Deliverability

Email deliverability is the rate at which your emails reach the recipient's inbox (vs. spam folder or being blocked). Follow these best practices to maximize deliverability.

Authentication

Email authentication proves to receiving servers that your email is legitimate. TinyCommand handles the technical setup, but you need to configure DNS records.

Required DNS records

Record	Purpose	What it does
SPF	Sender Policy Framework	Lists which servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain
DKIM	DomainKeys Identified Mail	Adds a cryptographic signature to prove the email hasn't been tampered with
DMARC	Domain-based Message Authentication	Tells receiving servers what to do if SPF/DKIM fail (reject, quarantine, or allow)

Setting up authentication

Go to Settings → Email → Domain Authentication
Click + Add Domain
Enter your sending domain (e.g., yourdomain.com)
TinyCommand generates the DNS records you need to add
Add each record to your domain's DNS settings (in your registrar or DNS provider)
Click Verify; verification may take up to 48 hours

Content best practices

Practice	Do	Don't
Subject lines	Clear, specific, relevant to the content	ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation (!!!), spam trigger words ("FREE", "ACT NOW")
From name	Your company or person name	No-reply addresses, generic sender names
Content ratio	Good balance of text and images	Image-only emails (spam filters can't read images)
Links	Use your own domain for links	Shortened URLs (bit.ly, tinyurl); they look suspicious
Unsubscribe	Always include an unsubscribe link	Hiding or omitting the unsubscribe option
HTML	Clean, well-structured HTML	Broken HTML, excessive inline styles, JavaScript
Size	Under 100KB total (including HTML)	Large attachments or embedded images

Sending practices

Practice	Details
Warm up new domains	Start with small volumes (50-100/day) and gradually increase over 2-4 weeks
Clean your list	Remove bounced addresses, unsubscribes, and inactive contacts regularly
Segment your audience	Send relevant content to relevant people; this improves engagement rates
Monitor bounce rates	Keep hard bounce rate under 2%. Remove hard bounces immediately.
Monitor spam complaints	Keep complaint rate under 0.1%. High complaints damage your sending reputation.
Send consistently	Regular, predictable sending patterns build reputation

Troubleshooting delivery issues

Emails going to spam

Check	How to fix
Authentication	Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are properly configured
Content	Remove spam trigger words, add more text content
Sending history	If domain is new, warm it up gradually
Blacklists	Check if your sending IP is blacklisted at mxtoolbox.com
Engagement	Low open rates signal spam; clean your list

Emails not arriving at all

Check	How to fix
Hard bounce	The email address doesn't exist; remove from list
Soft bounce	Mailbox full or server temporarily unavailable; retry automatically
Blocked	Receiving server rejected the email; check authentication
Invalid address	Typo in the email address; verify with the recipient

Sending reputation

Your sending reputation is a score that email providers assign to your domain based on:

Factor	Impact
Bounce rate	High bounces = bad reputation
Spam complaints	Complaints severely damage reputation
Engagement	High open/click rates improve reputation
Volume consistency	Sudden spikes in volume look suspicious
Authentication	Missing SPF/DKIM hurts reputation
Blacklists	Being on a blacklist destroys reputation

Warning

Never purchase email lists. Sending to people who didn't opt in generates spam complaints, bounces, and can get your domain permanently blacklisted. Build your list organically through forms and opt-ins.

Tip

Use the Preview & Test feature to send test emails to yourself across multiple email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) before sending to your full list. Check that the email renders correctly and doesn't land in spam.