Getting your emails delivered to your recipient's inbox is important! We have compiled a list of resources to help you avoid getting sent to the SPAM folder/promotions tab or getting bounced out completely.


1. A Clean List

  • Email people who have opted-in to receive content from you.
  • Remove people from your list who have not engaged/responded to emails from you in more than 6 months or so (or send them an email to re-opt-in).
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by removing emails that do not exist, contacts who unsubscribe, hard bounces, and SPAM complaints from your email sends automatically.


2. A Segmented List
  • Send emails to people based on their interests. This will increase open and click-through rates, creating better engagement and a better sender reputation – essential in getting to the inbox!
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by automating tags based on engagement activity from your contacts.

  • Do not send from a "gmail.com", "hotmail.com", or "yahoo.com" address (see article linked above).
  • Send from a person, not a "company@" or "sales@" email address.
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by letting YOU determine your sending email address in your Profile Information.

4. Completing the E-mail Authentication Process
  • This removes the "on behalf of" language from your from address.
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by offering it for free to all our clients. Reach out to our Support Team at support@hatchbuck.com to start this process

5. A Good Sender Reputation
  • Monitor your bounce rates and make sure they are below 1% at all times
  • Maintain high open and click through rates
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by cleaning your list (see above) and providing resources on: Building Better Emails, Getting More Opens and Crafting Better Subject Lines.

6. Good Content 
  • Avoid mismatched URLs by linking part of your text, not the URL itself
  • Avoid large images or too many images (try for a 60/40 text to image ratio at the very least)
  • Never send an email that is just one large image
  • Avoid spam-like words (free, instant, guaranteed, etc)
  • Avoid misspelling, excessive exclamation marks, and ALL CAPS
  • Avoid "loud" colors like red or green
  • Avoid "sloppy" HTML or HTML copied from Microsoft Word
  • Send content based on the contact's interests
  • If necessary, check your content with a test service like EmailOnAcid


7. An Awareness of why Emails might Bounce

  • Make sure you are not consistently re-enabling emails that are bouncing due to any of the reasons listed in the article above.
* Hatchbuck helps you do this by providing the specific bounce reason we receive from the server in the Activity feed.

8. Getting added to a Safe Senders List or White-Listed
  • Some servers may reject your email despite your best efforts. If you have a relationship with a particular individual or company and you are experiencing a consistent SPAM or bounce issue, ask them to have their IT team white-list your domain.
  • Gmail Users can manually set whether or not something is in the Promotions tab. Send a note to your Gmail recipients asking them to move your emails to their primary inbox instead of the Promotions tab.

9. Sending in Small Batches
  • Make sure you are sending to 5,000 or less contacts at one time. When ISPs see large groups of the same email, they assume they are SPAM and filter them accordingly.
  • Remember to segment!
* Hatchbuck can help you do this by using tags to designate smaller "send" groups from your larger list. 


It is always good to remember that your deliverability to the inbox when using an email service like Hatchbuck will differ from sending individual emails through Outlook or Gmail. Also, it is impossible to completely understand and avoid SPAM/Promotion filters. The items above, however, should help your deliverability increase tremendously!


If you have additional questions or are concerned about your bounce rate, please email our Support Team at support@hatchbuck.com for help.