Newsletter not arriving? Seven causes to investigate

Industry email averages depend on the audience, methodology and measurement tools. Do not use a single open-rate or bounce benchmark to declare that a newsletter is healthy or broken.

Opens are particularly difficult to interpret: privacy features can preload images without a person reading the message. Security tools can follow links too. Separate machine signals where your provider supports that, then look at measured website visits, replies and verified outcomes.

Keep counts for attempted sends, provider acceptance, delivery confirmations where available, hard bounces, complaints and unsubscribes. Acceptance by a sending provider does not prove arrival in the recipient's inbox.

SPF lists authorised sending systems, DKIM adds a domain signature and DMARC defines alignment and a policy for messages that fail its checks. They help receivers assess the claimed sender, but do not guarantee inbox placement.

Google's sender guidelines distinguish requirements for all senders and bulk senders. Ask your mail administrator to check which requirements apply, including authentication, alignment and unsubscribe handling.

Give the administrator the exact domain and sending service. Do not paste a second SPF record into DNS without reviewing the existing configuration. A change that fixes newsletter sending can otherwise disrupt another authorised sender.

Ordinary mail can work while the newsletter tool is misconfigured. The newsletter platform, webshop, booking system, invoices and website forms may use different sending infrastructure.

Make an inventory of every service that sends on your behalf. For each one, check the domain it uses, its DKIM setup and the relevant SPF and DMARC alignment. Follow the service's verification process and send a controlled test after changing settings.

Keep this inventory updated when a supplier changes. Domain authentication is not a one-time promise that every future service or DNS change will remain correct.

Receiving systems consider recipient behaviour and address quality. Google advises senders to keep reported spam rates below 0.1% and avoid reaching 0.3% or higher. Use the provider's stated metric and reporting scope; do not assume a small mailing gives a stable estimate.

Distinguish a permanent hard bounce from a temporary delivery failure. Suppress invalid addresses promptly, review repeated temporary failures and honour complaints and unsubscribes across your sending systems.

Do not decide that somebody is inactive from opens alone, because those are incomplete and can be machine-generated. Review permitted engagement signals and your retention policy. Never buy a list and assume authentication makes the recipients appropriate to contact.

• Unsubscribe handling: provide an obvious working unsubscribe route and implement one-click requirements where they apply. Someone who cannot leave easily may report spam instead.
• Sender identity: use a recognisable business identity and an address whose replies are handled. Keep the From name consistent with what the recipient expects.
• Sending rhythm: avoid unexpected bursts after a long silence. Choose a sustainable schedule and explain what subscribers can expect.

These are parts of the same relationship: the recipient should understand who contacted them, why they received the message and how to stop it.

1. Send a test to mailboxes you control on several relevant providers.
2. Check the inbox, spam folder and any category tabs.
3. Inspect the message headers for SPF, DKIM and DMARC results and alignment.
4. Use a testing service as supporting diagnostics, not a guarantee of delivery to your entire list.
5. Open a labelled link and verify the website journey, including the final enquiry or account outcome.

Write down what failed and what changed. A successful delivery to one test address does not prove that all subscribers received the campaign in the same way. The UTM guide explains how to label the website part of that test.

Even a correctly delivered email can lead to a confusing or broken landing page. Check that the destination matches the message, works on a phone and has a clear next step. Treat registrations and enquiries as separate outcomes from an email click.

Marketing Scan can help you organise public website and domain findings. It cannot see every recipient's mailbox or prove delivery from public DNS alone. Use the scan's measurement limits to keep that distinction clear.

Public DNS can reveal authentication records, but interpreting them requires care. A DMARC policy of p=none can be a deliberate monitoring stage; it does not mean that every message fails authentication or that the domain has no protection at all.

Public scans cannot reliably observe every sending selector, provider configuration or recipient decision. Ask your administrator to combine DNS checks, message headers and provider feedback before tightening a policy. Check all legitimate senders first so a stronger policy does not reject your own mail.