A Gmail-only drop points to a different issue than a broad drop.
5. Review recent changes to subject lines, segments, sending speed, and list source.

If opens dropped but clicks and conversions stayed stable, the issue may be tracking noise rather than inbox placement.

Bounces or deferrals increased

1. Check the bounce reason in Bounces.
2. Confirm DNS is still verified in DNS Setup.
3. Slow down the campaign if you see throttling or 421 style deferrals.
4. Stop sending to cold imported segments until you know the cause.
5. Resume with the Domain Warmup guidance.

Complaints increased

1. Pause broad sends to the affected segment.
2. Check whether recipients recognize the sender name and why they are receiving the email.
3. Remove stale, purchased, scraped, or unclear-source contacts.
4. Make the unsubscribe path obvious.
5. Restart with recent engaged users only.

See Spam Complaints and Feedback Loops for thresholds and how Bento handles complaint suppression.

Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook throttled you

Throttling usually means the provider wants less mail right now. Reduce speed, send to the most engaged users, and avoid retrying the same broad campaign aggressively.

You need to send a mandated notice

Contact Bento support first. For most required notices, create a separate Site in your team, upload the required recipients there, use an established domain or approved subdomain, send slowly, then archive the Site when the send is complete. Do not send from a brand-new domain. If the send is over 1 million users, coordinate provider outreach with major inbox providers like Yahoo and Hotmail/Outlook before sending. Follow Mandated Emails before importing the list.

Gmail warns about a suspicious link

Pause the campaign and find the exact URL Gmail flagged. Check whether the warning is tied to your branded tracking domain, the final destination, a third-party link, or a redirect in between. Follow Gmail Link Warnings before resuming volume.

Gmail hides images in the message

Check every image host domain in the email, especially logos, product images, CDN URLs, and custom image URLs. If Google Safe Browsing shows no issue, it may be short-lived Gmail testing. If a domain is flagged, fix the host or URL and follow Gmail Image Warnings.

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Healthy Sending Habits

Use these habits to protect reputation over time:

• Send wanted email to people who opted in.
• Keep a clear sender name and a consistent from domain.
• Start new domains and major volume changes slowly.
• Segment first sends to recent buyers, active users, recent signups, and recent clickers.
• Use clear subject lines that match the email content.
• Avoid URL shorteners and image-only emails.
• Keep unsubscribe easy. Bento handles unsubscribe mechanics, but the email should still feel respectful.
• Include an unsubscribe link in every email, including transactional sends.
• Use double opt-in for risky sources, high-value forms, typo-prone forms, and regions where confirmed consent is expected.

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Monitoring Metrics

Watch these metrics together:

Metric	Healthy pattern	Warning signs
Opens	Stable trend by provider and segment	Sudden provider-specific drop
Clicks	Steady clicks from real users	Clicks within seconds of delivery or no matching website activity
Replies and conversions	Stable or improving over time	Drop alongside opens and clicks
Bounce rate	Under 2% on healthy lists	Above 5% or sudden provider deferrals
Spam complaints	Under 0.1%	Above 0.3% or complaints from new segments
Unsubscribes	Predictable by campaign type	Sudden spike after a new source or offer

Useful Tools

• Bento Dashboard: Monitor engagement and campaign performance.
• Deliverability Monitor: Track inbox placement and reputation signals in Bento.
• Google Postmaster Tools: See how Gmail views your domain. Setup guide: Google Postmaster Tools.
• Website analytics with UTMs: Connect email clicks to sessions, purchases, trials, or signups.

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Guides

Dive deeper into specific deliverability topics.

Setup and Sending

Reputation and List Health

Inbox Providers

Troubleshooting