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Replies going to spam

Diagnose why your outbound support mail is being filtered, and fix it in the right order.

2 min readUpdated August 2026
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First, find out what's failing

Send a reply to a Gmail address you control. Open it, choose Show original, and read the top three lines:

SPF:   PASS with IP ...
DKIM:  PASS with domain yourcompany.com
DMARC: PASS

What you see next decides everything below.

If DKIM fails

Your domain is not authenticated, or only partly. Go to Settings → Sender emails and check the domain shows verified, not pending.

The most common cause is publishing only some of the DNS records. All three DKIM CNAMEs are required — two out of three leaves the domain permanently pending.

See Verify your sending domain.

If SPF fails

Usually one of two things:

Two SPF records. You must have exactly one TXT record starting v=spf1 per domain. Two is a permanent error and worse than none. Merge them:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:amazonses.com ~all

Missing include. Your SPF record does not authorise Kognit's sending infrastructure. Add include:amazonses.com.

If DMARC fails but SPF and DKIM pass

Alignment. DMARC requires the authenticated domain to match the visible from-address domain. Sending as help@yourcompany.com while authenticated for a different domain fails alignment even though both individual checks pass.

Fix: authenticate the same domain you send from.

If everything passes and it still goes to spam

Authentication is necessary, not sufficient. At this point it is reputation:

  • New domain, high volume. Warm up gradually — see Email deliverability.
  • Recent complaints. A spike in spam reports affects everything you send for weeks.
  • Content. Check for a link shortener, an image-only body, or a from-name that doesn't match your domain.
  • One provider only. If only Outlook filters you, it is a reputation issue with Microsoft specifically; their sender support portal is the route.

What not to do

Don't ask customers to whitelist you. It fixes one inbox and tells you nothing.

Don't switch domains. A new domain resets reputation to neutral, then earns the same bad reputation within weeks because the underlying cause is unchanged. Fix the cause.

Don't keep sending while you investigate. Every filtered message makes it worse. Pause marketing; transactional replies can continue.

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Verify your sending domainPublish SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records so your replies arrive in the inbox instead of the spam folder.Email deliverabilityWhy mail lands in spam, and the handful of things that actually fix it.Sender addressesWhich addresses your workspace may send from, and why an address can look verified but still be refused.