Email Deliverability Audit
Stop guessing why your emails aren't reaching inboxes. Get a complete system diagnosis and actionable fixes.
The Problem Most People Face
Maybe your open rates have dropped. Maybe you're seeing bounces spike. Maybe your ISP warns you about reputation issues. You check your ESP's dashboard, see "Sent: 10,000," assume everything's fine—and then your deliverability tanks.
The real issue is usually invisible in your interface.
Most email deliverability problems aren't about your campaigns or your subject lines. They are root-cause infrastructure issues. Drawing from an ISP-level network engineering perspective and patterns observed across 500+ real email audits, deliverability behaves as an interconnected system: authentication alignment (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), IP and domain reputation, MTA transport handshakes, and modern AI spam filters that evaluate sender consistency.
I've seen setups that looked completely normal in ESP dashboards (like Mailchimp, Brevo, or GoHighLevel) but suffered from broken SPF 10-lookup limits, misaligned DKIM selectors, or silent DMARC rejections under the 2026 Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft bulk sender standards.
What This Audit Includes
- Authentication & Protocol Verification: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration analysis. We verify RFC 9989 alignment and ensure your records validate against live DNS resolvers, not just dashboard toggles.
- Infrastructure & Reputation Assessment: Sender reputation diagnosis, IP warmup velocity, and historical bounce and spam complaint rate telemetry.
- AI Filter & Content Health Checks: Evaluation against modern mailbox provider AI spam filters and Bayesian systems to isolate content triggers vs. infrastructure failures.
- List Health & Hygiene Analysis: Hard bounce rates, inactive subscriber decay, spam trap risks, and engagement curve analysis.
- Platform Architecture Review: How your sending platform (Mailchimp, Brevo, GoHighLevel, SendGrid, etc.) is provisioned, custom tracking domains, and dedicated vs. shared IP posture.
- Prioritized Remediation Roadmap: A crystal-clear, step-by-step engineering roadmap of what breaks next, what to fix first, and why.
What You Actually Get
• Current state analysis with evidence (DNS lookups, header traces, reputation metrics)
• Root cause identification for any delivery or inbox placement issues
• Step-by-step fix instructions for each infrastructure issue
• Implementation priority based on revenue impact
• Timeline for expected reputation and inbox recovery
• Follow-up validation testing recommendations
I've performed this diagnostic for teams managing 70,000+ subscriber lists, high-frequency senders, and critical recovery situations where previous configurations triggered provider-level 5xx rejections.
The audit is delivered within 5 business days depending on your setup complexity. You'll know exactly what's broken, how to fix it, and when you'll see results.
Related In-Depth Technical Guides
To understand the underlying architecture before or after your audit, explore our technical documentation:
- Why Emails Go To Spam: The 3 Core Infrastructure Failures
- Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft Sender Requirements in 2026: Infrastructure Compliance Guide
- Advanced DMARC Record Generator 2026 (RFC 9989 Compliant)
- What 500+ Email Audits Taught Me About ROI, Strategy & Scale
- GoHighLevel Emails Going to Spam: The Infrastructure Fix
- Mailchimp Deliverability: What Most Guides Don't Tell You
When You Need This
- Deliverability has dropped with no clear reason
- You're moving to a new ESP or domain
- You're scaling volume and want to prevent reputation damage
- You inherited an email system that's not well documented
- You want to audit an agency's work before signing a contract
The cost of a failed audit is months of poor delivery and lost revenue. The cost of preventing it is one focused assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an email deliverability audit take?
A typical audit is delivered within 5 business days depending on your setup complexity and how quickly your DNS provider processes record checks. I validate every authentication record, review historical bounce and complaint data, and test against major ISPs. You get a detailed report with specific fixes and implementation priority.
What's the difference between an audit and ongoing monitoring?
An audit is a snapshot diagnosis—what's broken right now and why. Ongoing monitoring tracks your reputation over time, alerts you to problems before they hit inboxes, and validates that your fixes actually worked. The audit is the foundation; monitoring prevents future problems.
Will this audit cover CASL compliance?
Yes. If you're sending to Canadian recipients, I review your list practices, unsubscribe mechanisms, and consent structure against CASL (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation). Proper infrastructure includes legal compliance, not just technical setup.
Can you audit multiple sending domains at once?
Yes. If you send from multiple brands or subdomains, I audit each one separately. This actually helps identify reputation damage patterns you might miss if you only look at your main domain.
What if my authentication records are failing?
The audit identifies the exact failure—syntax error, missing alignment, misconfigured DNS pointer, or outdated DKIM key. I provide step-by-step fix instructions. If you need me to implement the fixes, I can also do that as a separate service.