Deliverability is whether your email reaches the inbox, not just whether it was sent. Pawabase hands each message to your provider and records that the provider accepted it. Whether Gmail, Outlook or Apple then puts it in the inbox, in spam, or rejects it depends mostly on your domain’s reputation and set-up. This page is the checklist.

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1. Send from your own domain

Send from an address on a domain you own (orders@northwind.com), not a free mailbox (northwind@gmail.com). Major mailbox providers reject or spam-folder mail that claims to be from a free mailbox but isn’t sent by it. Many teams use a subdomain for app mail, such as mail.northwind.com or notify.northwind.com. Its reputation is then separate from your people’s everyday email.

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2. Verify the domain with your provider

Every provider asks you to prove you own the domain by adding DNS records it gives you. Do this first; until it’s done most providers refuse to send, and the message shows as failed in Mail activity with the provider’s reason.

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3. SPF, DKIM and DMARC

These three DNS records tell receiving servers your mail is genuine. Gmail and Yahoo require them for anyone sending in volume. A sensible DMARC to start with, which only reports and doesn’t block anything:
Once reports show your real mail passing, tighten it to p=quarantine, then p=reject, so others can’t send as you.
A domain can have only one SPF record. If you send through more than one service (your provider, your company mail), merge them into one record with several include: parts.

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4. Separate kinds of mail

Keep transactional mail (receipts, resets, codes, which people expect) apart from marketing mail (newsletters, announcements, which some people mark as spam).
  • Use different senders, such as orders@ and news@.
  • Ideally send them through different subdomains or provider streams, so a marketing complaint never delays a password reset.
  • Use template categories to keep them organised.

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5. Write mail filters trust

The template checks help with most of this:
  • Always have a subject and preview text.
  • Include a plain-text version.
  • Don’t make the email mostly images. Spam filters weigh the text-to-image ratio, and many people read with images off.
  • Keep the HTML under 102 KB, or Gmail cuts it behind View entire message.
  • Use https links and images.
  • Make link text say where it goes, not “click here”.
  • Include your postal address and, for marketing, a way to unsubscribe.

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6. Watch bounces and complaints

Your provider sees what happens after it accepts a message: hard bounces (the address doesn’t exist), soft bounces (a full mailbox) and spam complaints. Pawabase shows what the server answered when it took the message, not these later events.
  • Check your provider’s dashboard regularly, and after each campaign.
  • Stop sending to addresses that hard-bounce. Many providers do this automatically with a suppression list.
  • Keep complaints very low. Above about 0.3% of messages, mailbox providers start filtering you.
  • Only email people who signed up or have an account. Never buy lists.

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7. Grow volume gradually

A new domain has no reputation. If you’ll send a lot, start with your most engaged people and increase over a few weeks. Sudden spikes from a new domain look like spam.

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8. Test before you launch

  1. Send a test of each important template to a Gmail, an Outlook and an Apple address.
  2. Check the inbox and the spam folder.
  3. In Gmail, open the message and Show original: SPF, DKIM and DMARC should all say PASS.
  4. Fix anything that fails before launch, not after.

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Checklist

  • Sending from your own domain (or subdomain)
  • Domain verified with your provider
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC records added, and passing in Show original
  • Separate senders for transactional and marketing mail
  • Plain-text versions, preview text, https links, postal address
  • Provider dashboard bookmarked for bounces and complaints
  • An alarm on mail failures