This guide discusses the most common reasons your emails end up in your spam or junk folders and what to do about it.

DMARC Compliance

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance is an authenticity protocol designed to prevent bad actors from spoofing other domains. If your domain fails to have the SPF and DKIM record setup or your "sending" domain is different than the "From" domain, it is likely your emails will go to spam. See DMARC & Sender Email Address for details.

Check your DNS provider to confirm your DNS records are setup correctly for the SPF and DKIM records and make sure the "Domain" you setup in OneSignal > Settings > Email configuration is the same as the "From Email" domain used in sending emails.

Message Content

What you include, how you include it, and even what you omit from your email message content can affect inbox spam filters. For example, including unsubscribe URLs is considered good, but how you add them, like making it "hard to find" is considered bad.

Make sure you follow the Email Best Practices guide and consider leveraging a 3rd party tool like "Litmus" or "Email on Acid" to check your "spam rating".

Sender Reputation

Both your domain and the IP(s) in which you send from have their own sender reputation. Too many bounces or reports of spam affect this reputation negatively. If your domain is new or has not sent emails in several months, you must be extra careful about your reputation.

Make sure you follow the Email Best Practices guide and consider following an Email Warm-Up strategy to help improve your reputation.

Reported as Spam & Blocklists

If you are sending emails to users that did not consent or opt-in to be emailed, they will likely report your emails as spam. The more this happens, the more likely your emails will be automatically filtered into the spam or junk folders and eventually, you will be added to an email blocklist.

To prevent being reported as spam, make sure your subscribers provide consent to be emailed. It should be clear that when they provide you their email address, they are opting-in to marketing emails. This is usually done with a checkbox stating that the user is OK with being emailed for promotional material.

Within your Email Message Reports, you can view and export the reasons for message failures.

Here are some additional helpful policies and procedures from our supported ESPs if you find yourself on a blocklist:

• Sendgrid
• Mailgun
• Mailchimp