How to keep your newsletter out of spam

No platform can promise that every email lands in the inbox. That decision belongs to mailbox providers such as Gmail and Outlook, and they judge by three things: who you are to them, who you send to, and how your readers treat your emails.

The good news is that most of this is in your hands. This guide collects the habits that build trust and explains what Mujaz handles for you. If your issues are landing in spam right now, start with the checklist in the Help Center.

A steady sender name and a clear address

The first thing a reader sees in the inbox is the sender name. In Mujaz it is the “Brand Name” from Brand settings, unless you set a “From Name” in “Domain & Email”. Pick a name your readers know, the newsletter's or your own, and don't change it from issue to issue.

Without any setup, your newsletter goes out from your Mujaz address: [email protected], where handle is your newsletter link. It always works and needs no verification. But note that changing your newsletter link changes this address, so only change it for a reason.

Sending from your own address or domain

You can send from your personal address (Gmail, Outlook or a work address) once you confirm it with an email sent to it. Some providers, though, such as Yahoo, AOL, iCloud and any company domain with a strict DMARC rule, forbid other services from sending as their addresses. With those addresses Mujaz sends your newsletter under your name from the Mujaz address, and replies come to your address. This is on purpose: sent from their address directly, the issue would go to spam or be rejected. The steps are in Verify your sender email.

The strongest option is your own domain, such as [email protected], with full authentication. You register it in Domain & Email, then add the records at your DNS provider:

• Required: three CNAME records for signing (DKIM). This alone is enough to start sending.
• Recommended: on the bounce subdomain of your domain, an MX record and an SPF TXT record. Your existing SPF on the main domain stays as it is; never add a second SPF record there.
• DMARC: a v=DMARC1; p=none; record is shown if your domain has none. If it already has one, keep it.
• On Cloudflare, set all three CNAME records to “DNS only” (grey cloud). Proxied records never verify.

Mujaz re-checks the records by itself every 30 minutes for the first 72 hours. Once the domain is verified, change “From Email” to an address on exactly that domain and save; until you do, issues keep going out from the Mujaz address. A verified domain has one more benefit: it skips the content and link checks before sending. Details in Custom domain and DNS troubleshooting.

Only send to people who asked

The fastest road to spam is a list of people who never asked for your email. A reader who doesn't remember subscribing presses the report-spam button, and every one of those counts against you. That is why Mujaz only accepts lists of people who asked to hear from you, and refuses an import that looks purchased or scraped.

• Double opt-in: in “Form Integration” → “Advanced” → “Double Opt-in”, new subscribers confirm by email before they become “Active”. It is forced on for every account's first 7 days.
• Anyone who hasn't confirmed stays “Pending” and receives nothing. You can resend their confirmation from their profile.
• On import, Mujaz skips anyone who earlier unsubscribed, bounced or complained in your workspace, even if you deleted them. It also skips rows marked with those statuses in the file itself.

A clean list beats a big list

Mujaz only ever sends to people whose status is “Active”. Anyone who bounced, complained or unsubscribed gets nothing and is never re-added by an import. That protects you from the worst addresses automatically.

That leaves the readers who never open. Emails that go unopened send a weak signal to the mailbox provider. You have two tools here:

• In the editor's “Audience” tab, the “Engagement Filter” has options including active in the last 90 days or new (the recommended one) and never opened anything. On every plan.
• Or a segment with the condition hasn't opened in N days, to leave out of a send or to send one last email to. Segments are on the paid plans.

Remember that open numbers are approximate: some apps load images automatically, so some “opens” are machines, and others hide opens, so a few people who read look as if they didn't. So don't remove anyone after one or two issues; look at a longer stretch. When you decide, unsubscribe or delete them in Subscribers.

What Mujaz does for you automatically

• An unsubscribe link in every email that can't be removed, plus the one-click unsubscribe Gmail and Apple support. The link opens a confirmation page, so email scanners can't unsubscribe your readers just by opening it.
• Warm-up for new accounts: in the first 24 hours one send can reach at most 500 people; in the first 7 days at most 5,000.
• A review before sending when a send looks unusual: much larger than anything before, a sender name that looks like a known brand, content that reads like a bank or order notice, or links through shorteners or raw IP addresses. It is reviewed within a few hours and the result comes by email.
• Refusing dangerous links flagged by Google Safe Browsing.
• Pausing sending automatically if many of the first emails bounce or are reported as spam.
• “Security Alerts”: a weekly email to you only when there is something to act on, such as a sudden jump in sign-ups or spam complaints above 0.1%.

Every reason and its message is in Why a send was held or refused.

Small habits that make a difference

• Full, direct links to the original page, not shortened links or links routed through other services' trackers.
• Fill in the “Postal address” in your sender settings. It is printed in every newsletter footer, and anti-spam laws ask for it.
• One sender and a steady rhythm. A reader who knows who is writing and when to expect it is less likely to report you.
• Don't write like an official notice about an account, an order or a payment. That style holds the send for review and worries readers.
• Test before you send with “Send Test Email” to your own inbox, and open the links one by one.
• Check before you send with the “Spam Score Checker” in the Review step, on every plan: it scores the subject line, the content and the links out of 100 and suggests what to fix. Treat it as advice, not a guarantee: a high score doesn't promise the inbox, and a low one never blocks the send.

In the end, the best protection from spam is a newsletter its readers look forward to. When people open your emails, reply to them and move them from a folder to the inbox, the mailbox provider learns that your emails are wanted. That starts with a list built the right way.