Hey, Anthony from The Retention Report here.

Have you ever had a moment where your emails are sending fine, nothing is technically broken, but email performance just feels off?

No major strategy change.
No seasonality shift.
No big change in send volume.

Yet revenue is suddenly down 15 percent period over period.

Everyone starts asking the same questions.

Should we send more?
Should we try plain text emails?
Did the algorithm change?

But those might be the wrong questions.

Most brands treat deliverability like some mysterious algorithm problem. I get why.

There is no clean “landed in spam” metric. I wish there was.

So a lot of teams end up guessing.

In reality, deliverability is very trackable if you know where to look.

There are three places we check first.

This is the technical foundation.

Every sending domain should have these records set correctly:

SPF
DKIM
DMARC

What most brands look like:

What your brand COULD look like:

Check your domain’s deliverability score here (Free): https://easydmarc.com/

These signals tell mailbox providers that your domain is legitimate and authorized to send email.

If they are missing or misaligned, inbox providers immediately treat your messages with more caution.

Getting these right is step one.

Next comes domain and IP reputation.

Mailbox providers track how trustworthy your sending behavior appears over time.

Reputation improves when engagement is strong and sending behavior is consistent.

It weakens when engagement drops or when sending patterns become aggressive.

Do you know your reputation status?

If not, install Google Postmaster Tools (Free): https://postmaster.google.com

Finally, we look at the metrics your email platform already gives you.

Unsubscribe rate
Bounce rate
Spam complaints

These are direct signals from your audience.

When these metrics climb, inbox providers take notice quickly.

Together, these three layers give you a clear picture of sender performance.

Before we get into the fixes, there is an important question.

Is deliverability actually THAT important for most DTC brands?

Yes. Yes it is.

It matters a lot.

Here is the spam folder of just one inbox we use to monitor email placement for clients and other DTC brands.

Mailbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo know how crowded inboxes have become.

They are constantly deciding which senders deserve the inbox and which ones should be filtered out.

They are looking for reasons to move emails away from the primary inbox.

Do not give them one.

Now let’s talk about the four levers that usually fix deliverability issues the fastest.

Many emails are simply too heavy.

Huge image files.
Too many images.
Too many links.
Spammy marketing language.

Inbox providers prefer emails that resemble normal communication.

Compress images.
Limit links.
Use some text blocks instead of all-image emails.
Write like a human, not a salesperson.

Cleaner emails are easier for inbox providers to trust.

Some brands send campaigns to everyone in the database.

Mailbox providers care about engagement, not list size.

If people are not opening, clicking, replying, or spending time reading your emails, placement weakens.

Send more often to engaged users and exclude people who have stopped interacting.

Food for thought: we see this same thing in nearly EVER DTC account we advise, audit, or manage. There is almost always a TINY delta between your full list and your most engaged segments.

Takeaway? Stop sending to your full list. You’re ruining engagement and making almost no incremental revenue.

This is where a lot of brands unknowingly run into issues.

The first thing to check is authentication.

Every sending domain should have these records set up and aligned properly (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

These records act like identification for your domain. They tell mailbox providers that the emails being sent are actually authorized by you.

If these records are missing, misconfigured, or misaligned, inbox providers treat your emails with much more skepticism.

Once authentication is confirmed, the next step is checking sending sources.

Many brands have multiple tools sending emails from their domain like support platforms, review tools, loyalty programs, etc

Almost none of the brands we talk to understand that if those sending sources are not authenticated properly, they impact your domain-level deliverability score.

Cleaning this up strengthens sender reputation immediately.

A healthy list matters more than a large one.

Invalid emails.
Spam traps.
Known complainers.
Inactive subscribers.

All of this quietly drags down engagement and reputation.

Running regular list validation and removing unengaged profiles keeps performance strong.

In many cases, removing inactive contacts actually improves revenue.

If email performance feels off, do not start by blaming the algorithm.

Start here.

Check your domain setup.
Check your reputation signals.
Check your ESP metrics.

Then tighten the four levers that impact deliverability the most.

Content.
Audience.
Technical setup.
List health.

Fix those first and inbox placement usually improves quickly.

Talk soon,
Anthony

P.S. If you want the checklist we use when auditing deliverability across these four areas, reply DELIVERABILITY and I will send it over.