Email deliverability: why your mail goes to spam

Email deliverability is whether the emails a venue sends actually reach its guests' inboxes, rather than their spam folders or nowhere at all. It is invisible when it works and baffling when it does not. A venue sends its monthly newsletter, the opens fall to almost nothing, and nobody can say why. Worse, the same problem can affect booking confirmations and reminders, so guests never receive the details of the table they booked.

Deliverability is decided by mailbox providers, the services that host guests' email, such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo. They watch how each sender behaves and how recipients react, and they decide, message by message, whether to deliver to the inbox, to spam or not at all. A venue does not control those decisions directly, but it controls almost everything the providers look at.

This guide explains email deliverability for a restaurant in plain terms: what mailbox providers check, why mail goes to spam, and the four checks to run first. It covers sender authentication, guest data hygiene, complaint rates and unsubscribes, email frequency and content, how to read email open rates, and how to recover when deliverability has already fallen. It is practical guidance; the technical details of authentication are usually set up once, with help from whoever manages your domain and email tools.

When a venue sends an email, three things can happen. The email can be delivered to the inbox, where the guest sees it. It can be delivered to the spam or junk folder, where most guests never look. Or it can be rejected or lost, never reaching the guest at all. Deliverability is the share of emails that reach the inbox.

It is different from delivery. An email can be technically delivered, accepted by the provider, and still land in spam. Many email tools report delivery rates that look healthy while a large share of messages is going to spam, which is why falling opens are often the first sign of a problem.

The general idea of email deliverability covers all of this. For a restaurant, the practical question is simple: when you write to your guests, do they see it?

For a restaurant, poor deliverability costs twice. Marketing emails that land in spam bring no bookings, so the time spent writing them is wasted. And because many venues send booking confirmations, reminders and marketing from the same domain, a poor reputation from marketing can drag down the emails guests actually need.

A guest whose reminder lands in spam may forget their booking and not arrive. A guest whose confirmation never appears may book again, or book elsewhere. Deliverability is not only a marketing problem; it is a service problem.

The good news is that most causes are within the venue's control, and most fixes are simple.

Mailbox providers look at three broad things when deciding where an email goes. First, who sent it: is the sender who they claim to be, proven by authentication records on their domain? Second, how the sender behaves: do they send to valid addresses, at a steady rate, to people who asked for it? Third, how recipients react: do they open, read and reply, or delete, ignore and report the emails as spam?

Each sender builds a reputation from these signals over time. A sender with a good reputation reaches the inbox; one with a poor reputation is filtered to spam or blocked. Reputation is attached to the sending domain and the servers that send the mail.

Google publishes email sender guidelines explaining what it expects, and Yahoo publishes sender best practices; both are worth reading.

Most restaurant emails go to spam for a handful of reasons. The sending domain is not properly authenticated, so providers cannot confirm the email is genuine. The list contains addresses that do not exist, or guests who never asked to receive the emails. Too many recipients mark the emails as spam. The venue sends irregularly, in large bursts after long silences. Or the emails themselves look like spam, with misleading subject lines or too many images and too little text.

Often several of these combine. A venue that has not emailed for a year sends a large newsletter to an old list, many addresses bounce, some guests do not remember subscribing and report it as spam, and the provider concludes the sender is untrustworthy.

The four checks below address the most common causes in order.

Authentication proves that an email really comes from the venue's domain. It uses three records, published in the domain's settings:

Without them, providers cannot be sure an email is genuine, and many will filter it. Major providers now expect senders, especially those sending in volume, to have all three in place. The general entry on DMARC explains how it works.

Authentication is usually set up once, by whoever manages the domain, using the records provided by the email tool. If you send email from more than one tool, each one needs to be authorised.

Guest data hygiene means keeping the email list clean: only valid addresses, only guests who agreed to receive marketing, and only guests who are still interested. A clean list protects deliverability; a dirty one destroys it.

Remove addresses that bounce, especially hard bounces, which mean the address does not exist. Never add addresses that were not given with consent, such as booking emails or bought lists. Confirm new subscribers by email, so typos and fake addresses never join the list. And consider removing, or asking again, subscribers who have not opened anything for a long time.

Our guide to building an email list from the room you have covers how to build a clean list from the start.

Complaints, when a recipient marks an email as spam, are one of the strongest negative signals a provider sees. Even a small share of complaints can harm a sender's reputation. Google's guidelines, for example, advise keeping the reported spam rate very low and never letting it approach 0.3 per cent.

The best way to keep complaints low is to make unsubscribing easy. A guest who no longer wants your emails and cannot find the unsubscribe link will report the email as spam instead. Put a clear unsubscribe link in every marketing email, make it work in one or two clicks, and respect unsubscribes immediately. Major providers now expect a simple, one-click way to unsubscribe from bulk email.

Unsubscribes are not failures. They remove guests who are not interested, which protects the reputation of every email sent to those who are.

Email frequency affects deliverability. Senders who mail irregularly, with long gaps followed by large bursts, look suspicious to providers. Senders who mail too often annoy recipients, who complain or ignore the emails. A steady rhythm, such as one main email a month with a few smaller targeted messages, is safest for most venues.

Content matters too. Write honest subject lines that match the email. Include real text, not only images, and keep the email simple. Avoid lots of capitals, exclamation marks and phrases that look like spam. Send from a recognisable name, such as the venue's name, so guests know who the email is from.

Our guide to an email calendar for a venue with no marketer covers how to set a steady rhythm.

A bounce is an email that could not be delivered. A hard bounce means the address does not exist or cannot receive mail: a typo, a closed account, an invented address. A soft bounce means a temporary problem, such as a full inbox or a server that is briefly unavailable. Providers watch how many of your emails bounce, and a high rate suggests a careless sender.

Remove hard bounces from the list straight away; sending to them again harms your reputation. Soft bounces can be retried, but an address that soft-bounces repeatedly should be treated as invalid. A confirmation step for new subscribers prevents most hard bounces before they start, because typos never make it onto the list.

Old lists are particularly risky. Addresses that were valid years ago may have been closed, and some closed addresses are turned by providers into spam traps: addresses that receive no genuine mail, kept to catch senders who mail lists they have not looked after. Sending to a spam trap is a strong signal that a sender is not cleaning their list.

This is one more reason never to mail an old or bought list. A list built recently, from guests who confirmed their addresses, contains no spam traps. If you inherit an old list, rebuild it through confirmed opt-ins rather than mailing it.

How an email is built affects how providers treat it. An email that is a single large image with little or no text can look like spam, and many guests will not see it at all if their email app blocks images. Include real text, with images to support it.

Keep links honest and few. Every link should go where it says it goes, usually your own website or booking page. Avoid link shorteners that hide the destination, which spam filters treat with suspicion.

Avoid attachments in marketing emails. A menu attached as a file is more likely to be filtered than a link to the menu on your website.

Guests decide whether to open an email partly by who it is from. Send from a name they will recognise, usually the venue's name, or a person at the venue, such as "Tom at the Bistro". Keep it the same every time, so guests learn to recognise it.

Use a reply address that someone reads. Emails sent from an address that cannot receive replies feel impersonal, and guests who reply to ask a question or raise a problem should reach a person. Replies are also a positive signal: providers notice when recipients engage with a sender.

Email open rates, the share of recipients who open an email, are often the first sign of a deliverability problem. A sudden fall in opens, with no change in content, suggests that emails have started going to spam.

Read them with care. Some email apps and privacy features open emails automatically or block open tracking, which makes open rates less precise than they once were. Clicks and, above all, bookings are more reliable measures of whether emails are reaching and engaging guests.

Compare open rates over time and between segments. A steady pattern that suddenly changes is more meaningful than any single number.

Transactional emails are the ones guests need because of something they did: booking confirmations, reminders, cancellations, the link to change a booking. Marketing emails are the ones a venue chooses to send: newsletters, offers, events. Providers treat them somewhat differently, and guests react to them differently.

Protect transactional email. If marketing emails damage the sending domain's reputation, transactional emails may suffer too. Keeping marketing clean, consented and well received protects the confirmations and reminders that guests rely on.

Never use a transactional email as a vehicle for heavy marketing. A booking confirmation that is mostly a promotion confuses guests and may be treated as marketing.

A new sending domain, or one that has not sent for a long time, has no reputation. Sending a large volume from it at once can look suspicious. Many senders warm up a new domain by starting with small sends to their most engaged guests and increasing gradually over a few weeks.

For a venue starting email marketing for the first time, that means beginning with recent subscribers who have just confirmed, rather than mailing an entire old list on day one.

If deliverability has fallen, start with the four checks. Confirm that authentication is in place and passing. Clean the list: remove bounces, unconfirmed addresses and long-inactive subscribers. Make unsubscribing easy and check complaint levels if your tools show them. Return to a steady, modest sending rhythm.

Then send to your most engaged guests first, such as recent subscribers and regulars, and expand gradually as opens and clicks recover. Reputation takes time to rebuild, often weeks, so be patient and consistent.

If problems persist, check whether your domain or sending servers appear on any public blocklists, and ask your email tool's support team for help.

Groups with several venues often send from one shared domain. That means one venue's poor practice can affect every venue's emails. Agree common standards across the group: consented lists only, easy unsubscribes, steady frequency and honest content.

Decide who manages authentication and sending settings for the domain, and make sure every tool that sends email for any venue is authorised. When a new venue joins the group, or a new tool is added, check the records again before the first send.

A few signs suggest deliverability is slipping:

Any of these is a reason to run the four checks.

Here is an illustrative venue that recovered its deliverability. The details are examples.

In servearound, Campaigns only mails guests who opted in and confirmed by email, which keeps typos, fake addresses and unconsented guests off the list from the start. Every campaign email carries an unsubscribe link, and an unsubscribe lands on the guest's own record at once. Automations skip anyone who has had a campaign email from any of your venues in the last seven days, and no guest receives the same automation twice, which keeps frequency in check.

Each send's report shows what was sent, failed or skipped and why, and with the Analytics module, the campaign report adds delivery, click, bounce and unsubscribe rates and the list's growth. Booking confirmations and reminders are sent as part of the booking, separately from campaigns. Authentication records for your own domain are set up by whoever manages it. See Campaigns, or get in touch.

Usually a combination of missing authentication, an unclean list, complaints from guests who did not expect the emails, and irregular sending.

Records on your domain that prove your emails are genuine. Most providers now expect all three.

Consider removing or asking again those who have not opened anything for a long time. A smaller, engaged list delivers better.

A steady rhythm, such as once a month for the main email, is safest for most venues.

Less than they were, because some apps open or block tracking. Clicks and bookings are better measures.

Yes, if they share a domain. Keeping marketing clean protects the emails guests need.

Often several weeks of steady, clean sending to engaged guests. Fix the four checks first, then be patient.

For authentication, it helps to have whoever manages your domain set the records up once. Everything else, list hygiene, unsubscribes, frequency and content, is in the hands of the person writing the emails.

For deliverability, yes, if it is made of guests who chose to hear from you. Engaged recipients are the strongest signal a sender can have, and a list that grows steadily from confirmed sign-ups stays healthy without any special effort.

Email deliverability decides whether guests see your emails at all. Mailbox providers judge who sent each email, how the sender behaves and how recipients react. Most restaurant emails go to spam because of missing authentication, poor list hygiene, complaints and irregular sending.

Run four checks first: set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC; keep guest data hygiene strict, with consented, confirmed and valid addresses only; keep complaints low by making unsubscribes easy; and send at a steady email frequency with honest content. Watch email open rates alongside clicks and bookings, protect transactional emails, and rebuild reputation patiently if it has slipped.