There has been a lot of buzz about email deliverability and a lot of finger pointing. But like most things people are heated about on the internet, there is the rants people post on Threads, and then there are the facts. So I want to talk about email deliverability, why it matters, and how you can optimize your Flodesk account to ensure your emails have the best chance of showing up in your subscribers’ inbox AND getting opened. Because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter how great the email is if they don’t open it.
In this post, I’ll walk you through why deliverability matters, how inbox providers decide where your emails should land, and what you can do inside Flodesk to improve your chances of getting into your subscribers’ primary inboxes—where real connections (and conversions) happen.
Want to try Flodesk? Use this (affiliate) link to get 50% off your first year of Flodesk.
What is email deliverability (and why does it matter)?
Email deliverability is essentially the ability of your email to land in someone’s inbox—not just get sent, but actually be seen. Low deliverability means fewer eyes on your content, fewer clicks, and fewer conversions. It’s one of the most overlooked aspects of email marketing, especially for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs who are more focused on design and content.
But even the most beautiful email won’t make an impact if it gets lost in spam.
Think of email deliverability as your email’s reputation. Inbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook are constantly deciding which emails are trustworthy enough for the inbox and which ones are too risky to let through.
Gmail really sets the standard and the tone for what the best practices are and they are constantly changing as they try to do their best to protect their users’ inboxes from scammers and phishers.
You can review all of Gmail’s latest email sender guidelines here.
How Inbox Providers Determine Where Your Email Lands
Inbox placement—whether your email goes to spam, promotions, or the primary inbox—is based on a combination of sender reputation, email content, and recipient behavior.
Here’s how it breaks down:
1. Sender Reputation
This is like your email credit score. It’s influenced by:
- Your domain reputation (e.g., if you’re sending from
yourbusiness.com) - Your IP address (Flodesk handles this for you)
- Spam complaints (too many “mark as spam” actions hurt you)
- Bounce rates (if you’re emailing dead addresses)
- Engagement (opens, clicks, replies)
2. Email Content
Inbox providers scan your emails for red flags like:
- Spammy language (“FREE!!!” “Guaranteed!” “Buy now”)
- Poor code quality or too many images without text
- Unbalanced image-to-text ratios
- Broken links or attachments
- Unsecure links (missing the https://)
- Misleading subject lines
Even beautiful emails can get flagged if they look like spam.
3. Recipient Behavior
How your audience interacts with your emails tells inbox providers how trustworthy you are:
- Do people open your emails?
- Do they click?
- Do they reply or forward?
- Do they move your email from Promotions to Primary?
The more positive actions people take, the more likely future emails will land in the Primary inbox.
Think about it this way—just like Instgram’s goal is to keep people on their app, so they show people content they think they are likely to enjoy and want to see more of. If your content doesn’t help Instagram reach its goal, Instagram isn’t going to help you reach yours.
In the same vein, Gmail (and Yahoo and Outlook) want to keep people in their inbox. If they let a bunch of spam or scammers in, no one would want to use that inbox provider anymore and they would look elsewhere. So if your email is setting off a bunch of red flags, they are going to make it harder for you to get to their users, even if they are your subscribers.
How to improve your email deliverability in Flodesk
1. Send from a verified domain. This is the number one thing you can do to improve your deliverability. If you are sending from a free email account (i.e. Gmail), you need to starting sending from yourname@yourdomain.com. This is the easiest defense around scammers, so Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are cracking down on this.
2. Check your links. I was making this mistake without even knowing it. Make sure the links your email points to are secure links (meaning they have the S in the https://). If you have been a Flodesk user for a long time (like me), go to your account, select Branding, and then check your Company Details section to make sure your URL is updated. Like this ⤵️
3. Clean up your list. Are you sending to people who aren’t engaged? Maybe someone just wanted that freebie and ran with it. There is no reason to keep unengaged subscribers on your list. If someone hasn’t opened a single email in a year or more, it’s okay to say goodbye. No one knows what size your list is. You might as well make sure it is full of super-engaged people who are hungry for your content because that means your open rate and click-through rate will improve, which will help your sender reputation in the eyes on inbox providers.
Here how to do this in Flodesk:
- Go to Audience
- Click “Filter”
- Select timeframe (start with 1 year or longer)
- Select all of those contacts and Unsubscribe them
NOTE: If they want to resubscribe down the road, they can do that with any of your forms.
4. NEVER buy a list. I know it seems appealing and the company selling you the list will make you think they are a super-qualified list but please DON’T. Quality over quantity!
5. Send emails consistently. We’ve all seen those brands that pop up in our inbox on Black Friday only and we ask ourselves, “Who is this? How am I on this list?” Don’t be that brand. Sending emails at a consistent frequency helps build your trust with the inbox providers AND your subscribers. Keep this in mind—your list can get cold in just. 4-6 weeks of inactivity. So use that as motivation to not ghost your subscribers.
6. Take advantage of segments. Flodesk has so many ways you can segment your audience:
- Email preferences when they join your list
- Link actions
- Polls
Use segments so you can speak directly to the right people. The more relevant your email is to a subscriber, the more likely they are to open it.
Bottomline
Remember that when you show up and send valuable content your subscribers want, they will send signals back to their inbox provider that your emails are quality, safe, and WANTED!
If you need help with your email marketing strategy, I got you. We can do a 2-hour Pick My Brain session to get everything dialed in and optimized. OR if you want to get started and cooking with gas, an Email VIP Week is the way to go.
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