Email & SMTP · 1 min read
Recovering from Multiple Email Delivery Issues
What's happening
Your bounces show several different problems at the same time, for example rate limits, low domain reputation, spam-like content and DMARC failures. Each issue makes the others worse, so fix them in order.
Fix in this order
- Infrastructure first
- Authenticate your sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
- Make sure the From domain aligns with your authenticated domain.
- Reputation next
- Pause bulk sends to unengaged contacts.
- Remove hard bounces, complainers and contacts with no engagement in 90+ days.
- Check whether your domain or links are on a blocklist and request removal.
- Content
- Simplify templates, reduce links, remove shorteners and avoid spam-trigger wording.
- Volume
- Restart with your most engaged contacts and raise volume gradually over 2–4 weeks.
What to expect
- Authentication fixes take effect within hours to two days.
- Reputation recovery usually takes 2–6 weeks of consistent, clean sending.
Watch during recovery
- Bounce rate below 2%
- Spam complaint rate below 0.1%
- Open rate trending upward
If any metric gets worse, slow down and send only to your most engaged segment.