Email Deliverability Troubleshooting

Email deliverability is critical to the success of your outreach campaigns. This guide will help you identify and resolve common issues affecting your email delivery and inbox placement.

Email Inbox Placement Issues

Emails Going to Spam

Symptoms:

• Unusually low open rates
• Test emails found in spam/junk folders
• Recipients reporting they never received your messages

Diagnosis:

1. Send a test email to a Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo account
2. Check if they arrive in the inbox or spam folder
3. Use inbox placement testing tools:
   • Mailgun Inbox Placement
   • Instantly.ai Inbox Placement
   • Alex's native inbox placement test tool (coming soon...)

Solutions:

1. Authentication Check
   • Navigate to Accounts → Click on Check Records
   • Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are properly set up
   
   Example SPF record:
   v=spf1 include:_spf.try-alex.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
   

   
   Example DKIM record:
   v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEA...
   

   
   Example DMARC record:
   v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@yourdomain.com
   

2. Engagement Focus
   • Target more engaged segments first to build sending reputation
   • Clean your lists of unengaged contacts (no opens for 90+ days)
   • Increase personalization to improve recipient engagement (do this by giving leads with more data points to the agents instead of emails alone)
3. Sending Pattern Adjustment
   • Reduce daily email volume temporarily by 30-50%
   • Implement a gradual volume increase (10-15% per week)
4. Domain Reputation Repair
   • Check domain reputation using external tools like:
     • SendMARC
     • MXToolbox
     • Google Postmaster Tools
   • Follow the guided reputation repair plan if issues are detected
   • Consider using a subdomain for marketing emails (e.g., marketing.yourcompany.com)

Email Warm-up Problems

Symptoms:

• Getting started with a new email account
• Recent decline in deliverability
• Warning messages about warmup status

Solutions:

1. Verify Warmup Configuration
   • Navigate to Accounts → Check the Daily Capacity, Status & Health
   • Ensure warmup is active with appropriate settings
   • Check daily progress metrics for any red flags
   
   Recommended Warmup Settings (it's our default config):

   Account Age	Starting Volume	Daily Increase	Daily Max	Target Warmup Period
   Brand New	5 emails/day	1 emails/day	30 emails/day	4 weeks
   1-3 months	5 emails/day	2 emails/day	30 emails/day	3 weeks
   3+ months	5 emails/day	3 emails/day	30 emails/day	2 weeks

2. Address Warmup Failures
   • Review warmup report for failed interactions
   • Check for authentication issues if warmup emails are bouncing
   • Ensure email account access is still valid
3. Manual Warmup Supplement
   • Send personal emails to colleagues and contacts you know
   • Encourage replies and interactions with these emails
   • Subscribe to newsletters and respond to them
   • Gradually increase these real interactions

Bounced Emails

Symptoms:

• High bounce rate notifications
• Failed delivery messages
• Contacts not receiving emails

Solutions:

1. Identify Bounce Types
   Navigate to Unibox to analyze your bounces
   Hard Bounces (Permanent Failures):
   • Invalid email addresses
   • Deleted accounts
   • Domain doesn't exist
   
   Soft Bounces (Temporary Failures):
   • Mailbox full
   • Server temporarily unavailable
   • Message too large
   • Rate limiting/greylisting
2. Address Hard Bounces
   • Immediately remove hard bounced addresses from your lists
   • Navigate to Leads → Remove Invalid Emails from leads
   • Implement email verification before sending to new contacts
3. Manage Soft Bounces
   • Check sending volume if rate limiting is the cause
4. Improve List Hygiene
   • Regularly clean your email lists (every 90 days recommended)
   • Remove long-term unengaged contacts
   • Update or remove role-based emails (info@, sales@, etc.)

Sending Capacity Issues

Daily Sending Limits Reached

Symptoms:

• Campaigns pausing unexpectedly
• Warning messages about sending limits
• Delays in scheduled email delivery

Solutions:

1. Check Current Limits
   • Navigate to Accounts → Daily Limits
   • Review your daily sending limit and usage
   • Monitor hourly sending rates
   
   Typical Send Limits by Provider:

   Email Provider	New Account	Established Account
   Gmail (Free)	10-50/day	300/day
   Workspace	10-100/day	1,000/day
   Custom Domain	Varies	Varies

2. Distribute Load Across Accounts
   • Set up multiple sending accounts in Accounts
   • Enable round-robin sending by connecting multiple accounts to the agents
3. Increase Sending Capacity
   • Gradually increase daily volume (10-15% per week)
   • Continue warmup activities to build sending reputation
   • Consider upgrading email provider plan if needed

Tracking and Analytics Issues

Email Opens Not Registering

Symptoms:

• Unusually low open rates
• Known opens not appearing in analytics
• Missing notification for expected opens

Solutions:

1. Address Apple Mail Privacy Protection
   • Be aware that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection affects open tracking
   • Enable Settings → Analytics → Apple MPP Detection
   • Review adjusted metrics that account for this limitation
2. Test Tracking Functionality
   • Send test emails to accounts you control
   • Open from different devices and email clients
   • Verify tracking registers in your Alex dashboard
3. Troubleshoot Missing Opens
   • Check if recipients are using privacy-focused email clients
   • Verify your tracking domain isn't being blocked
   • Ensure images aren't being blocked by default

Click Tracking Issues

Symptoms:

• Links not registering clicks
• Broken links in emails
• Tracking URLs flagged as suspicious

Solutions:

1. Test Link Functionality
   • Send test emails with tracked links
   • Click from different devices and browsers
   • Verify redirects work properly
2. Address Link Trust Issues
   • Use a branded tracking domain (click.yourcompany.com)
   • Update SSL certificate if receiving security warnings
   • Consider disabling tracking for high-security contexts
3. Fix Broken Redirects
   • Review any reported broken links
   • Check for formatting issues in original URLs
   • Test redirect chain for any failures

Advanced Email Authentication Issues

DMARC Failures

Symptoms:

• Authentication reports showing DMARC failures
• Delivery issues to security-conscious domains
• Quarantined or rejected emails

Solutions:

1. Check DMARC Record
   • Navigate to Accounts → Check Records
   • Verify your DMARC record is properly published
   • Review your current policy setting
   
   Example DMARC Record:
   v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourcompany.com; pct=100; adkim=r; aspf=r
   

2. Align SPF and DKIM
   • Ensure SPF passes by including all sending services
   • Verify DKIM is correctly implemented and passing
   • Check domain alignment for both
3. Review DMARC Reports
   • Analyze incoming DMARC reports using specialized tools like dmarcian, Valimail, or PowerDMARC to identify failure patterns and authentication issues
   • Identify sources causing authentication failures
   • Address specific issues highlighted in reports
4. Implement Policy Gradually
   • Start with p=none to monitor without affecting delivery
   • Move to p=quarantine with a low percentage (pct=10)
   • Gradually increase percentage as issues are resolved
   • Consider p=reject only when fully confident

SPF Configuration Problems

Symptoms:

• SPF authentication failures
• Too many DNS lookups error
• Conflicting SPF records

Solutions:

1. Check Current SPF Record
   • Navigate to Accounts → Check Records
   • Verify record is correctly published
   • Look for syntax errors or warnings
   
   Correct SPF Syntax:
   v=spf1 include:_spf.try-alex.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
   

2. Fix DNS Lookup Issues
   • Reduce includes to stay under the 10 lookup limit
   • Use flattened records where possible
   • Consolidate services under fewer includes
3. Resolve Multiple Records
   • Ensure only one SPF record exists per domain
   • Merge multiple records if present
   • Remove outdated or duplicate records
4. Update Record for New Services
   • Add Alex's SPF include if missing
   • Include all legitimate email sending services
   • Use the SPF Constructor tool for assistance

DKIM Signing Problems

Symptoms:

• DKIM authentication failures
• Missing DKIM signatures
• Key rotation issues

Solutions:

1. Verify DKIM Setup
   • Navigate to Accounts → Check Records
   • Confirm DKIM keys are properly published
   • Check for selector errors or mismatches
2. Implement Key Rotation
   • Rotate keys if compromised or outdated
   • Use the guided DKIM rotation tool
   • Maintain old key during transition period
3. Fix Signing Failures
   • Check for email body modification in transit
   • Verify selector configuration is correct
   • Ensure key length meets current standards (2048-bit recommended)
4. Test DKIM Validation
   • Send test emails to DKIM validation service
   • Verify signature header is properly formatted
   • Check alignment with From domain