General guidelines and best practices for email deliverability during the first few days
In this article, we’ll walk through how to optimize your email deliverability when you first start using the systeme.io autoresponder.
To optimize the deliverability of your emails and ensure the best reception of your emails in the inbox, it is important to take into account a few essential tips.
As of 01.02.2024, Gmail.com and Yahoo.com have decided to modify their policies. As a result, email senders will need to comply with the requirements outlined below to send emails to these ISPs.
Since May 2025, Microsoft has also strengthened its requirements (Outlook, Hotmail, Live).
These developments mark a major turning point: ISPs no longer simply analyze emails; they now evaluate the overall credibility of the sender (domain, behavior, engagement).
In practice, these requirements converge toward a common standard: mandatory authentication, sender transparency, and sending quality control.
Concretely, the best practices presented in this article are no longer merely recommended but have become essential to ensure your emails successfully reach the inbox.
I. Domain names
Sending emails from general domains is now limited, as was already the case for some domains, such as yahoo.com. The list has expanded.
Generic domains are now considered high-risk, as they do not allow you to build an independent reputation. ISPs favor senders who are identifiable and consistent over time.
We invite you to read our help page on this subject.
Therefore, to avoid any deliverability issues, we advise you to acquire your own domain name, to which an email address will be linked.
This email address must be active, meaning it can be used to send and receive emails.
Beyond mere compliance, this helps build your sender identity, a central element in modern filters.
Please ensure that you have changed the default email sending address for your emails in your account settings.
An inconsistency between your domain, your sender address, and your technical setup can be enough to degrade ISPs' trust from your very first emails.
1. Domain name authentication
Given the ISPs' guidelines on this matter, a domain must have several technical records, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
These protocols are no longer just recommendations: today, they form the foundation of email trust.
Without authentication, your emails may be considered unverifiable or even fraudulent.
To obtain these records, you must "authenticate" your domain name on systeme.io.
A properly configured authentication not only improves deliverability but also protects your domain against spoofing.
2. Email sending address confirmation:
To ensure that no third-party email address is used on an account by a third party, it is necessary to confirm each email address used for sending emails.
This requirement is part of a broader logic to secure the email ecosystem, which has been strongly reinforced by ISPs in recent years.
To do this, you must follow the procedure indicated below:
How to confirm your email sender address
3. Homepage for your domain name
To send a positive signal to ISPs, the email address used for sending must be linked to a domain name with an active homepage (not a parking page).
ISPs increasingly analyze signals external to the email itself: web presence, brand consistency, domain activity.
If you do not have a website or a page linked to this domain, you can connect your domain name to systeme.io and then create a homepage through a sales funnel or a blog.
The goal is not to have a complex website, but rather a coherent environment that confirms the existence and legitimacy of your business.
4. Monitoring your performance
From the dashboard of systeme.io, you can track some metrics on the emails you send:
- Open rate
- Click rate
- Bounce rate
- Spam report rate
However, some data depend on devices and ISPs.
However, for each metric, the collection of information depends on the devices' decryption regarding the sharing of this information, particularly on iOS devices, as well as on ISPs and their feedback policies.
Indicators should be interpreted as a whole: a drop in the open rate alone is not always significant, but combined with other signals, it can reveal a deliverability issue.
For example, Gmail.com does not share spam reports. Specifically, if one of your contacts has a Gmail.com email address and reports your email as spam, this information is not collected on our end.
Tracking this metric is done via the Google Postmaster Tool (GPT).
Google Postmaster Tools thus becomes a strategic tool to manage your sender reputation at an advanced level.
Google advises not to exceed a threshold of 0.3% of reports of emails as spam per sender domain.
This threshold is a critical indicator: repeatedly exceeding it can lead to a progressive and lasting degradation of your deliverability.
Now that your domain is properly configured and you have all the tools to monitor the deliverability of your emails, we will see how to start sending emails from your account safely.
II. Email sending rate
When you change autoresponders, your sender footprint is reset with ISPs.
This implies that your previous history is not taken into account: you must rebuild your reputation.
You must therefore start warming up your deliverability.
This "warming" phase is closely monitored by ISPs, who evaluate the quality of your sending from the very first signals.
1. A list of engaged contacts
The most important element in email deliverability is to have or create a list of engaged contacts.
Engagement (opens, clicks, interactions) is now one of the main criteria used by ISPs to classify your emails.
Sending emails to unengaged contacts will cause your email open rate to drop.
A drop in engagement sends a direct negative signal, indicating that your emails are not expected.
An old list can also have negative impacts, including a risk of bounces because the email addresses are no longer active or your emails being reported as spam because your contact no longer remembers you or is no longer interested in your offers.
A list should be considered a living asset: without maintenance, its quality naturally degrades.
2. A gradual and sustained rhythm
Whether you are sending emails in bulk or not, remember to start gently, as this is one of the basic rules mentioned by Gmail.com.
Abrupt variations in volume are interpreted as abnormal behaviors.
It is crucial to start sending emails in small quotas; if you increase the sending volume too quickly, this can lead to deliverability issues with your emails.
A progressive ramp-up helps establish a stable and credible reputation.
You should also send emails at a regular rhythm; do not send emails in bursts.
Consistency over time is a key trust factor for filtering systems.
3. Constant hygiene of the contact list (cleaning)
It is important to maintain an engaged contact list over time.
Regular cleaning helps maintain healthy indicators and prevents the accumulation of negative signals.
You can also automate this cleaning process for your contact list.
In the long term, this is an essential practice to stabilize and improve your overall performance.
III. Support and Assistance
At systeme.io, email deliverability is at the heart of our priorities. We know that an email is only valuable if it is actually received and read by your contacts.
That is why we have a team dedicated to email deliverability, available 7 days a week, to support you at every step. Our teams continuously monitor changes in ISP policies, particularly Microsoft and Google, to guarantee that you always receive up-to-date recommendations tailored to current requirements.
We also offer a free technical audit of your deliverability. This audit allows us to quickly identify areas for optimization and adapt your sending strategy to your specific situation, in order to maximize your chances of reaching the inbox from your very first emails.