if your DNS is clean but emails are still hitting spam, the problem is sender reputation.

reputation damage happens when you send too fast, get too many bounces, or generate spam complaints. email providers track this at the domain and IP level, and once your reputation drops below a certain threshold, everything you send from that domain gets deprioritised.

the bad news: reputation damage is harder to fix than authentication. it takes time.

the good news: it follows a predictable recovery timeline.

reputation damage severity levels

level 1: minor (recovery time: 5-7 days)

• symptoms: some emails hitting Promotions instead of Primary, slight drop in open rates
• cause: small velocity spike or a few spam complaints
• fix: reduce sending volume by 50%, increase warmup ratio, wait 5-7 days

level 2: moderate (recovery time: 14-21 days)

• symptoms: significant portion of emails hitting Spam, open rates below 10%, reply rates near zero
• cause: sending without warmup, high bounce rates (5%+), sustained over-sending
• fix: pause cold sends entirely. run warmup-only for 14 days. re-introduce cold sends slowly.

level 3: severe (recovery time: 30+ days or domain replacement)

• symptoms: 90-100% spam placement, domain blacklisted, provider warnings in admin panel
• cause: domain burned from sustained abuse. typically a combination of skipped DNS configuration, skipped warmup, excessive velocity, and high complaint rates
• fix: this domain may not recover. rotate to new domains and set them up properly from the start.

the 14-day reputation recovery protocol

this is for level 1 and level 2 damage. if you're at level 3, skip to "when to rotate domains" below.

days 1-3: stop the bleeding