Deliverability problems announce themselves as symptoms: opens fall, complaints tick up, a client forwards you a screenshot of your email in their spam folder. The causes hide in DNS records, reputation history, and sending patterns. An audit is the structured hunt for the cause, so the fix you invest in is the one that actually moves placement.
Start free, escalate only if needed
The honest funnel has two steps. Step one is the free automated check: it reads your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX in seconds and flags what's missing or misaligned. A large share of "we're going to spam" cases end right there, with a DNS fix you can make the same afternoon. Step two, the full audit, is for problems that survive step one: the auth is clean and mail still doesn't land.
What the full audit examines
- Authentication alignment — not just "records exist" but whether they pass and align on every stream you send, including the subtle failures that look fine at a glance.
- Reputation trajectory — where your domain stands with mailbox providers and which direction it's moving, read from delivery signals and Postmaster-side data.
- List quality — bounce and complaint patterns that point to stale segments, acquisition problems, or spam-trap exposure.
- Sending patterns — volume shape, spikes, and pacing relative to what your reputation supports.
- Structural risk — whether transactional and marketing share a reputation, whether sponsored content rides your core stream, whether one bad segment can take down everything.
What you get
Ranked findings in plain language: the issue, what it's costing you, the fix, in the order that matters. The ranking is the real product, most audits find several things, and the difference between a useful audit and a shelf document is knowing which two fixes carry most of the value. If you want the fixes implemented rather than handed over, the audit rolls into the consulting engagement.
Common questions
What does an email deliverability audit cover?
Everything that decides where your mail lands. Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and crucially whether they align), domain and IP reputation signals, bounce and complaint history, list quality indicators, sending patterns, and the structural stuff like whether transactional and marketing share a reputation they shouldn't. The output is a ranked list: what's broken, what it costs you, and what order to fix it in.
What's the difference between the free check and a full audit?
The free check is automated and instant: it reads your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records and flags what's missing or misaligned. That catches the DNS-level problems, which are a big share of real cases. A full audit adds the parts that need history and judgment: reputation trajectory, sending-pattern analysis, list-quality assessment, stream separation, and a prioritized remediation plan. Free check first, always; audit when the problem survives it.
When is an audit worth it?
When the symptoms persist and the cause isn't obvious. Placement dropped and auth checks out. Open rates decay quarter after quarter. You're about to migrate or scale volume and want to know what you're carrying. Or you've been burned once and want the full picture before rebuilding. If the free check finds a broken record, fix that first, you may not need anything more.
What do I get at the end?
A findings document in plain language: each issue, its actual impact on placement, and the fix, ranked by what moves the needle most. Not a 40-page PDF of screenshots. If you want the fixes implemented rather than just diagnosed, that's the consulting engagement, and the audit rolls into it.
Can you audit sending that runs on another provider?
Yes. The audit reads your DNS, your domain's public reputation signals, and whatever delivery data you can export from your current provider. You don't need to be a sendmsg.io customer, and an honest audit sometimes concludes your current setup is fine and the problem is your list. You'll get that answer if it's the true one.
Related
- Free Deliverability Check: always the first step
- Email Infrastructure Consulting: audit plus implementation
- Emails going to spam?: the three-cause diagnosis
- SPF/DKIM/DMARC Setup: fixing the auth layer