How to land in the inbox

Quick explainer

You can write a really good email and still have it land in spam. Frustrating, yes. But rewriting the subject line fifteen times probably isn't where you need to start.

Your sending tool, whether that's FGFlow, GHL or another email platform, gets the message out. Your reader's email provider decides where it lands. The foundation is straightforward: prove who you are, send to people who asked to hear from you, and build a history of sending mail they want.

That means your technical setup and your actual relationships both matter. SPF, DKIM and DMARC help receiving systems check who is sending and whether the message is legitimate. Your domain and sending IP also develop reputations. Complaints, poor list quality and sudden sending spikes can create trouble even when the setup is correct. Google's sender guidelines

Reader behavior matters too. Gmail says actions such as opening, replying and starring help it identify important messages. That supports the practical advice to send something worth paying attention to. It does not give us a formula where every click buys better placement. How Gmail identifies important email

And don't make people click just to get the useful part. Give them something worthwhile in the email. Link out when the article, event details or next step deserves more room.

Before your next send

• Verify your sending setup. Ask your email provider or technical person to check SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the domain you actually send from. “We set it up once” isn't the same as checking it now.
• Know why each person is on the list. A business card, purchased contact or old inquiry is not automatically a newsletter subscription. Honor unsubscribes and suppress hard bounces.
• Be recognizable. Use a consistent sender name and an address someone monitors. Write a subject line that honestly describes what's inside.
• Match your sending to your history. If you've changed domains or haven't emailed in months, get a gradual sending plan from your provider. Don't restart with one enormous blast.
• Make leaving easy. Check the unsubscribe link and your platform's one-click unsubscribe support. Keeping unwilling readers isn't a win.
• Look beyond opens. Review replies, useful clicks, inquiries, unsubscribes, bounces and complaints together. Privacy features and bots can distort tracked opens and clicks. Mailchimp's tracking explanation

If performance changes suddenly, investigate before increasing frequency. An inbox problem is not solved by sending more of the same.

Build it with your AI Helper

If you already have a Business Brain, use it for context. If you don't, tell your AI Helper about your business and paste the relevant notes or examples. Ask it for a copy you can keep in your own documents.

Copy this prompt:

Help me check whether my newsletter is ready to send. Read the relevant audience, email platform and communication preferences in my Business Brain.

Ask me only for missing information: my sending platform and domain, where subscribers came from, when I last emailed them, roughly how many I plan to contact, and any recent bounce, complaint or unsubscribe reports. Do not ask for passwords or API keys.

Separate what we can verify from what still needs checking. Use current official provider guidance if you can access it. If you cannot, say so and give me the exact questions to ask support. Do not diagnose inbox placement from open rates alone.

Give me a short checklist in priority order: what I can check, what my technical person should verify, and what needs attention before sending. Draft a support message for any technical checks I cannot do myself.

Show me the result for review. After I explicitly approve saving, save it in my Business Brain with today's date and preserve the previous version. If you cannot save there, give me a ready-to-paste copy. Do not change settings or send anything.

Still wondering what makes sense for your business?

This sounds simple enough when you read it. So why might you still be unsure what to do next?

Because knowing how something works and knowing what's right for you are two different things. Your business has its own customers, commitments, strengths and moving parts. Getting clear takes some strategic thinking, a good dose of talking it out, and sometimes the right information or an expert who sees the piece you've been missing.

That part is still human. If a good checklist were all it took, we'd all have amazing marketing systems and profitable businesses running happily every day.

Sometimes the next step is to let someone meet you where you are.

At Feel Good Work, you can start with me. Tell me what you're working through and ask what I'd do about it. I'll personally read your question and tell you what I see.

Ask Lori your question

One real business question. A human answer. Free.