Tried everything - why are ALL my emails from new domain going to gmail's spam?

0
votes

i've spent 2-3 hours researching on "email delivery" best practices and i've learned a lot. i've also have done almost everything apparently right, but my emails are still going to gmail's spam. I'm using sendgrid and azure.

here's my port 25 email validator response:

The Port25 Solutions, Inc. team

==========================================================

Summary of Results

SPF check: pass DomainKeys check: neutral DKIM check: pass Sender-ID check: pass SpamAssassin check: ham

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Details:

HELO hostname: o1.f.az.sendgrid.net Source IP: 208.117.55.132 mail-from: [email protected]

SPF check details:

Result: pass ID(s) verified: smtp.mailfrom=bounces+1509238-afb2-check-auth2=verifier.port25.com@sendgrid.me DNS record(s): sendgrid.me. SPF (no records) sendgrid.me. 90 IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx include:sendgrid.net ~all" sendgrid.me. 90 IN A 198.37.144.92 sendgrid.me. 90 IN A 198.37.144.99 sendgrid.me. 90 IN MX 10 mx.sendgrid.net. mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.251 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.144.144 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.144.147 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.144.149 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.144.150 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.34 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.35 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.202 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.220 mx.sendgrid.net. 900 IN A 198.37.145.249 sendgrid.net. SPF (no records) sendgrid.net. 90 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:208.115.214.0/24 ip4:74.63.202.0/24 ip4:75.126.200.128/27 ip4:75.126.253.0/24 ip4:67.228.50.32/27 ip4:174.36.80.208/28 ip4:174.36.92.96/27 ip4:69.162.98.0/24 ip4:74.63.194.0/24 ip4:74.63.234.0/24 ip4:74.63.235.0/24 include:sendgrid.biz ~all" sendgrid.biz. SPF (no records) sendgrid.biz. 90 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:167.89.0.0/17 ip4:208.115.235.0/24 ip4:74.63.231.0/24 ip4:74.63.247.0/24 ip4:74.63.236.0/24 ip4:208.115.239.0/24 ip4:173.193.132.0/23 ip4:208.117.48.0/20 ip4:50.31.32.0/19 ip4:198.37.144.0/20 ip4:198.21.0.0/21 ip4:192.254.112.0/20 ~all"

according to this great article, everything is correct.

http://blog.codinghorror.com/so-youd-like-to-send-some-email-through-code/

according to

http://www.mail-tester.com/

i have an almost perfect score. this is a great site that tests the "spamminess" of your email and rates it and tells you exactly what is wrong.

I have also done this:

v=spf1 mx include:_spf.google.com include:sendgrid.net ~all

for SPF records and added google DKIM authentication.

google._domainkey and a private key in my dns records.

EVERYTHING has been set up properly according to the checks and what google apps has told me. But still, all my emails in Google Business Apps are going to gmail's spam and my website transactional emails using sendgrid are going to gmail's spam.

for example when i send an email from [email protected] that goes to gmail spam even though i am sending it from gmail business apps website.

what else is left for me to do? is this a new domain issue where i need to gain credibility? how do startups with new domains and no history and credibility start sending emails?

if you were to sign up for an account at tradermob you can see the confirmation email is clearly not spammy content too.

1
emailazuregmailsendgrid
You did not mention reverse lookup, but I checked and the reverse lookup from your IP 208.117.55.132 to the Domain is also correct. Perhaps you just need to wait a few days. When did you start registering the domain and the domain records? They might need to propagate in the DNS system and Google might not see them yet. – peschü
Hi Mike, it could depend on several things. SendGrid support might be able to quickly help you. We have a service that will automatically throttle your email until your IP address is warmed up: sendgrid.com/docs/API_Reference/Web_API_v3/IP_Management/… – bwest
i'm going to talk to sendgrid support and see what they can do. I have no problem upgrading my plan to get my domain on a whitelist so i don't have to worry so much about all these little things. that will do the trick, right (the whitelist)? – Mike

1 Answers

1
votes

Having gone through similar stuff with Gmail, here are a few things you might not have considered:

  1. The mark as spam button in Gmail is huge. It can really affect your reputation. You can't prevent other people from clicking it, but you can move emails sent to your spam folder to inbox and star it.

  2. Like you suggested you can get a new IP address and slowly build reputation.

  3. You need to throttle large number of emails. If you start with a fresh IP and send 500k emails in one day, it will get flagged. You need to ramp up the volume slowly over many days to build trust correctly.

  4. Gmail highly values link clicking in emails. You want to include links and get them to click. One suggestion was to only send out 1/3 of the content and have a "Click more to read" link at the bottom.

  5. Azure IP's might be volatile because I would imagine lots of people abuse them when sending spam. Maybe try a different block of IPs?