Why Are My Klaviyo Emails Going to Spam? 9 Things to Check

If your Klaviyo emails are going to spam, the cause is almost always one of two things. Either your sending domain is not authenticated properly, or inbox providers have decided your subscribers do not want your emails because too few of them open and too many of them complain.

Content matters too, but much less than most people think. Below are the nine things I check, in the order I check them. The first four are setup and rules. The next four are about who you send to. The last one is the email itself.

Checks 1 and 2: Is your domain authenticated?

1. Branded sending domain. By default, Klaviyo sends on a shared domain, and Klaviyo's help center notes that recipients can see a "via klaviyomail.com" label next to your name. A branded sending domain removes that label and ties your sender reputation to your own domain. This is also where SPF and DKIM get handled. According to Klaviyo's setup guide, you add up to 3 CNAME records or 4 NS records for authentication, plus one TXT record to verify you own the domain.

2. DMARC. SPF and DKIM prove the email came from you. DMARC tells inbox providers what to do when a message fails those checks. Both Google and Yahoo now expect a DMARC record on your sending domain. Yahoo's sender guidelines ask for a valid policy of at least p=none, and Klaviyo can generate that basic record for you during branded domain setup.

Checks 3 and 4: Are you meeting the Gmail and Yahoo sender rules?

Google and Yahoo both publish requirements for bulk senders. Google's sender guidelines FAQ defines a bulk sender as anyone sending close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts within a 24-hour period, and says that once you are classified as one, the status does not expire. Even if you are smaller than that, treat these rules as your baseline.

3. Spam complaint rate. This is the number that gets brands filtered. Google's guidelines say to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.1% and to avoid ever reaching 0.3% or higher. Yahoo sets its line at 0.3% too. Klaviyo's own deliverability reference is stricter and suggests keeping spam complaints below 0.01%. If you have not set up Google Postmaster Tools for your domain, do it now. It is free and it shows the rate Gmail actually uses.

4. One-click unsubscribe. Marketing emails need a one-click unsubscribe option in the email headers and a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the body. Do not hide the link in tiny gray text or remove it from a custom footer. When people cannot find the unsubscribe link, they hit the spam button instead, and that hurts you far more than an unsubscribe does.

Checks 5 to 7: Are you sending to people who want your emails?

This is where most spam problems really come from. Inbox providers watch how recipients react. If a large share of your list ignores you, your emails start landing in spam for everyone, including your best customers.

5. List hygiene. Look at how addresses get onto your list. Imported old lists, giveaway signups and unprotected forms bring in typos, fake addresses and people who never wanted email. Klaviyo's deliverability best practices reference recommends double opt-in to keep invalid addresses out, and suggests keeping bounce rates below 1.0%. Never buy a list. Never upload one you have not emailed in a long time without re-permissioning it carefully.

6. Engaged segments. Stop sending every campaign to your full list. Klaviyo Academy describes three core engaged segments based on people who opened or clicked in the last 30, 60 and 90 days, with the 30-day group being your most engaged. When I am fixing a spam problem, I pull sending back to the 30-day segment first, then widen to 60 and 90 only once open rates recover.

7. Sunsetting. Klaviyo's unengaged segment guide defines unengaged profiles as people who can receive email marketing, have received at least 5 emails, and have opened and clicked 0 times in the last 90 days. Klaviyo recommends excluding that group from most campaign sends. I go one step further. I run them through a short sunset flow as a last attempt to win them back, then suppress whoever stays silent.

Check 8: Did your volume change suddenly?

8. Warming. Inbox providers distrust sudden changes. A new Klaviyo account, a newly registered domain, or a jump from a small weekly send to a full-list blast can all trigger spam filtering. Klaviyo's branded sending domain guide says warming matters most in the first 2 to 4 weeks for new accounts and newly registered domains, and that existing senders do not need to re-warm if the domain has been registered for 30 or more days and already used for email.

Warming is simple in principle. Start with low volume to your most engaged people, send consistently, and increase gradually while you watch opens, bounces and complaints. Do not go quiet for weeks and then send to everyone on a sale day. That pattern is one of the most common causes of a sudden drop into spam.

Check 9: Is the email itself causing problems?

9. Content. Content rarely sends a healthy sender to spam on its own, but it can tip a borderline one over. I look for:

• Emails built as one large image with almost no live text.
• Link shorteners, or links pointing to domains unrelated to your brand.
• Subject lines that mislead about what is inside.
• A sender name or from address that keeps changing.
• Very heavy emails that get clipped in Gmail, which can hide the unsubscribe link.

Fix these, but do not expect a content change to rescue a reputation problem. If checks 1 to 8 are failing, rewriting subject lines will not help.

The numbers to watch while you recover

Klaviyo's deliverability reference gives a simple set of targets that I use as a health check on every campaign.

What to do next

Recovery is not instant. Reputation is rebuilt by sending wanted emails to engaged people, consistently, over several weeks. If you would like a second pair of eyes on your account, book a call and I will go through these nine checks with you.