Land in the inbox, not spam: a practical checklist
A plain-English guide to the handful of things that actually decide whether your email gets delivered — no jargon required.
By The rootmail team
Deliverability sounds like a dark art, but most of it comes down to a short list of fundamentals. Get these right and you'll reach the inbox far more often. rootmail handles or guides you through every one of them — here's what's actually going on.
1. Authenticate your domain
Mailbox providers want proof that your mail really comes from you. That's what SPF, DKIM, and DMARC do. In rootmail you add a few DNS records we generate, paste them into your domain provider, and we verify them for you — then show you whether each one is set up correctly and how to strengthen a weak policy.
2. Only email people who want it
Nothing sinks a sender reputation faster than emailing addresses that bounce or mark you as spam. rootmail automatically maintains a suppression list — anyone who bounces, complains, or unsubscribes is skipped on every future send, so you don't have to police it by hand.
3. Warm up and stay consistent
- Start with your most engaged contacts and grow volume gradually rather than blasting a cold list on day one.
- Send on a steady cadence — sudden spikes look suspicious to mailbox providers.
- Make unsubscribing easy; a clear opt-out beats a spam complaint every time.
4. Watch your score and fix what it flags
rootmail gives you a 0–100 deliverability score from your real sending outcomes, plus the specific factors pulling it down and what to do about them. Treat a dip like a check-engine light: open it up, read the recommendation, and act before it becomes a deliverability problem.
Deliverability isn't luck. It's a checklist — and the tool should walk you through it.
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