The human habits that keep your business mail landing in the inbox instead of the junk folder, once your DNS is set up correctly.

Deliverability has two halves. The technical half (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) MailAfiniti sets up for you, and once your domain is green on the Domains page, that part is handled. The other half is how you actually send. This guide covers the human habits that decide whether your mail lands in the inbox or the spam folder.

What you'll learn:

Why new domains sometimes start in spam
The sending habits that build a good reputation
What to avoid in your messages
What to do if you are already landing in junk

First, confirm the technical half is done

Before changing anything about how you send, make sure your foundation is solid. On the Domains page, all four records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) should show green. Those records are what tell receiving servers your mail is genuinely from you and not forged. If any are amber or red, fix that first, because no sending habit compensates for missing authentication. Our verification troubleshooting guide covers the fixes.

Why a brand-new domain can start in spam

If your domain is new, or newly sending email, receiving servers have no history with you. They do not yet know whether you are a legitimate sender or a spammer warming up, so they are cautious. This is normal and temporary. Reputation is earned over the first days and weeks of sending real, wanted mail. The habits below are how you earn it quickly rather than slowly.

Habits that build a good reputation

Send to people who expect to hear from you. The strongest signal to a mail provider is engagement: recipients opening your mail, replying, and not marking it as spam. Early on, send to clients and contacts who know you. Every reply and every "not spam" click teaches the receiving server that your mail is wanted.

Warm up gradually. Do not go from zero to a thousand recipients on day one. A sudden spike in volume from a new domain looks exactly like a spam campaign. Start with your normal day-to-day correspondence and let volume grow naturally.

Use a real display name and signature. Mail that shows "Jane at Acme" with a proper signature reads as human. A bare address with no name is a weak signal. Set both in your mail app.

Keep replying in-thread. Ongoing back-and-forth conversations with real people are the healthiest kind of email traffic. They build reputation faster than any one-off blast.

Avoid one-to-many blasts from your main mailbox. If you need to send newsletters or bulk campaigns, use a dedicated bulk-email service built for it rather than sending a hundred copies from your regular mailbox. Bulk sending from a normal mailbox is the fastest way to damage the reputation of the address you rely on daily.

What to avoid inside the message

Spam filters also read the content. A few things that hurt:

All-image emails with no text. Filters cannot read an image, so a message that is one big picture looks suspicious. Always include real text.
Link shorteners and lots of links. bit.ly-style links and link-heavy mail score poorly. Link to your real domain.
Spammy phrasing and ALL CAPS. "ACT NOW", "FREE!!!", "100% guaranteed", rows of exclamation marks. Write like a person, not a billboard.
Misleading subject lines. A subject that does not match the body is a classic spam pattern.
Thin, one-line messages. Gmail and other major providers score short, low-substance emails ("Hi, check this out: [link]") closer to spam, even with perfect SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Write an actual message: a greeting, a few sentences of real content, a sign-off. A short but genuine multi-line email reads as human; a single line with a link reads as a blast.
Large or risky attachments. Prefer a link to a shared file over a heavy or executable attachment.

None of this means your mail has to be plain. It means it should read like genuine business correspondence, because that is what filters are tuned to let through.

If you are already landing in spam

Work through this in order:

Confirm all four DNS records are green on the Domains page. This is the top cause and the easiest fix.
Ask a recipient to mark you "Not spam" and, ideally, add you to their contacts. A few of these strongly and quickly improve how that provider treats you.
Reply within existing threads to build engagement signals.
Ease off volume if you recently sent a large batch, and return to normal correspondence for a few days.
Move bulk sending off your main mailbox to a dedicated service if that is the source.

Give reputation a little time. With authentication in place and healthy sending habits, most domains settle into reliable inbox delivery within days.

When to contact us

If your DNS is fully green, you are sending normal one-to-one business mail, and you are still consistently landing in spam, get in touch. Email support@mailafiniti.io with a specific example (which recipient, which provider) and we can investigate from our side.

Next steps

DNS Configuration to confirm your authentication records.
Send and read your email for everyday sending.
Still says "Not Verified"? if any record is not green.