What is deliverability?

Deliverability is whether your emails reach your shoppers. It covers two things: whether an inbox provider such as Gmail or Outlook accepts your email, and where it puts it (the inbox, the Promotions tab, or spam).

Why it matters

  • An email that lands in spam is not seen, so it cannot earn revenue, however good the content is.
  • Inbox providers judge each email you send against the history of your sending domain, so a poor result on one campaign can change where your flows land next.
  • Inbox providers expect senders to authenticate their own domain. Mail from a domain that is not authenticated is more likely to be blocked or sent to spam.

How to set it up

Work through these steps in order. Steps 1 and 2 are the technical setup. Steps 3 to 5 protect your reputation once you start sending.

Before you start

  • Make sure you can log in to your DNS provider. This is where your domain is managed, such as GoDaddy, Cloudflare or Shopify.
  • You do not need to change anything in another email platform. Instant only adds new records on its own subdomain, so your Klaviyo, Google Workspace and Shopify records keep working.

Step 1: Connect your sending domain

When you onboard, Instant asks you to connect your domain so it can send email on your behalf. Instant sends from a subdomain of your domain, such as send.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com, and picks the best available subdomain for you.

  1. Follow the domain step in your onboarding, or go to Settings > Domain in your Instant AI dashboard
  2. If you see Connect your DNS automatically, use it. This is the fastest option
  3. If you do not see it, select Connect your DNS manually
  4. Log in to your DNS provider and add each record Instant shows you, copying the values exactly
  5. Return to Instant and wait for the domain to verify

Note: Instant does not send any email until your DNS records verify. Records usually start to connect within the first hour, but can take up to 48 hours. If your domain has not verified after 48 hours, see Troubleshooting Your DNS Settings for Instant AI.

Step 2: Action your deliverability recommendations

Instant checks your setup against best practice and lists any changes you still need to make.

  1. Go to Settings > Deliverability in your Instant AI dashboard
  2. Scroll to the recommendations listed under your domain
  3. Read each recommendation, including which record to add and what it replaces
  4. Add the record with your DNS provider
  5. Click Verify on the recommendation

Common technical recommendations include adding an SPF record on your sending subdomain and adding a DMARC record. Action all of them, even the ones that are not strictly required.

Tip: A single large green tick with no recommendations means you have completed every step Instant checks for.

Step 3: Set up an event tracking domain

An event tracking domain is optional, but we recommend it for every brand. It also carries the click and open tracking for your emails. Without it, the links in your emails go through a tracking domain that many senders share, so your links share that domain’s reputation with spam filters.

  1. Go to Settings > Domain in your Instant AI dashboard
  2. Under Event tracking domain, click Set up domain
  3. Click ⋯ and select View DNS records
  4. Add the record that Instant shows with your DNS provider. If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (grey cloud)
  5. Return to Instant, click ⋯ and select Verify integration

For more detail, see What is an event tracking domain and how to set it up.

Step 4: Check your sender name and reply to address

Shoppers decide whether to open, ignore or report an email partly on who it is from. Those choices feed into your reputation.

  1. Click the Settings cog in your Instant AI dashboard and select Email Settings
  2. Open the Account tab
  3. Scroll to Sender profile and click Edit on your default profile
  4. Set the Sender name to the name your shoppers already know, such as your brand name
  5. Set a Reply to address for an inbox someone checks
  6. Click Save

If a profile shows No reply-to, replies from shoppers may not reach anyone.

Step 5: Start with your flows, then grow your campaigns

Inbox providers trust a domain more once they have seen it send steadily and get good engagement.

  • Turn on lower volume flows first, such as Abandoned Cart, Abandoned Checkout and Browse Abandonment, before you move all of your sending to Instant. See Trialling Instant AI for how long to run these first.
  • Send your first campaigns to shoppers who have opened or clicked recently, using the Engaged filter. Widen the audience over time while your open rates stay steady.
  • Send campaigns to All Marketing Subscribers or a segment of them. Never send marketing email to shoppers who have not opted in.

How it works

What inbox providers look at

Each inbox provider uses its own filters, and none of them publish exactly how they work. They all look at the same broad areas:

  • Authentication. Whether your domain proves the email is from you, using SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
  • Sender reputation. The history of your sending domain, built up over time.
  • List quality. How many of your emails bounce because the address does not exist.
  • Engagement. Whether shoppers open, click and reply, or ignore your emails and mark them as spam.

What Instant does for you

  • Blocks sending until your domain is authenticated.
  • Suppresses an address straight away when it hard bounces, so you do not keep sending to it.
  • Spaces out very large sends, and sends over peak periods such as Black Friday, by up to 30 minutes so the volume does not arrive in one burst.
  • Compresses your images and adds alt text to them automatically.

How to check your deliverability

Go to Settings > Deliverability to see your delivery rate, bounce rate, block rate and unsubscribe rate, shown separately for flows and campaigns. The Activity tab breaks your results down by inbox provider, including spam reports.

Tip: Compare each provider against the others. If one provider, such as Gmail, shows much lower opens than the rest, that provider is likely filtering your email to spam. Narrow your campaigns to engaged shoppers and contact support.

FAQ

Do I need to warm up my domain before I go live? Usually not. Starting with your lower volume flows before you move all of your sending across is normally enough. If your brand needs a different approach, we will tell you during onboarding.

Will connecting Instant change my other email platform? No. Instant only adds new records on its own subdomain. It does not edit or replace any records your other platforms use.

Can I send before my domain verifies? No. Instant blocks sending until all required records verify, to protect your sender reputation.

Can I send from a shared Instant domain instead of my own? No. A shared domain does not build reputation for your brand, so Instant always sends from your own authenticated subdomain.

Does Instant guarantee my emails reach the inbox? No. The inbox provider makes the final decision on where each email goes. A correct setup, a clean list and steady sending give you the best chance.

Why are my emails going to spam when my setup looks fine? Authentication is only one part. Placement also depends on your sender reputation and how shoppers engage with your emails. Action any remaining recommendations, then send to engaged shoppers and keep your sending steady.

Why is my delivery rate lower in Instant than in my other platform? A common cause is invalid addresses, often from bots at checkout, which bounce when Instant sends to them. See What are bots and how do they affect my email marketing? to check whether this applies to you.

Where can I get help? Submit a support request and include a screenshot of the issue.

For more on your recommendations, see How to get the best email deliverability with Instant AI. For more on your deliverability reporting, see Understanding the Deliverability Dashboard.