My email wasn't delivered

Most of the time, an email you cannot find in the inbox was actually still delivered. It just landed somewhere the recipient didn't check, like a spam folder or Promotions tab. When it really wasn't delivered, the reason is almost always one of these:

• The contact isn't subscribed or wasn't in the list or segment you sent the email to
• The email bounced because of a typo, a full inbox or a closed address
• The contact's email provider or company firewall filtered it on their end

Work through the steps below to troubleshoot missing emails. Most people find the answer by step 2 or 3, and each step should take you just a couple of minutes.

Step 1: Check the contact in your list

Start here, because it rules out the simplest answer: the email was never sent to the contact.

1. Open the list you sent the campaign to and search for the contact's email address.
2. Check their status. Only subscribed contacts get campaigns. If they're unsubscribed or pending, they won't receive your emails.
3. Check when they joined. Contacts only receive a campaign if they were on your list before you sent it. If they signed up afterwards, they won't get it.
4. If you sent the email to a segment or tag, check the contact matched it at the moment the campaign went out. Your campaign report shows the exact segment that received the email.
5. Open the campaign report and look up the contact there. If they appear in the "Sent to" report, the email was sent to their inbox.

If the contact isn't in the report at all, the campaign didn't go to them. Fix their status or segment, then resend the email to them.

Not receiving an automated email?

The most common reason is that the contact never triggered the automation. Automations only start for contacts who meet the trigger after the automation is turned on. If someone met the trigger before the automation was activated or didn't meet it at all, they won't be included.

To check this:

1. Open the automation and look at its trigger.
2. Confirm the contact met that trigger after the automation was started. For example, if you're using the "Contact added" trigger, make sure the contact was added to your list after the automation was activated.
3. Open the automation's report to see whether the contact entered it.

If they didn't trigger it, the automation won't send to them. Check the trigger and, if needed, send them the email as a one-off campaign instead or make sure they match the trigger.

Step 2: Check whether the email bounced

A bounce means the contact's email server rejected the email. Your campaign report shows which contacts bounced, and the contact's profile shows it too.

There are two kinds of bounces:

If a contact hard bounces, they will be automatically unsubscribed from your list to protect your deliverability.

Step 3: Ask the contact to check other tabs and folders

This is the most common answer by far. Inbox providers sort newsletters away from personal mail, so the email can be sitting one click away. Ask your contact to check:

• Spam or Junk folder. If it's there, ask them to mark it as "Not spam". That also helps your future emails land in the inbox.
• Gmail tabs. Your email may land in the Promotions, Updates and Social folders – the placement depends on the content and Gmail's algorithm, so it's not a deliverability issue. These tabs can be switched off or tucked into the menu.
• Outlook's Other tab. Outlook's Focused inbox moves a lot of marketing email to Other based on content and Outlook's algorithms.
• Yahoo and Apple Mail. Check the Bulk or Junk folder.
• Archive, All Mail or Trash. Inbox rules, filters or an accidental swipe can move emails straight out of the inbox.
• Filters and rules. A filter set up years ago can quietly catch new senders.

The quickest way to cover all of these is to use the inbox's search option. Ask the contact to search their whole mailbox (including spam) for your sender name, your sender email address and the subject line. If the email didn't bounce and the contact still can't find it after searching, the provider most likely accepted it and then filtered it. Steps 4 to 6 help you narrow that down.

Step 4: Test with another email provider

This tells you whether the problem is with one contact's provider or with your emails in general.

1. Set up a few of your own addresses with different providers. A free Gmail, Outlook.com, and Yahoo address covers most people. If your contact uses a work address, add one on your company domain as well.
2. Add them to a small list (or tag them) and send the same campaign to them a real campaign.
3. Note where each copy lands: in the inbox, in a tab, in spam, or nowhere.

A quick note on test emails: the "send a test" button is great for checking how your email looks, but it isn't a reliable signal for deliverability. Test emails are sent differently from real campaigns, so a small real send gives you a much truer picture.

How to read the results:

• Lands in the inbox everywhere. Your setup is fine. The issue is specific to that contact's mailbox or provider (see step 5).
• Lands in spam on one provider. That provider is being cautious with you. Step 6 and the safe sender tips below help.
• Lands in spam everywhere, or doesn't arrive. Look at your sender setup in step 6 first.

Step 5: Check the address and any work filters

If your test addresses get the email, but one contact doesn't, look closely at that contact.

• Check the spelling. Common slips include gmial.com, hotmial.com, a missing letter or a stray space. Compare it character by character with an address the contact confirms.
• Ask about their work email. Company and school addresses often sit behind security tools that hold or quarantine marketing email before they reach the inbox. The contact won't see these emails at all. Ask them to check their quarantine (if they have access) or ask their IT team to release the email and allow your sender address.
• Ask about forwarding. If the contact forwards an email from one address to another, the email can get lost or filtered on the way. Ask them to check the original mailbox.
• Try a different address. If nothing else works, ask the contact for a personal address and update their details in your list.

Step 6: Check your sender setup and content

If your emails land in spam for lots of people, providers aren't fully convinced the email is really from you, they're unsure whether people want it, or you don't have a sender reputation set by them quite yet.

• Use an address on your own domain. Sending from a free address, such as @gmail.com or @yahoo.com, is one of the most common reasons for poor delivery. Those providers block emails that claim to be from their domain but are sent by another service. An address like hello@yourbusiness.com works much better.
• Verify your domain. Adding the DNS records we provide proves to inbox providers that we're authorised to send on your behalf. Think of it as a signed letter versus an anonymous note.
• Keep your list fresh. Sending to many old or unengaged contacts hurts your reputation with every provider. Remove contacts who haven't opened in a long while.
• Build up gradually. New domains and new senders haven't earned a reputation yet. That's normal. Start with smaller sends to your most engaged contacts and grow from there.
• Go easy on known spam triggers. All-caps subject lines, lots of exclamation marks, one big image with little text and link shorteners can all raise flags.
• Send regularly. A list that hears from you once a year is more likely to mark you as spam than one that hears from you every month.

Help your contacts find your emails next time

Once you've found the email, a few small actions made by your contacts make future emails much more likely to land in the inbox:

• Add you to their contacts or safe senders list using your sender email address.
• Mark it as "Not spam" if it landed in their spam.
• Drag it to the Primary tab in Gmail and choose to do this for future emails, too.
• Move it to Focused in Outlook and choose "Always move to Focused inbox".
• Reply to your email. Even a quick "got it" tells their provider they want to hear from you.

You can add a short line asking new subscribers to do this in your welcome email or sign-up confirmation. You can also add a note to your subscription form to prompt them to check their spam folder.

Quick checklist

• The contact is subscribed and was in the list or segment you sent the email to.
• The contact was on the list when the email was sent. If it's an automation, the contact matched its trigger correctly.
• The contact appears in the campaign or automation report.
• The contact searched spam, their inbox tabs, archive and filters for your sender name and subject line.
• The email didn't bounce.
• A small real send to your own Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo addresses arrived.
• The contact checked work quarantine or spoke to their IT team.
• You're sending from your own domain, and it's verified.