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Landing in spam? The recovery playbook

Replies stopped, warm-up spam placement jumped, or a seed test came back in the junk folder. This playbook takes you from "something is wrong" to a diagnosis and back to sending, in order. Do not s…

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

Replies stopped, warm-up spam placement jumped, or a seed test came back in the junk folder. This playbook takes you from "something is wrong" to a diagnosis and back to sending, in order. Do not skip ahead: the fixes at the top are cheap and cover most cases.

Step 0: stop the bleeding (5 minutes)

  1. Open the affected campaign → Edit Campaign → Settings → Show Advanced Configurations.
  2. Halve the Daily new contacts limit. If bounce rate is above 3%, pause the campaign entirely.
  3. Go to Mailbox, select the affected mailboxes and confirm warm-up is enabled. If it was off, enable it with the provider's profile now.
  4. Do not add new mailboxes or domains to the campaign yet.

Step 1: find the scope (10 minutes)

Answer one question: is it one mailbox, one domain, or everything?

  1. Mailbox → open each sender → Warm up tab. Compare spam placement across mailboxes.
  2. One mailbox bad, others fine → mailbox problem. Go to Step 2.
  3. All mailboxes on one domain bad → domain problem. Go to Step 3.
  4. Every domain bad → campaign content or list problem. Go to Step 4.

Step 2: one mailbox

  1. Remove it from the campaign (Sender Accounts → untick).
  2. Move it to a low-volume warm-up profile (max 15/day, reply rate 40%) for 7 days.
  3. If spam placement returns under 5%, re-add at 20 emails/day.
  4. If not, replace it: Icemail offers free mailbox replacements. Import the new mailbox and warm it 14 days.

Step 3: one domain

  1. Authentication. Send a test from the domain to Gmail → Show original. SPF, DKIM and DMARC must all PASS. Fix any FAIL at your DNS host (Icemail domains: check the DNS records in Icemail).
  2. Blacklists. Run the domain and its tracking domain through a blacklist checker. Listed → delist and fix the cause.
  3. Domain basics. Confirm the domain forwards to a real website and has MX records.
  4. Tracking domain. Domain → domain → Settings: is the custom tracking domain verified? If links used a shared tracker, set one up now.
  5. Volume. Add up all mailboxes on the domain × their daily limits. Above ~150/day per domain is high; spread across more domains.
  6. Pause the domain's mailboxes for 7 days with warm-up on, then re-add at half volume.
  7. If the domain has been listed on Spamhaus DBL twice or spam placement stays above 20% after two weeks, retire the domain and buy a replacement.

Step 4: everything

The mailboxes are fine; what you are sending is not.

  1. List quality. Check the campaign's bounce rate. Above 3% → verify the list with an email verifier, remove invalid and catch-all addresses, and upload a clean list. Set Pause campaign when bounce rate reaches 3%.
  2. Complaints. Look at reply categorisation for angry or "remove me" replies. More than a handful per 1,000 sends means targeting is off. Add those contacts and domains to the global blocklist.
  3. Copy. Open each step → Spam Words. Remove flagged phrases, cut to under 120 words, one link maximum, no images. Turn on Send emails in plain text for the first step. Enable Include Unsubscribe Message.
  4. Personalisation. Confirm Variables and Spintext are in use so sends differ from each other.
  5. Schedule. Check the sending schedule sends in business hours in the recipient's time zone and not at weekends.
  6. Auto match leads. Enable it under Deliverability and Safety so Gmail recipients get Google senders and Outlook recipients get Microsoft senders.
  7. Run a seed placement test with the revised copy before resuming.

Step 5: resume carefully

  1. Resume at 50% of the previous daily volume.
  2. After 7 days with bounce under 3% and warm-up spam placement under 5%, return to full volume.
  3. Keep warm-up on permanently at 20–25/day per mailbox.
  4. Schedule a weekly check of warm-up placement and blacklists.

Diagnosis table

**Signal****Points to**
Replies dropped, bounces normal, warm-up placement droppedReputation (domain or mailbox)
Bounces spikedList quality
Warm-up fine, seeds in PromotionsContent and formatting
One provider only (e.g. Microsoft)Provider reputation; slow down, auto match
Sudden, all domains at onceBlacklist on shared element (tracking domain, linked site)

Related articles

  • Deliverability fundamentals for cold email
  • Troubleshooting warmup (paused, low health score, high spam placement)
  • Blacklist monitoring: how to check and delist a domain or IP
  • Spam-trigger words and copy checks
  • Inbox placement testing
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC: what they are and how to check yours
  • Global blocklist: exclude domains and emails from all campaigns
  • Enable bounce protection (pause at X% bounce)

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More in Deliverability

Deliverability fundamentals for cold email→Spam-trigger words and copy checks→Blacklist monitoring: how to check and delist a domain or IP→Inbox placement testing→Global blocklist: exclude domains and emails from all campaigns→