A sales manager sends a proposal — and the client “never got anything.” The email turns up in spam. This isn’t bad luck: the mail systems of Google, Microsoft and Mail.ru score every message on dozens of signals, and at most companies those signals are configured poorly or not at all. Here’s a jargon-free explanation of what gets checked and how to fix it.
Signal one: a free mailbox
To the recipient, an email from ooo-firma@gmail.com or firma.uz@mail.ru looks the same as one from an unknown individual. Spam filters take that into account — and so do clients: “a serious company without its own email?” The first step is email on your own domain: name@yourcompany.uz. It isn’t expensive and takes a day to set up.
Three records every mail server checks
When an email arrives, the recipient’s server asks your domain three questions. The answers are stored in your domain’s DNS records — configured by whoever manages your domain.
SPF — “Who is allowed to send on your behalf?” This record lists the servers permitted to send email from your domain: your mail server, Microsoft 365, your newsletter service. If an email arrives from another server, it’s most likely forged and goes to spam. Without SPF, anyone can send email “from you,” and your domain gradually lands on blacklists because of someone else’s spam.
DKIM — “Was the email tampered with in transit?” Your server puts a cryptographic signature on each email, and the recipient verifies it using a key published in DNS. If the signature is present and valid, the email is trusted more.
DMARC — “What should happen if SPF or DKIM fails?” This is your instruction to recipients: reject such emails, send them to spam, or let them through — and where to send reports about spoofing attempts. Without DMARC, the first two records work at half strength; with DMARC, you can also see who is trying to send email in your name.
You can check your domain in a minute with any public SPF/DKIM/DMARC checker. If even one record is missing, there’s your cause.
Other causes
- Domain reputation. If spam was ever sent from your domain (a hacked mailbox, malware on a computer), its reputation is damaged for months. The cure is proper records and time.
- Bulk mailings from regular email. 500 emails to “all clients” from Outlook are a signal to spam filters. Mass mailings belong in a dedicated service with its own reputation.
- Content. All-caps subject lines, “URGENT!!!”, links to shortened URLs, an email that’s a single image.
- A reply-to address that doesn’t match the sender, or a mail server IP address on a blacklist.
Your own email: three options
Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online. Outlook, shared calendars, integration with Windows and Teams. The best fit for companies that live in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Google Workspace. The Gmail interface on your own domain, plus Drive and Meet. Easier to administer; popular with companies that have younger teams.
Your own mail server. Full control, data stays in the country, no monthly per-user subscription. It requires administration and proper reputation setup — otherwise it will perform worse than a free mailbox.
What needs to be done
- Register a domain and set up email on it — with shared mailboxes like info@ and sales@, plus personal ones for employees.
- Configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC — and verify them with an external checker.
- Migrate the email archive and contacts from the old mailboxes.
- Set up a unified company signature, email on phones and two-factor authentication.
- Block the mailboxes of departed employees and forward their mail.
This is one of the fastest-impact jobs there is: after one day of setup, emails start getting through. We do it as part of our business email service, and then support the mailboxes on an ongoing basis under our managed services plan.