Improve inbox placement
Diagnose why accepted mail misses the inbox and remediate reputation, auth, and engagement.
Objective
Improve inbox placement
Raise primary/inbox placement by fixing reputation, auth, and engagement.
Starting state
Acceptance looks fine but primary/inbox placement is weak
Prerequisites
- Placement samples or panel data
- Auth baseline
Estimated time
2–4 hours
Difficulty
advanced
Required access
- ESP
- Postmaster tools
- CRM
Inputs
- Affected providers
- Streams impacted
- Recent metric changes
Step-by-step instructions
- Separate acceptance from placementConfirm SMTP success vs junk/promotions/missing outcomes by provider.
- Remediate signalsFix auth alignment, complaints, traps, and cold volume patterns.
- Rebuild engagementPrefer engaged cohorts and stabilize From identity while monitoring placement.
Verification
- Provider placement samples improve over a multi-day window
Common mistakes
- Chasing open rate without checking junk placement
- Is Promotions acceptable for this stream vs a true junk problem?
Rollback / recovery
- Reduce volume and tighten to engaged segments
Expected outcome
Inbox/primary placement recovers without sacrificing acceptance.
When to escalate
- Placement collapses across multiple major providers