Broadcast opens dropped off a cliff, or a reader said you're in their junk folder? Here are the five real reasons — and a 30-second test that shows exactly where your next broadcast lands.
Most advice is a generic checklist that ends in a list-cleaning upsell. Here's the honest version: five signals decide whether a broadcast reaches Primary, Promotions or spam — and you can check every one on the exact email you're about to send.
The most common Kit-specific miss: broadcasts going out without a verified custom sending domain. Since Gmail and Yahoo tightened bulk-sender rules, mail whose DKIM doesn't align with the sender's own domain starts every delivery at a disadvantage. Verify the domain in Kit, then confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC actually pass — a half-finished setup fails silently.
That lead-magnet list from 2023, the import from your previous platform, the tag you never mail — every cold slice you include drags open rates down and complaint rates up on the entire broadcast. Mailbox providers score the send as a whole. Mail your engaged core consistently; win the rest back in small, separate batches.
Five tracked links, a countdown, a discount code — individually fine, together they read as marketing, and Gmail files marketing under Promotions. That's survivable. What tips into spam is promo-heavy content ON TOP of weak authentication or a tired list. Fix those first; polish copy second.
Quiet for a month, then six emails in launch week: to a mailbox provider that's a behavior change worth throttling. Keep a steady baseline rhythm between launches, and stagger launch sequences so the volume curve looks like a sender they know — not a burst from a stranger.
Complaints, dead addresses, spam-trap hits — each one nudges a per-domain score that follows you for weeks. It's why one bad blast hurts long after it. The recovery is boring and works: prune never-openers, keep cadence steady, and check each broadcast before it ships.
Check which tab you're actually in before treating this as a crisis. Promotions is a real inbox with real readers; a creator newsletter can do fine there. Actual spam is a different problem with a different fix. The test below tells you which one you have — on your real broadcast, not a template.
You can second-guess subject lines all afternoon and still be guessing. Or forward the broadcast and see it: we open your real email in real Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo accounts and show the split — Primary, Promotions, Spam — plus the three fixes worth doing first, in plain English. About 30 seconds, free, no signup.
Test your next broadcastIf you've ever searched "email tester," half the results check whether the address is valid. We do the other thing — whether the email itself will reach the inbox once you press send.
You upload a CSV of subscribers. The tool tells you which addresses bounce. Great for cleaning a stale list before a re-engagement send.
You forward one email — newsletter, launch, client note — to a one-time mailbox. We open it in real Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo and tell you which tab it landed in, plus what to rewrite before you send it to your list.
Paste the mailbox above into the test-send field in Beehiiv, Kit, Substack, Mailchimp — or your own inbox. Hit go. We never see your subscriber list.
In real Gmail, real Outlook, real Yahoo. We watch where your email lands — Primary, Promotions, or Spam — using the same filters that decide whether your campaign worked.
Plain English. Three things to change, in priority order. Unlock the bundle and we generate a subject, body, and CTA rewrite in your voice — paste them back into your campaign before lunch.
Forward any email and get the score — free and unlimited. Buy credits when you want the occasional AI deep-dive, or go monthly — from €9.99 — if you send regularly. Cancel from the same screen you upgrade on.
Takes less time than picking a hero photo. No card, no signup, no anything.
