// how to fix
Keep transactional and marketing emails apart
Receipts and password resets should never suffer because a newsletter got complaints. Send each kind of email through its own provider, stream or subdomain.
What it means
Your business probably sends two kinds of email:
- Transactional: triggered by one person's action. Order confirmations, invoices, password resets, account alerts. People expect them and want them now.
- Marketing: sent to many people at once. Newsletters, promotions, announcements. Some recipients ignore them or mark them as spam.
Receiving servers build a reputation for the IP address and the domain that send your email. If both kinds share the same IP and domain, they also share the same reputation.
Why it matters
- A newsletter that gets complaints or hits spam traps can push your password resets into spam.
- If a marketing campaign gets your IP blacklisted, your invoices are blocked too.
- Transactional emails often need to arrive in seconds; big campaigns can slow them down when they share the same queue.
How to check
Send one email of each kind to the unique test address from the Delivmail home page. Compare the two reports: the "Sending infrastructure" section and the IP address show whether they leave from the same place, and the SPF and DKIM lines show which domain is used.
How to fix it
- List your emails and decide for each one if it is transactional or marketing. A receipt with a big promotion inside counts as marketing.
- Separate the sending. Choose one of these options:
- Two different providers: one specialised in transactional email, one newsletter tool.
- One provider with separate streams, subaccounts or IP pools. Many email services offer this; check their help pages.
- Use different addresses or subdomains. For example
orders@yourdomain.comfor receipts andnews@news.yourdomain.comfor newsletters. A subdomain gives marketing its own reputation, while keeping your brand. - Authenticate each one. Every provider must be in the right SPF record and sign with DKIM for your domain or subdomain, so DMARC passes.
- Add an unsubscribe link to marketing only. Transactional emails do not need one, but they should not contain advertising either.
Example
yourdomain.com TXT "v=spf1 include:spf.transactional-example.com ~all" news.yourdomain.com TXT "v=spf1 include:spf.newsletter-example.com ~all"
The values are examples: use the include: given by each of your providers.
Tips
- Send transactional email from an address that can receive replies; customers often answer receipts.
- Do not send marketing campaigns from your personal mailbox (Gmail, Outlook): it is not made for it and puts your daily email at risk.
Check that it is fixed
Send one email of each kind to a new Delivmail test address. Both reports should pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and they should show different sending servers or domains. Keep an eye on blacklists at /blacklists after big campaigns.
Check that it is fixed
DNS changes can take from a few minutes to a few hours. Then send a new test email or scan your domain again.
Related guides
- No DKIM signature on your emailsDKIM adds a digital signature that proves an email really comes from your domain. Turn it on in your email provider and publish its key in DNS.
- DKIM signature fails (invalid signature or body hash)Your email is signed, but the signature does not check out. Usually the DNS key is wrong, or something changed the email after it was signed.
- DMARC fails: SPF and DKIM do not match your domainSPF or DKIM can pass and DMARC still fail, because they passed for another domain. Make at least one of them use the same domain as your From address.
- Your emails land in Gmail's spam folderWhen Gmail sends your emails to spam, the cause is almost always authentication, reputation or content. Here is how to find which one and fix it.
- Your emails land in Outlook or Hotmail junkOutlook.com, Hotmail and Live send many new senders to Junk. Check your setup, then use Microsoft's free sender tools: SNDS, JMRP and the delist portal.