Your Quote Email to a Client Landed in Spam

The quote is neatly prepared, the attachments are complete, the email is sent. A week goes by with no reply. When you ask over WhatsApp, the client says the email never arrived. It went to the spam folder.

For a B2B business that does a lot over email, this isn't a small problem. A quote in spam is the same as a quote that was never sent. The good news is that the most common causes can be checked and fixed.

Why email lands in spam

Email providers like Gmail and Outlook have to decide, in seconds, whether an email really comes from the sender it claims or from a scammer faking it. One of the main signals is domain authentication: whether the sending domain has "proven" the email is legitimate. A domain that isn't set up makes your email look just as suspicious as a fake one.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in plain language

All three are set as DNS records with whoever manages your domain. If your company email runs on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, both have guides for setting them up.

Gmail's rules since February 2024

Google has applied requirements for sending email to Gmail accounts since February 1, 2024:

• All senders must set up SPF or DKIM, have valid reverse DNS (PTR) records, use a TLS connection, and keep their reported spam rate below 0.3%.
• Bulk senders, those sending more than 5,000 emails a day to Gmail accounts, must set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC together (the DMARC policy can be "none"), the domain in the From address must align with SPF or DKIM, and marketing email must offer one-click unsubscribe.
• Google recommends keeping the spam rate below 0.1% and never reaching 0.3%.

Microsoft followed with similar requirements for high-volume senders to Outlook.com starting May 2025.

If you only send dozens of quotes a day, you're not a bulk sender. But setting up all three still helps, because email from an authenticated domain is trusted more, and your domain becomes harder for scammers to fake.

How to check your own email

1. Send an email from your business address to a Gmail account.
2. Open it in Gmail, click the three-dot menu, and choose Show original.
3. Look at the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC lines. What you want to see: PASS for all three.

If any of them says FAIL or doesn't appear at all, ask your domain manager or IT person to fix it. It's usually a short job, not a big project.

Beyond the technical side

Authentication is the foundation, but habits matter too. Here's what I'd suggest:

• Use an email address on your own domain, not free Gmail for business. Besides being more trusted, the account belongs to the company. On securing it, see If Your Company's Google Account Got Hacked Tomorrow Morning, What Would You Lose?.
• Don't send in bulk from a personal account. If you need to send to many people, use the methods built for that, within their limits. Gmail and Apps Script sending limits are covered in Making Thousands of Certificates, Invitations or Invoices From One Sheet.
• Large attachments and lots of link shorteners can make an email look suspicious. Consider linking to a file on the company drive for large documents.
• Follow up through another channel if an important quote hasn't been answered in a few days. Sometimes one short WhatsApp message saves a quote.

Wrapping up

A quote email that lands in spam often isn't about its content, but about a domain that hasn't proven itself. Check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC once, make sure all three PASS, and make a habit of sending from your own domain.

If your business email often doesn't arrive and you don't know where to start, tell me about your situation first.